Page 20 of Captive Lies

It turned out,time wasn’t on myside.

Three days after Grant asked me to move to Boston, Liam returned. I was at my usual place by the window, painting a flock of bluebirds, when he walkedin.

“Hey,Wren.”

“Liam,” I said, putting down my paint brush. “Goodtrip?”

“Productive,” he said shortly, walking over to my work area and shuffled through mypictures.

“Looks like you’ve been busy,” he mused. Sometimes, I committed scenes to memory to paint later. But that day I fled the cabin after my night with Grant, I had my DSLR camera with me because I needed to occupy my mind in order to avoid thinking about the man I left in mybed.

Liam glanced up at me. “Did itwork?”

“I couldn’t doit.”

“He’s still in thepicture?”

I exhaled heavily. “He wants me to move toBoston.”

His eyes narrowed. Running fingers through his beard as he started pacing, I could almost hear the cogs turning in his head. I was surprised he didn’t blow up. Or at leastlaugh.

He sat on the couch and stared at me. “It might work to ouradvantage.”

“What?”

“We’ve been on the run for two years. It’s time for us to start living our lives again,” Liam said. “I want you to dothat.”

“How? By going toBoston?”

“Yes.”

“You forget people are after us and Grant isn’t exactly lowprofile.”

“That could be a problem,” Liamadmitted.

That was a hugeproblem.

“And what about you? I’m not leaving you here byyourself.”

“I won’t behere.”

“What?” I exclaimed for a secondtime.

“I’ve got a couple of leads I need to trackdown.”

“Take me withyou.”

Liam raised abrow.

“Grant,” Imuttered.

Liam leaned back. “Thorne has been digging into federal databases for our information. So far, everything is legit on paper. If he follows up on any of those leads like your fake parents, this shit is going to blow up in ourfaces.”

“He did threaten to unleash his investigative division on me if I disappeared,” I said, worrying mylips.

“When?” His face darkened withconcern.

“Three days ago when I took off for more than half aday.”

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