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“Uh, because there was a kidnapping?” How did the guy not get this? “Because I had two men bound at the cabin who could point us in the direction of their boss? Because I was pretty sure I saw the boss driving to the cabin, but I couldn’t go after him since I was the only one there to see to Alina’s protection?”
Ryker kept staring into the twisting flames. “You think I fucked up.”
“Absolutely.” Midas didn’t pull his punch. He never did. “They could have killed her while I was outside sitting in my car. You get that, don’t you?”
Ryker’s shoulders hunched. “Killing Alina wasn’t the goal.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“Because torturing me was the goal.” Ryker turned toward him. “Alina knows what you are now.”
What. Not who. Screw that. He wasn’t some thing.
“She could become…difficult.”
A stair creaked. He didn’t look toward the sound. “I can handle Alina. Difficult is my business.”
Surprise—and what could have been relief—flashed in Ryker’s eyes. Dark eyes just like Alina’s. “You intend to continue the job? Even after what’s happened?”
What had happened? Oh… “You mean the small matter of the cops suspecting I killed two men?”
Ryker stared back at him.
“I didn’t kill them.” Despite the fact that you wanted me to. The knowledge was there between them, unspoken. “They were the grunt workers. Killing them would make it harder for me to find the boss. I want the man who ordered her kidnapping.”
Ryker’s eyes widened. “You sound like you are going to hunt him.”
Yes, that was precisely what Midas intended to do. “I’m a good multitasker. I can protect Alina and hunt down the piece of shit who ordered her abduction.”
“He…he’ll go away. He won’t come after her again.”
Keep telling yourself that. “Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I don’t intend to let the guy just scurry off into the dark. He’s going to pay for what he did to her.”
Ryker ran a hand through his hair. That hand shook a bit. “You protect. That’s your thing. Protection. Bodyguard work. I’ve never heard anything about you hunting criminals.”
“What can I say? I am a man of secrets.” He was also a man with connections. “I’ve got some acquaintances who can help me out. One who specialized in hunting criminals for a very long time.” Still did, in fact.
Memphis Camden was already flying down, with reinforcements. So maybe the guy wasn’t such a sonofabitch.
“I don’t want you hunting him.”
Fear had trembled in those words. “What do you want, then? For him to come after your daughter again? For him to take her once more?”
Ryker surged toward him. Stopped less than a foot away. “I have others who can find him. All I need you to do is stay close to Alina. Be her shadow. She can’t ditch you the way she’s done other guards over the years. She’s scared now. She’ll let you stay at her side.”
Scared wasn’t quite the word for how he believed Alina felt.
“You protect her. I’ll make certain the threat is eliminated. I just—I need you to stay with her until I give you the all clear to leave her.”
The man was almost precious…the way he thought Midas would blindly follow his orders. Precious. Foolish. Delusional. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“What?”
“You had a warning about the abduction, didn’t you?”
Ryker swallowed. “It’s late.”
“Technically, it’s early. Wait a little longer and the sun will rise.”
