My Spy 6: Private Eye

Liaison

Ryan doesn't say a word as he navigates his way through a tiny dirt path that snakes through the tree line. There are such narrow openings between the trees that I don't think his truck would have made it though. I'm not sure when to ask questions. I can't tell if he's furious, upset, scared or all of the above. When we get out of the woods, is he going to explode with anger about me leaving my mother's?

And then I remember Whitney and why I left in the first place. Should I be furious? I look to the clock and realize I have been gone for almost four hours. It took them four hours to get to me and only twenty minutes for me to leave my mother's and get kidnapped. 

When we push through the final treeline and make it onto the wider dirt road, I realize I was holding my breath. I release a long exhale and relax into the seat. Ryan is still tense from his head to his toes and I let him stay silent. 

As we come to the main road, Ryan finally slows his speed and pulls off the road next to a stop sign. There is no traffic in this part of town, but he still checks the rearview. I'm not able to say anything before he puts the car into park and kicks his door open. I watch in confusion as he walks around the hood of the car over to my side. He tugs the door open and then quickly kneels beside me. He keeps his head down and I don't know what's coming. Is he getting ready to shake the stupid out of me? I stare at the top of his head until he finally looks to me, and I see the fear consuming his green eyes. We lock eyes, not knowing what to say, willing the other to speak first. I can't think of anything else but to launch myself at him. He isn't able to ask me anything as I throw my arms around him and we both go colliding backward into the dirt. He holds me as I crawl to straddle him and his hands find my face. My lips find his and it's been a while since we've had a full-blown make-out session, and never on a dirt road next to an open passenger side door shielding us from view. 

We finally take a breath but he continues to hold me against his chest. My knees and shins are getting torn up from the dirt but I don't care. I breathe him in and when he pulls away I find tears in his eyes. 

"What the actual fuck Sawyer," he finally says softly and I can feel both the anger and confusion coming from him. I use the back of my hand to wipe the wetness from my cheeks before I ask him the same question, "That's what I came to ask you, Ryan. What the actual fuck?" 

I watch the confusion take over his face as he analyzes mine. I can tell he has no idea what I am talking about so I add, "Why were you with Whitney at a hotel this morning?" He freezes and his lips stay parted. He drops his head back and instantly drops his hands to my waist. 

"Why were you following me?" He finally asks and that wasn't the answer I was expecting. He must see my heart drop into my stomach because he asks, "What do you already know?" I go to pull away from him but he holds me in place. He clearly doesn't want to fight or he would have allowed me to get off of him. 

"If I had my phone I could show you," I tell him and his eyebrow lifts. 

"It's in the backseat. Your purse and phone were in the car when I found it," he tells me and this time he does allow me to stand. I wipe the embedded pebbles out of my knees before searching for my phone in the back seat. As I am pulling up the photos he says, "Thank god for the hair clip. That's how we found you." I turn around to face him and he's still seated on the dirt with his legs in front of him. He looks to me as I reply, "We'll get to what just happened. But you need to know why I came to find you first." I drop the phone into his lap and he gives me a weary look before picking it up. I watch as he goes from curious, to concerned to downright angry. He leaps up from the dirt while shaking his head, "I knew she was up to something. I knew, I just knew meeting her was a mistake." He chucks the phone into the car like it's a hot potato and spins in a circle before adding, "There is no way around this. This was supposed to be a simple case. No danger, just checking into a monthly withdrawal. That's all it was supposed to be."