He closed his eyes, remembering …
“I told you I might get you home before the weekend was over.” Callahan smiled at him.
Ryan looked up at the clock on the wall. “It’s eleven-thirty on Sunday night. Don’t look so pleased with yourself.”
Callahan laughed. “You’ll be home in bed with your girl by midnight. I wouldn’t be complaining about that if I were you.”
He had to smile. “I’m not. And on that note. I’m going.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. You can be proud of yourself, Ryan. I didn’t think we’d wrap it up this fast.”
“Neither did I.”
“We wouldn’t have, if you weren’t so good-looking.”
Ryan had to laugh. “Maybe. But that was a one-off.” He gave a mock shudder. “I feel violated.”
Callahan laughed with him. “You know we have to use all the tools at our disposal to get our man.”
“Yeah. But still …”
“Come on. If Janelle hadn’t draped herself all over you and stuck her tongue down your throat, Chang wouldn’t have lost his cool. If he hadn’t lost his cool, he would have stayed smart, wouldn’t have led us back to the warehouse. And we’d still be trying to figure out how to make it all stick.”
“Yeah.” Ryan ran a hand through his hair. “She didn’t stick her tongue down my throat though.”
Callahan laughed. “I know, her girlfriend would kill you both with her bare hands if she had. But she made it look convincing enough that it worked.”
“Yeah.”
“What’s up?” Callahan frowned at him. “You should be proud of yourself.”
“I’m glad it’s over.”
“But?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged. He was hardly going to tell his boss that he felt bad, that he knew Leanne would hate it if she knew what had gone down on Friday night.
Callahan shook his head, reading his mind as usual. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t cheat on your girl. And besides, she never needs to know.”
He pursed his lips. “I guess that’s what gets to me. I know it’d hurt her. And I know I can’t tell her.”
Callahan shrugged. “You want my advice?”
Ryan wasn’t sure he did, but he nodded.
“Go home and make it up to her.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
It was a few minutes before midnight when he got home and stepped into the elevator. He was starting to think that Callahan was right. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He just felt bad because he knew how Leanne would see it. But that wasn’t how it was.
He was tired. The best he could do for both of them was slide into bed next to her—and make it up to her.
He stopped dead when the elevator doors opened. There was a pile of boxes and bags outside her door. His heart started to race when he realized they were his bags. What the …?
He turned his key in the door, but it didn’t open. She must have turned the deadbolt. He banged on the door. “Leanne! Lee! What’s going on?”
Nothing. He banged harder. But was met with nothing but silence. He looked around wildly, wanting something to batter the door down with, but of course, there was nothing. He looked at the pile of his belongings again and this time noticed an envelope sitting on top.
He grabbed it and pulled out the single sheet of paper inside, hoping that it would offer some explanation of just what the fuck was going on.
It didn’t.
This is all your stuff. Please remove it. Goodbye.
He put his head in his hands and leaned back against the wall sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor next to everything he owned in the world.
~ ~ ~
Leanne wiped her eyes. It was hard to see the screen through her tears. She was reading a report that Ryan had written up himself. It didn’t give all the background, but she was able to piece it together easily enough.
He’d been part of a team that had been tracking a drug-trafficking operation. The report detailed what had happened the night she’d seen him kissing that woman at Hannity’s. The woman—Janelle—had spent the previous five months working her way inside. She’d become the girlfriend of the main man whose name was Chang.
She read on. Even if it hadn’t had his name at the top, she would have known Ryan had written it. She could hear his voice behind the words.
She felt numb. After all this time, it felt like something of an anticlimax. It was all straightforward when she read it in Ryan’s bare-bones delivery.
He’d been there as part of a group—she recognized some of the names—to see if he could learn where the latest shipment was being stored. Janelle had gained a lot of information, but as Chang’s supposed girlfriend, she wasn’t privy to the latest and most sensitive details of his business.
She’d noticed that Chang got jealous whenever Ryan was around and had taken matters into her own hands. Flirting with Ryan and going so far as kissing him to antagonize Chang. It had worked. He’d grabbed her afterward and taken her with him—to the warehouse. Ryan and Carlton—whoever he was—had followed. They’d had the warehouse under surveillance for the rest of the weekend, and by Sunday night Chang and a bunch of his people had been taken into custody.
She sat back and blew out a sigh, wondering what the other documents might hold—what else she needed to know. She wasn’t sure that she needed anything. Other than a time machine to go back and listen to him. To not throw away seven years of their lives.
She couldn’t claim he hadn’t tried to explain. He had—for months. But she hadn’t wanted to know. She didn’t know if it was because she was older now—wiser, like he’d said he was the other day. But what had happened, what she’d seen, what she’d believed he’d done, it all seemed so unimportant compared the fact that they’d lost seven years that they could have been together. She started to get to her feet. She wanted to go to him and tell him how sorry she was. But she sat back down.
He’d wanted her to see all of this. So, she would. She clicked on one of the videos, wondering what it might show her. The file was named Janelle and Riley. She didn’t remember the name Riley from the report, but he must be another member of the team. She hit play.
Her heart clenched in her chest when she recognized the woman she’d seen dancing with him that night. She was pretty, her dark hair was cut shorter than Leanne remembered. She’d guess the video wasn’t part of the official file. Janelle was sitting on a beach, wearing shorts and a bikini top.
She raised her glass to the camera with a smile. “Hey, Ryan. Happy Birthday!”
Leanne frowned. Why would he want her to see this?
“I can’t believe it’s been three years. Sorry we won’t be there for your birthday again. But I couldn’t let the day go by without sending big birthday kisses to the only man I’ve ever kissed.”
Leanne gripped the arm of the chair. What was this?