Chapter Twenty-One #2
Maybe he wasn’t ready to tell Willow what he had finally admitted to himself.
They had promised each other they would take things slowly, and he meant to keep that promise.
She deserved time to heal and discover who she was outside of Chen’s control, without Jay Bird pushing her toward another life before she was ready.
But loving her didn’t require him to rush her. It just meant he would be there.
Jay Bird tightened his fingers around Willow’s hand as they continued toward the SUV, and she moved a little closer until her shoulder brushed his arm.
Whatever came next, they would handle it together.
He only wished he could shake the nagging feeling that whatever was coming might already be closer than any of them realized.
From the back seat of the dark sedan parked across the lot, Chen watched Willow walk toward the SUV.
He hadn’t expected seeing her in person to affect him quite this strongly.
For the past several days, he had been content to allow Elias to handle the surveillance while Liu quietly gathered information.
Willow’s routine was becoming clearer. She worked at Mia’s veterinary clinic several days a week, and she lived inside the gated community Elias had identified.
However, accessing the neighborhood without drawing attention had proven more difficult than Chen would have preferred.
Today had provided the first real breakthrough because Willow wasn’t alone.
Chen’s gaze remained fixed on the man carrying Lily.
Lily looked older. Of course she did. Months had passed since he had seen her, but photographs hadn’t prepared him for the difference. Her hair had gotten longer, and she was dressed in a brightly colored outfit with that ridiculous stuffed elephant wedged beneath her arm.
More disturbing was how comfortably she rested against the stranger.
“Who is he?”
Liu sat beside him with a tablet in his hands.
“From what we gather, he is also a SEAL and is the one Willow has been staying with.”
Chen’s jaw tightened. “Another fucking SEAL?”
Willow hadn’t simply found people willing to hide her. She had found warriors.
As Chen watched, Willow reached up and adjusted Lily’s hat. The SEAL said something that made her laugh before she slipped her hand into his.
Chen went completely still.
They continued walking as if the gesture were natural, their hands linked while Lily slept against the man’s chest, and anyone watching them would have seen exactly what Chen saw—a family.
His fingers curled against his thigh.
“There’s more,” Liu said carefully.
Chen finally looked at him. “What?”
“We identified the registration attached to Willow’s vehicle. The information appears to have been carefully constructed, but the identity itself is valid.”
Chen’s patience thinned. “Get to the point.”
“She’s using his last name.”
For a moment, Chen wasn’t sure he had heard correctly. “What?”
“Willow’s identification now carries the SEAL’s last name.”
Ice spread through Chen’s veins as he looked back through the window.
Willow stood beside the SUV as the man opened the rear door. She leaned close as he carefully lowered Lily into a car seat, one hand resting briefly against his back.
“Are they married?”
“We haven’t located a marriage license.”
“Then why the hell is she using his name?”
“We don’t know.”
Chen watched the SEAL straighten and say something to Willow.
She smiled before rising onto her toes and kissing his cheek, and although the gesture was innocent enough, it told Chen everything he needed to know.
There was definitely something going on between them.
She looked happier and freer than Chen had ever seen her.
He felt his anger rising, but he forced it down because losing control now would accomplish nothing.
“She’s sleeping with him.”
“We don’t know that.”
Chen shot Liu a look. “Look at them.”
Liu wisely said nothing.
Chen continued watching as Jay Bird opened Willow’s door for her before walking around the SUV.
For months, he had imagined Willow frightened and alone, barely surviving while she waited for the inevitable day he found her.
Instead, it appears that she built herself a new life with a job, friends, a home, and apparently a man who had taken something that belonged to Chen.
“Tell Elias to maintain surveillance,” Chen said quietly. “Nothing changes. He does not approach Willow, the child, or anyone she associates with.”
Liu studied him. “You’re being unusually patient.”
“Because I know what we’re dealing with now.”
A Navy SEAL wasn’t an ordinary obstacle, and Chen wasn’t arrogant enough to treat him like one. Before he went anywhere near Willow, he needed to understand what he was dealing with.
Liu glanced toward the SUV as it pulled away.
“What are you thinking?”
Chen continued watching until Willow disappeared from sight.
He had spent months imagining the moment when he finally found her, but now that he had, simply taking her wasn’t enough.
Willow had become comfortable in this new life, and before he tore it away from her, he wanted her to understand that the safety she had begun trusting was nothing more than an illusion.
“I think Willow has forgotten her place.”
Liu’s expression hardened slightly. “And you’re going to remind her?”
A cold smile slowly crossed Chen's face as he reached for his phone, an idea already beginning to form.
“Oh, yes.”