Ryder: #4 (Allen Securities) (15 page)

His arm ached, but unlike many people, he really could honestly claim to have been through a lot worse, and with Kert dead, it wasn’t like he needed to be at his best on his way to the helicopter.

He hissed when Ando started to wrap the wound with gauze.

“So, you were the one following them?” Ryder asked.

Ando nodded as he worked. “I’m not the man I used to be,” he said. “Cancer has about taken me. Only have maybe a year left. Back ten years ago, I would have been with you, guns blazing, ready to take them all. Now I have trouble keeping up with a bunch of girls.”

“Charlie called you.”

Ando nodded. “She’s my daughter,” he said. “I’d take my last steps to make sure she was safe.”

At least it was all adding up now. “And the dynamite?”

Ando laughed. “Not my finest moment. I intended to throw it further, but we’d been hiking all day, and I was zapped.”

Irene came into the room with a pack and a coat.

“What about Jess?” she asked “What am I supposed to tell her?”

“Tell her that your man saved you,” he said. “No reason she needs to even know. It’s not like I’m asking for her praise. It’s why I faked my own death, but made sure she was set up with money. I knew she needed to be free from my shadow.”

Irene sat next to Ando.

“She’d want to know you’re here,” she said.

He shook his head. “I doubt that. I was in prison all those years, and she never tried. Not that I really deserved it.”

Irene reached out and took his hands. They were weathered and cracked. “You were in prison all those years, and you never tried.”

He sat for a moment, thinking, and Ryder wasn’t sure if she’d ever convince him. That sort of guilt was hard to shake.

“I’ll think about it,” he said and sighed.

Irene stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ll do more than think about it,” she demanded. “I know who your contact is, and I have no problem stopping by there every day if I have to.”

Ando raised a brow and looked to Ryder.

“Good luck,” Ryder said. “I’ve already learned not to cross her.”

Ando stared hard at Irene for a moment before laughing. “Okay,” he said. “You tell her and we’ll see what she says. Hell, she’s a smart girl. If they had her ID the body, she may even know that I didn’t check out in the prison. Some part of me always hoped she did, I suppose.”

“I will,” she said. “I’ll also tell her about how you risked everything to save every one of us.”

Ando looked away. “You’ll miss your ride if you don’t hurry.”

Ryder was sure that he saw raw emotion reflected there and maybe even a bit of vulnerability. He stood and ushered Irene to the door before it was too much for everyone.

He held out his hand to Ando who took it. “Thank you,” he said.

Ando nodded and waved them out into the cold.

* * *

They hadn’t been walking long before Irene decided that she hated snow, hated it more than anything else. The cold and wet white powder clung to everything. Not only that, but in some cases, the snow went all the way up to her thighs.

“How are you holding up?” Ryder asked.

Irene looked up and realized that maybe she didn’t have an answer after two dead bodies and days on end of being hunted along with a new boyfriend and fantastic sex. There were more changes there than most people had in a lifetime. She stared at his arm. He hadn’t given any sign of complaint, but he was the one who’d been shot, not her, and he was still asking her how she was holding up.

“You know what? Fuck snow,” she said.

Ryder turned around and nearly choked on the laugh that came out.

“What?” he coughed.

“I can’t feel my little toes, and I’m pretty sure that if you ever want to have sex again, certain parts are going to have to dethaw.” She scowled.

He laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She knew she was being silly, but she was cold, tired and ready to be done with this. All she wanted was to go home and snuggle with her man.

“Do you hear that?” he asked.

Irene listened closely. In the distance, she could hear the faint putter of a helicopter.

“Shit,” he cursed. “Let’s move.”

Their ride was early.

Irene tried to pick her feet up as high as she could in the deep snow. Ryder held on to her arm, pushing her past the limits on what she thought she could do.

They reached the clearing, and she began to sob as the helicopter pulled away. No, they’d been so close, and even if Ryder was playing down his injury, she couldn’t imagine it’d be safe for him to hike down a snow-covered mountain in his condition.

He started shouting. “Hey! We’re here.” He waved his non-wounded arm.

She started jumping up and down, waving her arms and yelling.

The chopper continued to rise.

She kept trying to signal for them for a few long moments and then looked down. “No.”

She looked up. Her eyes widened. The helicopter was descending.

She dropped to her knees as the vehicle pulled back to the landing area. Ryder and Irene raced to the climb on.

A man in a helmet, perhaps the co-pilot, flung open the side door, reaching down to first pull Irene in and then help Ryder up.

When they were finally under way, Irene sighed.

“What?” Ryder said.

She snuggled into him

“Just glad to be going home,” she said.

He nodded.

Whatever might happen, they would have each other and that would be enough.

Chapter Fifteen

Irene clung to Ryder as they raced along on the snowmobile, followed by another snowmobile carrying Jess and Kace. It had been nearly a month since they had made it off the mountain, and yet here she was, back on that damn rock again. Not only that, but she was back in the damn snow.

Well, at least this time she had her warm fuzzy pink coat. Taylor had teased her saying that she looked like a giant piece of cotton candy. Ryder had then asked if he could gobble her up. She couldn’t stop the blush that followed.

They leaned to the left to avoid a branch, and she grinned as she tightened her grip on him. Maybe this snow business wasn’t so bad if she got to feel him up like on his bike.

“Behave,” he shouted.

Irene frowned.

She looked over to her right and gave a little wave. Jess and Kace hadn’t been hard to convince to come. Much like her sister, Jess believed that actions spoke louder than words, and Ando had managed some impressive actions. Irene was a little surprised to find that Jess already knew about her father being alive. Of all the things to keep secret, it was the one Irene hadn’t expected, but then Jess had never thought something like this might happen either. She assumed that he’d make his exit and ride off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.

Her heart sped up a little when the cabin came into view. It had been their fortress in the storm, but it had also been the beacon to Kert, the man who had become Wolf. Most of all, it represented a final chance for Ando, a man who had wronged his children.

They pulled up out front, and she stepped off the snowmobile. The snow pushed clear up to her knees.

“I hate snow,” she mumbled.

Ryder chuckled as he guided her to the door.

Before they could even knock, Ando had the door open and stood waiting. She held her breath, waiting to see how things would go.

Ando stared awkwardly between Jess and Kace. Irene wondered how Ando felt about his daughter’s future husband being an ex-cop.

“I hear I’m to congratulate you,” Ando said. He scratched his eyebrow “You’re with child and getting married here soon.”

Despite Kace and Jess’s plan to elope, Irene and Ryder’s little adventure resulted in Jess and Kace returning home without getting married, thus giving Kace’s mother her beloved chance to put together another wedding.

Jess climbed the stairs and stood just steps away from him. She studied him for a long time.

Ando ran a hand over the back of his neck.

“Look, I know this is weird…” he started.

His words were cut off by his daughter’s arms wrapped tightly around him.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For watching out for them. Thank you.”

Jess cried quietly against her father’s chest. It was the first time Irene had seen her react to anything like that, but then, it was the first time her father had actually been an active parent.

Ando pulled back and dried his eyes. He smiled when he looked down at her.

“You have turned into an amazing woman,” he said. He opened the door wide, and Irene was surprised to see Charlie when they came in.

“How is your sister doing?” he asked from the couch.

“Better,” Jess said, taking a seat in a chair. “The break wasn’t as bad as we thought. It did get some muscle, but the infection is all gone now, and they don’t think the damage will be permanent.” She turned to look at her father. “We’re not going to tell her,” she said. “Vic isn’t stable right now. This would all be too much. The money was one thing, but this…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

He nodded slowly, and Irene felt his pain. He wanted more than anything to know the love of both of his children.

“I understand,” he said. “She’s been through a lot. You all have. Because of me.”

Irene couldn’t help but nod. They really had been through quite a bit, though she blamed Kert and not Ando.

“I have to know,” Jess said quietly. “The man in prison. The one they thought was you. Who was he?”

Ando shrugged. “I really have no idea. It was chance. The boiler exploded, exposing a small sliver of freedom, and I took it. I didn’t set it up, and I didn’t kill him.”

Jess let out a sigh of obvious relief. Irene knew it had been weighing on her. Ando hadn’t been a good man, but he hadn’t been a stone-cold killer either.

Irene grinned. “I think you should show your collection of art.”

Ando shot her a confused look, but Jess seemed excited.

“You collect art?” Jess said to her father.

Ando shook his head. “I really don’t.” He furrowed his brow.

Irene waved a hand. “Of course you do. Here, let me show you.”

She led them down the hall to his bedroom.

“Ando has the finest collection of art I’ve ever seen by two little girls name Jessica and Victoria,” Irene said with a grin.

Ryder stayed behind while the others looked at the pictures Jess and Vic did as kids. He had business of his own here. Kert let the past consume him and turn him into a monster. Ryder had been given the opportunity to let his soul heal, to let Irene heal his soul, but there were still a few loose ends.

He pulled a chair in front of Charlie and sat down.

“For years I’ve been carrying around this hate,” Ryder started, “for what happed the day I got my scar.”

Charlie frowned and opened his mouth, but Ryder held up a hand.

“I was angry at my brother, and you and even Niki,” he said. He shook his head. “Furious. I didn’t do any good holding on to that anger. All it ever got me was more anger.”

He took a deep breath. This was harder than he ever thought it would be.

“I stopped trusting anyone,” he said, “Even my brother. And you can’t live a life without trust.”

Charlie nodded, and Ryder stuck out his hand. “So, I want to say, thanks for teaching me to trust again. Without you, we would have never made it out of here, and I owe you my life.”

Charlie took his hand and grunted. “You talk too much,” he said. “I think next time I’ll just let you die.”

Ryder laughed at the somewhat sour man.

“How’s that idiot brother of yours?” Charlie asked.

Ryder shook his head. Cage had been a little worse than Charlie had let on. He was never near death, but his knee was badly damaged, and the doctors thought he’d walk with a limp the rest of his life. It was a blow to his ego and, more so, to his pride. Ryder wasn’t sure how he was going to get past this.

“The surgery went well,” he said. “They were able to get the pins in, and the chances of him losing the leg have gone away completely.”

“Damn shame about Carlos,” he said. “But your brother was lucky he was there.”

Ryder nodded. The details were all still a little sketchy, and Cage wasn’t helping much, but from what they had gathered, Carlos had also been out there in the woods helping Cage and Reed. The why still wasn’t clear, but when one of Paco’s loyal members fired on Cage, Carlos tossed Cage out of the way, saving Cage, but at the cost of his own life.

He thought about Havoc. The huge biker had been a big help. Apparently, he only stuck around long enough to make sure Victoria got to the hospital and then took off, which was probably for the best.

As far as the police were concerned, it was just another gang issue.

He looked up when the others came back into the room and smiled at Irene. Their time this last month had been the best he’d ever had. Life was full, and for once, he was happy.

She nodded to the door, and he followed her out onto the porch. He stopped behind her as they stared out at the serene white beauty.

“Things are going well,” he said quietly in her ear. “I think Jess and her father might actually have a relationship after this,” she said.

He nodded.

Irene turned in his arms and looked up at him.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said. Her cheeks tinted pink, and she glanced away. “Taylor is graduating here soon and moving. How would you feel about moving in?”

She nibbled her lower lip.

Ryder grinned. “I’d love to.”

Irene looked up with surprise. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“Baby, I’d marry you tomorrow if I didn’t think you’d freak.”

Irene stared up at him in shock.

“Don’t let your mother hear that,” Jess said from the door. “She’ll have the wedding planned before you can even run off to elope.”

Ryder grinned. “Maybe I should just tell her and let things happen from there.”

Irene frowned. “You do, and you’ll be a very lonely man in the future.”

Ryder sat back up. “Right, let’s just trying moving in together then.”

Irene grinned.

“Oh,” Kace said. He moved to stand by Jess. “I heard that radio host talking about your cookies again.”