Page 61 of Trusting Liam (Taking Chances 2)

“Did you see someone?”

“No,” Kira answered softly, like she was still trying to grasp what had happened as well.

When another moment passed, I asked, “Do you think he has problems from being undercover that maybe the tests the department did didn’t catch?”

Kira snorted, causing my lips to curve up at the corners. “I think we would have noticed something like this before tonight if he did have a—who is that?” she quickly asked when Rhys finally rounded the corner of the building with a gangly guy stumbling behind him.

“I told you to stay at the table,” he said harshly when he got close, and my eyebrows rose at the anger in his tone.

Kira looked down at the ground, and I scoffed, “You can’t just pull that shit and expect us not to wonder what’s happening.”

Rhys’s eyes narrowed, but it was clear now that he was closer that his anger wasn’t directed at either of us—he definitely looked annoyed that we’d chosen not to listen to him, though.

“Who is this?” I asked when he got close enough with the guy in tow that Kira and I had to step away from the door.

“We’re about to find out,” he answered. “I’m guessing you won’t give me time alone with him?”

“If you want,” Kira offered while she shut and locked the door, and I shot her a look.

I folded my arms over my chest and returned Rhys’s stare. “I know we were only married for three months, but you should know that there’s no way you could expect me not to stick around for whatever’s about to happen.”

Rhys smiled in amusement, and his dark eyes brightened with memories of us from four years ago. “Never hurts to try, Kennedy.” He continued dragging the boy behind him until he got to the couch and yanked him closer. “Sit. Don’t even try to move.”

Kira stepped back slowly until she got to the table where we’d been sitting, and silently sat down, her wide eyes on the three of us in the living room.

“Who are you?” I asked the guy when he looked up at us.

“I’m asking the questions,” Rhys grumbled, and gave me a dark look that I reciprocated. The action had his expression lightening again before he could control it to look back at the guy on my couch.

“Who are you?” Rhys repeated my question.

“Wait, I don’t even know what he was doing to make you chase after him and drag him back in here,” I said when the boy refused to respond.

Rhys didn’t look at me this time; he kept his stare on the boy. “He was looking through the sliding glass door. I thought I saw him when I was cooking, but he was gone when I checked out back. When I got back from the grocery store this afternoon, he was leaving a paper on the front door.”

“Was it a love letter?” I asked sarcastically, and the boy’s blank expression morphed into a mocking smile.

Rhys just sighed. “No, will you let me—”

“Well, then where’s the paper? I want to see it.”

“I threw it away, it didn’t have anything on it but a symbol.”

I was already confused that this guy—who didn’t look like he was a legal adult yet—would be scoping out our condo, but as soon as I heard the word symbol, I gasped and glanced at Rhys,

then looked at Kira’s worried face. “Get the paper,” I ordered, then eyed the boy as I asked Rhys, “It’s in the kitchen trash, right?”

“Yeah,” he said hesitantly, drawing out the word to sound like a question. “Why?”

I didn’t respond, I just kept my gaze on the mocking face of the boy in front of me. “Name. Now.”

“Juarez,” he replied immediately, and my lip curled.

“I fucking doubt that. Name.”

“Kennedy,” Kira called from the kitchen, and held up the crinkled paper.

I pointed to the paper and asked the boy, “What does the symbol mean?”

---