He turned around to face her, his brows pulled together in another frown. “I thought you wanted protection.”
“I do. I guess I just thought that you’d stay with me there. At the motel.”
Shaking his head again, he said, “You’re staying here.”
“Oh. Um, okay.”
He showed her to the guest bedroom that sat across the hall from his. It had a double bed and its own bathroom, so at least he wouldn’t have to think about her getting naked and wet in his shower. Careful to keep his eyes off her as she sat on the side of the bed, he told her to get some sleep and that he’d be in to wake her up early. Then he headed for the door.
“Scott. I—”
Ryder shut the door behind him without bothering to wait for what she wanted to say. He was half-terrified she’d come after him, knowing damn well his control was too shaky to withstand the temptation if she pushed him any more tonight. His stupid dick was still rock hard, and he wanted nothing more than to bury it so deep inside her she—
Fuck! I’ve got to stop thinking about it.
Since there wasn’t a chance in hell he could sleep when he was this jacked up, he headed into his home office and sat down in front of his computer. Two hours later, he’d already hacked his way into a few government systems and had looked into everything they knew about Radovich and Lily’s father. It wasn’t much. The military was keeping Heller’s death quiet until they had an answer about what had happened to him. They hadn’t figured out yet that it was Rado—that the bastard was back from the dead—and for the moment Ryder planned to leave it that way. He didn’t like the thought of how they might try to use Lily if they learned the truth about what had happened. Not that he wasn’t thinking along the same lines, but only if he could keep her protected. The kind of brass who would kill for the chance to bag Yuri Radovich wouldn’t be so concerned about her safety. But for the moment, as far as the military knew, she’d died on that boat along with her father. Heller’s and the girlfriend’s bodies had washed up on a Bahamian beach two days ago, but Lily’s was assumed to still be lost at sea.
The government thought she was dead, but Rado knew that she was alive. Which meant one thing and one thing only.
The bastard was hunting for her.
THREE
THINKING THAT SHE’D JUST HEARD SOMEONE SAY HER NAME, Lily rolled over in the comfortable double bed and choked back a moan. Mmm, talk about waking up to a beautiful piece of eye candy. Ryder was sprawled back in the brown leather chair that sat in the far corner of the room, dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt. He looked tired, but beautiful. The dark smudges under his eyes only added to the I’m-a-serious-badass image he projected so well. Of course, in Ryder’s case it wasn’t an image. He really was a serious badass.
“Did you sleep at all?” she asked him.
His dark eyes bored into hers. “I caught a few hours.” His voice was low and morning-rough. If she had the choice, she knew she could be happy waking up to that voice every morning for the rest of her life. Too bad she had a better chance of winning the lottery.
“What were you doing all night?”
He scratched at the black stubble shadowing the hard line of his jaw. “I spent some time online.”
Sitting up, she braced her back against the headboard. She’d slept in a thin tank top, and kept the sheet tucked up under her arms, covering her nipples. They’d gone hard the instant she’d set eyes on Ryder, but it wasn’t like she wanted to hide from him. She wanted him. God, she wanted him. She just needed to wake up a bit more before she could throw off the nerves fluttering in her belly and put it all out there, nipples and all. “Were you looking into Rado?”
When he nodded, she asked, “What’s your plan?”
She could have sworn he was fighting back a grin. “What makes you think I have a plan?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know you, Scott. I spent too many years of my life studying you. I know what your game face looks like.”
Leaning forward in the chair, he braced his elbows on his parted knees, the position doing incredible things to his muscular arms and broad shoulders. “I think we let him know where you are, then sit and wait for him to fall into our lap.”
Her jaw dropped so far she thought she probably looked like a landed trout. “Wait a minute. You want him to come to Moss Beach?”
His gaze was steady and direct, and deadly as hell. “We can waste weeks trying to track the bastard down so that I can make sure his ass is dealt with once and for all, or a few days waiting for him to make his move.”
A few days. The more dangerous but faster option. And from the look on his face, it was obvious that he’d chosen it because he couldn’t wait to get rid of her. She shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t happy about being stuck with her. Oh, he might not have come right out and said it. But his facial expressions and body language had been easy to read. He didn’t want her there.
Knotting the sheet in her hands, she worked to keep her voice calm as she said, “I came here looking for protection. Can’t we just . . . I don’t know. Alert the right people and let them go after Rado, while I stay here with you?”
He shook his head. “We both know how hard the son of a bitch is to kill, Lily. And until he’s dead, you’ll never be safe.”
“And when he gets here? What then?”
“Then I kill him.”
He said it so simply, as if he were talking about taking out the trash or grabbing some fast food.
“And his men? What are you going to do about the assholes he has working for him?” she pressed, knowing damn well that any chance she had of turning the fantasy that’d been playing in the back of her mind into a reality was getting slim. And it was such a good one, too. A raw, delicious fantasy where she and Scott Ryder lost themselves in each other before Rado found her and killed her. She didn’t want to die, damn it—but if she had to go, she at least wanted as much time with Ryder as she could get before it happened. At the first sign of the terrorist, she planned to leave town, drawing the danger away from him. Just not until she’d gotten what she’d come for. But Ryder wanted Rado there now, leaving her no time at all.
Answering her question, he said, “If they try to hurt you, they die. But Rado’s interest in you is personal. I’m guessing he’s looking for some kind of payback against your father for sending the old unit after him. Once he’s dead, his men will move on to greener pastures.”
He dropped his gaze to her hands, which were still knotted in the top sheet, holding it tight to her chest. Her grip was so strong she figured her knuckles were probably turning white, but she couldn’t relax her hold. When he lifted those dark eyes back to hers, she said, “I shouldn’t have come here. I knew you were tough, that you could handle yourself, but I didn’t think you’d want a showdown. You could get hurt.” She darted her eyes to his scar, then quickly looked away. “You’ve already been hurt enough by this man. I don’t want you in danger.”
“We’re not going to hide, Lily. I’m going to finish the job I started three years ago. I want that bastard in the ground.” He paused for a second, studying her expression with those piercing eyes, before saying, “And don’t even think about running.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You heard me. If you think you can read me, then remember that I can read you even better.” He paused again, his intense, heavy-lidded gaze making her feel as if he really could see right inside her, picking his way through her thoughts. With a slow shake of his head, he quietly said, “I don’t know what plan you had in coming here, but it obviously wasn’t this. You knew you’d be safe here, that I’d protect you if the shit hit the fan, but for some reason, you never planned on me going face-to-face with Rado.”