He’d failed. His penance would be to let her go.
“Let me at least help you to—”
“I don’t need your help.” Laney held up a hand, her lips thinned in anger, though her eyes still held unshed tears. “Since you won’t take a chance, then I have nothing left to say to you right now. I’ll let you know when my doctor’s appointment is, and I’ll fill you in on work. Other than that, we’re done.”
Swallowing, Ryker nodded. “I’m going back to New York since you got me the blueprints of the DeLuca property. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but shouldn’t be more than a couple of days.”
When she said nothing, Ryker moved around the coffee table and the storage boxes. He grabbed his coat off the hook by the front door and had just jerked the leather over his shoulders when her soft voice stopped him.
“Be careful.”
With his back to her, Ryker closed his eyes.
“I may be angry with you, but I still care and I want you safe,” she went on. “Your baby is counting on you to be here.”
His baby. Words he never thought would come to mean so much to him.
“I can take care of myself.” He opened the door and typed in the alarm code.
He thought he heard her mutter, “That’s what scares me,” before he closed the door, but he didn’t stop to ask. The bitter cold whipped around him. Ryker pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders and made his way off her porch and toward his SUV. Walking away from Laney was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Before Miami, he’d always thought not knowing what being intimate with her felt like was the worst thing, but he’d been wrong. Because now he knew. Now he was fully aware of how perfect they were, how compatible they were. Now he had to live with the knowledge that he’d never have something that amazing in his life.
As Ryker slid behind the wheel of his car, he cursed himself. In the long run, this was the right answer. He’d been teetering on the wrong side of the law for so long, and he should finally feel good about a decision he was making.
So why did he feel like hell?
* * *
“It’s a trap.” Laney gripped her phone and tried not to panic as she left Ryker a voicemail. The third in as many hours. “Don’t go inside. It’s all been a setup.”
She stood in Braden’s office, staring out the massive wall of windows that overlooked a snow-blanketed backyard. She’d come here after her first call and several texts had gone unanswered. It was late, too late to be worrying about Ryker and this damn job. She should be at home asleep. Ryker should be safe in his hotel room. But she’d been given intel that the DeLuca home was going to be empty around eight in the evening, and Ryker had been given the green light to go in, check the trunk in the basement and get out before they arrived back sometime around midnight.
It was now one in the morning, and nobody had heard a word.
“Find out something, damn it.” Braden’s frustration level was just as high as hers as he shouted into his cell. “Call me back.”
Laney turned to face her brother. “Anything?”
“I called one of our FBI guys in that area, and he’s looking into where Ryker is.”
Which meant they still knew nothing. Laney tamped down her fear because Ryker had been in sticky situations before. For years she worried each time he went out, but he’d always come back. On occasion he’d dodge the topic of why he had new scrapes or bruises, or a run-in with the law, but he always returned.
All Laney could think of was how they’d left things last night. Why had she told him that she was done? If he came back right now and told her he wanted to give things a shot, she’d be right there with him. He was it for her.
Laney smoothed her hand down the front of her tunic and over her flat stomach. She needed to remain calm for the baby. Ryker was okay...he had to be.
“He’ll be fine,” Braden assured her. “It’s Ryker. You know he’s probably somewhere laying low. Most likely he’s hiding in that house with his phone on silent and dodging the DeLucas. You know he loves a challenge.”
Laney jerked the leather chair from behind the desk and sank into it. “You’re not helping. It’s all my fault for giving him that information.”
“Laney, you were going on a lead. That’s all.”
Exhaustion had long since set in. She hadn’t slept well after Ryker had left last night. Then today she’d been searching for the root of her troublesome emails that had been sent a couple months ago when she’d gotten another bit of information on the DeLuca property. She’d instantly noticed something was wrong when the chatter turned to humorous b
anter about a setup. She’d almost gotten sick. After her texts to Ryker went unanswered, she called. And called.
She hadn’t suffered much morning sickness yet, but the constant state of I-need-a-nap was ever-present. This situation with the DeLucas wasn’t helping. All the worrying, all the fear. She wanted to believe the best because she wasn’t sure she could handle it if Ryker got hurt...or worse.
Laney crossed her arms on the desk, making them a pillow for her head. Strong hands came to rub her shoulders.