Maria grabbed Talia’s left hand, looking for a ring even as Lennox’s blue eyes twinkled.
“No, Maria, we aren’t married,” Talia said with a laugh. “And no, Lennox and I are not dating. We’re just friends. He wanted to come spend the day at the park with you.”
Maria gave Talia a thoughtful look, her blue eyes skeptical, as if she quite didn’t believe what she was saying. The expression was way too mature to fit on her six-year-old face. But a second later, the serious expression faded, replaced by a childish grin.
“Are you going to ride all the rides with me?” she asked Lennox in excitement, jumping up and down again. “And buy me chicken fingers and fries and chocolate covered churros and ice cream?”
“I’ll ride as many rides as you want, assuming I fit on them,” Lennox said with a chuckle. “But when it comes to food, Talia gets the say there, and something tells me she’s not going to be okay with all that junk food.”
Maria looked disappointed for a few seconds, before nodding her acceptance and grinning all over again. “But you’ll ride the rides with me, right?”
Talia laughed, knowing exactly what he was in for today. As cute as she was, Maria could be a menace when it came to getting what she wanted. Which meant Lennox would be forced onto every ride in the park until his stomach was tossed upside down.
Lennox quickly became the center of attention for all the children, who excitedly dragged the tall, athletic SEAL toward the first ride, a spinning cup thing called the Bionicle Blaster. Seeing him led around by a bunch of little kids who barely reached his waist was adorable. And Talia wasn’t the only one who thought so. The other au pairs obviously did as well.
“So that’s the handsome and mysterious Navy SEAL that Maria is always telling us about?” Katrina Weber said with a knowing grin. Petite with wavy honey-blonde hair and green eyes, she was quickly becoming Talia’s best friend. “Did you finally break down and agree to go on a date with him? Not that I blame you. That man is fine!”
Talia sat down on one of the park benches as Katrina waved at Beverly McDaniel as the six-year-old girl she was an au pair to spun around and around on the ride with Maria and Lennox. Beverly was Maria’s best friend, and the two girls were never far from one another.
“No, we aren’t dating,” Talia admitted as Katrina joined her on the bench. “But I did spend the night at his apartment.”
“Wait. What?” Katrina blinked once then stared at her. “You aren’t dating but you’re sleeping together? Like a friends-with-benefits-kind of thing?”
“No. Nothing like that.” Talia wished it was that simple. She glanced over to check on Maria, who was laughing like wild and having the time of her life. “I stayed at his place because some guy tried to attack me last night outside Anna’s apartment building.”
“What?!” Katrina repeated, looking even more stunned than before, even as she kept one eye on Beverly.
“I was worried about Anna not showing up at the park yesterday or answering her phone,” Talia explained. “I went to her apartment hoping to find her but the moment I got there, this scary guy chased me. I have no idea if he was trying to grab me or kill me, but he was definitely someone bad.”
Katrina continued to stare. Like she was so horrified she couldn’t even speak.
“Anna is missing,” Talia added. “The police are convinced she flew home to Bolivia and that John Fredrickson paid for her plane ticket, but we confirmed this morning that she was never on the flight. Not that the police are ever going to believe us. They seem content to go along with anything Fredrickson tells them. I guess he’s paying them off.”
Her friend frowned. “Do you think this has to do with all the stuff the other women have been talking about lately? The crap the people we work for are involved in, I mean.”
Talia opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted when Maria and Beverly exited the teacup ride, each of Lennox’s big hands firmly clasped in their much smaller ones while the rest of the kids followed as fast as their little feet could carry them. The girls didn’t slow as they dragged him toward the next ride. Laughing, Talia and Katrina—along with the other au pairs—had no choice but to follow.
The sight of the tall, broad-shouldered Lennox sitting in the back seat of the tiny airplane of the Cargo Ace ride, knees sticking up almost to his ears as it went round and round in circles was the most hilarious thing Talia had ever seen. The fact that Maria was sitting in the front seat, waving her arms and laughing made it even better. Talia took over twenty pictures with her phone before moving over to join Katrina on another park bench as the other au pairs settled in the other seats situated around the ride. There weren’t a lot of guys outthere who would do what Lennox was doing right now. It was endearing.
“So?” Katrina prompted, interrupting her thoughts.
Talia looked around, lowering her voice. Between the rides and all the kids, the park was loud, but she still didn’t want to take the chance of someone overhearing. “Anna called me yesterday before the party. She said those same men everyone else has been seeing were at the Fredricksons two nights ago and that they threatened her boss over something. She planned to snoop around his office and tell me what she found when she got to the party but then she never showed up.”
Katrina’s eyes went wide. “Do you think Fredrickson caught her? Or those men who threatened him? Do you think she’s still alive?”
The question made Talia’s heart seize up in her chest. “I don’t know. But Lennox and his Teammates are going to help me find out since I sure can’t get anything from the police.”
“What can they do?” Katrina asked in confusion. “It’s not like SEALs are cops.”
Talia thought back to how Lennox had saved Maria and her from bad guys with guns at the zoo. What he’d done had been dangerous and yet he’d kept them safe regardless.
Realizing Katrina was looking at her expectantly, she opened her mouth to tell her friend about Kyla helping them but then decided against it. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Katrina because she most certainly did. It was just the help Kyla was giving them was way outside the woman’s normal job description. If anyone found out, Kyla would almost certainly get in trouble and lose her job at the very least. Worse, if it got around to the other au pairs and they started talking the information that there were people looking into them could also make it back to Fredrickson or the other families.
“No, they aren’t cops,” she finally said. “But what other option do I have? It’s not like there are people lining up to help.”
Katrina seemed to consider that before nodding. “So, how was spending the night with such a hot hunk like Lennox?”
Talia snorted, caught off guard by the sudden change of subjects. She supposed it was simply her friend’s way of lightening the somber mood that had settled over the conversation.
