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But it still hurt to power down the screen. It felt like walking out of a conversation mid-sentence.

She pulled her thumb drive and stood up. Ryder grabbed both the drive and the tools from her and stuffed them into his pocket, then moved to the door, listening. They stepped out, he relocked the door, and then he took her hand again as they rushed into the short hallway and turned toward the kitchen.

They were right smack in the middle of the kitchen when she felt him change.

His grip tightened on her hand. His whole body went rigid in a way that was completely different from the controlled stillness he’d shown on the property.

He pulled her close. His mouth against her ear, barely a breath.

“Follow my lead if you want us to stay alive.”

She didn’t have time to ask what that meant.

The kitchen light turned on, and a voice said, “Well, well. What do we have here?”

Chapter 15

The kitchen light was blinding after thirty minutes in the dark, and Heath Diehl was standing six feet away with a gun pointed at Ryder’s chest.

Fuck.

Ryder didn’t panic. Instead, his brain went fast and cold, ascertaining what he could do, what he could use, how he might be able to get them out of this.

In a split second, he’d calculated Heath’s position, the angle of the gun, the distance between them. The kitchen counter to the left, the common area behind Heath, the hallway to the bedrooms beyond that.

Cassandra was pressed against his side. He could feel her trembling against him.

Goddamn it, this was why he’d fought the plan. A trained operative standing next to him right now would be reading the same room, running the same calculations, ready to move when he moved. Cassandra was a civilian who should never have been within a hundred miles of this place, and Ryder had let them send her in anyway.

“I asked you a question.” Heath’s voice was flat. The gun hadn’t moved. “What exactly do we have here, Sutton?”

“Take it easy, Heath.”

“Who is she?”

He could take Heath. The man was good but Ryder was faster at close range, and if he got inside the gun arm before Heath’s finger tightened, he had a real chance. Heath would go down; Cassandra would run for the door and make it back to Isaac and Nolan.

Ryder might not survive it, but she’d be clear. That was all that mattered.

He needed to do it now while Heath was more confused than anything else. He shifted his weight to make his move⁠—

Too late. A door opened down the bedroom hallway. A crew member appeared behind Heath, barefoot, squinting in the light. A beat later, another door, another body stepping into the common area.

Three against one with Cassandra attached to his side.

He felt the fight options close like a door slamming shut. If he moved on Heath now, the other two would be on him before he got the gun free, and Cassandra would be standing in the middle of it with nowhere to go.

Talking his way out of this was his only option.

But if he didn’t want a bullet in the head, he needed a story that explained why a woman was in this kitchen at four in the morning, and it had to make these men lose interest fast.

He pulled Cassandra tighter against him. Wrapped his arm around her waist. Shifted his body language from defensive to embarrassed.

“She’s my girlfriend…or whatever.” He dropped his voice half a register, made it quieter, a man caught doing something stupid he didn’t want to explain. “She tracked my phone. Found the location and drove down from Dallas to surprise me.”

Heath stared at him. The gun stayed up.

“I know. Believe me, I know. I woke up to a text saying she was here. I was trying to get her off the property before anyone noticed.”