Page 21 of Dangerous Lies

Rose shook her head. “Not going to happen. I have every right to be in the meeting whenit'sabout me.”

“The package they found at the scene had your name onit,” Ginger said.

“Which is why it makes even more sense for me to be at the meeting.”

Grim tapped her smartwatch. “It’sgetting late. Why don’t Ginger and Casanova grab Tyler from Lucas? Rose and Icoulduse some alone time.”

Ginger didn’t move. “Casanova can go.”

“Nope, both of you go.” Grim didn’t leave room for an argument. “And if you need to brush up on the Carter case, take your time.”

The two men grumbled as they walked out the door.

Grim turned her eyes on her, and Roseknewthe conversation wasn’t a pep talk. “He cares about you.”

“We only met a few days ago,” Rose said. “He’s here to do a job because my sister hung information he wants out like a carrot. The second the mission is over, he’s gone.”

“If this were a mission, he wouldn’t have punched the detective today,” Grim said. “Xavier can clean that shit up if needed, but Ginger put his military career on the line today because he was worried about you.”

Rose hadn’theardthe whole story of why Ginger had punched Evan. All she had to do was guess the man opened his mouth, but Ginger seemed so calm and collected when he was around her. She couldn’t imagine him hitting someone.

“I don’tknowwhat you want me to say. I’m not going to sit here and say I will marry the man tomorrow. For god’s sake, he was my sister’s fiancée.Therehas to be some code about me not hooking up with the man my sister had dated.”

“You were going to say the man she had a baby with,” Grim stated like she already had the proof in front of her.

Was this why they took her son to the other house? God, she was so dumb and should’ve realized this would happen. Here she thought they were here to help her, but they weren’t. She wasn’t part of their group. She was, was a mark togetthem the information they needed, and now they would take away the only thing she loved.

“Stop what you’re thinking...” Grim moved to the seat next to her and held out a tissue she grabbed from the side table.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Please, you can't take him from me. I'll do anything.”

Grim pulled her into a hug, and she cried harder.

“I can't lose him.”

“None of the guysknow. They suspect but think the story is so far outthereitcan't be true, but Isawa picture of Ginger as a kid. That boy is the spitting image. I don'tknowGinger that well, but he won't take the boy from you—” Grim paused and let her words sink in. “But you can't hold your boy back from meeting his dad.”

Rose blew the snot from her nose. “You can't guarantee he won't take him.”

“He wouldn't do that to Tyler. What will happen when your sister is no longer searching for her husband?”

“Brittany has no plans to raise Tyler. She thinks she will be a bad mom when, in reality, she was the best mom to me growing up.”

“The most critical person in our lives is the one who looks back at us in the mirror,” Grim said.

Was she being selfish for not letting her sonknowhis dad?

“I'll tell him. I just don'tknowhow to have this conversation.”

“You don't have to tell him tonight, but the longer you keep the secret, the harderitwillbeto tell. The majority of my life is a secret, and I've learned that they hurt the people I care about the most when they finally come out,” Grim said.

“Brittany and Tyler are all I have.” Rose couldn't afford to lose either of them. “Telling Ginger will be a risk, butit'sone I'm willing to take. He has a right toknow, and the man saved my ass tonight.”

“Whoever planted the gas expected you would be at the scene.” Grim stood and stalked back and forth. “We still can't figure out how he got you into the basement though or turned off your camera. The guard neversawanyone pass by. Ginger thinksitmay be the Detective because he pushed so hard for him not to look for you.”

Evan did keep showing up to her jobs that were linked to the serial killer, but he’d denied any of the jobs were more than suicide until today. “I tried before to talk to him about the killer, but he shot me down. Today was the first time he seemed to think there could be a killer. Evan thinks someone killed the woman in the apartment, and the man jumped out the window and disappeared.”

“People don't disappear,” Grim mused. “They can learn to camouflage themselves, soitseems like they are invisible, which might explain how the guy slipped you out the door. Lucas pulled up the cameras around the lobby but they don't have a clear view of the back door.”

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