Текст книги "Confessed"

Автор книги: Lisa Cardiff

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 12 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Hattie

Sunlight streamed through the edges of the dark brown wooden blinds. I stretched my arms over my head, rolled onto my side and inhaled. Even though weeks had passed since Ryker had slept in this bed, I pretended I could smell his scent. Honestly, it smelled more like laundry detergent than anything else.

“You’re awake. I was afraid you planned to sleep until lunchtime,” Noah said, tapping a magazine against his thigh. A slim bar of light slashed across the sharp angles of his face, making the lower half light and the upper half dark.

“I was tired. I didn’t go to bed until late.” I scooted up to the headboard. “Speaking of which, have you heard from Ryker?”

“No.” He glanced to the side, his eyes distant. “Nothing.”

I eyed him somberly, wishing I could ignore the persistent stabbing in my chest. “But you’ve heard something, right?”

He scrubbed his hand down the side of his face. “Just that there are some internal power struggles going on inside the Vargas Cartel.”

I buried my hands in the sheets. “You’re scaring me. What does that mean?”

Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees. The rolled up magazine dangled from one hand. “I don’t have all the details.”

“What details do you have?”

“Emanuel, Ignacio’s right-hand man, disappeared a couple of days ago. His apartment was covered in blood. Nobody knows if he’s alive. Rumors place Rever and Ryker in the area around the time he went missing, but that doesn’t mean a whole helluva a lot.”

I cringed. “Do you think they killed him?”

“If they haven’t killed him, they will soon.”

My mouth dropped open, and my gut heaved. “Seriously? Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know for sure.” He exhaled, unrolled the magazine and held up the cover for me to see it. “On a different note, we did it.”

I scanned the glossy cover. Senator Deveron had his head bowed, and dark sunglasses covered his eyes. A blurb on the left-hand column in bright yellow print said, Senator Deveron funded by Mexican drug cartels.

I jumped out of bed and snatched the magazine out of his hand. “I didn’t believe they’d actually do it.”

Noah stood. “Go to page ten.”

I flipped open the magazine and scanned the story. “This is so good. They didn’t hold back at all.”

“Nope.”

I closed the magazine. “So what happens now?”

“We sit back and watch the show. The mainstream media has picked up the story. It’s only a matter of time before he’s forced to resign.”

A warm glow trickled through my veins. For the first time in two weeks, I could finally breathe. “Do you think he’ll go to jail?”

“He should.” Noah shrugged, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. “I think that’s up to the Department of Justice, but I think you have some strings you can pull there,” he said, referencing my dad.

“You’re right.” I tossed the magazine on top of the bed and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Thanks so much for your help. I know Ryker’s paying you, but you didn’t have to do it. You probably have better things to do than play babysitter and accompany me to meetings.”

He leaned back and my hands slid from his body. “I would’ve done it for free.” He brushed his knuckles along my jaw, and my heart tripped in my chest. “You needed help and I wanted to be the one to help you. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.”

Unease trickled down my spine. I laughed nervously and backpedaled a few steps, my eyes trained on the grains of hardwood beneath my bare feet.

“It all worked out. It led me to Ryker so I can’t be mad about that. He makes me happy.”

He took one step closer to me, his golden eyes focused on me with enough heat to unnerve me. The air around us pressed against my chest, suffocating me. “Does he really make you happy or is that just what you want to believe?”

I shook my head slowly from side to side, never taking my eyes off him. “Noah, what’s going on? What are you doing?”

He grabbed my hand. “Why are you with Ryker?”

My throat thickened. “Because I love him,” I choked out.

His lips pursed into a tight line. “Do you really? Or are you just holding onto him because you don’t feel like you have anyone else who cares about you? Or because of the baby?”

Tension curled my muscles into tight balls, and my pulse galloped inside my chest. “I don’t need to explain anything to you.” I yanked my hand away from him.

“You do understand that Ryker and Rever are trying to wrestle control of the Vargas Cartel from Ignacio.”

“Why would they do that? Neither of them wants anything to do with it.”

“They didn’t want anything to do with the cartel when it meant being controlled by Ignacio. If they could call the shots, they might feel differently. That’s what is going on right now, or at least that’s what my sources suspect.”

Stunned, hurt, and angry didn’t begin to express how I felt at that moment. My stomach swirled uncomfortably, and my knees wilted. I stumbled backward and sat on the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

“I didn’t want to spell it out. I wanted you to read between the lines.”

I pressed my palms into my eyes, willing the tears to disappear. I needed to be strong. I promised Ryker I’d be strong. He promised we’d end up together, and I still wanted a life with him even if it meant I’d be the wife of a notorious drug lord. I nearly laughed at the ridiculousness of my reality.

“Do you realize what you’ll be giving up to be with him?”

My hands dropped from my face. “I think I have an idea?” The words came out as a question.

“You’d be ostracized by your family. You won’t be able to come back to the States. Ryker would keep you tucked away in a glass cage for the rest of your—”

“No, he wouldn’t,” I said, interrupting him.

“He wouldn’t have any choice. If he didn’t, his rivals would use you to get to him.”

Even though I wanted to sink to my knees, I pretended to be unfazed. I stood, ignoring the sinking feeling in my gut. “I trust Ryker. He would never do anything like that.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “I need to get dressed. Please leave.”

His heated stare settled on me, and it felt like I was standing in front of the pearly gates on judgment day. My gaze dipped to my feet, and I studied the circular grains on the hardwood floor. I had to look away. Otherwise, I think I would’ve shattered into a million unrecognizable pieces.

“Think about it, Hattie. You’re not meant for that kind of life. You need to find someone who’s willing to choose you over everything.”

Spots dotted my vision and anger gnawed at my heart. I wouldn’t leave him, not even if it meant a lifetime as part of the Vargas Cartel. I wasn’t stupid. I understood what kind of things he’d have to do if he succeeded. He’d kill and torture people, but none of that would stop me from loving him. When I looked at Ryker, I’d always see who he was deep down in his heart.

“Ryker is that person,” I hissed. “Stop this.” I sliced my hand through the air. “Whatever it is. I know what I’m doing. I understand the risks. I don’t expect everything to be perfect, but I do expect you to keep your opinion to yourself unless I ask you for it.”

He raked his hands through his hair. Disapproval etched deep grooves into his forehead. “You’re right. I should keep my opinions to myself. I shouldn’t ask all the questions that come to mind.” He smiled, but he looked pained. “But if you need help getting away or you realize you’re in over your head, I’ll help you. All you have to do is call. You know that, right?”

I nodded, my insides coiling from the sincerity in his eyes. “Thanks, Noah. I appreciate the offer. I really do, but I knew when I chose Ryker that everything wouldn’t be sunshine and rainbows. I’m not going to back out now.” He opened his mouth to respond, and I shook my head. “I don’t want to back out.”

He sighed and walked toward the door. “All right, Hattie. I won’t say anything else. Just know the option is always there whether it’s two months or two years from now.”

My heart constricted at his protective words. “Why do you want to help me?”

He lifted one shoulder, a faint smile on his lips. “You remind me of someone I used to know.”

“Do you want to elaborate?”

“Maybe some other time.”

I nodded. “How long are you sticking around here?”

“Actually, I’m leaving this afternoon. I have a new assignment overseas.”

His gaze lingered on me for a moment and then he closed the door softly. I sat on the edge of the bed and bowed my head. I hoped Ryker made good on his promises because I had successfully alienated everyone who had ever cared about me.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ryker

Rever finished tying Emanuel’s legs and arms to the chair and then he rolled his sleeves to his elbows.

“Point the camera over here,” Rever said as he pulled the pillowcase off Emanuel’s head. “And make sure you get his entire body on the screen.”

After we arrived at the compound yesterday, we did a half-assed job at patching up Emanuel’s wounds, and left him shackled to the wall in the same shack where I’d housed Hattie months ago. Today, we needed to do everything possible to get Emanuel to confess on tape. We wouldn’t kill him, though. We’d save that decision for Ignacio.

I angled the tripod to capture Emanuel’s entire body on the video and peeked through the lens. “I think I’ve got it.”

“Good.” Rever twirled his knife through his fingers like a baton. “I think I’ll spare you the explanation of what’s going to happen now,” Rever said as he circled Emanuel’s chair. “We all have intimate knowledge of how these types of interrogations work.”

Emanuel spit on the floor in front of him, narrowly missing Rever’s shoes. “Chinga tu madre.”

Rever chuckled. “You’re lucky I’m not very fond of my mother either or I might be tempted to cut off your cock for talking about her like that.”

Emanuel’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You can do whatever you want. I won’t tell you anything.”

“How do you think we should start?” Rever ran the knife along the tips of his fingers, testing the sharpness of the blade. “I’ve always been a fan of starting small.” He shrugged. “You know…fingers, toes, ears. I don’t want him to lose consciousness too soon.”

I pointed to the small water buckets lining the wall. “I’ve always wanted to see waterboarding in action. I’d like to know what all the fuss is about.”

Rever sucked his lips into his mouth as he angled his head to the side. “Good idea. I think you’re right. It’s an efficient method of breaking someone without causing a mortal injury. Most of the time, anyway.”

I lifted the bucket of water. “Do you want to tip the chair back or pour the water?”

“I’ll hold the chair,” Rever said. He tipped chair backward, lifting the front legs off the ground so that Emanuel’s lungs were higher than his mouth to avoid total suffocation.

I pulled a thin white rag from my back pocket and draped it over his eyes. I lifted the bucket and poured water on the rag. With one hand, Rever slowly lowered the saturated rag until it covered Emanuel’s mouth and his upturned nose. He put his hand over the wet rag, suffocating him for thirty seconds to increase the carbon dioxide level in Emanuel’s bloodstream. When Rever lifted his hand, I dumped water over the rag for sixty seconds. Then, Rever ripped the rag off his face. Emanuel gagged, sucking in three giant mouthfuls of air. He slapped the rag over his face and started the process again. We repeated the entire thing a half dozen times until Emanuel’s lips were blue, and his entire body trembled.

Rever slammed all four legs of Emanuel’s chair on the ground. “Are you working with Juan Alvarez?”

“Fuck you,” Emanuel said, his voice hoarse.

Rever crouched on the floor and plunged his knife under Emanuel big toenail. He twisted the knife in a seesawing motion until the toenail peeled off Emanuel’s foot.

A scream echoed through the room, and Emanuel jerked against his restraints. Blood pooled on the cement floor beneath his foot.

“Do you want to answer me now?” Rever barked.

Emanuel glared, his entire body vibrating with anger and hatred. He clenched his jaw, his eyes blinking rapidly. “Go to hell! You can do this for days, and I won’t tell you a damn thing.”

“My pleasure. I was just getting started,” Rever said, thrusting his knife under the next toenail. Bile rolled in my stomach as another bloody nail skittered across the floor, brushing the tip of my shoe. Emanuel sagged in his chair.

It didn’t look like Rever minded the violence. In fact, he seemed to be in his element. Inhaling through my mouth, I suppressed the urge to vomit on the floor. Emanuel had to believe Rever and I were united in everything in order for this to work. Likewise, I’d be dumb to expose any weaknesses to Rever. We were brothers, but loyalty only stretched so far in our world. Loyalties shifted like the wind. Money and power spoke louder than blood ties.

“Do you have anything to tell me now?” Rever yelled.

“I paid the Alvarez whore to ride your dick. Did she tell you that? She fucks any guy who shows interest, but I had to pay her to fuck you,” Emanuel sneered. “How does that make you feel?”

Rever lurched forward, slamming his fist into Emanuel’s jaw. His head pitched backward, and blood mixed with spittle showered the front of Rever’s shirt.

“You’re pathetic,” Emanuel growled. Blood dripped down his chin from the corner of his mouth. “No wonder Ignacio begged Ryker to help him. You’re so easy to manipulate.”

Rever jabbed the tip of his knife into Emanuel’s neck. “I should kill you right now.”

Emanuel lifted his chin, his dark eyes sizzling with undisguised anger. “Do it. I dare you.”

I clamped my hand around Rever’s wrist. His muscles coiled under my fingers and his eyes glittered. The coppery scent of blood settled in the air like a heavy mist, clogging my throat and clinging to my skin.

“Don’t let him get to you,” I hissed. “He’s trying to rattle you. He wants you to kill him quickly because he knows it’s better than the alternative.”

Rever closed his eyes and inhaled, his nostrils flaring. His right eyelid twitched and the muscles in his forearms corded. The seconds ticked like hours. Then, he nodded and yanked his wrist from my hold.

“What do you think, Ryker? Another toenail or should I start cutting off fingers?” He waved his knife back and forth between Emanuel’s hands and feet like a music conductor.

I shifted my weight as I pretended to consider the question. “Finish the toenails on that foot, then move to his hand on the opposite of his body,” I said.

Rever laughed. “I like how you think, Ryker.”

I’d roughed people up in the past, but I’d never crossed the line into the world of torture. I should’ve been revolted and horrified, but the longer I watched Rever, the more immune I became to Emanuel’s pain. With every toenail that flicked across the room, the pain lining Emanuel’s face bothered me less and less. Black and white no longer existed. Everything was colored in shades of gray.

Maybe I’d regret this later, but for now, I felt vindicated and refreshed. Emanuel had manipulated Ignacio, Rever, Juan Alvarez, and me to some extent. This was the price of his arrogance. My stomach clenched at the thought. How much longer until I embraced Ignacio’s philosophy of killing and torturing traitors to the fullest extent? How much longer until I was a mirror image of my father?

“Okay. Okay. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Emanuel yelled, interrupting my train of thought. His entire body shivered and red lines mapped the whites of his eyes. “Just stop. I can’t take any more.”

Rever had removed five toenails and one fingernail. Blood seeped out of Emanuel’s foot in a slow trickle. Cuts and bruises covered his face. He’d lost consciousness once, but I had dumped a bucket of ice water on his head and Rever kept going.

“Start talking,” I said as I paced back on forth, my hands shoved deep into my pockets.

“Can you take off the handcuffs?”

“No,” I said.

Emanuel closed his eyes and for a minute I thought I’d need to pour ice water on him again. “It started two years ago. I had a gambling debt, and I needed extra money.”

“Why didn’t you ask Ignacio for the money?”

“I did. I didn’t tell him why I wanted it. I said I wanted to invest in a condominium project south of Playa del Carmen. Ignacio refused to advance me the money. Juan Alvarez was happy to. I tried to pay him back, but he didn’t want money. He wanted information.”

“What kind of information?” Rever asked, scratching a few specks of dry blood off his neck.

Emanuel’s gaze drifted to the ceiling, and he cleared his throat. “Different stuff. Some of it was inconsequential. Some of it wasn’t.”

I tunneled my hands into my hair. “We need to know the details. Dates. Times. The information exchanged.”

Emanuel dropped his chin to his chest. “I don’t remember everything.”

Rever slapped him across his cheek. “Stop procrastinating. Tell us what you remember.”

“It started small. He wanted names of government officials who were open to bribes. Next, he wanted names of people within the Vargas Cartel who had issues with Ignacio.”

“Wait.” I sliced my hand through the air. “You were working with Dario, weren’t you?” I asked, referring to the man I killed when Hattie escaped from the Vargas Compound. Dario and three other men had surrounded us in the jungle. We killed them all and Ignacio killed Dario’s son as payback. Then, the war between the Alvarez and Vargas Cartels exploded, making news throughout Mexico and the US.

Emanuel licked his lower lip. “I facilitated the introduction. I wasn’t working with him.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What else?”

He shrugged. “I persuaded Juan Alvarez to use Anna to manipulate Rever.”

“How the fuck would that help you?” Rever yelled.

“She got you out of the picture.”

“So?” Rever spat.

“When Ignacio’s successor abandoned him, it made him look incompetent. People were nervous about the future, which made it easy to find someone to kill Ignacio, but he survived.”

“You were behind Ignacio’s assassination attempt,” I confirmed.

“Yes, but the whole thing backfired. Juan blackmailed me for the name of Hattie’s hotel. I thought Ryker would rescue Hattie and flee the country, but Ignacio used the situation to solidify his hold on Ryker and find a new successor.”

“So you were working for Juan Alvarez all along?” Rever asked.

“No,” Emanuel scoffed, shaking his head. “I was working for myself. I wanted to weaken both cartels so I could unite everyone under me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I paid my dues, but no matter how hard I worked Ignacio refused to change his mind. He didn’t think I was worthy of taking the reins.”

“You’re not. You’re a piece of shit,” Rever roared as his fist smashed into Emanuel’s face. His eyes rolled up in their sockets, and his head lolled to the side like a rag doll.

“What the hell?” I said, eyeing Rever.

“I couldn’t stand listening to him for one more second.”

“Didn’t you want to know anything else?”

“No.” He dipped his bloodied hands into a bucket of water. “We have everything we need. Get the camera. Let’s find Ignacio. He can finish this. I can’t stand to breathe the same air as him for one more second. I can’t believe I ever trusted him.”

A choked laugh tumbled from my mouth as I turned off the camera.

“What’s so funny?” Rever asked.

“All of Ignacio’s paranoia was pointless.”

“What do you mean?”

“He focused on everyone else while Emanuel snaked his way into every part of the cartel and betrayed him over and over.”

Rever laughed then too. “You’re right, and Ignacio accused me of being a dumbass.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hattie

“I’m surprised to see you here,” I said as I cracked open the door to Ryker’s apartment.

“You haven’t answered my calls for two days,” my dad said as he shifted on his feet. Dark purplish circles stained the skin under his eyes. He wore a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans instead of a dark suit. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him dress casually.

I glanced to the side, unable to maintain eye contact with him. It hurt too much. I had begged him to come over and discuss everything that happened with Senator Deveron after the story broke, but he rejected my invitation.

“I don’t have anything to say to you or Mom.” My voice trembled, and I choked back a sob.

His nostrils flared. “Can I come in?”

“Is Mom with you?”

“No,” he answered, shaking his head. “I thought it’d be better if I came alone.”

“You can come in.” I opened the door wider and closed it behind him. “Do you want anything to drink?” I asked as we moved through the apartment.

“No. I’m good.” He settled onto the sofa in the living room.

I sat on the chair across from him. “What did you want to talk about?”

He ran his hands along the tops of his thighs. “Mostly, I want to apologize for not coming over after the story about Senator Deveron came to light.”

I raised one eyebrow, already feeling drained by this conversation. “An apology. That’s it?”

He pursed his lips. “This is hard for me, Hattie.”

I leaned back in the chair and folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, I can imagine how hard it is for parents to support their child and believe them. I’d always thought it was something that came naturally, but apparently not,” I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.

My dad held up his hand. “To be fair, your mom didn’t tell me anything about your suspicions of Senator Deveron.”

“Really? I find that hard to believe.” I’d told my mom Senator Deveron had orchestrated my abduction by the Vargas Cartel, but she believed Evan over me and dismissed my accusation as a sign of Stockholm syndrome.

He exhaled and squared his shoulders, staring out the window. “She didn’t say anything right away. She mentioned it during your road trip when we couldn’t get in touch with you for a few weeks.”

“And you didn’t bother to talk to me about it.” The words tasted like ash on my tongue.

“For the most part.”

My brows scrunched together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I did some digging into a possible connection between the Vargas Cartel and Senator Deveron.”

I unfolded my arms, and tapped my fingers on the armrests. “Did you find anything?”

“Nothing concrete. I found curious coincidences, though.”

“But you didn’t do anything about it.”

“I didn’t have the chance to decide one way or another before the whole story landed on the front page of a trashy grocery store tabloid. Did you have anything to do with that? The identity of the source is protected.”

My gaze darted to the side as I contemplated how much to tell him. “Yes.” I sighed. “I gave them the story along with the backup documentation.”

“Where’d you get the information?”

I rubbed my hands over my lips. “I lied. I didn’t go on a road trip a few weeks ago. I went to Mexico. I ended up at the Vargas compound. I got the information when I was there, and a friend helped me shop the information around. That trashy grocery store tabloid was the only place with enough guts to print the story.”

He opened, then closed his mouth in quick succession. “Jesus, Hattie. I don’t know what to say.”

I rolled back my shoulders. “I did what I had to do. I couldn’t let him get away with what he did to me.”

“Do you have any idea what the Vargas Cartel will do to you if they realize you are the source behind that article?” He tugged on the ends of his hair. “They will come after you and they will kill you.”

I smiled condescendingly. “You’re wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. They aren’t going to do anything to me.”

He jumped to his feet, his eyes wild. “Maybe you think they won’t hurt you because they let you walk away unharmed once, but you’re wrong. Those people are animals. They will hunt you down and…and…”

“Tie me to a lamppost and cut my head off,” I said without emotion, and his eyes bulged. “Because I’ve seen them do that. Or maybe they’ll brand me like a farm animal.” I slid up the sleeve of my shirt and exposed the burn marks on my arm. “There are so many options, I don’t know where to start.”

His faced paled, and he looked like he might be sick. “Why the hell did you go back there? I can’t believe you broke into the compound and put yourself in danger again.”

“I didn’t break into the compound. I was a guest.” I shrugged as though I didn’t have a care in the world. “In fact, one of them gave me all those documents. He even arranged my first meeting with a newspaper.”

A wall of sadness punched me in the gut as the memory of my last moments with Ryker drifted to the forefront of my mind. As of yesterday, his phone was disconnected. I didn’t know if he was alive or if I’d ever hear from him again. I scoured the internet searching for news on the Vargas Cartel daily. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t find a single article mentioning Ryker or Ignacio. I had no way to contact him. Noah disappeared two days ago. He left a scrap of paper on the kitchen counter with his cell phone number. I could call him, but the way our last conversation went, I promised myself I’d only contact him as a last resort.

“You’re collaborating with the Vargas Cartel,” my dad said, sounding lost and confused.

“I guess so.”

“Why would you do that? Why would you put yourself in danger like that?”

“I didn’t have a choice. Senator Deveron paid the Vargas Cartel to abduct me. Nobody would believe me unless I provided evidence to support my allegation.”

“So you went to a criminal organization for help?”

“I didn’t have any other options. Besides, I wasn’t scared.”

My phone vibrated on the coffee table. I didn’t recognize the number, so I pressed ignore and slipped it into my pocket.

“I’m the US Attorney General. Of course you had options. You could’ve talked to your parents.”

I scoffed. “I tried that. Mom ignored everything I said.”

My dad winced. “I know, but if you’d given us some time, we would’ve come around.”

“Yeah, and in the meantime, Mom would’ve continued to shove Evan down my throat.”

“You didn’t give us much time to come to terms with the accusations. You disappeared a few days later,” my dad said, dropping his voice an octave. “We didn’t know what to believe. You were acting erratically.”

“It all worked out,” I said as I walked toward the hallway. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some stuff to take care of before I leave.”

The light shuffle of my dad’s sneakers followed me down the hall and into Ryker’s bedroom. Without looking at him, I sorted through the stacks of clothes on the bed next to my open suitcase. I’d gone shopping earlier in the day to buy more clothes. Most of my things were still at Vera’s house and wearing the same five outfits had lost its appeal a week ago.

“Are you going somewhere?” my dad asked, leaning his shoulder against the espresso stained doorjamb.

“I’m thinking about it.” I counted the number of shirts and then placed them at the bottom of the suitcase.

“Were you going to tell us or did you plan to disappear again?”

I whirled around, my hands raised in the air. “Why would I tell you or Mom anything? You’re always busy with work. You barely have a minute to spare for me. Mom only wants me in her life when I’m her puppet doing whatever she wants.”

“That’s not entirely true,” he whispered, his voice raw, pleading with me to understand.

I cocked my hip to the side. “You and mom spent all of an hour with me the day Evan brought me home from Mexico. You were both counting the minutes until you could run away. I felt like you couldn’t stand to look at me. Like I had simultaneously disappointed and inconvenienced you.”

He licked his lips. “I’m sorry if you felt that way. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what to say. There isn’t a textbook on how to handle what happened to you.”

Closing my eyes momentarily, I sucked a deep breath into my lungs. “You could’ve acted like I mattered. Like you were happy I was home. Like you loved me.” I tugged on the ends of my hair. “Jesus, Dad, it’s not rocket science.”

“You do matter,” he said almost soundlessly. “We love you. I’m sorry if we failed to show you how much.”

“Great, well, now you don’t need to worry about it,” I said, turning back around.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It means that if you want me in your life, you need to support me and trust my decisions.”

“We can do that.”

I placed another stack of clothes in the suitcase. “All right.” My phone vibrated again. It was the same number. My heart raced thinking it could be Ryker. “I need to take this.”

“Okay.” He scrubbed a hand down the side of his face. “Will you call me later? I’m not done talking to you.”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.” He kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t give up on your mom and me yet. We aren’t perfect parents, but we love you.”

I nodded. “I won’t.”

“Hello,” I said as I heard the front door close.

“Hattie?”

My heart rocketed at the sound of his roughened voice. “Ryker. I’ve been insanely worried about you. Where are you? Why is your phone disconnected? What’s going on? Did you see the news about Senator Deveron?”

He chuckled, and the deep laugh danced down my spine like a lover’s caress. “Slow down.”

“Just tell me what going on,” I demanded.

“I had to disconnect my phone for security reasons. This is the new number. Yes, I’ve seen the news and I’m still in Mexico.”

“Oh.” My shoulders drooped, and I inhaled shakily. A big part of me had hoped he was already in D.C. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. How are you holding up? Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m a little nauseous on some mornings, but nothing too crazy.”

“Good. How are things with your parents?” His voice was gruff.

“Not so good, but my dad wants things to change. He just left a few minutes ago.”

“Did you work out everything with Ignacio?”

Ryker didn’t say anything for a prolonged beat. “I’m still working on a few details.”

I twisted my fingers into interwoven knots. “How much longer?” I couldn’t take being separated from him for much longer. I was lonely.

“Strange you should bring that up,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice, and a matching smile stretched across my face. I loved playful Ryker.

“Why’s that?”

“Because there will be a private plane waiting for you at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at two in the afternoon tomorrow. Do you think you can find it in your heart to clear your schedule?”