Page 26 of Outlaw Ridge: Ryker
And hell if that didn’t make it harder to resist.
He didn’t. Not entirely.
Instead of pulling back like he’d meant to, Ryker leaned in, just enough to bridge the distance. His hand came to rest lightly at her jaw, and he pressed his mouth to hers, barely a kiss, more breath than pressure.
Warmth, sharp and sudden, flared between them. Her lips parted the slightest bit, and his instinct was to deepen it, take the moment further, slip into something slow and hot and entirely French.
He would’ve.
But his phone buzzed against the desk with a sharpding, breaking the spell like a slap of cold air. Ryker pulled back, just enough to look into her eyes. Anddamnif that heat wasn’t still there, burning brighter than before.
Ryker swiped his phone off the desk, already muttering under his breath, “Griff has the worst damn timing in the history of bad timing.”
Emma leaned back slightly, her breath still catching, lips just barely curved in the ghost of that almost-kiss.
But Ryker’s mood shifted fast as he read the message.
He straightened. “Griff has two updates.”
The heat in the room cooled instantly. Emma’s focus snapped back, sharp as a blade. “Go ahead.”
“The lab tested the ring,” Ryker said. “Ethan’s DNA was on it.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth drew into a tight line. “That DNA could’ve been left years ago.”
Ryker nodded. “Yeah. I thought the same.”
She was trying to stay objective, trying to think like a cop, but he saw the tension creep back into her shoulders.
“And the second update?” she asked. “Do they know who the body is?”
Ryker hesitated. Just a beat. But it was long enough for her to catch it.
“Is it Ethan?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No.” He watched the flicker in her eyes,hopemaybe, or confusion, but what came next shattered that. “The body was Lionel Ruiz.”
Emma went still.
Ryker silently cursed, knowing just how deep this was about to cut.
She didn’t speak right away. Didn’t even blink. Just sat there, as if her brain needed an extra second to process what he’d just said.
Lionel Ruiz. The man she fought to free. The case that unraveled Ethan’s credibility. The trigger that might have brought all this to the surface.
Her voice, when it came, was a whisper. “No.”
But Ryker knew better.
This wasn’t denial.
It was devastation.
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Chapter Seven
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