“Drugging you?” Inara stiffens as West silently returns to the room. “Wren? What did he do to you?”
Ryker saves me from the admission. “Heroin.”
I don’t know how to say the words. How to confess how much I still want to forget.
“Shit.” Setting his coffee mug down with enough force to slosh the dark liquid over the rim, West braces his hands on the table. “And Elena? Did you see her at all?”
I nod. “Twice. I think. He made her clean me up. So much of what happened is fuzzy. Like…I was watching a movie out of focus. A movie I didn’t care about at all.” My head starts to throb, and I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I begged her to help me, but she said she couldn’t.” The lump in my throat threatens to choke off my next words. “And then he shoved her into his bedroom and told her to strip. After that…there was another needle and I don’t…I can’t…”
“Shhh. It’s okay, baby,” Ryker says as he threads his fingers through my hair. The warmth of his touch calms me, and I sink into his embrace. “He won’t kill her. But now they know Inara’s hidey-hole. My approach vector. And if they were observant…they noticed my rappelling gear.”
“So…what do we do now?” I look from Inara to Ryker, shame at getting myself captured flooding through me. Despite the bruising around my elbow, I hook my arm around Ry’s, needing to feel him, to feel pain, just to keep myself grounded.
“We wait for West to figure something else out,” Inara says with a wry smile. “He’s the brains of this whole operation. I’m the bullets.” She angles her head at Ryker. “He’s the brawn. Well, and the bank.”
“Semyon couldn’t tell us anything about the top floor.” West gestures to the blueprints spread out on the table. “Our thermal cameras have been recording the whole time, and Kolya’s holed up in this back room—here.”
Ryker helps me up and keeps his arm around my waist. A part of me rails against his overprotectiveness, but I’m starting to feel woozy, so I let him hold me as I stifle a yawn. We slept less than five hours after last night’s confessions. I’m exhausted, everything hurts, and my mind wants to wander. To dark places where nothing can hurt me. Except, Ryker won’t be there. And maybe that’s enough to keep me here. In this painful, overwhelming, frightening reality.
Ryker presses a gentle kiss to the top of my head. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”
“I am. But I want to help.” I look up at him, and he seems to understand my need to be useful. “I’ll lie down in a few minutes.”
Studying the plans, I point to the main suite. “This is Kolya’s bedroom. And the bathroom where he chained me up.” A hard swallow and Ryker’s warmth at my back helps center me. “The room across the hall is his office. Oh!” I can’t believe I forgot. “Ry…I think…I had a USB drive in my bag. Did I still…have my bag when I jumped?”
My brows furrow, and the motion makes my head ache even more, as does trying to fight my way through my fuzzy memories. “I had to hide. Two of his goons came up the stairs. And…his computer was unlocked.”
“You okay for a minute, sweetheart?” Ryker asks. “I’ll get it for you.”
“I can manage to stand up on my own.” I offer him a small smile, and as he strides into our little bedroom oasis, Inara scoots closer, a not-too-subtle indication of how bad I must look. “This is another suite. Like his. I…I think it’s Elena’s. Or at least…where she stays sometimes. I didn’t see her, but the door was open when they took me from the office into Kolya’s suite. It was…purple and pink. Like the video.”
“So he’s locked in with Elena.” West shakes his head as Ryker returns to my side. “There goes any hope of getting her out without confronting him—and half his army.”
“Maybe…if we have something he wants,” I say, “he’ll give her up willingly.”
Ryker snorts, and I arch a brow. “Don’t look at me like that, soldier. You don’t know what’s on this thumb drive.”
In truth, I don’t know if I have anything. Not really. But even in my drug-addled state last night, I had the presence of mind to leave myself a backdoor. “Slide my laptop over here,” I say. The adrenaline fuels me, helps ease some of my aches and pains. Or maybe the coffee is finally kicking in.
“Wren…” With a gentle hand to my lower back, Ryker tries to draw me away from the table. “You need to rest.”
West clears his throat. “Ry. We’re on borrowed time here. Inara swapped out the cars, but how long do you think it’ll be before Kolya figures out where we are? We either need to draw him out or call for backup. Doyouhave a dozen men—” with a quick glance at Inara, he continues, “—and women you can mobilize by tonight?”
“If Ihad,do you think I’d have called you?”
The two men stand chest-to-chest. Sort of. Ryker towers over West, at least five more inches of bulk and brawn, his muscles stiff and hands balled into fists at his sides.
“And that’s why this is never going to work long term, man. Not unless you start trusting us.” With a shake of his head, West stalks away. He pauses at the door to the kitchen. “We’re your fucking family, Ry. Have been ever since we pulled your ass out of that hole five clicks from Hell. It’s about damn time you realized it.”
The back door slams, and I flinch.
“Well, now you’ve done it,” Inara says. “You better go after him.”
Pain swims in Ryker’s eyes, and I slide my hand up his arm, over thick ropes of scar tissue and solid muscle. He’s so angry he’s practically vibrating. “I’m not leaving Wren.”
“Oh for duck’s sake. Give us a minute?” I ask Inara. She quietly slips from the room, and I wind my arms around Ryker’s waist. “Why is it so hard for you to admit you care about them?”
For too long, Ryker stares over my head towards the kitchen. When he finally does speak, his voice is rough and raw. “What we do, Wren…every single time we go out, we might not come back.”
