Page 11 of Wicked Obsession

“Mitch has no intention of paying the ransom,” the runner said. “Hell, he’s probably in the wind by now.”

Rowland’s hand landed on his shoulder, stopping Ryder before he could do more than take a single step forward. Yeah. They’d get more info by not barging into the middle of this. At least not yet. When he nodded, Stony released him.

Tempers flared again, and the ranking officer said, “Stand down.” His voice was hard and brooked no disobedience. “Fill me in,” he ordered.

The details Ryder heard the runner report had nothing to do with Langley, or where the women might be, and everything to do with what an asshole Armstrong was. His hellcat had the best instincts he’d ever seen when it came to sizing uppeople fast. She’d nailed the groom’s sleaziness after one short phone call.

Ryder jerked his full attention back to the conversation when he heard the officer in jeans ask, “Taggart, did he say who this associate was or what they were into?”

“No. Sounds like the business associate is asking for half a mil.” Taggart—AKA the runner—thrust a hand through his hair. “Hell, Mitch’s accomplice may not even be behind the girl’s disappearance. Mitch never said he’d actually talked to the guy. And we ran into a protective detail while checking out Sarah’s house. The team leader isn’t saying much, but he did drop the news that Langley—the bridesmaid’s father—assigned them because someone threatened her.”

He’d admitted nothing about a threat, but Ryder wasn’t surprised Taggart had figured it out. It didn’t matter anyway. What did matter was that Langley and her friend were missing, and he was aware now that their purses and cell phones had been left behind. He didn’t know about Sarah, but Langley was obsessively detail-oriented. There was no way in hell she’d forgotten her bag, and she wouldn’t have allowed her friend to leave hers behind either.

Rowland nudged him back to the conversation as the officer asked, “You called Rio in?”

The suit nodded. “He’s in route.”

Who the fuck was Rio?

“We’ve already lost an hour.” The officer turned to the wedding guests. “Canvass the neighborhood. Someone must have seen something. Check with shops, cafés, banks—any place that might have video of the surrounding area.” He turned back to Taggart. “Rio will bring his own people in, but at least we’ll have some of the legwork done for them.”

As the men began to leave, Ryder’s position as bystander ended. The officer raised his voice and asked, “You the security detail Lieutenant Taggart mentioned?”

The liar was a lieutenant? Ryder shot Taggart an irritated glare as he walked past him, then turned to the officer running the show, and held out his hand. “Ryder Pienkowski.” He didn’t have to glance over to know that Stony had hung with him. He gestured toward his teammate with his chin. “Finn Rowland.”

The man shook both of their hands. “Devlin Russo, and you’ve met Brett Taggart and Lucas Trammel.”

Or as Ryder thought of them, the runner and the suit. In the next instant, something else Langley had said on the way to the airport popped into his brain.When Sarah was dating this Brett guy, she talked about him constantly.Had to be the sameman. Looked like the bride’s ex was carrying a serious torch for her.

Russo’s gaze turned assessing and Ryder put Langley out of his mind. The inquisition was coming and he needed to be sharp. “Where you out of?” the man asked.

And here we go, Ryder thought. He glanced over at Stony, but his face was perfectly expressionless. “MacDill,” Ryder said.

Those dark eyes studied them and only years in a covert ops unit gave him the experience it took to hold steady under the regard. “You with MARCENT?” Russo asked at last, wanting to know if they were marines.

Ryder glanced over at Rowland, and without so much as a flick of his eyes, he knew his buddy was warning him to tread carefully. Like he didn’t fucking know that. Shit. He ran a hand over his hair and down his neck before letting it drop to his side. They hadn’t reached the classified part yet. “Army Special Forces,” he said slowly.

“No shit,” Taggart said, face and voice neutral. “Green Beret? Is it true you boys kill with sticky notes?”

Russo shot the lieutenant a look hard enough to shut the man up and then focused on him again. Great. “Far as I know Army Special Forces aren’t stationed out of MacDill. They’re out of Elgin,” he said with a frown.

Ryder shrugged. It wasn’t as if he could reveal that his team had been moved to MacDill Air Force Base to focus entirely on covert ops missions in South America or that the majority of their assignments were in Puerto Jardin. He waited for the next question, the one he couldn’t answer, but Russo surprised him.

“Who’s your C.O.?”

“Captain Nguyen,” Ryder said.

The man gave them another once over, and Ryder doubted that his gaze missed a thing. He almost blew out a long breath when Russo relaxed slightly. “How’d you get stuck with a baby-sitting detail?” he asked.

“Langley is the daughter of Ambassador Canfield.” Ryder was as careful now as he’d been when he’d talked about his team being at MacDill. “The ambassador recently received some threats against his family. Since we’re on leave, he asked us to sit on her until the threats were assessed.”

“Why you and not the feds?” Trammel asked.

Ryder shrugged. “We had dealings with the family last year. Apparently, Ms. Canfield is allergic to bodyguards. Her father thought she might be more comfortable with men she knew and trusted.”

Recognition flashed across Russo’s face. “You’re part of the team that rescued her from the rebels in Puerto Jardin, aren’t you?”

The sound of footsteps stopped the conversation cold. He eased back—enough to be out of the spotlight, but not enough to miss any details. Ryder could feel Stony staring at him, and reluctantly he looked over. “What’s so fucking funny?” he growled quietly.

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