said. “He was mad that I was putting myself into a dangerous situation.”
“Still defending him? Even after what he said?”
Ryker’s gaze was shrewd and I opened my mouth to deny it, then abruptly shut it. He was right. I was still defending Parker, like it was an instinctual thing.
I sighed. I was exhausted.
“Viktor’s secretary was there,” I said, deciding to change the subject. I didn’t want to talk about Parker anymore. “Tania. She’s Niki’s sister. I told her about Niki and she swears Viktor was involved. She wants to help the police.”
Ryker mulled this over. “If she’s someone Viktor trusts, then we can definitely use her.”
“The cops need to protect her, not use her. She’s been used enough.” I took another huge bite of pizza. It had mushrooms and normally I didn’t eat fungus, but I was too hungry to care.
“We’ll make sure she’s protected,” he assured me. “Can you get in touch with her? Help us set up a meeting?”
I thought about it, then nodded. “Viktor and Parker had to postpone the rest of their meeting tonight. They’ll get together again in the morning before the markets open. I should see her then.”
“Okay. Tell her we can protect her, but she has to bring something of value to the meeting. Something we can use that proves she’s in a good position to help us.”
“That seems rather mercenary,” I said.
“It’s not me,” Ryker said. “It’s just how things work. If we’re going to develop an asset, they have to be in a position that’s going to be useful to us and the DA.”
I finished the slice, still in thought. “Do you think I’m easily manipulated?” I asked, Parker’s words still echoing inside my head.
“No,” Ryker replied. “You’re trusting, which isn’t the same thing.”
I wanted to believe him, but maybe Parker was right. It hadn’t taken anything more than Ryker insinuating I could protect Parker for me to jump on the bandwagon with whatever he’d wanted me to do, including planting those bugs. It depressed me.
Ryker set aside the ice pack, reached across the table, and took my hand. I glanced up at him.
“Don’t listen to Parker,” he said. “He’s an expert at making people doubt themselves. He can crawl inside your head and make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.”
I hesitated, then asked the question that had been flitting through my mind, just waiting for me to give voice to it. “Is that what he did to Natalie?”
As I’d expected, the mention of her caused Ryker to stiffen and draw back, but I tightened my grip on his hand.
“Tell me,” I implored. “I know it’s got to be hard, but I need to know.” I needed to know if the man I’d been so loyal to all these years, the man I’d grown to respect and admire, was a fraud. “What happened between you two and Natalie?”
Ryker scrubbed a hand across his face and sighed. I waited. Finally, he spoke.
“Parker and I were in the Marines together,” he said. “I don’t know if you know that, but when we got back, there weren’t a lot of jobs available. There are places that help returning soldiers find work, and I went to one. Parker…he was fine. Went back to school and finished his degree, then had a job ready and waiting for him.
“There was a woman who volunteered at the center where I went. It was Natalie. She was sweet, kind. Her husband had been a pilot.”
“Had been?” I asked.
“He’d been shot down and was MIA, presumed dead. She was sad and tragic and beautiful. I think I fell in love with her immediately. But she wasn’t ready for a relationship, so we just hung out, got to know one another. Of course, I introduced her to my best friend, which was the worst mistake I ever made.”
I was caught up in his story, watching him tell it with eyes gazing far away in the distance, as though reliving it. “What happened?”
Ryker glanced at me. “They hit it off,” he said. “Parker moved in behind my back, though he lied to me about it. I told him I was in love with her, but he didn’t care.
“They spent a lot of time together and one night I caught them. Parker and I got into a fight and Natalie started crying, saying she didn’t want to come between us.”
He stopped there and I waited, hoping he’d finish the story.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “She found another way out. She took