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“Ryder? Ryder.”
“Hmmm?”
“Can you get Caleb to DC by Monday?”
“Yes.” He’d figure out a way to make it happen.
Williams Advanced Avionics.
She’d taken over her father’s company.
He should tell Lachlan about his past with Nathalie. Let Nathan oversee her security, along with Caleb. Or better yet, he’d give Mason Winters a call. Let another company handle it. Ryder’s team already was stretched thin.
No.He rejected those thoughts as soon as they formed.
If she were in danger, he’d personally make sure she had the best protection. He was a professional. Regardless of what had happened between them, he wouldn’t stand by and let anyone hurt her.
“Is everything all right,mo braithair?” Lachlan’s Caithness accent thickened, which meant Ryder had roused his concern and he’d start digging for answers.
“Everything’s fine. Have Penny forward Caleb’s bio and arrange a meeting for Monday at Ms. Williams’s office. I’ve got to go.” Ryder rang off before Lachlan could probe further.
Caleb was the right person to go. The former Green Beret had been on his security team in Kabul when they’d worked for Lachlan at LAI. He was one of the best.
Ryder took one last look around the gleaming brass and marble lobby before pushing through the glass doors to the street. He threw out his arm to grab the attention of an oncoming black cab, and it pulled to the curb.
“Canary Wharf,” he told the driver as he settled into the backseat.
His parents had wanted him to live at their London residence in Knightsbridge with the rest of the family, but five thousand square feet wasn’t enough space for him and his father to occupy at the same time. He’d chosen a flat in the building Arborleigh Holdings owned in Canary Wharf, London’s financial center, instead.
Nathalie.He never thought their paths would cross again. What did she look like now? Was she married? Have children?
The cab pulled up in front of his high-rise building. He hopped out and greeted the doorman. “Channing.”
“Lord Montague, welcome home.”
“Please, just Ryder, or Mr. Montague, if you feel the need.” The constant reminder that he was the black sheep son of an earl made him remember why he’d left.
The muscles in his neck and back bunched together. He tilted his head forward and back and rolled his shoulders to stretch them out.
Exiting the lift on the thirty-third floor, he proceeded down the corridor to his two-bedroom apartment. It had come furnished, and had a stark, modern aesthetic. White walls, long dove gray drapes that framed floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room and bedrooms. Gray cabinets and stainless-steel appliances, black metal furniture, sturdy gray fabric chairs and a couch of beige linen that matched the area rug on top of the dark wood vinyl plank floor. Compared to his family’s estate home in Hampshire and their other properties in London, Paris, and New York, it was absolutely devoid of history and personality.
Not that it mattered. Given his lifestyle, he’d collected nothing he couldn’t throw into a suitcase.
Yanking loose his bow tie, he strolled to the bedroom to change into dark gray joggers and an army-green cotton t-shirt.
His past with Nathalie didn’t matter. She’d moved on, and so had he. She was a job, nothing more. Caleb could do the threat assessment. Ryder would see the report when Caleb was done.
Ryder grabbed his mobile and scrolled to Caleb’s number.
He didn’t need to see Nathalie again.
“Hey boss.” Caleb’s voice came over the line, his soft-spoken American accent flavored with hints of the Southwest. “You caught me at a bad time.”
“What’s going on?” The corporate retreat to Cabo San Lucas was supposed to be a fairly routine job that involved managing risk rather than dealing with active security threats.
“The threat profile changed. There’s been some intel chatter about a kidnapping attempt on the CEO. I’ve advised him to leave Mexico immediately, but he insists on staying for the shareholders meeting and employee recognition celebration.”
“When do those events take place?”