Page 48

Something crossed his face. Brief, unguarded, gone before she could read it. Then he was talking to Isaac.

“Perimeter guard does a loop every forty minutes. He passed the south side six minutes ago. We’ve got a window, but we need to get going.”

“We’ll be right here,” Isaac said. “Text when she’s ready for pickup.”

Ryder nodded. He looked at Nolan. Something passed between them that Cassandra couldn’t read, some shorthand that belonged to people who did this kind of thing for a living. She was standing among professionals, and she was very clearly not one of them.

Then Isaac and Nolan stepped back into the dark, and it was just her and Ryder.

The night felt bigger and darker without the other two. Quieter. Ryder turned to her, and she could see his face now, close enough to make out the line of his jaw and the way his eyes moved across hers like he was checking her for damage before they’d even started.

“Stay close. Step where I step. If I stop, you stop. If I put my hand on you, freeze.”

“Okay.”

“You good?”

No. Absolutely not. “Never been better.”

He almost smiled. Then he turned and started walking, and Cassandra followed him onto the property.

The land was flat and dry, dotted with scrub and low mesquite. There was enough moonlight to see shapes but not enough to see the ground clearly, and twice she stumbled on things Ryder navigated without looking.

He was fluid out here, certain, reading the terrain and adjusting before she’d even registered the obstacle. She was tripping over rocks every two feet. They definitely had different skill sets. Probably weren’t many salt and pepper shaker learning tricks that could help her be more nimble.

The lodge was a dark mass growing larger with every step. No lights visible. The sky above them was enormous and choked with stars.

Ryder’s hand came up. She stopped.

He was listening. She listened too and heard nothing, which apparently wasn’t the same as nothing being there, because he stepped backward and his hand found her arm and then her whole body was pressed against a tree trunk with his chest against her back and his hand flat over her stomach, holding her still.

She stopped breathing.

His mouth was next to her ear. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her neck, the steady, slow rhythm of his heartbeat through his shirt against her back. She had no idea how his pulse was so slow when hers was trying to crack through her ribs.

They stayed like that for what felt like a very long time. She could hear something now. Movement, off to the left, unhurried, getting closer and then passing and then fading. The guard on his rounds.

Ryder didn’t move until the sound was completely gone. Then his mouth shifted closer to her ear.

“You did perfect.” Barely a whisper. And she could swear his lips brushed the side of her neck as he said it.

Now her breathing stopped for a completely different reason.

He stepped back. “He’s gone. He likes to watch videos on his phone while he patrols, so we should be clear. Let’s go.”

They moved again. The lodge took shape in front of them, and then they were at the side of the building. Ryder led her along the stone wall to a door that was slightly ajar. He eased it wider, checked inside, and motioned her through.

She was inside the Diehl brothers’ lodge.

The common area was dark and silent. She was standing in the living room of men who trafficked children, and it smelled like old coffee and something fried from dinner. Normal smells. Ordinary. She didn’t know why that made it worse, but it did.

Ryder took her hand and led her across the room. His grip was firm and dry, and she was grateful for it because her own hands were damp and trembling. They went past the kitchen and into a short hallway.

He stopped at a door and went to work on the deadbolt with tools she couldn’t see. The lock took him about fifteen seconds. He pulled the door open, they stepped inside, and he shut it behind them.

The computer room. Two desks, two terminals, filing cabinet, no window. Warm, stale air.

The machine on the smaller desk was the reason she was here, the reason she’d spent twenty-four hours failing to train anyone else, the reason she was wearing somebody else’s clothes inside a building full of people who would kill her if they found her.