Page 55 of Deserving Ryleigh
“They haven’t ever been late to a meeting?” she asked.
“You have a point. When Brick moved Alaska in with him, he was late regularly. And come to think of it,allthe guys have been late at one time or another.” He stepped back to her, wrapped an arm around her back, and bent her into a dramatic dip as he lowered his head.
Ry was laughing when she flew backward, but soon she was lost in his kiss. The only thing keeping her from falling to the floor was his strong arm, and yet she felt no fear. This was Tiny. He’d never hurt her.
All too soon, he stood her up and grinned again. “Now Ireallyhave to go.”
“Okay,” Ry said dreamily.
“I like this look on you. Lips puffy from my kiss, dazed look in your eyes, cheeks flushed.”
“Whatever,” she murmured.
His grin widened. He tapped a finger to her nose. “See you at lunch. If your dad tries to communicate with you again, don’t. Shut your laptop and come find me. Doesn’t matter if we’re still in the meeting. Okay?”
Ry sighed. She didn’t know exactly what her dad had said the night before, though she could imagine. It was sweet that Tiny wanted to protect her from him. But she’d heard plenty of his threats in the past. She was sure hehadn’t said anything much different than he’d already spewed at her. “Okay,” she agreed.
“There are some apples in the fridge if you want a snack before lunch. Don’t eat the Christmas Tree Cake that’s in the freezer though. It’s mine. I’m saving it.”
Ry rolled her eyes. “It’s safe.”
It looked as if he wanted to say something else, but after a moment, he turned and headed for the door. “Lock this behind me,” he ordered.
Ry wanted to roll her eyes again at how protective he was being, but since she secretly didn’t mind it, she nodded.
“We’re going to get through this,” he said firmly, as if saying it would make it so. Then he was gone.
Ry immediately walked to the door and threw the dead bolt. Then she took a deep breath and went back to the table. She opened her laptop and got to work searching for more of her father’s electronic signatures.
Tiny listened in frustration as Tonka explained how a woman in town had decided not to buy goat’s milk from The Refuge after all. No one had any doubts it was somehow because of Harold Lodge. The man hadn’t let up on his campaign to destroy The Refuge, and the strain was beginning to show with everyone.
On a lighter note, Pipe told them that he and Cora had received a call from social services that morning about fostering a family of four kids who had no relatives willing to take them in. Tiny knew all about it from Ryleigh, and he was happy for his friends that no time was beingwasted in setting up meetings and getting the paperwork done.
But it didn’t mitigate the threat they could all feel hanging over them.
“He’s not going to stop, so what are we going to do tomakehim stop?” Brick asked.
It was the ten-thousand-dollar question. Or maybe the ten-million-dollar one.
“Ryleigh finally got a message from him last night,” Tiny told the group.
“Could she trace it?”
“Unfortunately, no, but taking the money from his account definitely got his attention.” He’d already told his friends about the ten grand she’d transferred to a charity to lure him out of hiding.
“So, what now?” Tonka asked.
“How can we leverage the fact that he reached out to her?” Owl added.
“What’d he say?” Stone asked, which was probably the better question.
“Lots of shit. Said he should’ve sold Ryleigh to the sex slaver when he had the chance.”
“Bloody hell,” Pipe swore.
In any other situation, Tiny probably would’ve laughed. Bloody hell wasn’t exactly whathewould’ve said; wasn’t what he thought, for sure, when he’d seen the words on the screen the night before. But he wasn’t in the mood to find anything about this amusing.
“He also said something about being a real man, after I taunted him with it, and that he’d do something we could understand. And something about sparks flying.”
