Challenging Ryker (Kringle Security #2)

Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Do it for me.

Try for me.

Seriously? What the hell was she thinking? He couldn't do it for his own twin sister but she expected him to do it for her?

She was a bigger idiot than she thought.

"Forget I said that." She tried to wave the words away with her hands but Ryker wasn't having any of it.

"Nope. No takebacks. You don't get to give me words like that and then try to take them back."

Wait, did he mean?

"I'm going to be bad at this. There are times I'm going to screw up and you're going to be tempted to kick me in the balls, but I want to try."

"Really?" Never had she sounded so unsure in her life.

"Really." He gave her one of his genuine smiles. The one most people didn't get to see but she would kill to get more often. "You're not the only one falling, sweetheart. I was just too busy burying my head in the sand to admit it even to myself."

"I don't want you just saying that because I put you on the spot."

This time Ryker threw his head back and let out the most beautiful laugh she had ever heard, the kind of laugh that made women want to plug other women's ears just so they didn't get the opportunity to hear it.

"I don't make a habit of confessing my feelings to someone if it isn’t how I really feel. I refused to do it for twenty years, so I can promise you the first time I do, it wouldn't be in jest. Now, I would love nothing more than to take you upstairs and show you just how much what you said means to me, but I need to call my team."

Shit! The whole reason for their heart-to-heart came crashing back. Fuck Gavin and his awful timing. Or maybe this time, she should be thanking him; if it weren't for his threatening note, who knows how long it would've taken Ryker to open up to her about his family dynamic?

She listened as Ryker called his team. Jayce was positioned outside, so he was the first to show up, followed by Caden who had been on his way into the office anyway, so it was just a quick detour. According to Ryker, he didn't live too far away.

"How the fuck did I miss someone putting that on your doorstep?" Jayce was pissed. It was the first time she ever heard him utter more than grunts and sounds. She wasn't sure she liked his words better. The man looked two seconds away from stroking out, his face was so red.

"Calm down," Caden chided. "I'll look at the security feed and see when it was left. Then we can determine if you missed something. No need to get worked up just yet."

Caden's words didn't seem to help in the slightest. In fact, if it were possible for Jayce's face to get even redder, that was what happened.

"Does he always get this mad?" she whispered when she was close enough to Ryker to be sure Jayce didn't hear her question. Thankfully the sound of the front door opening and more people joining them drowned out her words.

"Let's just say he takes his job very seriously."

"Ah, here we go." Caden turned his laptop around so everyone could see the grainy video footage. "Newspaper delivery man."

"I don't get the newspaper."

"Son of a bitch!" Jayce shoved his hands through his hair. "He walked right fucking past me and I thought nothing of it. Fucking newspaper . Who even gets that shit anymore?"

"Not your fault, brother." Ryker tried to calm his friend down but she could see it wasn't working.

She moved closer to the laptop and took a good look at the picture. "That's not Gavin."

"Excuse me?" Six sets of eyes flew her way. Caden turned the laptop back to him and started typing a mile a minute as she continued.

"I'm not saying the letter isn't from Gavin. I would recognize his handwriting anywhere. He left me notes all the time when we first started dating but that's not him on the video. He got someone else to deliver the envelope to you."

"Amelia's right." Caden turned the laptop around once again. "The kid who dropped off the note is the normal paper delivery boy. You can see him making deliveries every morning. Gavin likely paid him to drop it off."

"Fuck." This time it was Ryker running his fingers through his hair. "I want Tex to send us one of his trackers for Amelia."

Hold up. What did he just say? There's no way he just mentioned putting a tracker on her. Not after what she told him Gavin did to her when they were together. She must have heard him wrong.

Ryker saw the confusion in her eyes and the anger rolling off her in waves. "It's not the same thing. You would be completely aware of this and Tex would only track you if something were to happen. I wouldn't even have access to it."

"Monica has one," Luke added when Ryker was done trying to explain his crazy outburst.

"What do you mean, Monica has one?"

"It's in her earrings and it helped us track her when she was kidnapped from the office. Like Ryker said, I don't have access to the data on the regular and Tex only uses it in emergencies. A lot of the guys in our line of work have it for their wives and it has come in handy plenty of times."

"So, you wouldn't be tracking my every move?" Her question was just as much for Caden as it was for Ryker. It wasn't that she had anything to hide from Ryker but the thought of a tracker left a bad taste in her mouth after the way Gavin had used it.

The difference was this time she would know it was there. Gavin had done it without her permission. But was that enough to give up her independence?

"I promise you, sweetheart, it's not the same. I trust you and the last thing I want to do is control you. The tracker will simply be there in case something happens. With Gavin still on the loose, it would make me feel better knowing that we have a way to find you if, God forbid, he gets his hands on you again."

That explanation made the decision for her. She never wanted to be in Gavin's clutches again and if this tracker would help Ryker find her sooner, then she would gladly wear it.

"I don't wear earrings like Monica does. I rarely wear jewelry at all, if I'm being honest."

Ryker looked her up and down. She had never been big on jewelry. Her mother got her ears pierced when she had been a baby, but by the time she was in her teens, she stopped wearing them. It had been years since she tried shoving a pair in but she was pretty sure the holes were closed.

Necklaces weren't her thing, and she hated bracelets even more. They got in the way when she tried to type, so the few she did have only came out for special occasions. And those rarely happened these days. She could maybe get behind a necklace but Gavin would know something was up. He had tried to gift her one at one point and then got mad when she hadn't worn it every day. She tried explaining it wasn't her style but all that did was piss him off.

"What about an anklet?" Ryker interrupted her thoughts. "You can hide it easily under your pants and it would be thin enough that you hopefully wouldn't feel it."

An anklet. Like a cuff.

No, it's not the same. Amelia tossed the idea around in her head a bit.

Maybe that could work. Especially if it was thin enough.

"I'm willing to give it a try."

"Perfect." Ryker clapped his hands together. "Caden, let Tex know we need something small enough to attach to an anklet. Austin, I need you to stay here with Amelia for a little while."

"And where are you going?" Austin asked with an amused tone.

"I've got jewelry to purchase for my girl."

My girl. Was it silly that she liked the sound of that? A little, but she wasn't about to overanalyze it. Things were looking up and she wasn't about to question it.