Page 14 of Flynn

It shouldn’t matter, as he and Taylor were complete opposites. And she’d only texted him because he was a cop, and she happened to have his personal cell number from their interaction last month.

He shook off the thought, knowing he was letting the fact that everyone on their team was settling down, getting married, and having kids get to him. Even Jina, who was their team’s sharpshooter, had found the perfect guy for her. And he’d have bet his paycheck Jina would never settle down.

Cassidy was still single, but it was no secret their team tech expert, Gabe Melrose, had a crush on her. The only one who was oblivious to that was Cass herself.

When the dishes were put away, he picked up his phone. He wanted to text Rhy to see if he was able to get any information out of the Brookland PD but reminded himself it had only been an hour since he’d spoken with his boss.

An hour that seemed like ten, he thought with a heavy sigh.

He dropped into the seat beside Taylor, eyeing the screen as she went slowly and methodically through the mug shots. When his phone rang, he nearly dropped it in his haste to answer.

“Hey, Rhy, what’s up?” Maybe thinking of his boss had somehow garnered the call. “Did the Brookland PD give you any intel?”

“They have an ID on a print found in the homeowner’s office,” Rhy said. “I need you to put the phone on speaker so I can include Taylor in this discussion too.”

“Yep, hang on.” He lowered the device, pressed the speaker icon, and set it on the table. “Taylor, Rhy has information for us.”

“Hi, Rhy,” Taylor said. “I hope you have good news.”

“Hi, Taylor, first I want to say I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy.”

“Thank you.” Taylor looked at Flynn as she spoke. “I’m blessed to have Flynn here protecting me.”

“Flynn and the other members of our team will do everything we can to keep you safe,” Rhy said. “As I was telling Flynn, they ran a partial print from Steve Miller’s office. The print matches a man by the name of Roman Paulson.”

The name meant nothing to Flynn, but based on the blood leeching from Taylor’s features, she recognized it. Then he belatedly remembered the background check he’d done on Taylor back when he’d first joined forces with Zeke to keep Sienna and Bailey safe.

Paulson was Taylor’s mother’s maiden name.

ChapterFour

Taylor couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Swallowing hard against the lump lodged in the back of her throat, she forced herself to respond. “Roman is one of my cousins on my mother’s side. Her maiden name was Paulson.”

“Does he look anything like the man you saw last night?” Rhy asked.

She tried to picture Roman as the gunman. She couldn’t make the two memories mesh. She slowly shook her head. “No, but I haven’t seen Roman in years. My mom’s side of the family hasn’t really been that close.” A wave of nausea hit hard at the thought of her own flesh and blood killing innocent people.

And then coming after her.

“I’m going to send Flynn a mug shot,” Rhy said. “I want you to take a look at it.”

Knowing that Roman had a mug shot and prints on file gave her another jolt. “What crime did he commit?”

“Assault and battery four years ago,” Rhy said. “He pled guilty for a reduced sentence.”

Had assault and battery led to committing cold-blooded murder? It was difficult for her to fathom the leap, especially since her fleeting impression of the gunman was that he’d been emotionally detached from the act, as if he killed people in their bed every day.

What had Flynn called it? A professional hit?

Flynn’s phone dinged, and he took a moment to enlarge the photograph. He turned the phone so she could see the screen. “Try to imagine him with a beard.”

The nose was wrong. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or upset by the knowledge. “It’s not him. The man I saw had a prominent nose. It was the first thing I noticed about him. Well, that and the fact that he’d killed two people.”

“Okay, thanks for checking him out. Can you tell me anything else about your cousin? Any idea why he’d be meeting with Steve Miller?”

She sat back in her seat. The news of her cousin’s fingerprint being found seemed anticlimactic if he wasn’t the killer. “My mom mentioned that her second cousins Steve and Robin Miller needed a nanny. I knew there was a family relationship when I took the job, but I had never met them before. I believe Robin’s mother, Sue, was my mother’s cousin.” It sounded convoluted even to her own ears. “My mother’s brother, Donald Paulson, had three boys, Roman, Jake, and Lyle. But then Don and his wife got divorced, and the boys ended up living primarily with their mom, so we didn’t see them much over the next few years. I guess that would make Roman, Jake, and Lyle second cousins to Robin, too, right?”

“That sounds correct,” Rhy said thoughtfully. “So it could just be that Roman wanted to do his banking with his second cousin Steve.”

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