"Who is this?" I asked when he got close enough with the guy in tow that Kira and I had to step away from the door.

"We're about to find out," he answered. "I'm guessing you won't give me time alone with him?"

"If you want," Kira offered while she shut and locked the door, and I shot her a look.

I folded my arms over my chest and returned Rhys's stare. "I know we were only married for three months, but you should know that there's no way you could expect me not to stick around for whatever's about to happen."

Rhys smiled in amusement, and his dark eyes brightened with memories of us from four years ago. "Never hurts to try, Kennedy." He continued dragging the boy behind him until he got to the couch and yanked him closer. "Sit. Don't even try to move."

Kira stepped back slowly until she got to the table where we'd been sitting, and silently sat down, her wide eyes on the three of us in the living room.

"Who are you?" I asked the guy when he looked up at us.

"I'm asking the questions," Rhys grumbled, and gave me a dark look that I reciprocated. The action had his expression lightening again before he could control it to look back at the guy on my couch.

"Who are you?" Rhys repeated my question.

"Wait, I don't even know what he was doing to make you chase after him and drag him back in here," I said when the boy refused to respond.

Rhys didn't look at me this time; he kept his stare on the boy. "He was looking through the sliding glass door. I thought I saw him when I was cooking, but he was gone when I checked out back. When I got back from the grocery store this afternoon, he was leaving a paper on the front door."

"Was it a love letter?" I asked sarcastically, and the boy's blank expression morphed into a mocking smile.

Rhys just sighed. "No, will you let me-"

"Well, then where's the paper? I want to see it."

"I threw it away, it didn't have anything on it but a symbol."

I was already confused that this guy-who didn't look like he was a legal adult yet-would be scoping out our condo, but as soon as I heard the word symbol, I gasped and glanced at Rhys, then looked at Kira's worried face. "Get the paper," I ordered, then eyed the boy as I asked Rhys, "It's in the kitchen trash, right?"

"Yeah," he said hesitantly, drawing out the word to sound like a question. "Why?"

I didn't respond, I just kept my gaze on the mocking face of the boy in front of me. "Name. Now."

"Juarez," he replied immediately, and my lip curled.

"I fucking doubt that. Name."

"Kennedy," Kira called from the kitchen, and held up the crinkled paper.

I pointed to the paper and asked the boy, "What does the symbol mean?"

"Juarez," he answered again.

"What the hell is happening?" Rhys asked on a harsh whisper, and grabbed my arm to pull me back a few steps. His eyes widened when we heard Kira calling 911 from the kitchen. "Kennedy, what the fuck?"

"No, no. Don't do that!" the boy said quickly, and suddenly his mocking expression was replaced with worry as he started to stand. "It's just a joke! I swear, I mean . . . they just sent me here to see if you're here."

"Shut the fuck up, and sit down," Rhys demanded, then looked at Kira and me again. "What's happening?"

I gave him the quickest explanation I could of what had been going on back home, and every few seconds Rhys would have to look over at the boy to stop him from trying to stand up again.

"No one thought this was important to tell me?" Rhys bit out when I was finished. "Including your dad?"

"I swear they just pay me!" the boy said frantically, and stood again. "Don't call the cops, I'll-"

Rhys shoved him down and caged him against the couch, then leaned close so his face was inches from the boy's. "Tampa PD; if you don't sit here and shut up, I will personally fly you back to Florida and arrest you there."

"Man, I don't know anything," the boy cried as his eyes welled up. "They just pay me, man, I swear!"

"Pay you to do what?" I asked.

The boy shrugged and sniffed. "To mail letters, and to leave them at the police department and your parents' house."

My face smoothed out and I choked on a laugh when a snot bubble came out of the boy's nose as he sobbed. He looked terrified, and now I was worried he was going to pee on the couch. "Juarez pays you?"

The boy shrugged again. "Someone does. Juarez just tells me what to say and draw."

"What's your name?" I asked again; this time my tone was softer, but still held a hint of amusement at how the situation had drastically turned around. Not that I would have ever been scared of the boy himself, it was the situation that had me freaked out. He looked like he weighed no more than a hundred and twenty pounds, and having him come in trying to act like a badass only to start crying had me seconds from bursting into laughter.

"Matthew. My name's Matthew."

"Okay, Matthew, how do you know Juarez?" I looked over to Rhys when I realized he had stopped questioning the boy, but his eyes were wide as he watched the boy break down in hysterics.

"I was visiting my pop in prison. My pop owed Juarez a favor from the inside and told me to go to him, so I went to visit him to see what he wanted."

"How did you know the girls were here?" Rhys asked.

"I d-didn't, I swear. It was just a possibility. Juarez said there was family here, so I came. I've been following your uncle for almost a week, and saw you all go to his place for Thanksgiving, so I followed you back here. But I didn't know if these were even the girls I was looking for. I had to get a computer so I could search for their social media accounts to get pictures of-" Matthew cut off on loud sobs, and I had to bite my cheeks in order to keep myself from laughing.

"Police are coming," Kira mumbled from the kitchen, and Matthew cried harder.

I sighed and shrugged when Rhys gave me a confused look.

"What were your orders this time?" he asked gently, and I smiled, knowing that Rhys understood how to handle this situation. It was so hard to be mad at this boy since he'd just gotten mixed up with the wrong people because of his dad.

"Just to scare them with the symbol. But you'd gotten it earlier, so I've been waiting for the girls to come back. I was going to leave another note and knock once they were here."

"This poor kid," I whispered when Rhys took another step back so he was next to me.

"I don't know what to say now," Rhys said low enough that it wouldn't carry.

"I know," I agreed, and studied the kid again. "Matthew, do you know if Juarez has anyone else harassing my family?"

Matthew shook his head and choked out a sob. "I don't know, maybe. I'm sorry, I just wanted to help my pop and make money."

"And you don't know who's paying you?"

He looked up to me. "No. They mailed me a bank card and they just keep putting money in it for me. Oh no! No, please don't let them arrest me!" he cried out when sirens sounded close by.

I gave him a sympathetic smile, but didn't know what else to say. It was ridiculous that a kid who had been harassing my family could have me feeling so bad for him, but I couldn't help it. And from Kira and Rhys's expressions, they felt the same.

To be honest, I'd never thought anyone would find us here. But I was sure that if they did, it would have been a lot more action-packed than the last ten minutes had been. What a letdown.

Rhys helped the kid stand, and started leading him over to the front door. He was holding Matthew's hands behind his back like a cop without cuffs would do, and the action made Matthew cry even harder.

"Wait! Matthew, does Juarez know we're here in California?"

"No. He calls me every Wednesday. When he called me last week, I'd still only been following your uncle." He tried rubbing his wet cheeks against his shoulder, and looked between Kira and me. "I'm sorry," he cried.

"We know," I answered for us. Kira was still standing there with a guarded but sad look on her face. "We'll tell the police exactly what you told us, I promise."

He nodded, then let Rhys lead him outside.

"Do you think he was the only one doing everything?" Kira asked.

"I don't know. Let's hope so."

Kira's face clearly said she didn't agree. "We need to be a lot more alert from now on."

"I know, we will." I sighed heavily and clapped once. "Well! You ready to spend Monday night in a police station giving statements?"

Kira groaned and rolled her eyes, and I laughed at the look. "I'll go change my shirt so I don't smell like smoothies. Meet you outside?"

"Last one out has to call Dad to tell him!" I called over my shoulder as I ran toward my room.

I heard Kira's mumbled curse, and laughed louder as I stripped off my shirt and ran to my closet to grab the first one I touched. The worst part of this entire night would be telling Dad and Uncle Mason that one of Juarez's boys had found us . . . and I sure as hell didn't want to be the one stuck having to make that phone call.

16.

December 4 Liam I LOOKED UP at the sound of my office door opening, and my body immediately tensed when I saw the expression on Eli's face. He looked like he was nervous about talking to me, and while I still wasn't worried about my job, I was worried that he'd have news from one of his nieces.

"Hey," I said cautiously. "What's up?"

He sighed as he sat in the chair opposite me. "I just wanted to see how you're doing."

"I'm fine, why?"

Eli's face went blank. "Well, that's some bullshit."

"I don't know what you want, Eli. I've landed more accounts and finished more jobs in the last month alone than I normally do in a quarter. I'm fine."

"Yeah, your work is fine. It's great. But you never leave. You never leave the office and you never talk to anyone. So from what I'm gathering, Kennedy still hasn't called you, and as your friend, not your boss, I want to know how you're doing."

I sat back in my chair and folded my arms across my chest. "I don't know," I finally admitted. "I don't know how I am. She calls, but she hasn't made a decision, so I don't talk to her. I can't until she knows. Because talking to her will only give me hope, and right now my chances aren't looking that great."

"Well I don't know about that. From what I saw when the girls showed up with Rhys for Thanksgiving, Kennedy's pretty miserable herself."

My eyebrows rose. "He came with the girls?"

"I wouldn't go reading anything into that. It was very much a we-don't-know-what-to-do-with-him situation since he's still staying at their place."

"Still doesn't change the fact that he's there, which means she's probably no closer to making a decision."

"Maybe not," Eli mumbled. "If you want my suggestion, I would go talk to her."

"I can't do that, Eli. I told her I was stepping back, and I need to stick with that."

He tilted his head to the side and looked at me like he thought I was making a mistake, but didn't say anything else as he stood and began walking out until he got to the door. "My other suggestion is for you to take the rest of the day off, you need this weekend away from the office, and the weekend is starting right now for you." Eli stepped out of my office, but popped his head back in. "And by 'suggestion,' I mean that's an order from your extremely stern boss."

I smiled and huffed, but listened to what he said. Gathering up my stuff, I drove home, changed, and grabbed my board to head out to the beach. I usually only surfed in the early mornings, but since I wasn't able to distract myself with work at the moment, I needed to do something to clear my head.

I'd only been out there for about thirty minutes when I caught sight of a man not far up the beach, standing up, watching me. Instead of paddling back out, I hung my head and walked over to him.

"Is this the day for people to give me lectures? Should I go see Brian after this?" I asked sarcastically, and dropped down next to where my dad was standing.

Once he was sitting down next to me, he asked, "What other lecture?"

"It wasn't really. Eli just wanted to know how I was doing with the Kennedy situation, and told me he thinks I should go talk to her. And then he ordered me to leave early for the weekend . . . so I came here. Speaking of, how did you know I was here?"

Dad shrugged. "Saw your car. I had to run an errand since your mom's and my anniversary is coming up, and saw your car on my way out and back. Decided I'd stop to see why you were here-but I figured it had something to do with Kennedy."

I sat there for a couple minutes trying to figure out if I wanted to ask him what I'd been thinking for the past couple weeks. Dad just sat there waiting for me to begin. "When it was you . . . what did you do? And would you do it again?"

"With your mom and Chase?"

"Yeah."

Dad exhaled slowly and leaned back so he was holding himself up on his elbows. "Well. When I found out she was pregnant I asked her to leave, and that was it for us for a long time. I knew you weren't mine, and it didn't take more than a minute to figure out who your dad was. I'd known how Chase felt, and I saw how your mom looked at him. While Chase waited for your mom to decide between the two of us-before she knew she was pregnant, and after-he did what you're doing. He stepped back. And if he were here, I have no doubt he would tell you how big a mistake that was."

"Mistake?" I blurted out. "Why?"

"Because your mom ended up taking a long time to decide. Even after Chase found out that we had broken up, she still told him she couldn't be with him, and didn't tell him that she was pregnant for months."

"Months," I echoed, my voice dead even though I was fucking terrified that Kennedy would draw this out for the same amount of time.

"Months," Dad repeated. "By the time your mom was ready to tell him, and ready to give him a chance, they didn't have very long before he died. He missed a lot of time with her because he stepped back. If he would have pushed it more, or been around instead of hiding from her, I have no doubt your mom would have broken down sooner."

"And what were you doing during that time?"