RYDER: A Standalone Military Romance (Blake Security Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

              “ Cher ” is “dear” in French. It’s all she called me my whole life. Until I was almost ten, I thought it was my name.
                  I was still shoveling in food as I said, “Ain’t nuthin’ much new, Granny. I’ve just been workin’ a lot. Blake, me, and the new boys have been keepin’ busy.” When I was home, I reverted back to the grammar I’d worked a lifetime to change. I tried speaking proper when I first got out of the Navy, but Granny told me I sounded like I was “puttin’ on airs,” and she would have none of it.
                  “How dat Blake?”
                  I shook my head and looked up at her. Sometimes it shocked me when I looked at her and just suddenly realized how fast she seemed to be aging lately. Her Cajun heritage had given her dark skin that stayed smooth long beyond its years, but lately it seems to be catching up with her. The only thing left to prove she was still a spry old thing was the light in her eyes that never went out.
    “He ain’t doin’ so good, Granny. I can’t get him to talk to me about it though. I worry about him a lot.” They say twenty-four veterans commit suicide every twenty-four hours in the U.S. Sometimes I worried that was the direction Blake was headed in.
                  “You send him out here ta see me. I’ll get ‘im ta talking.”
                  I laughed, but I knew that if anyone could, it would be Granny. Convincing Blake to come out here and let her give it a shot would be the hard part. “I’ll see what I can do, Gran.”
    I finally finished my food, and we went back out on the porch. I was so full I felt like I might need to be rolled down the steps to my car. As we sat there and listened to the melody of the crickets and frogs out on the swamp, I said, “Granny, wouldn’t it be nice if you were closer to me in town and you could come and see me any time you wanted?”
                  “Nah,” she said with a mischievous grin. “I done seen you enough for all des years.”
    I laughed, and she cackled. I loved the sound of it. I loved her. I know I’m over-protective and I drive her crazy, but I’m just not sure what I’d ever do without her. It hurt my heart to think about it.
                  I finally got away in time to make it back to the mansion by midnight and relieve Leif. She’d sent me with a tub full of leftovers, and I gave half to Leif, who had no idea what most of it was but said he didn’t have a problem eating anything. The Bransons weren’t home yet, and Alicia, the baby, and all of the servants seemed to be down for the night. I took a seat in the sitting room, fired up my laptop, and started my own search on the Bransons and the hospital where little Celia was “born.” Like Blake, I doubted there was anything out there if he hadn’t found it, but until I could talk to them face-to-face, it was probably going to be a long boring night…or so I thought. That was until about three hours later when the perimeter alarm started screeching, and this time it wasn’t the baby making all of that noise. 
     
                 
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    RYDER
     
                  “How did he get in through the gates without you seeing him?” I was standing in the foyer with the gate guard in front of me. He looked young and scared and on the verge of tears. He was probably wondering what he would do for a job when Mr. Branson was finished with him.
                  “I have no idea, sir. The only other possible way to get into the perimeter is by climbing one of the fences. They’re all alarmed, and the lowest point is six-feet tall. They’re smooth on the outside, so unless he had something to climb up on, I can’t imagine that he scaled it.”
                  “Has he said anything yet?”
    The man on the property had been caught by the other