Page 67 of Secret Triplets for Christmas

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Oliver

Holy hell. I read the text again.

The writing was on the wall.

At first, I was confused. I thought we were texting sexual innuendo. After last night, when I’d come all over my stomach and chest as Lindsay talked dirty to me on the phone, I was ready to have the real deal. So what had the writing on the wall meant? Did she want me to fuck her against the wall?

And then it came to me. The day we’d met with Agent Marsden, Lindsay had said the agent reported Liam telling her the writing was on the wall. That had to mean Lindsay found what Liam had hidden. And now I was scared shitless for her. It was as if time stopped as I waited for her to arrive.

Finally, a knock came on the hotel door where I’d been standing and waiting from the minute I understood her text. I yanked it open. She was like a vision, her cheeks still pink from the cold outside. Her hair was tied back, but loose strands were curling around her face.

I reached out, tugging her inside my room, looking down the hall to make sure she hadn’t been followed.

“Oh, my God, Oliver.” She shook as she fumbled with her purse.

Emotion swept through me. I pulled her to me, holding her tight. My hands cupped her face and I kissed her, firmly, thoroughly. All of a sudden, Liam and his hidden evidence weren’t important. Only Lindsay was important. I knew it the minute I landed in Boston today and instead of dreading being here, I felt like I’d returned home.

I lifted my head and stared down into her lovely blue eyes. “You’re okay?”

She nodded. “I think so. I just… when I think about what happened to Liam because of this—”

Admittedly, I didn’t like her mentioning Liam. From her lips, he was the man she’d loved. The man she’d fought to help. Even knowing that she said it was over between them, I couldn’t be sure this wasn’t reigniting her love now that she understood he wasn’t simply throwing his life away.

I stared at her.

“What?” she asked as she looked up at me.

“I don’t want Liam to be between us anymore.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Does that mean you don’t want what he hid?”

I shook my head. “It means I want to put the past behind us. Deal with this situation and then move on.”

She stepped back and my heart stuttered in my chest. Were the words coming out wrong?

“You mean go back to California.” She gave her head a quick shake and smiled. “Yes, of course. That’s your home.”

I put my hands on her arms and pulled her toward me. “No. I’m not saying this right. I’m saying that I want you, but I need for all this to be behind us. For Liam not to be between us.”

Her eyes softened. “The only one putting Liam between us is you, Oliver.”

My heart burst open. God, I wanted this woman. I wanted her now and forever. And even if I was the one grappling with Liam, there still was the issue of whatever she found.

“We need to deal with this. What did you find?”

She pulled an envelope from her purse. I took it, pulling out the papers and reading them. “This is what he wanted to give to Agent Marsden. Proof that foster kids’ social security numbers were being sold.”

“I couldn’t decide if those were kids' names and their numbers, or the buyers’.”

I scanned the pages. “My sense is that it’s the kids’.” What I couldn’t see was anything tying this to Wally or anyone else.

“Does that mean it’s no good? Liam took it and was killed for nothing?”

The idea of that burned in my gut. “I don’t know. Maybe Agent Marsden can find more from this than I can.”

“So you think we should give it to her? Not to Flynn or Riker? Or to whoever is texting us?”

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