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For the first time all night, I catch a crack in Liam’s facade. His lips twitch before he pulls a pretentious smirk back onto his face.
“Okay, you caught me. You deserve the truth.”
“Oh?” Amelia squeaks and her fanning stops.
“I’ve never told anyone this before.”
I’m watching from the back doors of the van with one hand on the door handle, the other on my gun.
“I have a rescue cat named Harry.”
The air whooshes from my lungs.
“A…cat?” Amelia repeats.
“Yeah.” He holds up his phone and there on the home screen is a picture of a hideous orange tabby. “I buy him custom sweaters and everything.”
“That’s uh…” Amelia coughs. “Are those pineapples on the sweater?”
I tense. Dang it, Amelia. I knew that was a terrible code word.
“Yeah,” Liam says and I sink back into my seat.
“How…endearing,” Amelia says.
I can think of a few other choice words for what that is.
Liam’s phone rings and he excuses himself to answer it.
Amelia punctures a piece of gnocchi with her fork and waves it in front of the camera. It’s not a white flag of surrender, it’s a freaking dumpling flag telling me she was right.
And now she’s tapping in Morse code on her napkin. W-R-O-N-G.
My fury rages. It’s an act. Liam is playing her and she’s falling for it all, hook, line, and sinker. He’s a criminal. Conning women like her is what he does to take advantage of them. Like he did to Scarlett Winthrop.
This was a horrendous idea and I’m blaming it all on Cruz. We’ve learned nothing new except a potential location for his home in Turks and Caicos. A civilian can’t interrogate a professional con artist.
Liam rejoins Amelia, a frown pulling down his expression. “I’m sorry to cut our date short, but there’s been an issue at the school. I must take care of it. Will you be alright if I leave early? I’ve already paid upfront.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Amelia says, and I can tell from her obnoxiously pleasant voice that she's gloating. “You’ve got to help the children.”
“Thank you, my love. I’ll be in contact,” he says, and then places a kiss on her cheek before he leaves.
I call up Hadley and Jones letting them know he’s on the move and to follow him to some kind of school. I throw on a suit jacket and tuck my gun into the back of my pants. And then I head inside, to the woman making me lose my mind.
Chapter 16
Amelia
I count to exactly one hundred and two before I spy a very frustrated man walking into the restaurant, heading straight for me. The anticipation of this moment has been excruciating.
“There you are, I was wondering when you’d join me,” I say when Caleb plops down in Chad’s vacant seat.
“Don’t.” Caleb holds up his hand.
“Don’t what?” I bat my eyelashes at him.
“Just. Don’t,” he nearly growls.