“He was there the night I was leaving the studio. It was his car parked beside mine, I remember him coming across the parking lot as I was leaving. I recognized him even though I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I didn’t know that he’d been kicked off the team. He told me something had happened to you and Eric. Ryder, I went with him willingly.” Now looking back she knew she should never have gotten into that car, she’d always had a bad feeling about Alex, that kind of sixth sense that said he wasn’t safe, but she’d gotten into the car because despite her anger toward Ryder she had still loved him, and Eric was her brother, she’d thought they’d been seriously injured and wanted to be there for them.
“You had no reason to doubt him, Abby,” Ryder reminded her.
“What does he want?”
“My guess, revenge,” Ryder answered simply. “We were the ones who found his girlfriend. Alex didn’t turn up for PT, and when we went looking for him we found his girlfriend passed out and the apartment trashed. Once she told us about Alex’s extra job we reported him to the cops and to our commander, and that made Alex a wanted man both with law enforcement and the military. He went AWOL, had to give up his whole life or come back and face the consequences.”
“So he went after me to try to get to you guys.” Abigail shivered. Now that her memories had come back she could recall every single second of pain and terror she’d undergone at Alex Irwin’s hands as though she were back in that room with him.
“I’m so sorry, Abby, that you were hurt because of us.” The torment in Ryder’s voice ate at her. She didn’t want him blaming himself, she didn’t want what Alex Irwin had done to come between them but she had no idea how to stop that from happening.
“It’s not your fault, it’s Alex’s. Do you think he’s going to come back?” They had thought it was a possibility her abductor would return for her if she was targeted specifically, but now that they had a name to the kidnapper she didn’t know if that increased or decreased the chances of that happening.
“Yes. He’ll be back,” Ryder said with such fierceness that it made her shiver.
That answered that.
But there was one more thing she needed to know. It was one thing to know that her own life was in danger, she’d come to terms with that having spent the last fourteen months living on borrowed time, hovering on the edge of the precipice between this world and the next, but it was another thing to worry about the people she loved.
“Is he coming back for me or for you?”
5:52 A.M.
“What are we doing here at this ungodly hour?” King groused as Spider opened the front door of Abigail’s house to let his team in. Of all of them, King was the only one who hated early mornings. Actually, the man hated late nights too, King’s favorite place to be was in bed, sleeping or having sex, Spider had a sneaking suspicion that if it was possible the man would all but live in his bed.
“Abigail remembered everything,” Spider replied as he closed the door behind them.
“Everything?” Fox asked.
“Everything,” he echoed.
His team immediately sobered and snapped into work mode as they took seats around the kitchen table and Spider passed out cups of coffee.
“So put us out of our misery. Who abducted her?” Chaos asked.
“Alex,” he said.
Five shocked faces looked back at him.
“Our Alex? Who used to be on our team?” Shark finally asked.
“The one and only,” he confirmed. Of all the people who could possibly have been involved in Abigail’s kidnapping and imprisonment, Alex Irwin wouldn’t have even been on his list. The man had only met Abby a handful of times, and she had nothing to do with him being kicked out of the teams, going AWOL, or being on the cops’ radar. Obviously, he’d gone after her because he’d thought she might have inside information on them, something that he could use to bring them down. Or he’d taken her intending her to be bait to lure them into a trap. If they hadn’t been out of the country when she was taken they might have been able to follow the trail and track down where she had been taken.
“Where is Abby?” Night asked, looking around the apartment.
“Cookie and Fiona picked her up because I didn’t want her here while we discussed this. They’re taking her back to their place for breakfast and then to her appointment.” To say that he was worried about Abigail was an understatement. She’d been upset to remember that she had been tortured and shocked when she remembered who had abducted her, but he knew she was holding back, still trying to keep a lid on her emotions, still trying to pretend they didn’t exist, still trying to pretend that she was strong enough to handle everything.
And she was strong.
Spider knew that without a shadow of a doubt.
She’d already survived months of isolation which was its own form of torture and enough to break most people, but she needed to start dealing with her emotions, her fears, and concerns instead of acting like she had everything under control. She had already had one breakdown and the longer she put off dealing with things the bigger the second breakdown would be when it eventually came.
Just like he had known the first one was coming, he knew another one would hit her sooner or later.
He missed her, he wanted her back, every inch of her, he wanted her to trust him, he wanted her to never doubt him again, he wanted to see her laugh and be able to let go and let her guard down, and yeah he wanted to be intimate with her. They hadn’t done anything more than kiss since her breakdown at the beach, and although he was prepared to wait as long as it took he was worried about her, worried about the effects of everything she’d been through, he wouldn’t be making any demands of her, when she was ready she could let him know.
“She went to see Dr. Hancock?” Fox asked.
“Yes, she agreed to see the doc,” he said.
“That’s good, she needs to talk to someone.” Fox nodded as though pleased by this.
“Yeah, she does,” Spider agreed.
“What about you?” Fox eyed him closely.
“What about me?” he asked, confused. The only thing he cared about right now was ensuring that Abigail was safe, both physically and psychologically. He would be there for her, support her however she needed him to, and make sure that she knew he was here for her.
Something which she still wasn’t convinced about.
The fear and doubt in her eyes the morning after they’d slept together when she’d woken to find he was no longer in the bed was etched into his mind’s eye. He hated that he had no one else to blame but himself for that doubt. She still didn’t completely trust him, but he would earn her trust back if it was the last thing he ever did.
“That,” Fox said, waving a hand at him.
“What do you mean that?”
“You’re distracted, you’re worried about her, your focus is on Abby,” Fox replied.
“And it shouldn’t be?” Spider growled. He’d let Abby down enough over the years he wasn’t going to do it again.
“No, it should be, but how are you going to deal when we get called out?” Fox asked.