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Midas paused a beat. “Why didn’t you want the cops involved?”
Silence.
Midas pushed, “What was it? An emailed threat? A letter that mysteriously appeared? Were you warned that if you called the cops, she’d die?”
Ryker flinched.
Paydirt. “She is not dying,” Midas swore. “Count for fucking sure on that.”
Ryker turned on his heel and marched for the front door. “You will stay in this house with her?”
Only until she rested. Then he’d find a better spot for them both. He already had a perfect place in mind. “I have no plans of leaving Alina.”
Ryker paused at the door. He glanced at the darkened stairway. “I would never want my daughter in danger.”
“Then maybe you need to put all your cards on the table.” And if Ryker didn’t, then Midas would just find the truth on his own.
“I think you’re forgetting just who is cutting your check.”
The stair creaked again.
Midas ground his back teeth together. “And I think you’re assuming that I give a damn about that.”
Ryker’s head swung toward him.
“You need to understand this. I will find the man who ordered the kidnapping. No one will be screwing up my perfect record and walking away.” But it wasn’t about his protection record. Total BS.
It was about Alina.
Being taken.
Hurt.
Locked in a closet.
It was about the absolute terror that had covered her face when he opened that closet door—and the desperate hope that had flooded her eyes when she saw his face.
“You can be replaced,” Ryker warned, voice gruff.
Midas laughed. “Nah. I can’t. There’s no one else like me. But good luck trying to find someone.” He waited a beat. “I got her back. You think you can find someone else who would have gotten her back for you so quickly?”
No. The truth was right there in the heavy silence.
“Didn’t think so.” He rolled his shoulders. “Maybe my rates need to be higher.” A taunt. One he regretted as soon as the words left his mouth because Ryker wasn’t the only one listening to him.
Those words are totally going to bite me in the ass. But Ryker had gotten beneath his skin. The man was holding out on Midas. When his own daughter is in jeopardy. Midas wanted to rattle him.
And, sure enough, Ryker’s hand shook even harder as he shoved his hair back once more. “You’d abandon my daughter?”
Midas turned toward the stairwell. “Not happening. Now, I get that you own the place, but how about you get the fuck out? I need to make sure she rests. She won’t do that with you here.”
“I’m her father—”
Oh, Midas knew exactly who he was.
“It’s okay, dad.” Alina’s voice drifted down the stairs. “I’m safe, and, apparently, I have the best bodyguard that money can buy guarding my bedroom door.” She climbed down the stairs. They creaked beneath her bare feet. She paused on the third step from the bottom. Her fingers trailed lightly over the wooden banister. “We’ll talk after I’ve rested,” Alina assured her father. “Who knows? Maybe by then, the cops will have caught the man who organized my kidnapping.”
Midas snorted. She clearly had more faith in the cops than he did.
