Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) (30 page)

The words sliced open his aching chest. “This is a building. Four walls and a roof.” He placed a hand over her heart. “This is home.”

“
You always know what to say.” She placed her hand over his and looked up at him with solemn promise.

He wanted to answer her promise with a vow of his own, but too much was still uncertain. “Let’s get out of here.”

“
You can leave a building, but not me. We’re not finished yet.”

Ryder settled an arm over her shoulder, incapable of words. The burden of what might have happened weighed heavy on his soul. Lauren still wasn’t safe. There were too many variables he couldn’t control. He couldn’t leave her alone again.

Caleb walked at Lauren’s side. He’d released her hand and seemed content to match her pace. In the front walk, Lauren blocked the harsh sun with a hand, squinting against the light.

“
Headache?”

She nodded. “Everything hurts.”

Ryder rubbed a hand up her back and across her shoulders. “We’ll get an icepack and some Motrin as soon as we get away from here.”

She opened her mouth to answer, but Callahan jogged up from the parking lot. “Hey, I thought you guys were already moved out.”

“
Forgot something. Had to go back for it,” Ryder answered.

The neighbor’s gaze took in their appearance. “What happened to you two?”

Ryder shook his head. “Training accident.”

“
Right.” Callahan elongated the word as if he had a hard time believing the bullshit answer. “You guys still selling?”

“
Yes.” Lauren didn’t pause, then looked up at Ryder for emphasis. “No way could I live there again.”

Even if they got the bank deal settled, they needed a new start. “I agree.”

Callahan shook Ryder’s hand, clamping down hard on the bruised knuckles. “Good luck, man.”

They parted ways, heading for Rose’s truck. “How are we going to get Caleb home?” Lauren asked. “The truck seats three.”

“
One of us can sit in the bed of the truck.”

“
No.” Lauren shook her head emphatically. “After everything else that’s happened, it’s too risky.”

Ryder almost asked what else could go wrong, but stopped short. He wasn’t tempting fate.

Rose shook a set of keys in the air. “I grabbed the keys to the hotrod. I should definitely drive it.”

“
You have your truck,” Ryder insisted.

Lauren jumped up and snatched the keys from Rose’s hand. “I drove it here, so it’s only fair if I drive it back to the bank.”

The men shared a look. Who were they to steal her joy?

“
Come on, kid,” Rose said. “You’re with me.”

Caleb slowed his feet. “I’m staying with Lauren. She knows my mom.”

“
All right, kid.” Ryder held the door open and let Caleb slide in back. When Lauren was safely settled, Ryder closed the door and walked around to the passenger side. He paused with his hand on the handle and spoke to Rose. “Meet you back at the bank. Give Craft a call and let him know what went down.”

Rose nodded and flicked the fob to unlock the truck. “You call Fowler and find out where the hell he is.”

Lauren popped back out the driver’s door. “Hey, Rose, do you have anything to eat in your truck?”

He shook his head no.

“
How about sunglasses?”

Rose brought her a pair of aviators and headed back to the truck. Lauren popped on the sunglasses, covering the worst of the bruises and scrapes around her eyes, but the sight of them was embedded in Ryder’s memory. Lauren took them through their favorite drive-thru a block away to get the kid some chow and Ryder sent a text to his mother telling her the boy was safe. He swallowed two burgers before dropping back into the seat. He was asleep before they made it halfway across town. In the meantime, Ryder shot off a text to Fowler asking him to check in with an ETA. When he was sure the kid was out, he twisted to face Lauren. They needed to get a few things straight. “What was the game plan back at the bank?”

Her shoulders slumped. “Stay low, stay safe.”

“
That’s always the plan. At the bank, I specifically told you not to engage. If anything went south, you were to head out.”

She braked at a stoplight. “In my defense, Earl threatened to kill a toddler and Miranda and Caleb.”

“
And rather than trust me to handle the situation, you let yourself be taken hostage. Again.”

“
I don’t know about let myself get taken.” The light turned green and she accelerated, shoving through the gears fast enough to slam Ryder back in his seat. “The gun overruled my objections.”

“
Longest five minutes of my life.” She was only supposed to be in the bank for five minutes. Ryder took a deep breath to keep from yelling at his wife. Sweat beaded his brow. The day was sunny but windy, not too hot, but the inside of the little vehicle felt cramped and overheated. He had failed at his number one priority. She’d been taken on his watch. The features he loved were discolored like a boxer after twelve rounds. The natural curve of her lips was split and swollen, and the delicate skin at her throat had cuts and contusions. “It’s killing me to see you bruised. Trouble seems to follow you.”

She glanced at him, her eyes sliding to the right before focusing back on the road. “Who protects me when you leave?”

He grabbed a lock of hair and let the silky strand filter through his fingers. “I nearly killed a man with my bare hands. I’m the danger, baby. Why don’t you understand that?”

“
You’ve never hurt me. Why don’t you understand that?” She took her hand off the stick shift and rested it on his knee. “I married you because you’re strong and smart and sexy. I married you because you remember every detail of our first date; because you listen and actually care about my work; because you intimidate Professor Crawford.” She laughed at that one, but the sound was strangled by unshed tears. “Because you quote poetry and Frederick the Great and Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
; because with you, I’m never alone, even when you’re not in the same room, I know I’m safe. Ryder, you’re the center of my life. I married you for forever, not just when things are easy.”

Ryder let his eyes drift close. Exhaustion crowded in on him, weighing his shoulders down and filling the daylight with shadows. “I may not have forever.”

The hand on his knees squeezed. “Then we take what we can get, but Ryder, I’m all in. I won’t let you go a second time.”

He nodded his agreement, because he couldn’t fight past the lump in his throat. He coughed and glanced back at the sleeping kid. “What happened with Earl?”

“
He locked me in the room with Caleb. We were waiting for the boss, whoever that is.”

“
Smythe?”

“
Oh, you’d think, right? Until I stumbled on his body wrapped in plastic.”

Ryder leaned back in the seat. Smythe’s dead body implied a new direction in the threat to Lauren. “Someone’s cleaning up the mess.”

“
Looks like.”

Ryder’s gut clenched. “Baby, if they’re cleaning up the mess, you’re a loose end. You’re the only one who didn’t fall in line.”

“
My husband taught me to defend myself.”

“
You’ll make a team member yet.” She’d gone from being impulsive and pigheadedly independent to working as part of the larger team.

“
I’d rather be your partner.”

Hell, he didn’t know if he could do a partnership. “I’m wired to lead.”

“
We’ll work on that.” She rubbed her jaw where new bruises combined with the ones from the accident. “Earl would neither confirm nor deny, but I’m guessing the lawyer is the boss.” As they drove through afternoon traffic, Lauren relayed her experience. Knots formed in his gut at the details, but she didn’t spare him, didn’t hide anything. “I’m the one who started this. I walked into lawyer’s office the first time and put myself on his radar.”

A sickness wound around his heart. He had come back to end things with Lauren. For her safety, but knowing she didn’t want him cut deep. “Why did you?”

She downshifted to change lanes before speeding around a slow truck. The speed indicated her tension, one that increased as she zipped onto the interstate and wound aggressively through traffic. “I didn’t want to spend my life mourning a man who left me.”

“
Your father?”

She nodded tightly, her eyes hidden behind the glasses, but her throat flexed when she swallowed. “I acted in haste. Let my fear rule me. I’m sorry.”

She was apologizing to him? Ryder was humbled by her generosity. “Baby, it’s my fault. I’m sorry.” His throat tightened on the words. He wanted to promise it wouldn’t happen again, but under the same situation—to protect her—he’d leave in a heartbeat, although that hadn’t worked so well the first time.

“
I think I should go back to the lawyer.”

His heart flexed. After the deep connection of the last few days. After her statement about forever. “You want a divorce.” Now his throat closed, barely choking out the words.

“
No. God.” Her hand fluttered to his thigh. “He doesn’t know we are aware of his involvement. If we went in together, acted like we wanted to get the paperwork started? You could plant a bug or something.”

The shock turned to anger. “Hell no.” He couldn’t let her put herself at risk again. “I let you go into the bank, against every instinct I had. That won’t happen again.”

“
I survived.” She kept her eyes on the road.

“
Look at you. You’re bruised and bloodied. He had you against the wall.”

“
I fought back, but I survived thanks to you. How did you know where to find me?”

“
We were already on the roof, planning to enter through the master bedroom when we saw the black flag.” Then he heard her scream and something inside him had fractured. “Smart thinking.”

“
It was Caleb’s idea.” She glanced back in the rearview mirror. The kid was still sacked out. “But that doesn’t answer my real question. You’re avoiding the truth. How did you find me.”

He handed over her phone without a word.

“
Are you telling me you put a tracker in my phone?” Her voice did that high-pitched thing as she smacked the steering wheel.

“
No tracker. It’s an app.”

“
You’ve been stalking me?”

“
Stalking is a harsh word.” He had put the app on her phone to keep an eye on her when he was far away. It soothed the demon to know where she was. “Tracking you proved necessary. Twice,” he reminded her in case the anger on her face broke free.

“
We need to talk about trust.” She tucked the phone in her back pocket.

“
This has nothing to do with trust. It’s about safety.”

“
Oh, so when do I get a tracker on your phone?”

“
Baby, I don’t need your protection.”

“
Wipe that smug grin off your face, Ryder. If I have to get Craft’s help, I’ll have that app on your phone by sunset.”

At the next exit, she pulled off and stopped at the light. Ryder leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. “You’re the most determined woman I know.”

“
Ha. Don’t think you can sweet talk your way out of this.”

He lifted his hands in mock innocence. “Would I do that?”

She glared over at him. “In a heartbeat.”

“
Besides, we don’t need to confront the lawyer. While you were MIA, Craft sent the records and evidence he collected to the bank, the FBI, and about a dozen state and local agencies.”

“
The lawyer will be long gone before they get their act together. He’ll be on a beach somewhere spending our mortgage money.”

“
Don’t count on it.” Ryder grinned. “Craft is good. He put a tag on the lawyer’s passport. He’s now on the no-fly list.”

“
Can he do that?”

“
He did it. Now all we have to do is keep you safe until they put Earl and crew behind bars, just in case they get stupid enough to seek revenge.”

Lauren made the last turn to the bank. “Could take awhile.”

“
Guess I’ll have to stick around.” Her smile banished the darkness. “Don’t park in the employee lot. Take it to the parking garage on Elm.”

She followed his directions to the parking garage and hid the hotrod in between two SUVs. “Any particular reason we don’t make this easy for the cops to find?”

“
I have a buddy I can call to wipe it clean. When they run forensics, I don’t want any evidence linking you to the car. As far as the investigators know, we were never near the meth lab or the men scamming us out of our house.”