Page 4 of Unbound

Walker McKinley. Owner of McKinley Security Systems. Lives in Willow Bend, Wyoming.

And wow… Walker McKinley has grown up a lot since that first picture was taken.

The man is hot as fuck. Broad, bearded, and still sporting those same clear blue eyes and freckles he had as a kid.

He’s also wearing the most serious expression I’ve ever seen anyone have in a photograph. Like it would physically hurt him to smile.

And maybe it would, all things considered.

I’m feeling pretty fucking good about my discovery—and continuing to sneak more than a few peeks at Walker’s picture—when my cell phone starts to ring. My mom’s the only person who calls me, so it’s not hard to guess who it is. I swipe my thumb across the screen without looking, trying to sound like my normal perky self as I answer. If I don’t, she’s going to ask me a million questions about what’s wrong, and I don’t have the energy, time, or emotional stability to explain it to her.

But it’s not my mom’s voice that carries through the line.

“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” The man on the other end of the line chuckles, the sound of it dark and chilling. “I thought you were too stupid to ever get anywhere, but it turns out you’re too stupid to know when to stop.” He sighs, blowing hard against the mic. “And now I’m going to have to figure out how to get rid of you.”

I don’t really think through my next move, I just react. Disconnecting the call and turning off my phone, I jump up from my chair, tossing the cell to the floor like it burned me.

Holy shit.

Maybe I did take this too far. Maybe I need to just stop. Go on with my life. But if I do that, I’ll never know what really happened.

My eyes fuse to the screen of my laptop, meeting Walker McKinley’s blue gaze.

Walker McKinley who owns McKinley Security Systems.

I’m definitely in need of some security, because I know myself well enough to know I’m not going to stop what I’m doing. I can’t. I need to find out what really happened.

And I think Walker McKinley might be the key.

1

Walker

What in the hell is going on?

I stare at the woman who’s been working at my side for over a week, trying to make sense of what she’s saying. Why in the hell would Lindsey think she was the target of today’s shooting?

Her pretty blue eyes come to me, holding for a second before dropping to the floor. “I didn’t want to lie to you, but I didn’t see any other options. If you knew the truth, you would’ve been in danger too.”

The tension in the room amps up exponentially as Ruth steps forward. “What exactly did you lie about?”

Lindsey squares her shoulders, chin lifting as she holds Ruth’s gaze. “Everything.”

Everything? The fuck does everything mean?

Ruth must be wondering the same thing, because she shakes her head and says, “That’s not good enough, Lindsey. We need something specific.”

Again, Lindsey looks toward me, catching my gaze. I swear I see something like regret in them before they shift back to Ruth. “For starters, my name isn’t Lindsey.”

“Uhh… what?” Maren, Trevor’s… terror, seems as stunned by the revelation as I am. “What the fuck do you mean your name’s not Lindsey?”

Lind—not Lindsey presses her lips together, focus dragging to me for a second before returning to Maren. “I used someone else’s identity when I applied to work at McKinley.”

I find where Titus is standing, taking in the tight clench of his jaw and the way his hands fist at his sides. He’s worked hard to make sure this couldn’t happen again, and hearing yet another person was able to slip past our background check isn’t going to sit well with him.

“That’s impossible.” Trevor shakes his head. “There’s no way Titus’s team wouldn’t have noticed that.”

The woman standing alone in the center of my family shifts on her feet. “Not impossible.” She winces. “Obviously.”