Page 133 of Jay Bird

“There’s more,” Liu said carefully.

Chen finally looked at him. “What?”

“We identified the registration attached to Willow’s vehicle. The information appears to have been carefully constructed, but the identity itself is valid.”

Chen’s patience thinned. “Get to the point.”

“She’s using his last name.”

For a moment, Chen wasn’t sure he had heard correctly. “What?”

“Willow’s identification now carries the SEAL’s last name.”

Ice spread through Chen’s veins as he looked back through the window.

Willow stood beside the SUV as the man opened the rear door. She leaned close as he carefully lowered Lily into a car seat, one hand resting briefly against his back.

“Are they married?”

“We haven’t located a marriage license.”

“Then why the hell is she using his name?”

“We don’t know.”

Chen watched the SEAL straighten and say something to Willow. She smiled before rising onto her toes and kissing his cheek, and although the gesture was innocent enough, it told Chen everything he needed to know. There was definitely something going on between them. She looked happier and freer than Chen had ever seen her.

He felt his anger rising, but he forced it down because losing control now would accomplish nothing.

“She’s sleeping with him.”

“We don’t know that.”

Chen shot Liu a look. “Look at them.”

Liu wisely said nothing.

Chen continued watching as Jay Bird opened Willow’s door for her before walking around the SUV. For months, he had imagined Willow frightened and alone, barely surviving while she waited for the inevitable day he found her. Instead, it appears that she built herself a new life with a job, friends, a home, and apparently a man who had taken something that belonged to Chen.

“Tell Elias to maintain surveillance,” Chen said quietly. “Nothing changes. He does not approach Willow, the child, or anyone she associates with.”

Liu studied him. “You’re being unusually patient.”

“Because I know what we’re dealing with now.”

A Navy SEAL wasn’t an ordinary obstacle, and Chen wasn’t arrogant enough to treat him like one. Before he went anywhere near Willow, he needed to understand what he was dealing with.

Liu glanced toward the SUV as it pulled away.

“What are you thinking?”

Chen continued watching until Willow disappeared from sight. He had spent months imagining the moment when he finally found her, but now that he had, simply taking her wasn’t enough. Willow had become comfortable in this new life, and before he tore it away from her, he wanted her to understand that the safety she had begun trusting was nothing more than an illusion.

“I think Willow has forgotten her place.”

Liu’s expression hardened slightly. “And you’re going to remind her?”

A cold smile slowly crossed Chen's face as he reached for his phone, an idea already beginning to form.