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He called Nathan. “We’re here,” he said when the other man answered. “Chaudhary?”
“Alive. Medics are bringing him down now. Sit tight. I’m sending Danny to you.”
“Affirmative. Switching to two-way communication.”
“Roger that. I’ll tell Danny.”
Ryder turned to Nathalie. “Ravi’s alive.”
“Oh, thank God.” The streetlamps shining through the windshield glinted off her eyes.
He reached over and squeezed her hand.
A few seconds later, Danny’s voice sounded in Ryder’s ear. “I’m coming around the west side.”
The entrance doors to the building opened. Two medics and a firefighter brought out a stretcher.
“Ravi!” Nathalie’s hand flew to the door latch.
Ryder threw his arm across her body. “Wait for Danny.” He pointed to the tall blond rounding the side of the building in jeans and an untucked green and white vintage bowling shirt.
The gold flecks in Nathalie’s eyes sparked. “I need to see Ravi before they take him away.”
“And we don’t know if whoever hurt Ravi is still here, waiting for you.”
She went ashen.
“Stay in the car until Danny opens the door.” Ryder stepped from the vehicle, his head on a swivel, looking for any movement, any glint of light hitting a man-made object in the landscaped areas surrounding the building. He rounded the back of the Suburban to face Danny, who was now stationed on Nathalie’s side.
“Police are sweeping every floor and are accessing the building security cameras,” Danny said. “But so far, no sign of the tango. I swept the perimeter and didn’t find anything.” Danny’s normally friendly features were set in grim lines. “I think he’s long gone.”
Ryder’s voice dropped to a low rumble. “I’m not so sure.” The back of his neck tingled. “Let’s get Nathalie over to the ambulance, then into the building.”
Danny opened the passenger door. Nathalie slipped out between the two men.
Ryder’s shoulders itched like there was a target on his back.
No.Not his back. Nathalie’s. He wasn’t the target.
Then again, with his career in the SAS, then serving in Kabul as a security contractor, he could never know for sure there wasn’t someone out there with his name on their hit list. Look what had happened to Lachlan.
His head was on a swivel as he and Danny hustled Nathalie to where the medics were preparing to load Chaudhary into the ambulance.
Dammit. She shouldn’t be here.
The bastard stalking her had just raised the stakes. Ryder needed to step up his game as well. He was playing defense when he should be on offense.
“Ravi.” Nathalie edged out from between Danny and Ryder to grab her employee’s hand.
A swollen, red knot protruded from Chaudhary’s right temple. A blue and white plastic neck brace held his head immobile. The software engineer’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Nathalie. So sorry. I thought it was you. He had a gun.”
“Shush, it’s okay. It will all be okay.”
“Ma’am, we need to get him to the hospital.” Impatience simmered in the medic’s brown eyes and in her voice. “You need to step back.”
Ravi’s grip on Nathalie’s hand tightened as the medic and her partner lifted the stretcher. “It’s not okay. He got into the safe. I let him into the safe. He said he’d kill me if I didn’t, then kill my family.”
Ryder reached around Nathalie to pry her hand from Chaudhary’s before she got dragged into the ambulance. “We need to get you inside. Now,” he whispered in her ear, then nudged her forward to the building entrance.