Page 26 of Wicked Obsession

“Ski?”

Shaking his head, he said, “The ambassador said that nobody in his family had been there in nearly twenty years and that there was no reason anyone would think of it in connection to him or Langley. He also mentioned that he has other friends with property around Lake Tahoe. We should be okay.”

“I hope so. We vetted the place and its plans when we believed this was nothing more than a couple of days of babysitting. Things are different now. A team of pros means that the FBI needs to find the person who made the threat and get themto ID who they hired. They might need to find the men on the team. This is going to add to the length of time we’ll need to keep her under wraps.”

“I know.” He said that between gritted teeth, but Stony was making no attempt to put any space between him and Langley. “The house has state-of-the-art security and sits on some major acreage. We won’t have to deal with traffic or neighbors.”

“Don’t forget the tunnels. That’s a potential problem despite the sensors, cameras, and the barricade bars on the doors.”

“Those tunnels are also an escape route if the worst happens. Do you want to go over the other choices again?” Ryder couldn’t prevent the irritation in his voice, but for fuck’s sake, they’d had this discussion once already, and the four of them had agreed it was the best option. But yeah, Stony was right—they’d made this decision before they’d known the threat was real. The reasons they’d chosen this place to begin with, though, continued to hold true and the other locations they’d considered had had much larger security holes.

And this house had a second set of tunnels, a system his team knew nothing about because they weren’t on the blueprints, and the ambassador had sworn him to secrecy. That was his ace in the hole. His way to get Langley out quickly and quietly if the need arose.

“No. I just didn’t want you to lose sight of the issues we’re facing. You seem distracted.”

He tried to hold back the words, but they escaped anyway. “Langley’s snuggled up against you for fuck’s sake.” At least he managed to keep his tone modulated so he wouldn’t wake her up.

Amusement was evident in Stony’s voice when he said, “Do you want me to tip her the other direction so her head’s against the window?”

As if on cue, they hit a bump, rocking the sedan. “No,” Ryder said, “but you don’t have to enjoy it so much.”

“I’m enjoying your reaction,” Stony corrected.

Ryder’s scowl deepened. He glared at his buddy for a moment in the rearview mirror.

“Ski, I’m not going after your woman and you know it. Why are you getting so territorial?”

“You have your arm around her.” The words came out harsher than Ryder intended.

There was a long pause—Ryder suspected Stony was trying to get his laughter under control—before his friend said, “You might as well get used to it. Tampa isn’t New York or Los Angeles, and at some point you’re going to run into her when she’s out on a date with another guy. Hell, if we stay at MacDill, someday you’ll run into her with her husband and children.”

Ryder wasn’t stupid. He knew Stony had said that deliberately to play him. The damn thing wasthat it worked anyway. A growl escaped before he could stop it.

“If you don’t like the idea of her with someone else, dude, then you better get your shit together.”

“When I want your opinion,” Ryder said coldly, “I’ll fucking ask for it.”

Ryder couldn’t get the image out of his head—Langley with a couple of brown-haired, brown-eyed boys calling her mommy. Or fuck, he could come face-to-face with her while she was pregnant. The idea of her carrying another man’s child made bile rise in his throat.

Stony didn’t leave it alone. “When you find your person, you hang on to her as long as she’ll let you, but you’ve done everything you can to push her away. You do realize you’ll compare every other woman you ever meet to Langley, right?”

Ryder scowled, determined to stop letting him push his buttons. “She’d never want me for the long term.” The words escaped involuntarily.

“You don’t think dating for more than a year proves you’re wrong about that?” Rowland asked.

This time, Ryder kept his mouth shut, sorry he’d said as much as he had.

“You can’t be worried that she’ll cheat on you. If she has a problem, it’s being too loyal. You saw that yesterday when she was willing to risk her lifeto save her friend. She’s also strong and independent enough to take care of herself while you’re out in the field.”

“I know that.” She might be a princess, but she was a self-sufficient one.

“Then what the hell is your problem?”

Stony was usually pretty smart; Ryder couldn’t believe he needed to spell it out for him. “My dad is an auto mechanic. Her father was a US ambassador. My mom is a school lunch lady. Her mother throws parties.”

“Her mom did a hell of a lot more thanthrow parties. Because her father was in foreign service, her mother basically was too, although she wasn’t on payroll. Even Langley was affected by his career choice.”

Ryder nodded his head. “The death threat. The kidnapping in Puerto Jardin.”

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