Page 102 of No Headlines Please

It was related to Ryder's other favor – keeping eyes on Evan Carver, the guy who'd been giving Delaney's sister some trouble.

Just a week ago, I'd tipped Ryder off about an odd CPR mannequin that looked like Tessa and sent him a video of Tessa that maybe a month ago had been making the rounds.

Neither nugget had made him happy.

And this time, the news was worse.

Ryder needed to know – and sooner rather than later.

With a sigh, I pressed the number to dial. When Ryder picked up, I just laid it out there. "Bad news."

After a beat of silence, he asked, "What?"

I leaned back in my chair. "I lost him." Technically, my people had lost him, but that didn't change the facts.

"You mean Carver?" Ryder sounded incredulous. "Are you fucking serious?"

The guy had no idea. "What, you think I'm joking?"

"I hope you're joking."

I bit back a curse. "Yeah, well I'm not."

Twenty-four hours ago, I'd increased the surveillance on Carver from three people to five. It wasn't because the guy was clever. It was because the douchebag never seemed to sleep.

Plus, Ryder had been sending me so many texts, you'd think someone was stalking his wife.

Except he had no wife.

Instead, he was losing his mind over Tessa Sinclair. This wasn't like him.

Sounding dumbfounded, he asked, "So how'd you lose him?"

I let out a humorless laugh. "You're gonna love this. Someone nabbed him right off the street."

"Wait…nabbed him?"

I hadn't seen it personally, but I'd heard plenty from Cal. "Yeah. Dragged him into a big, black SUV. Could've been the feds, but I doubt it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Just a hunch." I considered Cal's latest report. "Word is, he owes a lot of money to the wrong people, so there's that."

From Ryder, there was utter silence.

I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Hell, I'd thought the same thing myself.

Maybe this wasn't a loss.

Maybe Carver disappearing solved more problems than it created.

Maybe the guy had finally run out of luck.

But that wasn't the point.

I kept quiet, giving Ryder time to think.