Page 36 of The Verdict

“Yeah.” His lips curled. “The last time I ignored this feeling, it killed a friend of mine.”

I jolted. I hadn’t been expecting that.

“I see.” I lowered my gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just be honest,” he warned low. “I won’t let another friend of mine get hurt.”

“I’d never hurt Rhys,” I countered simply.Real.

He was right—the rest of me was fake, but I wasn’t going to hurt Rhys. Not as much as I could help it. As soon as I hadinformation, I’d disappear. I might not be a killer, but I’d spare him from protecting a criminal. My past—my mistakes weren’t his to correct.

“I’d never let you.”

It was a threat. Loud and clear. So, I took it and added it to the growing list of threats against me, silently chiding it to wait in line.

“He’s lucky to have you,” I said softly, ignoring the pang in my chest. Loss was like a well-toned muscle around my heart, squeezing tight every time I wished I had someone to protect me like that.Every time, I wished Rhys could be that person.

I turned away from Darius and headed for the door back into the building.

I needed information, and then I needed to get out of here before anyone realized the truth—before anyone else got hurt.

My first stop was the rec room, making sure to leave the door cracked open before I turned on the TV. I flipped to the Spanish programming channel and sank onto the couch, kicking off my sneakers, and turned up the volume several clicks.

The sound droned on—nothing but background noise while my senses heightened to everything else.

A few minutes later, I heard the distant click of the door to the garage.A change in the glare on the screen revealed when Darius peered in to check on me. I didn’t move, pretending not to notice him. I gave him time to assure himself that I had no intentions of doing anything but distracting myself with a Spanish soap opera.

After a minute, his footsteps thudded in retreat back to the garage, the door closing behind him. There was a bike he was working on—an engine that was giving him trouble, according to what I’d overheard him complain to Ty last night.

Still, I didn’t move. Several minutes passed perched in frontof the TV before I was satisfied he wasn’t coming back. I rose and padded to the door. A quick check of the hall to confirm it was empty, and then I was moving—striding to Ty’s office, where I slipped inside and closed the door behind me.

It took a couple of minutes to bring up Ty’s computer and navigate to the right files, the first with Les’s name on it.Inside was information on his death—photos from the crime scene. Details on his practice. His employees. Financial records. The information projected on the big screen, and as I scrolled, my throat tightened when I saw the file with my name on it. I knew what was in there—what they would’ve found.And what they wouldn’t.My good name had been completely wiped when I’d joined the Cosmos; I knew that going in, but I had to do it.

I almost clicked on it—too tempted to know what Rhys knew about me—but something stopped me. Another folder with the labelA. Lorenzunderneath. I wasn’t sure what drew me to it. Maybe it was that same gut instinct that urged Darius not to trust me. Either way, I opened it, and my stomach dropped like a brick of ice.

Worn, tanned skin. Dark hair and beard. That mouth that had come after me with a threatening snarl in the hotel that night…

Mars.

“Merritt.”

Maybe it was a good thing I was already in shock—at least there was no having to fake my reaction when I gasped loudly and spun, finding Rhys’s piercing stare.He stood in the doorway,the slow creep of distrust working its way over his features like a vine around a tree.

“What are you doing?”

My eyelids fluttered. “It’s him,” I said, my voice cracking as I pointed to the screen.“The man who attacked me.”

The man you killed to protect me.

Rhys’s expression softened, and he lowered his chin. “Alvaro Lorenz.”

The need for answers roared like a beast freed from my chest.They knew who he was.My heart galloped inside my chest.What if they knew the others?

“Alvaro Lorenz.”I tested the name in my mouth, finding it harder than I would’ve thought to refer to the real name of the man I’d only known as Mars for almost eight months.

“Who is he?”

He stepped inside and closed the door as though he didn’t want the rest of his crew to know he’d found me here. “Career criminal. Wanted by Europol for armed robbery, assault with battery, and attempted murder back in Spain. We think he was hired as protection for someone at Wheaton’s party.”

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