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A second man rotated in…taller, longer reach, smarter about keeping distance. Ryder let him work, let him think he was finding a rhythm, then closed the gap in one step and dropped him with a hip throw so clean it barely looked like effort. The whole thing lasted about forty-five seconds.

Ryder was the best man in this room, and nobody here doubted it, including her. The respect for him was damned near emanating off everyone.

It had been that way yesterday at the shooting range too. Ryder had been just a little more quick, a little more consistent, a little more accurate. At first, she’d wondered if he should let the Diehl brothers win, just to get into their good graces. It hadn’t taken long to realize these men understood and respected power first and foremost. It was their currency.

The sparring wound down. The second crew member tapped out, shaking his head. Ryder grabbed a towel and wiped his face.

“You haven’t lost a step.” Arlo was leaning against a wall, taking it all in. “Heath and I were talking about that yesterday. Remember that courier down in Mexico? The one nobody could get a word out of?”

The stocky guy laughed from the bench across from Cassandra. “I heard about that. Ryder was in with the guy for what, ten minutes?”

“Fifteen.” Arlo folded his arms. “Rest of us had been working on him for hours. Getting nowhere. Sutton walks in, sits down across from him, and just talks to him. Fifteen minutes later, we had the name, the drop point, all of it.”

Ryder toweled the back of his neck. “That was a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t impressive as hell.” Arlo shook his head, still grinning. “Some guys, you can beat on them all day and they won’t give you a damn thing. Sutton didn’t have to. He could always just read people. Knew exactly which buttons to push.”

Heath chuckled from the doorway, but the sound didn’t hold much humor. “But he was good at a lot more than just button-pushing. Knew when to take action and exactly what action to take. Like that contractor in Reynosa who was lying to us. Swore blind he didn’t know where the shipment went.”

“Oh yeah. I remember that guy.” Arlo laughed. “Ryder’s work was something.”

Ryder’s work?

“Everybody tried. Even me. Two straight days.” For once, Heath’s voice didn’t sound completely unanimated. “That fucker would not say a word. Then they sent you in.”

Ryder tossed the towel onto the bench. “Old news, fellas. We don’t need to⁠—”

“You had the answer in under an hour.” Heath wasn’t letting it go. “Most beautiful fucking thing I’d ever seen. You didn’t waste time talking with him.”

She froze. Surely she wasn’t understanding what they were talking about.

Ryder picked up his water bottle and took a long drink. “Different time. Different work.”

“Same guy.” Arlo clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s the whole point.”

“I heard about this one thing.” This was the younger guy on the bench, the one who always laughed half a beat too late at jokes that weren’t funny. “I wasn’t there, but somebody told me. Something about a thumb?”

“The thumb.” Arlo laughed. “Oh Jesus. I forgot about the thumb.”

“Didn’t forget.” Heath sounded almost entertained. “Chose not to think about it.”

“Come on, it was impressive.” Arlo’s voice opened up, pitched to carry. “This guy, big fucker, wouldn’t cooperate. Ryder gets his hand, finds the joint at the base of the thumb, and does something with the pressure. Some kind of rotation, I don’t know exactly. The guy screamed for about four seconds and then couldn’t stop talking.”

Someone on the bench laughed.

“Four seconds.” Low, appreciative. “That’s a skill.”

“It’s knowing where to press.” Arlo again. “Ryder always knew where to press. And when he didn’t, he knew how to use his fists.”

“Or what bones to break,” Heath finished. “I swear you just liked the sound, Ryder.”

She waited for him to deny it, to say something—anything—that would help these words make sense in her head. Surely the Diehls were confusing Ryder with someone else.

Ryder said nothing.

The stories continued, each worse than the last, and Ryder didn’t deny any of it. Finally, there was nothing for her brain to do but accept the truth: he didn’t deny it because it was all true.

Ryder had tortured people. That’s what he’d done when he worked with the Diehls before.