Free The Talented Mr. Rivers by Helenkay Dimon Page A

than Will had expected. When the man panicked and ran, he
really
ran.
    Will’s patience had grown thin. He’d kept hidden just fine without a bodyguard, official or otherwise. And having one that screwed with his head was not a good idea.
    Now that he knew Hunter was alive, he could go. Technically, there was no reason to tie themselves together in any way, especially if someone really did want to kill him. Will couldn’t tolerate the idea of a stray bullet meant for him hitting Hunter by accident.
    He’d always figured his life expectancy was short. No amount of trying to break free from his family could change that. But that didn’t mean he had to increase the risk to Hunter, too.
    They’d had sex once, but something else had been growing between them for months. All that time spent together. The watching. Like it or not, Hunter mattered to him. And that meant walking away might be the best way to save Hunter and his own sanity.
    He slipped the belt out of his abandoned dress pants on the floor and put it on. Next came his wallet, which he tucked in his back pocket. That and the contents of the duffel bag accounted for most of his possessions. He had some money but most he couldn’t get to, not without trouble, since he was thought to be dead. Not without tipping off anyone who might want to find him.
    He stopped and took one last look at the studio. Glanced at the stone wall and let the memories flash through his mind. Just as he reached for the door handle he heard a beep and the lock disengaged.
    When the door opened, Hunter was standing there with keys in one hand and a bag of food in the other. His gaze traveled to the duffel bag in Will’s hand and then back to his face.
    “You better not think you’re leaving, because that’s not happening.” Without waiting for an answer, Hunter kicked the door shut behind him and walked into the kitchen area, dumping the food bag on the counter.
    It all seemed so normal, so domestic, when Will felt anything but. He needed to do something because a life of treading water and waiting for the end to come was not working anymore.
    He had no intention of running Pentasus, a business and name he’d only learned the complete details on right before the explosion. He didn’t want a piece of the other Rivers family businesses either. It was all tainted to him. It all led to trouble, the same trouble Stacia and Peter had sent him out of the country to avoid.
    They might not be—or have been—perfect, or even good people, but he owed them something for taking the risk to free him from becoming like them. He had no intention of squandering that gift now that he was so close to being out of all the muck for good.
    He was still sorting out the best plan for the future but changing his identity and getting somewhere well outside of London or Paris, or anywhere someone related to Pentasus might expect him to be, struck him as the right idea. Somewhere remote. No phone, limited access. He had skills. He might not be qualified for an office job but he had a head for numbers.
    He’d also figured out while he was away from home that he had some skill with construction. In college some friends built homes for charity during the summers. In avoiding time at home while Peter and Stacia fought out their differences, he hadn’t had many options for the months without school. During those times Will had followed his friends. Learned by watching. Not that he could design a house from scratch, but he’d gotten the basics down, particularly the physical labor part.
    His father would have hated that, which made the career choice all the more tempting. Hell, he’d build flower boxes if it meant not living in this choking cloud of suspicion and doubt.
    “What’s your plan here?”
    Will didn’t drop the duffel, but he knew he wasn’t going anywhere now. Not unless he planned to punch his way through Hunter, and that was never going to happen. “I don’t want to sit around and wait for the