Chapter Seven #2
“I found some activity tied to your old identity. Someone was doing some record inquiries. Nothing that gives me a name or an exact location yet, and whoever’s doing it knows enough not to leave an obvious trail.”
Willow’s heart began to beat faster. “How recent are we talking about?”
“Shortly after you escaped.”
Willow already knew who was behind it. Chen had his own connections.
Willow glanced over at Lily, who was still sitting on the floor coloring, completely absorbed in her little world, unaware that the monster Willow had dragged her halfway across the world to escape might already be looking for them.
Jay Bird shifted closer to her. “Willow—”
“It’s him,” she said, cutting him off.
“We don’t know that,” Derek said gently.
She shook her head. She knew Chen well enough to understand that he wouldn’t stop until he found her.
He had told her often enough what happened to people who betrayed him. She had helped Riley escape, attacked him, stolen from him, and then taken Lily. Of course, he was looking for her.
Tink leaned forward slightly. “I can’t tell you it was Chen. I also can’t tell you it wasn’t. The timing is enough that I don’t want to ignore it.”
Willow forced herself to breathe. “So what does that mean?”
“It means we need to be smart about how we rebuild your identity.”
She frowned. “You just said you could get everything back.”
“I can.”
“But?”
Tink paused for a moment before continuing. “I don’t think you should actively use Willow Beckett right now.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
“What do you mean?”
“Your legal identity stays intact. I’m not talking about taking that away from you. But every time Willow Beckett opens an account, applies for a job, signs a lease, gets utilities, enrolls a child in daycare—”
“It leaves a trail.”
“Exactly.”
Willow pushed her chair back slightly. “So what are you suggesting?”
“A temporary protected identity. We coordinate it with the appropriate people so everything is legitimate. Nothing fake that’s going to create problems for you later.”
Another identity, another name, another version of herself, all created because someone else had decided Willow Beckett wasn’t allowed to exist.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Willow shook her head. “I don’t want another identity.
I spent three years living a life that wasn’t mine.
” Her voice trembled, and she hated it. “I wore what Chen told me to wear. I went where he told me to go. I answered to whatever he wanted. Half the time I didn’t even recognize myself anymore.
” She looked at the paperwork spread across the table.
“And now I finally get out, and you’re telling me I still can’t be me? ”
“No one’s saying that,” Tink said gently.
“It feels like it.” Her eyes stung with tears. “I want my name back.”
Willow looked toward Lily again. She had done all of this so her daughter could have a real life—so they both could. And now Chen was reaching across an ocean and taking pieces of that life away again.
Willow pressed her palms against her thighs, trying to stop her hands from shaking.
“I don’t want him taking anything else from me.”
She hadn’t realized she had said the words aloud until the room went completely quiet.
Jay Bird had been doing a pretty damn good job keeping his mouth shut. Right up until Willow said she didn’t want Chen taking anything else from her.
Something about those words got under his skin.
Maybe because he had spent the last half hour watching her face change with every piece of information Tink gave her.
He had seen the relief when she learned she could reclaim the money from her old bank account.
He had watched her fight tears when Tink showed her the life insurance policy her father had left behind.
For a few minutes, she actually looked hopeful, like she was finally starting to believe there might still be a life waiting for her beyond everything Chen had done to her.
Then Tink told her someone had been digging into her identity, and all that hope disappeared.
Now she sat beside Jay Bird with her hands pressed tightly against her thighs, staring at the paperwork that was supposed to give her life back as though it had suddenly become another cage.
Jay Bird didn’t fucking like it.
Tink wasn’t wrong. Jay Bird knew that. If there were even a chance Chen or one of his people was monitoring Willow, then putting that name back into circulation would be stupid.
But asking Willow to become someone else didn’t sit right either.
Chen had already taken three years from her, and Jay Bird wasn’t about to let him take more.
“She keeps Willow,” Jay Bird said.
Tink looked at him. “What?”
“Her first name.” Jay Bird leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “She keeps it. Just change the last name.”
Tink studied him for a moment. “That would be okay. But to what?”
Jay Bird opened his mouth, and whatever filter normally kept his brain from blurting out the first damn thing it thought had apparently decided to take the morning off.
“Mine.”
The room went silent—completely fucking silent.
Tink’s eyebrows rose, and Willow slowly turned her head toward him. He didn’t even bother looking at Derek, because he didn’t need to. He could already feel his stare burning into him from across the table.
“Yours?” Willow asked.
Jay Bird finally looked at her. Her brown eyes were wide.
“Yeah.”
“You want me to use your last name?”
The question sounded considerably more insane coming from her.
“Temporarily,” he added.
Across the table, Derek shifted in his chair, and when Jay Bird finally glanced at him, it was a mistake. Derek was already watching him with an expression Jay Bird knew far too well.