Honeymoon To Die For (30 page)

“
No!”
she screamed then stumbled to her right and pounded the buttons.

The elevator picked up speed.

“
Stop!”
 

It did.

Bianca slammed the floor hard. Her head bounced against a wall.

Everything went black.

CHAPTER 29

Bianca’s mind whirred with images. She stared up at daylight from the bottom of a well, then random numbers flew past her mind’s eye, scrambling and spinning until they turned into the shape of a skull. Next a masked team dressed in black grabbed at her. She cringed, unable to back away

An urgent voice pierced the mêlée of visions.

“
Bianca! Answer me!”
 

She blinked her eyes. How long had she been out? She couldn’t see anything but endless black. Oh, God. She was blind.

A red light on the wall blinked above her.

She released a big sigh of relief. Not blind. The lights were out.

“
Bianca! Bianca, can you hear me? Talk to me, dammit!”
 

Ryder—yelling at her from a speaker.

“Ryder?”  She grabbed her head. It felt like someone had used it as a basketball.

“
Bianca, was that you? Speak up so I can hear you.”
 

She cleared her throat. “Ryder, it’s me. The elevator broke or something. I’m stuck somewhere. The power is off.”

Bianca thought she heard low words akin to a prayer of thanks murmured in the speaker.

“
Are you hurt, Sweetheart
?”

There he went with that sweetheart business again.

Idiot that she was, her heart flip-flopped in reaction, and the voice that said her heart was lame and needy could just keep its stupid insecure mouth shut, because right now she could use some comforting.

She moved her arms and legs, expecting to be paralyzed. Nope. Just achy—and the effect of that morning’s attack was finally setting in because she was sore everywhere. “Got a knock on the head but I’m okay. Maybe a few more bruises.”

The four-letter words coming through the speaker this time could
not
be misconstrued as a blessing.

“
Sit tight. The car stopped between floors. I’ve got people working on it. They’re close to getting the doors open
.

She must have been out for a while.

Using the blinking red light to navigate, Bianca crawled to the doors. Voices rumbled on the other side then one male voice roared, “
Get that damn thing open. Now!
”

She knew exactly who owned those vocal chords. For a former military man who’d been cool under fire throughout the preliminary hearing and was known for his ruthless self control in the Army, Ryder sounded seriously close to the edge at the moment.

The doors peeled apart about three inches for an instant and then slid a couple feet wider. Light burst through the opening, blinding her.

She covered her eyes with her hand.

“Bianca, are you hurt? Can you move your arms and legs?”

“Everything seems to be working okay.”

“Can you climb out or do you need me to come in and get you?”  

When she squinted, Ryder’s worried face popped into view just above the floor of the car. She took a breath. “I can climb out.”

“Okay, Sweetheart. Turn around backwards and stick your legs out first. Don’t worry. I’ll catch you.”

When Ryder dropped out of sight, Bianca peered over the edge of the opening. The elevator had stopped about six feet up. Ryder stepped off of a chair and moved it out of the way.

Bianca rolled over on her stomach and scooted backwards, trying to keep her skirt from riding up her butt. She slid through the gap between the doors, trusting Ryder not to drop her.

Her feet floated in mid-air until her waist cleared the edge of the elevator floor. As soon as her feet dropped toward the ground, Ryder’s arms wrapped around her legs.

He bore her weight, easing her down his front until her feet touched ground. When she swung around, six men in security clothes and overalls shuffled nervously behind him. Every pair of eyes watched Ryder with the wariness of being in the same room with a dangerous beast.

Ryder held her tight, but she felt his hands tremble. “Are you really okay?”  His normally whiskey-smooth voice sounded raw. “I’ll get you to the hospital and have them—”

“No, I’m fine, really. Please don’t make me go there. Can we just go home?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”  Ryder kept her tucked close to him, protectively, as he issued orders. “Shut this thing down and have all the elevators checked before anyone gets on another one.”

“Yes, sir,” echoed around the room.

 She was still woozy as Ryder guided her to the stairwell, stopping twice on the way down to check on her, offering to carry her.

No. She would not be seen carried from the Van Dyke building. Not something an FBI agent wanted in a personnel file.

But the minute they reached Ryder’s black Shelby, Bianca drooped onto the seat.

In two days, she’d been assaulted, kidnapped, threatened over a cyber attack and dropped who-knew-how-many floors in an out-of-control elevator.

Another two days of this and she’d qualify for hazardous duty pay. That was a lot of coincidences.

Murdock would tell her there was no such thing as a coincidence on a mission.

Bianca scrolled the events through her mind, looking for a common denominator in all this.

The obvious one was Ryder. But why would he try to kill the one person who could help him? Was someone trying to set him up as the most obvious suspect just like he’d been set up as the most likely shooter in the Kearn killing?

Everyone knew her and Ryder’s schedule, including Lady Anne who clearly kept her finger on the pulse of her family. Janeen was conspicuously missing today, but Terrence had been around. Lady Anne might be having Ryder followed.

The old biddy could just as easily have someone tail Bianca.

Then there was Hubrecht, ruler of his own corner of the free-enterprise world, suspected of funneling weapons—and probably money—to terrorists. But why would he try to kill Bianca if he wanted to find the leak in his company?

Did he
really
want her to find that?

Sam Long had her in his virtual sights and Kale Carter ran security. Her suspect list was getting as long as Ryder’s.

As for Ryder, he’d had plenty of opportunities before now if he’d wanted her out of the picture, which still made no logical sense. But who would want to kill her in the Van Dyke building when it meant putting VDE in the hub of an investigation and a media frenzy?    

Looking at it that way pointed the finger at Ryder setting up his father. Bianca could not see that making sense, with Ryder’s freedom dangling by threads. That left the next logical jump.

Was someone trying to set up both Ryder
and
Hubrecht?

Ryder had not sent her on her own down that elevator. But only she and Ryder knew that, and even someone watching on a video feed wouldn’t have known that
she
chose to ride down
by herself
in spite of his concern. They would only have known that she was in the elevator alone.

Ryder had nothing to do with the elevator falling.

But the rest of this crazy group were all suspect.

Bianca rubbed her forehead.

Tomorrow. Nothing would get decided tonight.

One thing was sure. Not finding a solid clue or lead on the terrorist connection or Kearn’s killer today had struck a blow to their mission. If Bianca failed to pinpoint who was funneling money and guns to the wrong people, her first field assignment would be a dismal failure of gigantic proportions.

But failing Ryder would be epic.

Every day she failed put him one day closer to returning to a cell.

If that happened, her life would never be the same.

She knew in her heart that with enough time inside VDE, she could find the evidence that would gain his freedom. She
had
to uncover that grain of truth he needed.

Because she could not stand by and watch him walk back into that prison.

~*~

Ryder clenched the wheel. His fingers dented the soft leather cover he’d installed years ago to make handling the skinny steering wheel more comfortable for his large hands.

He checked on Bianca for the fifteenth time in two minutes.

How many times had he yelled into that damn speaker, silently begging for her to answer? His lungs constricted again, recalling each time she’d said nothing.

The elevator security camera had gone out with the power, and when he couldn’t see her, a million possibilities had chased through his mind, starting with Bianca not being alive and ending with her body broken into irreparable pieces. He swallowed against the sick churning in his stomach.

The elevator hadn’t dropped all the way, thank God. It had stopped after falling eight floors. That would lead him to believe the cables hadn’t been cut, but that the computer had been reprogrammed to create a fall. He had no doubt that the elevator technicians being called in tonight would find a simple glitch that someone left in the system just to satisfy their search.

Bianca shifted in her seat. She was uncomfortable, but trying to hide her pain.

He tried again to reason with her. “We really should get you checked out at the hospital.”

“It’s just aches and pains. They’ll go away.”  She moved her shoulder. “Been there, done that, and it’s not as bad as last time.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I was a little girl, someone had put a sheet of plywood over an old well at an abandoned house near my dad’s property. The wood was rotten. I stepped on it and fell into the dried-up well.”

“How old were you?”

“Twelve.”

He thought back on her hesitation to ride down thirty-four floors in an elevator. That was why. She was terrified of falling. A terror reinforced by tonight.   

Had that incident been a message to Bianca about stopping the cyber attack?

Or a threat because now she was inside the VDE files?

He ran a hand through his hair. The last thing he wanted to do right now was add another reason for her to worry, but he needed her to be alert to the possibility that this had been intentional. He cranked the radio to a volume that would cover their conversation, then he said,  “I don’t think what happened with the elevator was an accident.”

She became very still. “Why would you say that?”

“Someone jumped you on your run this morning, and now an elevator with a perfect maintenance record and no previous mishaps falls with only you in it.”  He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, burning the last of the adrenaline rush as he thought. “The emergency backup light in the elevator failed. The maintenance crew on site said the battery was checked last week. It was charging just fine.”  He curled his hand into a fist and set it on the stick shift. “Someone’s targeting you.”  

“Then we’re on the right track.”  Bianca hadn’t panicked or started wringing her hands. Instead, that analytical mind had started processing. That was impressive as hell, considering undercover field ops were
not
what she was trained for.

Who wanted to hurt her? Why?

The easy answer would be to get at Ryder.

He’d been alone so long that he wasn’t use to sorting through a problem with someone else, but they were in this together. “But coming after you doesn’t make sense. Why not target me? Unless someone figured out what you were doing inside the VDE computers?”

“No. I would have noticed someone tracking my electronic moves and why would Hubrecht do this after he basically gave me his blessing to dig?”

“I wasn’t talking about him necessarily.”  Ryder twisted the leather steering wheel cover back and forth, ruminating. “Hubrecht Van Dyke has a lot of faults, but this makes no sense even if he’s found us out. He’s smart enough not to draw attention to himself or VDE.”

 Any way Ryder looked at the picture it was skewed. Had Sam or Kale been behind the elevator falling?

“Do you think Hubrecht ordered Kearn’s death?” Bianca asked.

Ryder fought conflicting thoughts on the man who had raised him. “At one time, I’d have bet my life that Hubrecht wasn’t that kind of man—wasn’t capable of ordering the cold blooded murder of another businessman, crooked or not, but now I honestly don’t know.”  

Someone had ordered a professional hit on a VDE competitor. A person with deep pockets and connections. Ryder glanced over at Bianca and speculated, “What would be the motivation? The stolen weapons plans?”

“Maybe. Then as a smokescreen, he asks us to find the VDE traitor who stole the plans and sold them to Kearn.”

Or was the motivation to acquire a failing company when J. K. wouldn’t come to the bargaining table?

Could Sam Long’s posturing have all been for show to hide his real agenda? What about Kale who said little and moved like the former Delta Force soldier he was?

Who else in the Van Dyke family could be gunning for Ryder?

Lady Anne had never pulled punches when it came to her hatred of Ryder, but would she go to these extremes to get rid of Ryder’s non-blueblood wife? Did she think harming Bianca would influence his decision to stay or leave?

If that were the case, Lady Anne would be right.

Ryder would take Bianca anywhere necessary to keep her safe, but then he’d come back to make someone pay.

What about Terrence or Janeen? Why would either harm Bianca? Janeen had everything she wanted whether Ryder was in the picture or not, but she’d always been protective of Terrence.

Then there was Terrence. Lady Anne and Janeen resented Ryder for being a threat to Terrence’s position in the company, which had proven to be true if Hubrecht really was putting Ryder over Terrence. But Terrence seemed relieved to have Ryder close by to help.

Terrence
had
brought Bianca into the office today, but she said he’d only done so after she pushed him to get her past security.

Ryder scrubbed his face with his hand, tired and drained from the day. He cut another look at Bianca who had slumped over against the window. Asleep.