Last night had been life-altering. He’d known it the second he’d told Kenzie he loved her and then making love to her had cemented the change in him. He was happy, and it was because Kenzie had brought him back to life.
“The winner of today’s donation is Lowcountry Smokehouse,” Reverend Winston said, but the second he’d made the L sound, Ryker had taken off.
He dodged Miss Ruby and Miss Winnie, he leapt over one of Lydia’s seven kids, he sprinted side by side with the Bell siblings, and was pulling ahead when a streak of yellow shot past him.
“Slowpoke!” Kenzie’s voice called back to him as she and college basketball phenom Quad Clemmons ran side by side down the street well ahead of the pack
“Thank goodness you got someone who can run,” Tinsley panted as she joined him in the race. “But you are a slowpoke.”
Tinsley pushed ahead and then the race was on. Ryker didn’t mind losing to Kenzie, but he’d be damned if he lost to one of his cousins. He stretched his stride and glorified in the adrenaline rush as he overtook Tinsley and put some distance between them. Kenzie cheered him on from her place second in line as he came in third.
Quad was bent over at the waist, resting his hands on his knees and breathing hard. “She almost got me,” he said between deep breaths.
Ryker noticed Kenzie wasn’t breathing hard and that just made him smile. “You could have beaten him, couldn’t you?” he whispered.
Kenzie just gave him a smile and a shrug before telling Quad how excited she was to see him play his first season of college ball. Everyone in the state knew the high school standout.
“This is such a fun tradition,” Kenzie said as they reserved the table for the Faulkner family.
“You brought in a ringer,” Gage Bell, the son of Ryker’s neighbors and bed and breakfast owners. They were slightly obsessed with shooting and their kids were named Gage and Magnum “Maggie” Bell. Both were Olympic shooters, so the names fit.
“I guess I did,” Ryker said as he put his arm around Kenzie’s waist. “Gage Bell, Kenzie Carys,” Ryker introduced.
Soon Kenzie was introduced to all his friends in Shadows Landing. It was interesting for him to realize that he had so many friends. Granger, Kord, Skeeter, Turtle, Gator, Gage, Maggie, and even Lydia with her multiple children all stopped to say hello and be introduced. Then Edie joined them at their family table and told them all about her proposed trip to Europe. All this time, Ryker had felt so alone when in reality he’d never been alone.
“Is something the matter? You look pensive,” Kenzie whispered to him.
“I just realized I’ve taken my friends and family for granted. They’ve been here all along, giving me their support and I’ve never acknowledged it,” Ryker admitted.
“You were so focused on keeping the pain of your past buried that you didn’t take the time to see what you had in front of you. I understand that, and I’m glad you’re seeing it, too. The question is: what are you going to do about it now that you realize it?”
Kenzie dropped that bomb and went back to talking to his family. What was he going to do about it? His phone buzzed and he saw the text from Mary Alice. It was time to put his plan at work in motion. Then, when that problem was wrapped up, he’d figure out how to start being present in his friends’ and family’s lives.
“Excuse me, I have to make a phone call,” Ryker whispered to her.
“Bianca?” Kenzie asked, but not quietly enough.
“You know that horrible woman?” Tinsley asked. “Why are you talking about her?”
Well, if he wanted to be present, he had to start somewhere and there wasn’t anyone else he trusted more than his friends and family. “I have a plan to catch who is trying take me down.” Ryker filled them in with his plan. “And Granger, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind helping me?”
“What about me? I’m FBI and I thought I told you we’d handle it,” Paxton said with a hurt look on his face.
“I’m kinda mad you didn’t ask me. I mean, I’m ATF and this involves the people responsible for the bombing,” Dare pouted.
“You all want to help?” Ryker asked as he looked at them all.
“Yeah. You helped Tinsley, and we’re family,” Paxton said as if it were a no-brainer.
“You helped Harper, too, and as Paxton said, we’re family,” Dare responded next.
“Okay, then. Report to my office tomorrow morning at seven and wear business attire. You’re my new office team under Mary Alice’s command,” Ryker said with a grin.
“Oh, that’s cruel,” Kenzie whispered. “I can tell by their faces they haven’t met Mary Alice.”
Ryker laughed and nodded. “I know. It’ll be fun.”
Ryker had never felt like this before. He wasn’t excited to get to work. Instead, he had to drag himself from his warm bed with the woman he loved still sleeping in it. Tonight, she would go back to work and he was already worrying about her working the late shift. They’d agreed that she’d drive to the port after her shift and then they’d go to her house to sleep.
However, old habits were hard to break and so he arrived at his port office an hour before anyone else would be there. They’d agreed to work full time there to accommodate Mary Alice’s “injury” so she didn’t have to drive back and forth or carry all the files she normally did.
Bianca had been thrilled when he’d called. He had almost choked on his apology and begged her to take her old job back. He told her he was so busy, he’d hired additional office staff members, but Mary Alice would still be in charge, followed by her, and then the three temps.
Bianca had leapt at the job offer and had told him she had known he couldn’t live without her. Ryker used all his self-control not to reply. So now he found himself alone in his office talking to Kale.
“It’s all set up,” Kale said. “Granger, Dare, Paxton, and Bianca will have access to a mirrored mainframe. Everything not confidential is the same so she can run reports for you and whatnot. The cargo logs will all be accurate with the exception of mislabeled containers originating from Italy. For every container from Italy, I have a duplicate container set up with cameras, microphones, and GPS tracking both inside and outside of the containers. We’ll catch every person who touches those containers. I’ve texted you the computer logins for them all. Have Mary Alice hand them out. I’ll be able to track every move made under those logins, just in case Bianca uses Granger’s or something.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Kale.” Ryker hung up right as his cell phone rang with a call from his private investigator. “What did you find?”
Ryker didn’t mince words and neither did his PI. “We think Bianca is either dating Little Joey Palmero or, at the very least, friendly with him. She seems to visit him often, but I couldn’t prove or disprove the nature of their relationship.”
“Follow her. I want to know everyone she talks to, every store she visits, everything.”
“I’m emailing you a list of her weekend activities. So far, nothing is suspicious besides potentially dating a mob boss’s grandson,” his PI said as his email came through.