Page 75 of Caught By the Chief of Staff

Chapter 23

She’s gone.

Rick

“Did you hear that?” Ryan asks, and I’m still not sure I can trust him, even though Jake says he’s as solid as a brick. I didn’t vet him, so I don’t know.

“Hear what?” I look toward him, and he’s looking toward the kitchen. He appears to be relaxed; maybe his interest is a little piqued.

“It sounded like the door opened,” he says, reaching for his gun that’s tucked into the back of his jeans. To anyone looking in from the outside, we’re just a bunch of friends gathered to watch some ball game and eat junk food, but even though we’re laughing and casually dressed, we’re ready—and armed. “I’m just going to go check that out.”

“Sure,” I say before picking up my soda can and taking a sip.

I hate the pretense. All of this bullshit bugs me, but I know it’s necessary. I just wish I could have read Cara in. I know she’s up there right now, crying in my bed, the bed I made love to her in last night and this morning, and she’s thinking I don’t give a fuck about her. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Last night, Jake and I laid the groundwork to smoke out the perpetrators by placing a big fat target on my back.

I would do anything to make sure Cara and Rachel are safe and that they stay that way, even if it costs me my own life. So I came back home and made love to my wife one more time, knowing that today may be my last, but afterward, even if everything went to shit, she’d have our baby in her arms again.

Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to get to watch my baby grow in her belly. I can only hope that everything goes to plan and, by the end of the day, we’ll have our girl back and can finally get on with our lives. But you know what they say about hope.

“Hey, Rick?” Black calls out from the back of the house, and the way he says my name has the hairs standing on the back of my neck.

“Yeah?” I say in my chair in case anyone is watching. But inside, I’m dying to prowl my house. Something is wrong with my stronghold, the place I’ve built to protect my family. The next words he speaks sends ice shooting through my veins.

“The side door is unlocked.”

I don’t say anything. I just get up from my chair and take the stairs two at a time. I know something is wrong before I ever get to the end of the hallway, because I can see that the bedroom door, which was previously shut and locked when I tried to get to Cara, is now standing ajar.

I push it open and see the bed is unmade. Cara laid down like I suspected. Did she cry over me and the way I treated her this afternoon? I scan the room and see that her engagement band is in the colorful bowl she put all of her jewelry. I know she was wearing it this morning when I woke her with my hand on her pussy, and I know she was wearing it when she walked downstairs to the see kitchen full of people this afternoon, because I always look for it. Now, it sits in the mills with the earrings I had given her just last night. I joked about the earring in front of our friends, but I could tell she knew the real meaning went deeper. And now she’s left them all behind. She’s left me behind.

Maybe she’s in the bathroom or in the closet. I move through the master suite to look, but even before I open doors, I know she’s not here. I call down the stairs the words I never wanted to say, ones I said nine years ago when I was deployed and she left me over the phone.

“She’s gone!”

I don’t hear a verbal reply, but I do hear a variety of footsteps pound up the stairs and fill the door of my bedroom. I don’t want to look at them and admit I fucked up and it could cost me my family.

“What was that?” Jake says as Wes and Ryan prowl the room, no doubt looking for something.

“She’s gone.”

I don’t know what to do. I drop down to sit on the edge of the bed and hold my head in my hands. I’m always sure of myself during a mission, but right now, I’m struggling. I fucked up. I demanded Cara’s trust and gave her none of my own in return. I was just trying to protect her, and now it may be too late.

“What do I do now?”

“We find her,” Wes says.

“She’s gone, man. She left me.”

“Did you let me take that shit when Grace walked out?” Jake growls.

“No.”

“So are we going to take this lying down?” he asks.

“No,” I say. “But how do we find her? I don’t even know where to start.”

“I think I do,” Ryan says from the far side of the bed. He’s holding up her phone in his hand. “They called her about twenty minutes ago.”

“Fuck,” I bite out.