Page 97 of Secret Baby Daddy

Relief.

Not confusion.

Not curiosity.

Relief.

The reaction of a man who has just found something he was afraid actually existed.

“Keep him there,” Piper says.

I don’t answer.

Roman removes the recorder first.

He turns it over in his hand.

Then he presses play.

Static fills the archive.

Three seconds.

Four.

Nothing.

Roman stops it.

His expression changes.

He looks at the drive.

Then at the room.

The cameras are hidden.

The microphones aren’t.

I watch the exact second the trap becomes visible to him anyway.

Roman smiles.

“Dominic.”

My name carries clearly through the wall.

Hayes looks at me from across the security station.

“He can’t know you’re here.”

“He knows.”

Roman sets the recorder carefully back inside the box.

“I taught you better than this.”

Piper’s voice comes through my earpiece.