Free Little Bird (The Tangled Series) by Liza Gaines Page A

not trusting him and intending to keep an eye on him.
    With a sigh, Lee turned back to the door and slipped the key in the lock. Holding his breath, he turned the key and felt a surge of relief when the lock clicked free. Ignoring the woman, who stood just behind him, he swung the door open and felt his stomach sink, his relief evaporating instantly. Cara had never been a great housekeeper and seemed to actually prefer a little bit of disorganized clutter in her life, but the mess in her apartment now was worse than that. In fact, it was worse than what his own house had looked like after he’d interrupted the intruders ransacking it.
    “Oh, my.”
    Lee glanced over his shoulder at the old woman hovering behind him and stated the obvious. “Someone’s been here. I’m going to go in and have a look around.”
    “I’m coming with you.” The woman took a step forward, running square into his back when he didn’t move.
    “No, you wait here. I’ll just be a minute.” He was fairly sure whoever had searched the apartment was long gone. Hell, they’d probably come here long before they ever came to his house. Regardless, he’d feel better if she waited outside.
    For a minute, he thought she was going to argue but she didn’t, instead nodding her head and taking a step back. Lee nodded at her and went in, leaving the door open behind him.
    The apartment door opened into the living room and Lee took a brief look around as he stepped inside. The place had been so thoroughly searched even the furniture had been moved and the floor was strewn with Cara’s belongings. At first glance there didn’t seem to be anything of interest in the living room. He wanted to get the lay of the land and see if anything immediately jumped out at him before he started to search through the mess more carefully, so he moved on to the kitchen.
    Just like the living room, the kitchen had been turned upside down in a search but the first thing he noticed was a book lying open on the counter. As he stepped closer, looking down at it, his blood ran cold when the first word that jumped out from the scribbled pages was his own name. It was a diary. He quickly read the short entry on the open page.
    I’m not sure who I can trust. No one, that’s who. But I’m going to make sure Lee has access to everything. The bastard might not be able to keep his dick in his pants but he wouldn’t screw me over in this. If nothing else he’ll understand how important it is and I have to tell someone. He’s my only option anyway. He won’t like it but he’s just going to have to deal.
    Lee checked the date on the page. It had been written right around the same time she brought him that stupid box. Well, at least this explained why the thugs came to his house.
    Leafing through the rest of the book, Lee laughed. It was bullshit; it was all bullshit. Most of the other entries in the diary were copied from books. At a brief glance he recognized passages from To Kill a Mockingbird , The Catcher in the Rye , and what he guessed was some romance novel. All written in first person so at a cursory glance it looked like something that belonged in a journal. That entry about him, conveniently dog-eared with the ribbon bookmark holding the page, was the only real entry. Were the intruders really so stupid they hadn’t recognized that? Cara had intentionally led them straight to him and they’d taken the bait—hook, line, and sinker.
    Lee looked around the kitchen and didn’t see anything else worth noting, so he headed down the hallway. Sticking his head in the bathroom, he didn’t see anything interesting and moved on to her bedroom, more than a little reluctantly. Her clothes had all been taken from the closet, strewn about the room, and the dresser and bedside tables emptied on the floor. There didn’t seem to be anything worthwhile here, either.
    It was when he left the bedroom that he noticed all the family pictures hanging on the wall in the hallway. There