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Ryker winced when Carmen’s voice went high enough to break glass.

“When I got the hostess to get her to come to the front of the restaurant, she seemed kind of stunned to see me, which pissed me off, if you want to know the truth.”

“Annnddd?”

“So I said, ‘Hey, Beautiful, have you missed me?’”

“Holy hell, you don’t have a brain, do you? It’s leaked out your ears during all those damned missions. You’ve got to put in for disability.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” he protested.

“Oh yeah? How did she react?”

“She looked like she’d seen a ghost, and I didn’t understand it at all. I mean, Carmen, what in the hell had I done? You know? She whispered something to the hostess, then turned around and went to the back of the restaurant, where the kitchen was. When I asked the hostess what she’d said, she told me that Amy had something she needed to take care of.”

“How’d the hostess look?” Carmen asked.

“She looked kind of confused too. So I sat my happy ass down with the other customers waiting for a table. I managed to hold out for twenty minutes before I asked the hostess to go look for her. When she came back out, I could tell something was wrong. She finally admitted that Amy had left for the evening. I had to put on the charm to get her to admit that one of the sous chefs had said she’d kind of hightailed it out the back twenty minutes ago.”

“What did you do?”

“I went to her apartment. She didn’t answer the door. I waited outside in my rental car the entire night. She didn’t come out in the morning, and she never came in that night. I figured she never came home that night.”

“My big brother, the stalker. Great. That’ll win you points with her.” Carmen couldn’t have sounded more sarcastic.

“Hey if I wanted judgment, I would be talking to Julie.”

“You’d never go to Julie with this. She’d have ground you into dust when you kept calling her after she ghosted you. Our baby sister is harsh.”

Ryker shuddered. “But with reason. I just thank God she’s out of the Goth stage.”

“Only in looks,” Carmen sighed. “I digress. Amy never came home, so did you blow up her phone?”

“I kept it to one text, I said I was sorry and that I was worried about her.”

“And what else?”

“I found out she called in sick the next day, but I scoped out her apartment the next day and she never came home.”

“She was deliberately hiding from you. Honey, you’re going to have to put this in the loss column. I’m so sorry.”

“I would. I really would. But when I went to her best friend, Lark she told me to give her time. Lark’s one of the most stand-up people I’ve ever met. She doesn’t play games, Carmen. I’m with you ninety-nine out of a hundred other times; I would have cut bait, but she’s Amy. She’s special.”

“I don’t think I can be objective about this, Ryker. At this point, I’m pretty pissed at her, what with the way she’s treated you.”

“Turn it around. Think of all the men who have been jerked around by Julie. You and I both know, she has a heart as big as Mom’s. She’s loyal to a fault, but she’s surrounded herself with barbed wire. Don’t you want somebody to break through? The right guy?”

“Yeah,” Carmen said quietly. “I do.”

“Same here, I think. I think this has to do with the way I bragged about our family. I think I fucked up, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Did you say Lark, the really smart reporter who is a stand-up person, said to give her time?”

“Yeah.”

“Then give her time.”

Ryker hit his head against the back of his leather sofa, wishing it was concrete. “Fuck. I don’t have a choice, do I?”