His Secretive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers) (11 page)

Unfortunately, Ryker’s plan was foiled by a very adept woman.  He’d gone into the office, only to find that Cricket wasn’t there.  He called her cell phone several times, left messages but she never called him back.  When he called the receptionist’s desk at her company, he was told that Cricket had called in sick to work. 

She didn’t answer her home phone,
so he continued to leave messages on her cell phone and her work phone.  But by the end of the day, he hadn’t heard from her. 

As he was driving to her house, he received a text message that just about blew his mind.  “I love you.  But we can’t be together
,” was all she said.  No explanation for why they couldn’t be together, no final goodbye.  Nothing! 

Ryker read the message but continued on to her house.  There was no way he was going to allow her to get away with something like that. 

But when he pulled up outside of her house, it was dark.  He knocked on her door, but there was no answer.  It was as if she’d simply disappeared.  If it weren’t for that text message, he would be worried. 

As it was, he drove back to his place and poured himself a tumbler of scotch, pacing back and forth in his living room and bedroom, becoming even more
furious that she’d pulled this stunt.  The pacing continued until nearly midnight when he fell asleep on his couch, unable to sleep in his bed without her with him.  But as his eyes faded closed, his mind went over all the things he was going to do to punish her for putting him through this kind of hell. 

Never, not even in the darkest part of the night, did he allow the possibility that she would get away from him.  No, that wasn’t even an option. 

By the end of the week, he was still fuming, but he’d taken on a different tactic.  He still called her each day, but only to tell her how much he loved her as well.  And to explain that he wasn’t giving up on their relationship.  When he flew out to Barcelona Wednesday, he called her and told her he’d be gone for two days but that he loved her.  When he left Barcelona and made a stop for one of his clients in London, he called her up and told her what was going on, and that he still loved her, that he was waiting for her to come tell him what the problem was. 

During that whole time, Cricket sent him one more message.  “I love you, but it’s just impossible,” was all she texted. 

Ryker smiled at the message as he walked into a meeting with his London client, shaking his head at how naïve she was. 

“Twelve more hours, Love” he texted right back to her, then sat down and discussed the issue that had brought him here, all the while, thinking of what he was going to do to her when he got back to Chicago. 

Cricket read the words and just about broke down in tears.  She’d called in sick for the past two days but when she heard that Ryker would be out of the country, she pulled herself out from under her covers, showered and forced herself to go into the office.  She knew she looked horrible, with red rimmed eyes from crying, her face looked gaunt because she’d barely eaten anything more than a glass of milk or cookies for the past three days.  But the idea of food made her stomach turn over. 

She wanted Ryker’s arms around her so badly, her body actually ached. 

If only she could figure out how to protect her parents while still seeing Ryker, she would do it.  But she couldn’t come up with a plan, or even an explanation for what her parents do for a living, that Ryker could believe.  Well, she could if she were willing to lie to him.  But she simply couldn’t do that.  She loved him so much and she couldn’t sully those feelings with a lie.  So the only alternative was for her to simply break things off with him. 

Josie stopped by her office
Wednesday.  “How are you…” she stopped midsentence when she caught sight of Cricket’s pale face and sad eyes.  “You’re still sick, aren’t you?”

Cricket took a deep breath and nodded her head.  She was sick from missing Ryker and that definitely counted in her mind.  She couldn’t respond verbally because her throat was raw from crying. 

Josie shook her head and sat down in front of Cricket’s desk.  “You probably shouldn’t be here,” she said.  “Why don’t you go home and rest for another few days?”

Cricket picked up a tissue and pretended to blow her nose.  “I can work,” she finally said, hiding her teary eyes behind the tissue until she had herself under control.  She didn’t want to go home because all she did was think about Ryker and how much she missed him.  At least here, she could think about something other than how much she wanted to be with him. 

Josie shook her head.  “I don’t think you should be here.  But Jason’s been out of town for a while so at least you don’t have to deal with his wrath.”  She stood up and looked down at the younger woman.  “If you need anything, just give me a ring, okay?”

Cricket nodded her head and pulled a stack of invoices closer, blinking rapidly to control the next bout of tears.  Damn her father!  He could do anything and she’d be able to be with Ryker without any concern of her father or mother being imprisoned. 

She picked up her phone and thought about calling her mother.  If there was ever a time when she needed her mother’s shoulder to cry on, it was now.  But in the end, she put the phone down again and forced herself to work through the invoices that needed to be paid.  Her mother would rush out here and pat her on the back, but Cricket’s father was right.  There really wasn’t any way that they could continue to do what they did and for her to marry Ryker.  The two words were opposite.  Something had to give.

But why was she always the one that had to make the adjustments, she thought angrily as she pounded the keyboard, entering data into the accounting system.  She’d grown up adjusting to their lifestyle!  Wasn’t it about time they started adjusting to hers?  Her fingers clutched at the
ring dangling from the chain around her neck, feeling the beautiful diamond as if it were the most precious thing in the world to her.  She even rubbed her finger where she’d been wearing it for the past three days.  Her finger felt bare, naked, without the ring.  She wanted so badly to put it back on her finger, but she shook her head and forced herself to focus on her work. 

She had to get over Ryker, she told herself firmly.  She’d have to mail his ring back to him but the
thought of not having it either on her finger or close to her heart brought up a new bout of tears and she mercilessly pushed them away. 

She was exhausted by the end of the day.  She thought about calling in sick the following day, but since Ryker was still in Spain, she knew she should push through and get work done.  But that night, sitting at home in her tiny den, she tearfully composed a letter of resignation.  She’d have to quit.  She accepted that now.  She’d immediately start looking for a new job, but she’d leave her current position even if she didn’t have another one lined up. 

She had the resignation letter in her purse for the next several days, but didn’t turn it in.  She kept finding excuses to not submit it, feeling a strange sense of relief at the end of each day when her supervisor walked out and the opportunity to hand in her resignation was gone. 

Walking into the building the following week, Mark caught Ryker at the door to his office.  “What’s up?” Ryker asked, sitting down behind his desk. His mind was flipping through all the cell phone numbers Cricket had given him over the past few weeks, trying to guess which one he was going to try this time.  On the flight back from Europe, his mind had changed from anger, to one of anticipation.  Cricket’s text messages told him loud and clear that she loved him.  There was no ambiguity there.  The only question was why she felt they couldn’t be together.  So until he heard her explanation, he wasn’t going to give up.  He’d come up with a plan and he was going to get through to her, solve whatever problem she thought might be hindering their relationship and get her down the aisle.

Mark smiled eagerly.  “Remember that Jason Moran fellow who was getting pranked sporadically?”

Ryker smiled at the memory, immediately picturing Cricket in his mind since she worked for the ass.  “Yes.  I seem to recall the visit.”  That was another problem he was going to resolve.  Cricket hated her job.  He’d help her figure out what she wanted to do, other than accounting. 

“Well, I went through his
security and computer systems and he seemed to just keep on adding on new high tech gadgets to try and slow this person down.”  Mark put his laptop down on Ryker’s desk.  “So a few weeks ago, I added in a few new things but also went low tech as well.  And here’s what I caught on what’s basically a nanny-cam.  Those are just small video cameras that parents put into teddy bears to catch the babysitter doing something wrong,” he clarified.  When Ryker nodded, he pressed a button on his computer.  “I put the small camera into a picture frame that was already on his desk and here’s what I caught on camera.  I’m not sure when this occurred since I was only monitoring the high tech stuff.  I picked up the camera last night and was looking at it at home.”

Ryker watched the black and white screen carefully, not really interested in catching the person but want
ing to clear the issue out of his schedule so he could pass Jason off to someone else in his department.  Everything was still for several seconds, but then a movement caught his eye.  Something was happening in the ceiling.  It was very slow, very subtle, as if the culprit were checking things out before moving anything too quickly.  But once the culprit realized that everything was okay, the ceiling tile was pushed out of place and a sexy, very feminine, black-clad body appeared to lithely drop from the ceiling to the floor.  Unfortunately, as soon as the figure dropped down, Ryker’s gut clenched.  And it just got worse the more he watched.

The person in the video was completely masked and dressed all in black, but the form-fitting clothes showed off the culprit’s figure
.  And it was a body he knew extremely well.  In fact, he had been holding that body against his only a week ago.

Mark chuckled when the figure wrapped up several pieces of the client’s office
furniture in wrapping paper, thinking it was a hilarious joke, but Ryker didn’t find any of it very amusing.  In fact, the more he watched, the angrier he became. 

So his little fiancée was a cat burglar?  In this instance, she hadn’t stolen anything, but what about the other times? 

When the woman easily lifted herself back through the ceiling, Mark shut down the video and stood up straight, a huge grin on his face.  “This still doesn’t give us the person, or even a face.  Whoever is doing this is smart.  Brilliant, actually.”

S
itting back in his leather chair, Ryker considered all aspects of the issue.  If Cricket were ever discovered, he could argue that she hadn’t actually done any breaking and entering since she was an employee of the company.  Jason had issued badges to his employees that would give them access to the building at all times of the day and night.  Ryker knew he could argue that those badges gave his employees the ability to enter. Cricket just chose a less conventional method of entry.  And she hadn’t stolen anything of value.

Just at that moment, an image struck him
of something he’d seen in her bedroom a while ago.  He’d asked her about the glass vase filled with pens that she kept on the floor of her bedroom.  At the time, Cricket had said she just hated to be without pens but he now suspected that those pens were stolen property of Jason’s firm. 

Were they of significant value?  He didn’t think so.  And if Jason took her to court, Ryker knew he could put the issue of the stolen items in front of the jury and Jason would be laughed out of court.  He suspected there wasn’t a person in the country who hadn’t purposely or inadvertently stolen a pen from a hotel, office or business at least once in their life.  Hell, he even had a drawer filled with pens from various places despite the fact that he kept a very go
od writing device in his jacket pocket. 

“Have you shown this to Jason yet?” Ryker asked, his mind working, the wheels spinning.

“Not yet.  I was going to call him this morning.”  Mark picked up his laptop, feeling pretty proud of himself.

Ryker moved his hands so they were forming a pyramid, his eyes looking over the top into nothing in particular.  As he thought through all the ramifications, his index fingers tapped together. 
“Hold off on that for a while.  We might have a conflict of interest on this issue,” he said.  He was already picking up his phone and dialing a number.  He just hoped she’d pick up when he called this time. 

Mark didn’t argue, already experienced enough with the Thorpe brothers that he knew there often was more to the issue than he
understood.  He simply nodded his head and picked up his laptop, heading out of Ryker’s office.

Cricket picked up the phone without thinking about it, feeling morose after a long, horrible weekend where she’d sat on her bed, ate popcorn and watched romantic movies by herself.  Her father had called five or six times, but she was too angry with him to pick up the phone.  And what was worse, Ryker had stopped calling as well. 

She was miserable and irritated by her job in particular and life in general.  So she forgot to look at the caller ID before answering the phone this time.  “Cricket Fairchild,” she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, which wasn’t very much. 

Ryker’s jaw clenched.  “I thought you’d lost this phone?” he challenged, wishing she were here in front of him so he could see her pretty green eyes as she lied to him. 

Cricket’s heard jumped into her throat as she heard his deep, sexy voice.  She could also picture his angry, blue eyes and had a bit of trouble breathing for several moments.  “I found it,” she quickly fabricated.  “What’s going on?”  It sounded so good to hear his voice. Her fingers clenched the phone desperately. 

“Besides the fact that you snuck out of my house
last week before five in the morning without saying goodbye, disappeared from my life, tried to push me away and have ignored my phone calls and every voice mail for the past seven days?”

There was a slight hes
itation before she said, “I...” she started to say something, then stopped, her mind drawing a blank on what she could possibly explain.  The only thought that popped into her mind was how much she loved him and missed him.  Not seeing him over the past week had been painful but she closed her eyes, trying to be strong.  She couldn’t give in to the temptation to see him again.  She was in too deep already. 

“
Don’t even try to lie to me,” he said with that smooth, silky voice that forewarned her that he wasn’t fooling around.  “I’ll get to the truth eventually.  And we will be together.  Don’t doubt that for a moment.”

Cricket sighed
, rubbing her forehead as a headache slowly inched up the back of her neck.  Traffic was painful today and everyone seemed to be trying to get into her lane.  She wished she could just turn to the right and drive to his house, but she couldn’t take any more time off of work.  Besides, she had to submit her letter of resignation and start getting over Ryker.  As if that were possible, she thought with dread.  “Ryker, you don’t understand,” she replied, trying to calm him down. 

He took a deep breath, trying to regain his famous control.  But the idea of her not telling him something, something that seemed to have the power to scare her, infuriated him because he felt powerless to help her, protect her.  And it made him even angrier that she wouldn’t confide in him. 
“You’re right.  I don’t understand.  But you’re going to explain it to me as soon as you get into the office today.  No more avoiding me or ignoring my messages.  We’re going to talk, Cricket.”  He looked at his watch to see the time.  “I’m guessing you’ll be here in about five minutes?” he suggested, assuming she was on her normal schedule.

She heard the strange undertones in his voice and reacted to that, her stomach clenching in fear. 
“Yes.  I’m almost there, but what’s going on?”  Had he discovered what her parents did for a living?  Did he have some information that could hurt them in some way?  She went through all she knew of their projects but she was drawing a blank since she didn’t talk to her parents about their “work” any longer, not wanting to hear about it. 

“Come to my office instead of going to yours,” he told her firmly.  “We need to talk.”

Cricket hung up the phone, her mind whirling in an attempt to figure out how she was going to get through this conversation with Ryker.  She realized suddenly that she’d just stopped talking to him as a way to break things off, because a formal conversation where she stood in front of him and told him she couldn’t see him any longer would be too painful.  She might not have even gotten the words out. 

Also, not having that conversation kept up the pretense that she was still with him, that she might be able to go back to him.  It was a silly dream, but she’d kept it secretly burning in her heart.  Maybe that was why she’d told him that she loved him.  Maybe she’d been subconsciously hoping she could figure out a way to make her relationship with her parents and her lover work out
.

That had been an epic failure, she realized. 

She pulled into the parking garage and sat in her car, her whole body shaking with tension. 

She bit her lip and tried to stifle the sob that almost burst out of her.  Looking down at her hand, she gently touched the beautiful diamond he’d given her last week.  She put it on her finger when she was alone, but slipped it onto the chain around her neck whenever she was around others.  She’d already determined that she had to give it back to him.  She just liked the idea of being his woman for a little while, pretending that she was still his when she was alone and the darkness surrounded her, when she couldn’t stop the tears any longer and there was no one to witness them anyway. 

She slipped the ring up and down
her finger an inch, the metal now warm from her body heat.  She tried to take it off, but her fingers just couldn’t do the job.  It wasn’t that it didn’t fit and was now too tight.  It was only that she wanted to keep it on her finger.

She’d wear it until she got to his office, then take it off once she was there.  Just so she didn’t lose it, she told herself.  It was a beautiful diamond,
outstanding quality and color.  But more than that, it was special to her. 

She stepped out of her car and was about to walk across the courtyard and into Ryker’s building but a flash of something caught her eye. 
She looked to the left where the flash had come from, but she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.  Trying to look casual, she took several steps, still trying to determine what had flashed or what was causing her instincts to flare up with concern.  She’d been taught by her father always to trust her instincts and right now, her instincts were screaming for her to run. 

Had someone followed her?  She didn’t want Ryker involved in anything her father or mother might have done so
if they’d angered someone, Ryker could be in danger.  And that someone might be following her in order to get to her parents.  Especially since her father seemed to be hanging around her house and office too often lately.  How he knew what she was doing all the time, Cricket had no idea, but it had to stop.  Especially if his activities were putting Ryker in danger!

The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up in protest.  Something was definitely wrong!  I
nstead of going to his office, she adjusted her path and headed to the deli instead.  She grabbed a cup of coffee, then went directly to her own building and up into her office.  Generally, she never came to the deli to purchase a cup of coffee since the coffee wasn’t exceptionally good and, except when Jason was on a rampage, there was always a pot of free coffee in the office kitchen.  Also not very good, but it was caffeinated which is all most people needed.  In this instance, however, she was using her detour as a way to scope out the courtyard.  Maybe, if someone thought she was otherwise occupied, they would be less cautious.  She might catch a glimpse of who or what might be causing her instincts to be going crazy in warning. 

Unfortunately,
she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.  At this early hour, and because of the chill that had settled over the city, there weren’t even any casual walkers in the courtyard.  Everyone was hurrying to or from the building with a purpose. 

She left the deli, her hands at least getting warmth from the coffee she had no intention of drinking, and headed into her own building, not even glancing across the courtyard to Ryker’s.  She didn’t want anyone associating her with someone in that building if at all possible.