Page 68 of Trick's Trap

“Hey.” He waved the pile of papers he was holding. A dyed-in-the-wool workaholic, she’d never seen him without a document of some kind or another in his hands.

Liam passed a hand over his face before his head cocked to one side. His eyes narrowed.

“Can you talk some sense into her?” He pointed back at the elevator.

“To Peyton?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“Yes. She’s insisted on staying at her dad’s old place, but I want her to sleep at the hotel until this business with your family blows over.”

“Uh…”

Their fight was her fault. She swallowed hard, gearing up for the long apology he was probably waiting for. “I am so sorry about that. I know you must wish me a thousand miles away. I’m putting everyone in danger and—”

He held up a hand cutting her off. “You have to stop with that. You’re part of the family now… or will be soon enough. I just don’t like Peyton staying on in that rattrap she calls home when there’s plenty of room here. Especially now you’ve moved into Trick’s rooms. The suite next door, the one you were in at first, is empty. She should sleep there. Do you think you can talk to her?”

“I can try,” she hedged.

She didn’t want anything to happen to Peyton because of her, but asking the other woman to come here to move down the hall from Liam sounded like a terrible idea.

He hesitated, the expression of doubt on his face unfamiliar. “Make sure she thinks it was your idea.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not exactly her favorite person these days because of her deadbeat dad.”

Tahlia nodded, a little surprised at the undercurrents she was detecting. Liam wasn’t a demonstrative man, but she was too adept at hiding her own emotions not to know when someone else was doing it, too. Underneath, Liam was roiling.

Wow. She would have never guessed.

“I thought Peyton’s father passed away.”

“He died last year and good riddance. Unfortunately, his legacy of bullshit lives on,” Liam growled.

Tahlia stared, unsure what to say. His face softened, and he thumped her on the back in what she guessed was supposed to be a reassuring manner.

“Donny is no loss, trust me. If he were still around, Trick wouldn’t have let you near that asshole with a ten-foot pole.”

“All right,” she said, eyeing the elevator. The space between her shoulder blades stung a little. Liam was such a bear of a man, he must not know his own strength.

“Peyton likes the cheese danish from the cafe downstairs.”

“What?” This conversation was getting away from her again.

Liam gestured with his papers. “You can butter her up with one before you bring up moving in here.”

“Oh. Of course…” The elevators doors opened.Freedom!

She backed away. “I’m going to go do that now.”

He waved her on. “Don’t take no for an answer,” he ordered.

The words were pretty much what she’d come to expect from Liam, but the expression in his eyes was something else.

Anger would have been expected. What she saw was…desperation.

Chapter 28

Tahlia was almost hopping up and down with excitement, dancing around the coffee table in their suite before hesitating. “Are you sure about this?” she asked, turning to her gorgeous fiancé.

“Yes.” Patrick was emphatic. “You don’t need this money for our campaign against your family. If Mason is right, and he usually is, then Cain and Dante are guilty of a litany of white-collar crimes. It’s a miracle they’ve managed to stay undetected until now.”

Mention of her family dampened her enthusiasm. “It won’t make that much of a difference if they don’t get Uncle Lucas on something, too.”

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