Page 148 of Secret Squirrel

“If you were with any other gentleman…”

“You still wouldn’t have a chance,” Bodhi said easily. “Now, let her go before she takes offense.”

I almost laughed at Hans’ expression. “Very well, should you ever decide against this one, do look me up, liebchen, I beg you.”

Shaking my head, I withdrew my hand and Hans motioned to the guard who closed the door.

“Sit, both of you… Would you care for a drink?”

“No,” Bodhi said as he waited for me to sit on the love seat opposite the sofa Hans occupied. Neither man sat until I did. Bodhi joined me and Hans reclaimed his own. “You said you had news.”

“I do,” Hans said. “I definitely do.” Leaning forward, his elbows resting lightly against his expensively tailored pant legs, he smiled. “I have names.”

Nothing about Bodhi’s posture changed. He didn’t seem to react. Yet the energy around him shifted. This was the kind of news he’d been waiting on getting. “What type of names?”

“First, the name of the woman who gave birth to the third King child. She was a challenge to track down, and a bit of a hellion herself. I would advise being prepared to lock her down should you need to speak to her. She was quite vexed that I located her.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope.

Bodhi took it and passed it to me. “That she’s alive is impressive. I take it she isn’t local?”

“Yes and no, she married into one of the Bridgeport families, the newer money. But a rather acrimonious divorce, as well as a hefty payout from her prenuptial, keeps her in comfort. She has no interest in returning to New York however. She not only changed her name, she changed it again after she married. She is very much not Tracy Dunlop from Brooklyn who had an affair with Julius King and served as his mistress for four years.”

I opened the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper. It was older, the texture of the paper a little softer and finer as it had aged. It was a birth certificate.

Baby boy.

Theodore Julian Dunlop.

Mother Tracy Dunlop.

There was no name filled in for the father, just the mother.

A boy.

Milo and Em had a baby brother. My heart filled and crashed in the same breath.

“Does she have the boy?” Bodhi asked but Hans was already shaking his head.

“This was the part I found most difficult. She didn’t want to part with any information. In fact, she became downright hostile until I made it clear that her life could become much more unpleasant. Finally, she admitted that she made arrangements for the boy to disappear. She wouldn’t share the details but that she’d made it clear to the father that he would never see the child again.”

“King could simply kidnap and torture her.” It wasn’t like he was above that.

“Perhaps, liebchen…” The faint smile touching his lips as he glanced to Bodhi while saying the endearment almost made me roll my eyes. “However, she has buried her identity very well. She took from him what he wanted most and made sure he couldn’t have him. She mentioned using his own contacts against him. I can get more details, but it will take time.”

Used his own contacts. “King is into human trafficking.”

We’d known. Of course, we’d known. But we’d never had concrete proof.

Was King the one Harper used to get rid of Andrea?

The sulfurous scratch of anger lit inside me. Hans had names.

“I also have another birth certificate.”

Another…

“For King?” The energy around Bodhi shifted once more. It grew almost deadly in its stillness.

“No,” Hans said, withdrawing another envelope from his inner pocket. “This one would have been impossible without Ms. Dunlop’s assistance. It would seem, one of the reasons she knew how to hide the boy was because she’d seen it happen to another woman’s child.”