“What about around here? We’re pretty much under constant surveillance with Isabella and Sophia.”
“I guess we do the same. Isabella has never seen me with a boyfriend other than Matt Marino, and I kept that away from her as much as I could.”
He dumped the noodles into the boiling water. “Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” It was her turn to lean against the counter.
“I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just—” He ran a hand through his hair. “You’re an attractive woman. I just assumed you’d have had a boyfriend or two.”
Her cheeks warmed. “Thank you. It’s just that I’ve been taking care of Bella since she was born. Between that and going to school and working, I never had the time or inclination to date. Until Matt Marino. And look how that turned out. Then wejoined WITSEC, and I have to be so careful. It’s just best to stay single, I guess. What about you?”
He stirred the noodles. “I had a serious girlfriend and was considering asking her to marry me, then I got guardianship of Sophia. She decided she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Especially to a teenager.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. You probably don’t want to hear it, but it’s likely for the best. Some people aren’t meant to be parents. It would be doing Sophia a disservice to expect someone to be in her life that didn’t want to be there.” She could speak from experience.
“I assume you’re talking about your mother?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately for me. When I found out she was pregnant with Bella, I was hoping she’d change, you know? She’d want to be a parent, and I’d finally get a mother. It didn’t happen. I didn’t get a mother; I turned into one.”
He set the fork on the stove top. “That’s a lot for someone so young to carry. I’m sorry it was something you had to go through.”
She shrugged. “When you don’t have any other options, you deal with it.”
Liam’s face softened. “I guess I know that feeling.”
Sam tilted her head. “How so?”
“My childhood wasn’t the best. Dad had a temper, and I took the brunt of it.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Where was your mother?”
“She turned a blind eye most times. If he was taking it out on me, he wasn’t hitting her.”
“I’m sorry. Sounds like we both had useless mothers.” There was nothing she could do to change the past, and her words wouldn’t do anything to ease the pain of the memories.
“It’s all in the past. Now I focus on the future.” He stood and turned to check on the noodles. “Enough heavy talk for tonight. Can you grab the pan of meat out of the refrigerator?”
She grabbed the pan from the refrigerator and set it on the stove, bumping Liam’s arm. Electricity zapped through her. She stepped back. It was nothing. Just a reaction to her sharing part of her story.
“I talked to my boss today,” Liam said. “I’m on full-time protection duty for now, with some leeway. I thought we’d continue to take you to work and pick you up.” He turned the heat down on the stovetop.
“What about your other duties? Courthouse security, was it?”
“Hank, a partially retired marshal, has agreed to work my court shifts for the next couple of days. I have access to our databases from here.” He drained the noodles, combined everything, and put it in a glass baking pan. Then he covered it in cheese and slid it into the oven. “It should be ready in ten minutes.”
“Great. I’ll get the girls, and we can set the table.” She turned and walked out of the kitchen.
Liam had watched Sam fall into an easy rhythm over the past two days. He took her to work each morning, met her for lunch, then they spent the evenings together. The girls spent so much of their time in their bedroom that he and Sam didn’t have to do much acting at home. So everything had been kept professional since the talk in the kitchen.
The fire station was a different story. They sat next to each other and did the typical new-couple things. Hand-holding and hugs. It had become almost natural.
He’d followed up with RPD a couple of times on the reports regarding the juveniles—the one who’d followed Sam and the girls in the mall, and all of his friends.
So far, they had what appeared to be two separate cases at first glance. The murder of Dr. Torres and the fire to cover it up, and the situation with the girls. But what if they were connected?
An email from the forensic pathologist popped up in his inbox. He clicked the attachment and read her official report. Dr. Torres had died from a single gunshot to the back of the head. He was dead when the fire started.
He saved the report to the case file and clicked over to the fire inspector’s report. Based on the burn patterns, an accelerant was used in multiple spots throughout the home. Chemical trace tests confirmed gasoline.
