You won't believe who I'm with, Liam!" Cole said excitedly over the phone.
Liam shut his eyes and sighed tiredly, wondering what all this excitement was about this time. "Who are you with? The Prince of England?" He asked in sarcasm.
"I'll do you one better. I'm with my son!" Cole responded in a proud tone.
Liam's eyes shot open immediately.
"You're with who?" He asked, just to be sure his ears weren't playing a trick on him.
"My son!" Cole responded again.
"By "my son," you mean Tris?" Liam asked.
"Who else?" Cole inquired with a raised brow despite the fact that Liam could not see his expression.
"What are you doing with him?"
"We went to the park today,"
"What?! Isn't he supposed to be school or something?! How did you get him out?"
"I was sleek about it, so don't worry about it."
"Cole, don't you think you're taking this too far? If anything happens to that boy, it'll only be a matter of time for it to be traced to you. His mother doesn't even know that he's away from school-"
"You worry too much, Liam. I'm taking him back to the school, if that's what you want to hear,"
Liam sighed in relief. "So where's he?"
"Tris? He's in the car with me. He was tired from all the fun, so he dozed off,"
"Have you gotten it yet?" Liam asked.
"Gotten what?" Cole inquired.
"What else? The DNA materials of course! You're alone with him, and he's asleep. You can get whatever you want to get from him now," Liam replied.
"But, I'm driving,"
"And so? Can't you make a quick stop and do what you have to do?" Liam suggested.
Liam got a silent response to his question.
"I'll do it another time," Cole said as he took a look at Tris from the rearview mirror.
Liam sighed again, this time out of frustration. "I know you're just looking for excuses to be with the boy again, and we can't afford that, Cole! You have too much to lose if this stunt you're pulling gets exposed. How do you think the press will see it if they get a hold of this information - that you're sneaking a seven year old out of school to an unknown place without the permission of his mother or the school authorities?"
"Liam! Isn't that caption too harsh?!"
"Is that what you're going to tell the press? You know how ruthless they can be when it comes to tarnishing one's name. All of your efforts as well as your father's, they'll all go down the drain. Do you want that?"
"No, but-"
"If your answer is no, then I suggest you stop the car and take the hair strand you need, so that the next you see that boy? You'll have a valid answer as to whether he's your son or not,"
"I'll do it some other time, Liam. But even without a DNA test, I can feel it, Liam. This is my seed. He has my blood flowing in his veins. My wolf connects with him in a type of way,"
Liam just rubbed his aching head with his fingers, tired of hearing those words over and over again.
"So now that the boy is sleeping, what are you going to do when we get there? Are you just going to hand him over to the teacher like nothing happened? What if the class has noticed that Tris is missing?"
"Liam, you worry too much about little things. Don't you know me anymore? The same way I took him unnoticeably, that's the same way I'll get him in. Trust me, no one has notice his absence," Cole assured him.
Those were the last words Liam heard before the call ended. Liam just shook his head in astonishment. He'd never Cole so adamant on issues like this. He just hoped all these sneaking was worth it. He hoped no one had noticed Tris's absence.
A knock on his door got him out of his head.
"Who's that? Come in," he ordered and Amy showed herself in.
Someone to brighten his day!
"Amy! How are you doing?!"
"I'm doing well. Good afternoon, boss," she curtsied, and he forced a frown on his face.
"How many times will have to correct you? I don't want you calling me "boss" or sir". Call me by my first name. It's still the same guy you helped back in highschool, you know?"
"I'm sorry, boss - Sorry, I mean... Mr. Liam," she smiled awkwardly.
Liam sighed.
"I know you'll need some time to get used to it, so I'll give it to you. What brings you to my office?"
"I came to remind you about the meetings you're to have with the tech company from Brazil. We'll be meeting with them in less than an hour from now. Also, I was asked by that data analyst to take the LX documents from your office, so he can sort them out."
"Oh? Thank you for reminding me about the meeting. Here are the documents," he pointed to a pile of documents at the corner of his table.
She went over and once she picked them up, she headed out of the office.
"Amy!" Liam called her name, causing her to come to a halt.
She turned to him.
"Yes, Mr. Liam?"
Liam opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't get the words out of his mouth. Amy waited, expecting something from him, but he wasn't saying anything.
"Don't worry about it. I'll send someone else," he lied through his teeth.
"O...kay," Amy said and found her way out of the office.
Once she left, Liam exhaled in relief, grateful that she bought into the lie.
He had no errands to send her, of course.
He wanted to ask her on a date.
He was this close to asking her to hangout out with him tonight, but he found it impossible to do this.
"Maybe it's because my wolf thinks it's too early. Maybe I should wait a little bit. She had to settle in and enjoy the job he'd given her before he'd drop that bomb on her.
Two things would happen - either she would accept the invitation, or she wouldn't, and things would get weird between them. The last thing he wanted was for her to quit because of him.
He had to wait.
***
Amy settled in her chair, relieved that she was almost done with all of the day's tasks.
Her phone came alive with a call.
She checked and saw that it was the school principal.
She groaned in misery. Did Tris get involved in another fight?
She picked it up and placed it over her ear.
"Good afternoon, Miss. Amy,"
"Good afternoon. What's wrong?"
"I'm calling about your son," she informed.
The tone the principal used to deliver the information caused fear to gripp Amy's heart.
"What's wrong him?" Amy asked worriedly.
"Well, errm... He's missing,"
As soon as Amy heard those words, the phone slipped from her hand with a horrified look on her face.