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I release her arms and take half a step back. “I live to serve.”
She snorts, but it comes out like a weak wheeze. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I was coming to the airport. The question is, what areyoudoing here?” I wave it away as soon as I ask it. “Actually, I already know. But I’d like to hear it from you.”
Her breathing grows more regular and less labored by the second. Maybe I really am the cure for her claustrophobia after all.
“I’m here to stop you from wasting my time.”
“Gee, thanks,” I flip back to her.
She grimaces in frustration. “You’re wasting your time here, Timofey. You won’t find anything in Mexico.”
“I’ll find exactly what I mean to find in Mexico. Wherever you sent Ashley and your Gram, I’ll find them.”
She swallows audibly. “I know you will. I’m just saying it won’t help. They can’t tell you anything.”
“I don’t need them to tell me anything,” I explain. “You’re the one keeping secrets, Piper.”
“You need to look into the Albanians. Find out who they are working with.”
“You.”
She fists her hands and pounds them on the table. It’s stainless steel, so she quickly winces and grabs at her knuckles. “I’m not working with them. I would never do that to you.”
“It’s not like you don’t have a history. The only reason you agreed to work for me is to get close to Benjamin and steal him away from me.”
She sucks in her cheeks, staring at me but refusing to speak.
“Well?” I bark. “Defend yourself. Feed me some more sweet lies.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Yes, you fucking are!” I slam my hands down on the table right where she did the same. I feel the same vibration through my bones Piper just experienced, but I hold the position and her gaze.
She jerks back, her rolling chair slamming against the wall.
With one shove, I slide the table forward so she’s pinned between the edge of the table and the wall. “You think I’m such a shitty father that you are willing to work with a dangerous crime syndicate like the Albanians to get my child away from me.”
“You’rea dangerous crime syndicate!””
I choose to ignore that point. “I should have trusted my instinct with you,” I continue. “You and all these other CPS agents out here, kidnapping kids. It's a habit for you now. You can’t help yourself.”
She struggles against the table. When she realizes it’s hopeless, she glares at me. “When you aren’t being a stubborn, pig-headed asshole, you can be a great dad. A great man, even.”
I shouldn’t care what she thinks of me, but the words wiggle in my ear. And my chest.
It’s extremely fucking annoying.
“Maybe…maybe at first I thought that,” she admits. “But you changed my mind, Timofey. All of the times that you took care of the people you loved, the times you sacrificed your own safety for Benjamin—for me. All of that changed my mind. Every minute you spend going after me instead of the people actually responsible for Benjamin’s kidnapping, though? That’s undoing all of that good.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think of me,” I tell her succinctly. “I care where my son is.”
“If that is true, then you should care what I think,” she snaps back. “Because I’m trying to help you. If you want to be the father I know you can be, you need my help.”
I stare at her, searching her face for something I can’t find: signs of deception.
All at once, I pull the table away.
