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Jake rubbed his wound, frowning. “It’s probably better you surprised me. I loathe needles. What’s it for?”
Lila pulled up his file on her palm, watching as the pen broke down his DNA information bit by bit and transmitted it wirelessly. In less than one minute, it had already reported her subject as male. “Sit down. This will take a few moments.”
“You could have just asked me for my full name. I would have told you.” He kept hold of his neck and turned back to his skillets and pots. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish cooking breakfast. I’d protest you trying to break into my home, but I know that would get me nowhere. Your family’s influence goes far, Chief Randolph.”
“You know my face?”
“I knew who you were before you even knocked.”
Lila’s gaze cut to Tristan, but he seemed equally confused by Jake’s words. “You’re going to bring those girls in here so I can test them, too.”
“Do you have to?” Jake moved to the refrigerator. He took out some apple slices and dropped them into a pot, then sprinkled in a bit of cinnamon before closing the lid. “The girls have been through a lot recently. They’re my sister’s kids. She—”
“You expect me to believe those girls are related?”
“Not everyone looks it.”
“No, they don’t. How do you know Finn Nottingham?”
Jake raised a brow, concern in his eyes. “You know Finn?”
“How do you know him?” Lila watched as more information popped up on her palm. Probable hair and skin color, race, and body type. His name and picture would pop up as soon as the device matched his blood against the DNA records.
“Finn is my husband.”
“I didn’t see that in the database. Do you have the license?”
Jake pointed over his shoulder to the dining room wall. A marriage license had been framed and hung beside several pictures of them in tuxes on their wedding day, with large grins and even larger cravats. “Finn insisted we hang it. I think it throws off the entire room. I suppose your all-important database hasn’t been updated since last January.”
“I suppose it hasn’t been. It’s bad with marriages. It’s great with arrest reports, though. You do know about the suspicions surrounding him?”
“The kidnapping thing? I’m aware of the reports, but it’s all completely unfounded, just like I told Chief Quinn at the time. Finn would never hurt anyone, much less a child. You should see how great he is with my nieces.”
“I’m not convinced they are your nieces.” Lila left the DNA pen to do its work and opened up her snoop programs. Pulling his full name from the marriage license, she dug for Jake’s biographical data. He had one sister, deceased. When Lila dug into the woman’s records, she found that Jake’s sister had not given birth.
Flipping back to the DNA results, she let out a grunt, surprised that Jake hadn’t lied about his name. “Care to come up with a better story, Jake?”
He took the eggs off the stove. “You’re fast with that thing.”
“Stop fussing about with breakfast and sit.”
Tristan turned off the burners and ushered Jake to the table. He and Dixon loomed behind him.
“Breakfast will get cold. Oatmeal has a short half-life.”
Lila inserted a fresh needle into her DNA pen, then started toward the den. The two little girls stared at the screen like owls, watching a pair of animated figures chase one another across the desert.
“Don’t,” Jake said softly after she set a foot into the den. “Please.”
Lila stopped and turned around, her hands on her hips.
“Please, they really have been through a lot. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know—just let them be, will you? All anyone wants is for them to be safe.”
Lila put down the pen and sat next to him at the table. “Safe from what?”
“From their destiny.”
“Wow. Could you be any more melodramatic?”
