Page 35 of Deserving Ryleigh
The Refuge had been “swatted.” Someone had calledinto Los Alamos, insisting there was an active shooter at the lodge and people were in danger.
It was scary, and a few of the guests had pretty bad flashbacks that needed to be dealt with delicately. But the worst was the devastation on Ryleigh’s face. They’d all seen it. Seen how she’d blamed herself for every little thing that was happening.
But Tiny had watched her work her fingers to the bone for the last week. She spent every available minute—when he wasn’t insisting she take a break to go for a walk or eat something—staring at her laptop with a frown on her face as she did what she could to mitigate the things her father put into motion. She’d stopped many of them, but he’d still managed to work around some of the roadblocks she’d put up to cause mayhem at The Refuge.
This last stunt had gone too far. The call to the police couldn’t be traced, of course, but Ryleigh had spent the last hour talking with the detectives from the local PD, explaining who she believed was behind the bogus call about the active shooter, and why. She’d been vague about the money, but hadn’t flinched away from admitting who her father was, and why he was wanted by the FBI.
She was currently sitting on his couch, staring into space with a look so heartbroken, Tiny finally made a decision.
“Get up. We’re going out.”
“What?” she asked, frowning.
“You’ve been holed up in this house for hours on end for the last week. We both need some fresh air.”
“I don’t like fresh air.”
Tiny couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I know, but you need it anyway.”
When she got up without any more protests, Tiny realized how far down toward the end of her rope shereallywas. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to grab something up at the lodge while you’re changing. Hiking shoes and layers, Ryleigh.”
She sighed. “How far are you going to make me go?”
“As far as it takes,” was his response.
She frowned again but didn’t protest further as she headed down the hall, toward her room.
It didn’t take long to get what he needed from the lodge. Robert was happy to help. When he returned to his cabin, Tiny grabbed one more thing from the kitchen.
He had a backpack all ready to go when Ryleigh emerged from her room. He eyed her from head to toe and nodded in approval. She’d changed into a pair of cargo pants, a T-shirt under a sweatshirt, and she had a hat in her hand. He grabbed her waterproof parka and helped her into it. She’d be removing it sooner rather than later, as the weather was definitely too warm to exercise with it on, but he’d rather she have it and not need it, than need it later and not have brought it along.
He locked the cabin behind them and set out for Table Rock. They wouldn’t be stopping there though. He had another destination in mind. It would take a couple hours all told, and the guests rarely went out that far.
They walked in silence until they passed Table Rock. Ryleigh had a slight sheen of sweat on her face, and her cheeks were pink.
“You aren’t taking me into the woods to ditch my body, are you?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not.
“That was a joke, Tiny,” she mumbled, when he raised a brow at her.
“You know I’d never hurt you, right?” he asked.
“I don’t understand you,” she said after a moment. “Ever since you met me, things have been turned upside down.”
“When I decided to accept a partnership in The Refuge, I was bitter and pretty much hated people,” he said in response. He didn’t talk about this. Ever. But he wanted Ryleigh to hear it. Wanted to share it with her.
“After Sonja tried to kill me, my trust in people disappeared in a puff of smoke. I didn’t trust my teammates, my commander, civilians we came into contact with. I was paranoid and it affected my ability to do my job. I was an asshole to literallyeveryone. I had a hard time just going to the fucking grocery store because in the back of my mind, I knew someone was going to burst through the doors with an AK-47 and try to kill us all.
“So coming here, I had no confidence that The Refuge was going to succeed. In fact, I was completely sure it was going to crash and burn. Who the hell would come to the middle-of-nowhere, New Mexico? Hell, a lot of people think the state is part of Mexico, the country. And getting a bunch of people together who had PTSD sounded like a terrible idea to me. But I signed on anyway, because I needed to get away from my life.
“And a funny thing happened when I met Brick, Tonka, Spike, Pipe, Owl, and Stone…I saw six people struggling exactly like I was. The circumstances were very different, but the struggle was the same. And somehow, being around others who could admit they were just as fucked up in some way or another was oddly refreshing. Not a single one of them hid their demons. Which made it easier to deal with my own.
“And being out here in the woods…it felt right. The trees calmed me. The fresh air breathed new life into my body. It sounds corny as hell, but this place is magic. As the cabins were built, and we began to make plans for The Refuge to open, I reflected more and more on what happened with Sonja.
