“I’m sure Nash would stop the music in a heartbeat, if that’s what you want.”
There was something about his voice…Her head turned.
Ryan quirked a brow. “How long do you think he had that ring? An engagement ring, with your birthstone? How utterly convenient that it was just in his pocket, am I right?”
Her heart beat faster. “You did the whole thing with the list deliberately.” Delaney wet her lips.
“Moi? Am I truly that much of a schemer?”
She thought he was.
“I’m just trying to help you have some good luck. Figure you and Nash could use some good mojo this time around.”
She wasn’t buying his easy words. “You knew that Nash had the ring.”
Ryan winked at her.
“You knew, and you wanted me to have it.” She took a step forward.
“Well, it was always supposed to be yours, so it makes sense that you should have it. And the guy had it in his pocket, so, clearly, he was going to give it to you today. Don’t know why he hadn’t already. Hmm. Maybe stage fright.”
She stumbled. Ryan caught her arm and balanced her.
From the end of the aisle, Nash frowned.
“What do you mean, it was supposed to be mine?” Delaney had locked onto those words. Hard. It was always supposed to be yours.
“I don’t like for my brother to hurt. It hurt him when he lost you.”
They took two steps together. “He didn’t lose me,” Delaney denied. “He walked away.” That was quite different from losing someone. It wasn’t like he’d put her somewhere and forgotten where she was. He had ended things.
Her heart had shattered.
“I think things were far more complicated than you realize.” Ryan’s voice carried only to her. “I was there when he had to live without you, and it was like he was some ghost. Barely going through the motions. I hated to see him that way. Closed down. Fucking grieving.”
She shook her head, an instinctive denial.
“Then he threw himself into the CIA. Took missions that were dangerous and deadly as hell. Scared the shit out of me.”
Two more steps.
“And you know I don’t get scared. At first, I thought the guy had a death wish. So I had to follow him.” Again, his words were low. Just for her.
A few daisy petals fell to the carpet.
“You’re holding on too tightly,” Ryan chided her. “Be careful with fragile things.”
Nash’s hands had fisted at his sides as he watched them approach.
“I soon learned Nash wasn’t interested in dying. He was interested in fighting. In learning to be the most lethal version of himself possible. He took out targets that other agents thought were impossible to reach. He was relentless. It was like—like he was trying to completely reinvent himself.”
More steps. “Why?”
“That is the million-dollar question. It’s also a question that you should ask him.”
They were almost to Nash.
“While you’re asking him that, maybe you should ask him why he had an engagement ring for you, why he never gave it to you, but why he kept the ring all these years. Kept it with him, no matter where the hell he went in this world.”
