Page 13 of Taken With Trouble

No.

I’m picturing the wrong person in orange.

I straighten with confidence I don’t feel. “I cannot wait to see you rot in a cement prison cell with nothing but a rat and a bedpan for your cellmates.”

His eyebrows raise a fraction of an inch. “I see you’ve devoted some time to thinking about this. Here.” He drops a pancake on a plate and motions to it with the spatula. “You’ll feel better after you eat.”

I ignore the pancake and take the whole plate of sausage and eggs instead. I don’t need empty carbs; I need protein and fats.

Liam slaps a hand to his chest. “Now that’s just cold.”

I spin around and walk toward the table before he can try to steal it back. He follows, plopping down opposite me with his tower of pancakes.

I pick up another sausage link, the grease coating my fingers, and level Liam with a glare. “So, would you care to fill me in on your plans today before or after I haul you to the embassy?”

“Perhaps we should save the talking for after you’ve consumed a thousand calories of sausage,” Liam says, spreading butter and syrup in spirals over his pancake stack like it’s a painting he’s forging.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have kidnapped me.”

“Fair.” He cuts into his perfect stack of pancakes. They’re so fluffy, I almost regret rejecting them. Almost.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you,” I say, poking some eggs and aiming my fork at him.

“Not to be rude, but your attempts thus far have proved extremely unsuccessful. I’d wager you couldn’t kill me, period.”

He underestimates the amount of anger I carry inside me. “Don’t place too much money on it, pretty boy. At the end of whatever this is, I will win.”

His eyes glint like he appreciates the challenge. “Now, I simply must. What shall we like fools lose our money on?”

“I’m not giving you a cent.”

He nods. “Exchange rates. Agreed. I say we barter with much more lucrative substances: secrets.”

The eggs lodge in my throat, and I grab a glass of water from the table and take a drink. I wonder if this glass is heavy enough to knock him out.

“I don’t have secrets.”

“We both know that’s not true. Your secret, or your heart, ‘tis all I require.” His voice drops an octave, sending tingles skittering over my skin and converging into an anxious knot in my stomach. He won’t receive either. My fingers clench around my fork, but he places his hand over mine, drawing my gaze to his face. “If you can get me to the right authoritieswithoutkilling me, I’ll offer you a secret of my own. You must be curious.”

“I’m not.” I snatch my hand away. “I don’t want anything from you.”

He shoots me a smolder I’m sure has naïve women fawning all over him. “That’s what you say now.”

We eat in competitive silence, staring into each other’s eyes like if we stare hard enough, we can scorch the other person’s darkened soul.

He finishes his stack of pancakes without even looking at his plate, then stands, breaking eye contact first.Sucker.He scoops up my plate and takes it to the sink.

“You should change before we go out,” Liam says, as he washes the dishes. It’s unnerving watching a con man clean my plate. Allowing him to take care of me in any way feels wrong. Dirty.

“Change? Into what?” I would love to change, but since I didn’t have any warning about this trip abroad, I have nothing to change into.

He turns off the sink and goes to a closet by the door, pulling out a royal purple garment bag with a fancy gold logo I don’t recognize. “I had something sent up for you.”

“No, thank you.”

“You’re really going to meet the Winthrops in that?” His eyes scour my body and his lips purse in disapproval at my wrinkled pantsuit. “They’ll throw you out and only invite me in. On second thought, go ahead. I’m ready for a vacation.”

“To prison.” I snatch the bag out of his hand.