Page 119 of Illicit Games

“There’s something else too,” Kian shares tersely.

“What?”

Twisting his chair so we’re facing his desk, he clicks on his laptop, maximizing the screen he was reading. “I had the same investigator gather names of all my father’s assistants.”

“To find your mother?” I gasp, the breath whooshing out of my lungs.

“Yeah. Though I didn’t tell him the reason.”

Leaning forward, I scroll through the document. “God! How many assistants could a man possibly go through?”

How in the hell will we ever find his birth mother?

“The guy listed the year they quit or were fired. In the years before and after my birthday, these four worked for him. One died from a heart attack.”

The remaining three show no records of where they are at this moment. All it lists in the reason column is that two of them quit, while one was fired.

“Is it possible to get their pictures? There will be some similarities between you two.”

“I’ve asked the guy,” Kian replies coldly. “He’s about to send them any minute now.”

I glance at him, hating the distress marring the angles of his face. Rubbing his chest, I say, “It’ll be fine. We’ll find her, love.”

“I miss our time in the cabin, Little Rainbow.” He sighs longingly. “I’m tempted to fly you back there again.”

“Me too.” I stroke the side of his face, loving how he leans into my touch. “I know our lives have become stressful lately. But it won’t always be like this.”

He brushes my hair away. “I’ll breathe easy once I know you’re safe.”

“Nothing’s happening to me. Not when I have you protecting me.”

“We’re going on a date this weekend,” he promises. “And every weekend from now on, no matter what’s going on in our lives.”

“I love the sound of that, Kian.”

With a tilt of his chin, he seals his lips with mine and kisses me deeply. The notification sound pulls us apart. Both of us gaze at the laptop to see a new email has arrived.

Securing an arm around me, Kian clicks on it and opens the first attachment.

A grainy image pops up of a woman appearing to be in her mid-thirties at the time of her employment at Kian’s father’s firm with a round face and curly brown hair. Though pretty, she’s nothing like Kian. He realizes it too and moves on to the next attachment.

My sharp intake of breath is instant as I stare at the image with my jaw slack.

Kian tenses beneath me.

The resemblance between him and the young woman on the screen is uncanny. They have the same light gray eyes and Roman nose. She even has his dimples.

She is his mother.

And we know exactly where she is.

Chapter Thirty-One

Kian

My mother has been hiding right under my nose, unbeknownst to me. Out of everyone in the world, I never thought she’d be the one to play me for a fool.

I’m enraged, confused, and distrustful.