Read Smoke and Fire: Part 3 for Free Online

who the lucky lady is.”
    “No’ going to happen.” Con dropped his arms and stood. “I’m sending Asher to a distributer meeting in Prague tomorrow.”
    “Do we expect a surprise visit?”
    “I always expect the Dark now. Doona factor out Ulrik either.”
    Ryder crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m good, Con, but I’m already stretched to the limits with all the searches I’m doing.”
    “Then make use of Kinsey. While she’s here,” he added as he walked from the cavern.
    So much for Ryder wanting to get away. He had no choice but to get to his computers immediately. The fact Con left him alone last night was surprising, but also concerning. It was out of character for Con in a very big way.
    Ryder hurried from the mountain. It wasn’t until he was halfway up the stairs that he remembered his boots. He’d get them later. There was too much to do for him to waste time turning around.
    He got to the room and took his seat, pulling his chair forward. The computers recognized his presence instantly and the virtual keyboard lit up.
    On one screen was a name typed into a search: Sam MacDonald. A common enough name. So common that over eleven thousand pulled up.
    Ryder narrowed the search to look for men around the same age that Ulrik appeared—mid-thirties. It reduced the number to right at four thousand.
    Still too many names. Next, he tightened his search to any of the Sams who owned their own business. That significantly lessened the hits to fifteen hundred. Ryder couldn’t focus the search on hair or eye color, because Ulrik would be able to change those if needed. Nor could he search by area.
    He was going to have to go through each and every picture to see if any of them matched Ulrik. That was going to take an enormous amount of time.
    Ryder looked up at his monitors. The eight closest to him were all either running searches or showed live feeds from the cameras throughout Dreagan.
    With no other choice, he moved what Kinsey had been working on to the last four screens farthest from him and took over another four.
    He continued searching for Ulrik in Ireland and Scotland, going through every Sam MacDonald who owned a business to see if they were Ulrik, checking on MI5 who were still on Dreagan, trying to tie Ulrik to sending Kinsey to Dreagan, not to mention clearing Kinsey’s name.
    Kinsey. She was never far from his thoughts. Even when he was as swamped with work as he was right now, she was still there in his mind.
    Their night together only reminded him of everything wonderful she brought to his life. Immortality was monotonous when spent alone.
    Ryder didn’t go looking for love. He’d had his share of women, but none of them caught his attention—and his heart—like Kinsey.
    Her infectious smile, her genuineness and sincerity, and her empathy were what hooked him. Her beauty and amazing violet eyes might have first caught his attention, but it was just a benefit to everything else she was.
    And he’d ruined her.
    How many times had he seen humans move on from such loss and find happiness again? Millions of times. Ryder had honestly thought she would do the same. He should’ve known Kinsey was different from the rest.
    Ryder didn’t want to spend the day with his computers as he normally did. He wanted to be with Kinsey. It wasn’t enough to have her in the same room working with him.
    He wanted to see her smile, to hear her voice as they talked about anything and everything.
    He wanted to eat a meal with her across the table from him instead of stuffing bites of food in their mouths as they worked.
    He wanted to walk the grounds of Dreagan with her, to take her into his mountain and show her his home. It was a place no human had ever been, but he wanted her to see it.
    Ryder’s shoulders fell. As much as he yearned to do all those things, he wasn’t sure Kinsey would be willing. Perhaps after they discovered her innocence. He’d had a night in her arms. That was all he could spare