Page 39 of Broken By Her Mate
Ryder scoffed. “You get to do it, but I can’t?”
“It’smydesk, you ass.”
With a huff, Ryder sat back. “Anyway, it’s good to have you back in the office. The place has been a real drag without you.”
“I doubt that. The new recruits think I’m a soul-sucking ogre. Seriously, I heard one of them say it.”
Ryder threw his head back and laughed. “They have every right to think that. Your scowl can be extremely intimidating.”
Tolliver shrugged as a spark of amusement went through him. Only those who truly knew him looked beyond his stony mask and knew his bark was worse than his bite… for a lucky few. When they started dating, Laila had seen past his somber demeanor and reticent ways. She had a gift to draw him out of his serious shell every time. The thought of her brought in a wave of melancholy he’d been fighting all morning.
“Are you okay?” Ryder asked, eyeing him with curiosity.
“No.” He gave his friend a pointed stare. “And I don’t want to talk about it. You said there was a break in the case. Let me hear it.”
Ryder’s eyes narrowed on Tolliver. He was dying to ask what was going on, but as lifelong friends, he knew Tolliver would only close himself off more if he were pressed for information, so he pushed his concern aside and shared the team’s recent discovery.
“While you were away playing bodyguard to your ex-girlfriend…”
Tolliver gave him his famous frigid stare, and Ryder grinned.
“We found out who the mastermind behind the kidnappings is.”
Tolliver planted his feet back on the floor and sat taller. “No shit. I missed a hell of a lot.”
“Hey, Laila needs protection. She’s still one of us. The entire team agreed that you should be by her side. I don’t even know why you came in today.”
Tolliver stifled a sigh. He came in because Laila needed space… from him, specifically. “Laila is fine. My place is like FortKnox, and she promised to stay inside. Get on with it. Who are we looking for?”
Ryder pulled his phone from his pocket, and his fingers flew across the screen. The ping of an incoming email on his computer echoed, and Tolliver opened it.
The screen lit up with a photo of a man in his early thirties. His dark brown eyes were piercing and cold. A hardness in them suggested the man was no stranger to violence. His features looked severe and calculating. The ruthless vibe the man gave off was unsettling. Tolliver’s blood ran cold as he imaginedhisLaila in the man’s clutches.
“Meet Jonas Mercer,” Ryder said. He sat back, crossed his arms, and waited for Tolliver to examine the information.
Jonas Mercer was the CEO of BioForge Labs. He had no living relatives, was he married or in a relationship, and had no children. The man was a respected scientist. His schooling and the speed with which he accomplished so much pointed to the man being a genius. Tolliver looked at Ryder with raised eyebrows. “He’s into biogenetics… He’s incredibly intelligent.”
“The crazies ones are always geniuses,” Ryder quipped. “I wonder why? Mercer is a philanthropic CEO by day, but then he runs an underground trafficking network. His foot soldier, the same one who was following Laila in that security footage, spilled his guts. I told you I’d get him to talk.”
“You can be a bit scary under your happy-go-lucky façade, you know that?” Tolliver shook his head. “Does Elena know you’re a ruthless bastard?”
Ryder’s smile was ridiculously angelic. “She does, and she loves me anyway.”
Rolling his eyes, Tolliver grunted his amusement. “Since you got him to spill, why does Mercer want to get his hands on Laila and female shifters who look similar to her?”
“That is still a mystery, my friend. I got the little piggy to squeal about everything he knows. Apparently, he’s just a minion who does what he’s told. He has no real inside information.”
Tolliver rubbed his eyes and sighed long and hard. “More mystery… awesome.”
“You’ll have to question Laila and find out if she’s ever met Mercer. There has to be some connection.”
“Yeah…” Tolliver’s eyebrows furrowed. “So, we finally know who to go after to end this mess once and for all. After that, life goes back to how it was before.” And that bothered him. His life before was without Laila. If it hadn’t been for Jonas Mercer’s treachery, would he and his ex-girlfriend ever have reunited? Would he have come to his senses and realized that work would never fill the hole in his heart that was created when he and Laila broke up?
“That look on your face says you don’t like the idea of life as it was,” Ryder said quietly.
Tolliver’s eyes flickered to his best friend. For all of Ryder’s humor and shenanigans, he was one of the most insightful people Tolliver knew. Tolliver exhaled and admitted quietly, “I don’t. Before this whole mess with Mercer, I thought I was fine. But seeing Laila again, it’s like she pulled everything back into focus. I want… no, I need her in my life.”
Ryder studied him closely. “Then make sure it happens.”