Page 9 of Dangerous Lies

Rose smiled and nodded. They reminded Ginger about his childhood and how he hadn't called his mom in a while.

The SUV slowed when Rose pulled onto her street. A black Lincoln Navigator was parked next to his Jeep, and behind that was a black Range Rover. He didn't need to guess who the vehicles belonged to—Xavier Smith and his team.

“I know them,” Ginger said.

He just hoped Xavier had answers about Carter so he could take the man down.

4

ROSE

“Do you makeita habit of breaking into people's places?” Rose asked the tall, good-looking man standing next to her coffee maker. He had on a tailored suit and a crisp white shirt. A woman with her hair up in a bun sat next to another large man at the dining room table.

The man sipped from a cup that read, Bugs are Life. “If someone would've checked the secure message I sent an hour ago, he would haveknownwe were coming.”

Rose grabbed Tyler’s afternoon snack from the fridge and handed it to her son. “Hey, buddy, why don't you put your new friend in an empty container? I want to have a conversation with these guys for a second.”

She held back the smile as his little shoulders squared.

“You listen to my mom,” he said to the man in the tailored suit, “or you will regretit.”

The man broke into a smile. “Is that so? Tell me how you would make me pay.”

Oh god, please don't.

Tyler ignored her shaking head.

“With the venom we extracted from the spiders last weekend.”

“Venom?” Ginger questioned from the other side of the island. “You said you study the bugs. Nothing about venom.”

For a tough guy, he seemed scared.

The gorgeous woman at the table smiled. “I like you. Let meknowif you'll sell me some.”

The man in the suit sighed. “Grim, you are not buying venom. Do we have to go through what happened with the acid?”

Grim crossed her arms. “One little mistake.”

“Little?” The man shook his head. “Itcost me ten grand to fix the floors.”

Rose didn't need her son tohearthis conversation. “Upstairs and put the new guy away.”

Tyler looked between the newcomers before he sprinted toward his room. Sheknewhe would be back quickly. The little guy loved toknoweverything.

“Can I at leastgetnames?” she asked.

“Ms. Hayes, I'm Xavier Smith, and the woman at the table is Grim. She works for me at Rogue Mercenaries, and the man next to her is a tagalong.”

“Fuck you,” the man grumbled. “I'm Ginger's teammate, Casanova.”

She remembered something from his call with her sister that he was in the military, but at the time, she'd been in shock about her sister. She figured he was with a mercenary team, not active military. Now, she wondered how someone enlistedcouldstay with her for a month. Maybeitwas time togetsome actual answers.

“Okay, Mr. Smith, now you want to tell me why you thoughtitwas okay to break into my house?”

Ginger stood next to her and rested his hand against her side. “He's not the bad guy.”

Casanova mumbled something she couldn'thearunder his breath.

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