The Billionaire's Prize: Taken & Tempted: (Book 3 Billionaire Bodyguard Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

chair as horror sank in. “Bruno Ramos killed Maria,” she gasped.
    Muscles rippled up Adam’s arms. “Looks like it.”
    Looking pale under his tan, Cade pressed a thumb against his temple. “This is huge.”
    “Hugely bad,” Liam said. “As bounty hunters we took down scores of guys in his drug cartel. If he didn’t have it out for us already, he will now.”
    “Yeah, now that Kylie’s under our protection.” Adam narrowed his eyes at her. “What’s your connection to Ramos?”
    Her hands trembled as she explained. “I worked as an intern for Bruno’s defense attorney. When I started asking questions about a possible correlation to Jacob Soren’s death, he went frigid on me and terminated my internship two weeks later. So I pursued the leads I uncovered myself.”
    “You did what?” Adam bellowed.
    “We’ve been over this.” Cade rose from his chair and rested his fingertips on her shoulder. “Kylie had no intention of creating an association between Bruno and Maria. That was an accident. But somehow he must’ve known Kylie had contacted Maria, and that Maria had talked.”
    “I know it was a mistake,” she said, guilt twisting into painful knots inside her. “I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to follow-up with some proof for the cold case.”
    “An accident. A mistake. Whatever you want to call it, this puts us all at risk.” Adam started pacing. “Does he know you’re here?”
    “No,” Cade answered for her. “I pulled Kylie out of Vegas as soon as I heard about Maria’s death.”
    Liam turned to her. “I take it you’re in law school?”
    She shook her head. “I’m getting my degree in paralegal studies.”
    “So you’re an armchair detective.” Adam sneered. “That’s freakin’ great.”
    Despite how hard she’d worked on her degree, on all her own cold cases, his remark cut her to the bone. He was right. She had no authority or legal recourse or a law degree backing up her assumptions. She wanted to curl up and disappear, wishing she’d never set foot in that defense attorney’s office—or followed her hunch about Jacob Soren’s suspicious death in the first place.
    Cade glowered at his cousin. “Don’t be a dick.”
    “Try a realist. One of us needs to face the truth. Ramos has deadly connections, and those connections have connections. He could’ve ordered a hit on Kylie by now.”
    Liam crossed his arms on the table. “It’s more likely than not. We should move forward with that expectation.”
    “We should move her out of this office. We can’t risk someone following her trace here, putting our employees and clients in danger.”
    Liam sent her a look of compassion. “It’s not Kylie’s fault Ramos is a coldblooded killer out to silence the truth.”
    “There was a woman involved,” she interjected, desperate to prove herself worth the trouble of keeping her safe in Denver. “Maria described a couple arguing in the next room. The name Ramos came up.”
    Adam’s jaw went slack. “Why didn’t the cops track that lead from the beginning?”
    “Maria’s English wasn’t very fluent five years ago,” Kylie said. “She told me she tried to explain the best she could, but the officers didn’t find her statement relevant or credible enough, so they never pursued her claims.”
    Cade’s expression changed. A haunted look stole into his eyes. “What about the couple? Did Maria tell you more about the argument?”
    She nodded. “Maria said they were fighting over money. There wasn’t enough, or help came too late. Something along those lines. Maria knocked on the door to see if everything was okay. A man who she identified as your father opened the door and insisted they were fine. When the door shut the argument continued. Out of context Maria had a hard time making sense of their quarrel, but it spilled into the back alley. The same woman was screaming and crying, ‘He’s dead. He’s dead and it’s your fault.’ Then she heard two gun