Page 31 of Nemesis

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “Yeah,oh.”

“Are you staying for dinner,mijo?”

“Sorry, I can’t. We have to head back.”

“Nooo, Uncle Theo,” Maya whined as she hugged his legs. She looked up at him, pouting. “Stay, please.”

Uncle?Wait, she wasn’t his daughter.

“I can’t,mijita. I have to go back to work,” he admitted reluctantly.

“Tell you what.” He crouched to her level, gripping her chin so she would look at him. “When Mommy comes home tonight, have her call me and I'll read your favorite bedtime story until you fall asleep.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. “Okay.”

“I love you,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead.

She smiled, giving a loud kiss on his cheek. “I love you more.”

His mother came up behind him and rubbed his back. “Don’t stay away too long.”

“Promise,” he replied, planting another kiss on her forehead.

He headed for the door and I took one last look at the kitchen where his mother and niece were laughing while cooking, my heart squeezing at the reminders of the countless times my mother tried teaching me how to cook growing up.

As soon as we were in the car, I turned to Theo and blurted out the question that had been burning my tongue since Maya called him uncle. “She’s not your daughter?”

“No, she’s my younger sister’s daughter. Camila’s an ER nurse and one of her colleagues called off at the last minute, so she had to stay for a few extra hours to cover until they could find a replacement. My mother hasn’t driven in over ten years and my younger brother is away for college.”

There was a pause. “Besides, I’m usually the first person my family calls when something’s wrong or needs to be done.”

He started the car, pulling away from the driveway.

“I didn’t know you had siblings.”

We’d shared a lot during the year we’d spent together, but we never really talked much about his life outside of the bureau.

He turned his attention to me. “Yeah. I’m the oldest.”

His eyes drifted back to the road and we drove home in complete silence, with only one thought at the forefront of my mind.

Maybe not everything is lost.

CHAPTER13

SOFIA

I’d been sitting in my office all day, waiting for Victor to leave the house for his late meeting with the suppliers after the delayed shipment incident. It was almost eleven at night and Victor still hadn’t left the house, leading me to think it had been postponed.

I was almost done getting ready for bed when the headlights of his Maybach filtered through the bedroom’s window, streaking the wall opposite in shades of white before they disappeared.

I walked to the window and watched it pull away from the driveway, Jaxon in the driver’s seat. The gates closed right behind them as they drove off into the night, three black SUVs following closely behind, leaving us security-free for at least the next hour.

I had to act fast. This was my only window of opportunity to find out more about Theo’s real reason for being here.

As the days went by, I’d caught flashes of uncertainty in his expression and I needed to find out why he was here, doing a babysitter’s job instead of working for the bureau. I’d tried hacking through his call log, but whatever server he was using kept dodging my attempts at infiltrating his phone.

Theo would be coming back from his run any minute now and would head straight to the shower like he did every night, his routine like clockwork.