“You promised I could tell you what was wrong when I was ready, so either you lied about that or you’re lying about this.”
“You couldn’t tell me what you didn’t know was a problem. I won’t apologize for protecting you, Amy. Not then and not now.” He softens his voice. “Run to me. Not from me. Let’s get out of here before someone else finds you.”
Run to him. If only it were so simple. If only I could just say yes. “And if I say no? Will you walk away?”
“Don’t. Don’t say no.”
“If I do,” I repeat, “will you let me walk away?”
“Raw and honest, baby, no matter what. So, no. Not now. Not when I fear for your safety. I won’t let you walk away.”
“So you’re telling me you came here to kidnap me.”
“Call it what you want, but I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Amy? Is everything okay?”
I stiffen at Katy’s unexpected interruption and I try to pull my hand from Liam’s, but he holds on to it. “Think before you act,” he orders softly. “You’re already on too many people’s radar.”
“Including yours.” My lips tighten. “But I know.” And I do. It seems just about everyone can be bought, even the police, I suspect. They certainly document everything and have their own radio system.
“Amy,” Katy snaps, and her concern now rings more like irritation than anything else.
“Liam,” I say softly.
“Be careful,” he says, and with obvious hesitation, releases me.
I turn to Katy, acutely aware of Liam standing up behind me and stepping to my side, his shoulder brushing mine. “Sorry, Katy,” I manage, despite my struggle to think of anything but Liam. “I was catching up with--”
“An old friend,” Liam supplies, clearly avoiding the use of his name and this hits a nerve for me. I thought he was fine with being seen with me, but he’s not fine with anyone knowing who he is here?
Katy focuses on me. “We have customers. Some of yours are pretty angry. You need to get back to work.”
“Actually,” Liam says, reaching across me and dropping a stack of money on the table, “Amy’s resigning, effective immediately.” He straightens again, still standing protectively by my side as he adds, “That should pay for all of her tables tonight and leave a generous tip for you taking over on such short notice.”
Her eyes go wide at the large sum of money. “Oh. Well.” She scoops up the cash. “No problem. Sorry to see you go, Amy, but,” she looks Liam up and down, and her lips curve, “I get it. Believe me, I do.”
She turns and walks away, but I stay put, and I do not like where my mind is taking me. Liam has just paid Katy off. He paid the trucker to find me. My father lived a life filled with invaluable relics which translated to more money. I’d tried to find a connection between my father’s work and Liam, and had come up dry, but now I have it. Money.
Liam’s hand settles possessively on my back, and I squeeze my eyes shut at the shiver that races down my spine, angry that I cannot control myself with this man. “Let’s get out of here, Amy,” he urges and panic rises inside me.
Without a conscious decision to do so, I whirl on him and take several steps backwards. “I’m going to get my backpack,” I announce and I don’t give him time to respond, rushing away to the echo of his soft curse, and charging for the back of the diner. He won’t follow, I tell myself. He’ll want to avoid a bigger scene that draws attention. He doesn’t like attention or the press that comes with it. And I won’t risk the police, with nothing to truly report, and no certainty their records won’t somehow tell the wrong person my location. Or maybe the wrong person already knows. Maybe that wrong person is Liam.
Fighting the urge to look over my shoulder, I push the door to the kitchen open and walk past the grill where George is working, but I don’t look at him. “Hey!” he shouts after me. “Get back on the floor. We have customers.”
I don’t answer. I go straight to the coat rack and grab my bag, then turn the corner, heading to the hallway and the back door, hesitating as I reach for the latch on the industrial door. Waiting expectantly, I am certain Liam will be here any moment, but there is only the sound of something frying on the grill. Why hasn’t he followed me? It can mean only one thing. He’s already outside waiting on me. I flatten my hand on the cold steel, and then rotate to lean on the door, my mind reeling.
Why can’t this be easy? Why can’t I have some way of knowing I can trust him? But I can’t think about ‘why’ right now, or how devastating it will be if he’s really a part of all of this. I have to think through getting out of here and there really isn’t a good answer to making that happen. If Liam is just beyond this door, then the only answer is the dining room exit, but what if he isn’t alone? I don’t think so, but what choice do I have but to try to escape?
Pressing my hand to my face, I will myself to think, think, think. If I get out of the doors without Liam seeing me, then what? Thankfully, my money is always pinned in a baggy inside my clothes, but it’s not enough to buy a car and still survive. Not unless I sell the cheap Craigslist laptop I bought a month ago and I’ll never get to my room to get it before Liam gets to me. And he’ll look to the highway to find me when he realizes I’m gone. I’ll have to go to one of the nearby campgrounds and wait things out a week or so before I dare try to leave. Liam will look for me so I can’t rent a cabin. He might even look in the public grounds but I have no other immediate plan. I’ll just...I’ll figure it out.
Knowing I’m out of time, I shove off the door as George yells, “Hey you. What the fuck are you doing in here?”
My pulse leaps and I turn to the back door, working the lock and yanking it open. Bursting into the cloudy, dark night, thunder rumbling overhead, the nearly vacant parking lot is illuminated by nothing more than a low-hanging moon. I hesitate, open space and a hill between me and the motel. There is nowhere to run and I don’t get a chance to try.
The door slams behind me and Liam shackles my upper arm, turning me to face him. “No more running, Amy. That isn’t working. You have to see that.”
“Don’t touch me,” I hiss, jerking on my arm only to have him easily hold it. “Let go.”
“Never again, baby. Never again.”
“That’s right,” I promise him. “Never again. You threw money at the truckers. You threw money on the table. You throw money at everything. Well, I am not for sale and if you’re chasing after me, I assume I must mean more money to you. What do I have that you want? I’ll give it to you. Just let this end.”
He pulls me close, his hard body aligned with mine, my fingers pressing into the muscled wall of his chest where I feel the wildness of his heartbeat. “I have money, Amy, and you don’t have any for me to want anyway.”
“No, but--” I stop myself before I say ‘my father did’ and give away something he might not know.
“But what?”
I’m desperate for the truth, any truth, and I throw caution to the wind to bait him. “My father was a famous archeologist who dealt with priceless pieces of history. That means money. Lots of money. Alex had money, too. He could have a connection to my father.”
“What the hell connection could he have to your father?”
“The pyramids.”
“Alex was never into the pyramids, so if this is about the pyramids, it’s about me. And my interest is about improving my craft and understanding what no one else does. It’s about me and my way of making me better. Just me, Amy. Not Alex. And neither I nor Alex needed money.”
Him. There it is. The real issue. I don’t want this to be all about him. “Money wants more money, just like lies breed lies. I can’t afford to trust you.”
Tires grind over the rocks on the unpaved lot and Liam turns me to the wall, pressing me against it. “You keep screaming about wanting honesty, baby, well, here it is. I let you walk into the kitchen hoping you’d decide to trust me and choose to come with me. But right now I don’t care if y
ou do or you don’t. You’re coming with me.”
The beam of headlights blasts us, then dims, and I have no doubt this car is with Liam. “Because you’re kidnapping me,” I accuse again.
“Because someone either wants something you have or wants you dead, Amy. I wasn’t the only bidder on your location. I was the highest, and while you were in the kitchen I got a phone call. Someone else gave you up. We need out of here, and out of here, now.” Before I can even begin to digest the magnitude of his words, he grabs my hand, then drags me forward. And that’s when I see the car clearly for the first time. The sight of the black sedan knots my stomach, and instantly, spots swim in front of my eyes. Fast. So fast, I feel the world spinning around me.
“Liam,” I call desperately, digging in my heels, needing stability to fight the pain piercing my skull. “Liam, wait.” A wave of nausea and more spots overwhelm me and my legs go limp.
“I’ve got you,” Liam says, and he scoops me into his arms.
Pain pierces my skull and I curl into the solid wall of Liam’s chest, incapable of doing anything but cling to his shirt for what feels like dear life.
“Get the door,” I remotely register Liam saying to someone and I want to know who, I need to know who, but I can’t focus through the pain. I try to open my eyes but it hurts too badly to even try. Clinging to Liam, I cannot do anything but trust him and pray he’s worthy of that trust.
“You’re okay,” he promises, tightening his arms around me. “Everything is going to be okay.” It’s the last thing I remember before everything goes dark.
Chapter Three
I’m swimming in darkness when Liam’s promise surfaces in my mind. Everything is going to be okay. The words spiral through me and suddenly I can breathe again. I inhale air and then I am back on the porch of my family home, hidden in a dark corner with Luke, the sexy, blond god of an older boy next door, who I’ve crushed on since he moved in four years ago.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” I tell him and I am nervous on the dark porch, my brother’s warning about being cautious making me edgy for no reason. I’m here with Luke, my next door neighbor of many years. So what if I’d given him my virginity last night and it had left me feeling pretty lost? I’ve been lost a lot lately, confused by some weird vibe with my family I can’t escape.
“I had to see you before I left,” he says, pulling me close, brushing the hair from my eyes, and stepping on my bare toes.
“Ouch,” I groan.
“Sorry. Sorry, Lara. Did I hurt you?”
Obviously he hurt my foot, but I know he’s not talking about now. He’s talking about last night. “I’m fine. It’s...fine.” A perfect eighteenth birthday present, him pounding into me and then going drinking with the ‘boys’ after. I wish he wouldn’t have even come home for the summer. “And ah, you didn’t have to come by. I’ll see you at UT Austin in two weeks anyway.” I’m just not sure I want to now. “Unless you seniors are above us freshmen.”
“Did I seem like I was above freshmen last night?
He really isn’t going to like my answer to that. “It’s one in the morning. If my mom catches us, she’ll be furious.”
“She’s sleeping. You said so when I called.”
“I also told you not to come.”
“You’re upset with me.”
“No, I--” Tires grind on gravel behind me, and I jump, spinning around to watch a black sedan pulling into the driveway. Luke’s hand settles on my waist and he leans in to whisper, “Your mom got a little something something going on the side, or what?”
I grind my teeth, wondering how I never noticed what an asshole he was until last night. I open my mouth to tell him so, too, when the front door flies open. Luke yanks me back into the farthest, darkest part of the porch, and not a moment too soon. My mother appears and I’m shocked that she’s fully dressed in shorts and a tank top like me, when I’m certain I saw her in a white gown not an hour before.
Holding my breath, I watch as she pads down the stairs. her flat sandals slapping against the wood. The car pulls further up the driveway and disappears at the side of the house, and she follows it.
“I’m out of here, babe,” Luke says, but I barely register his words, tuning him out and rushing toward the steps. Luke catches up to me on the grass, grabbing my arm. “What are you doing?”
“I want to know who’s here.”
“Lara, be real. It’s the middle of the night and your dad and brother are out of town. Who do you think it is?”
Does he know? “Who? Who is it?”
“It’s a booty call.”
I gape at the crass comment. “Booty call? Is that what you hoped tonight would be for you? My mother is not cheating on my father.”
He snorts. “If you say so.”
I shove him. “Go back to Austin, Luke.” Moonlight washes over his shocked expression and I turn and head down the line of the house to squat beside a large row of neatly trimmed bushes.
Steeling myself for what could come next, telling myself whatever this is, is innocent, I peer down the driveway and suck in a breath. The car’s lights are dimmed now to a glow and my mother is standing at the open driver’s door. Yelling. She’s yelling at whoever is inside. She never yells. Except that day I came home to tell her I’d been accepted into the University of Texas, and overheard her fighting with someone.
“You told me it wouldn’t be like this,” she shouts, seemingly forgetting she might be overheard. She sounds too freaked out to think logically, out of her mind with emotion.
A deep, male voice says something, but I can’t catch the words. I think he’s being cautious about his voice carrying, though I can’t say why I think that. I just do.
“You said--” my mother starts, but the man pushes out of the car, turning her to press her against the trunk, his big, suit-clad body framing hers. My heart is racing and I want to call out for him to let her go, but I’m not sure I should. Shadows hug his profile, making it impossible for me to make out his face and he doesn’t seem familiar. He just seems like a monster.
“Don’t touch me!” my mother hisses, and the man leans in low to her ear and then pulls back to look at her.
I gasp as my mother slaps his face, the bite of her palm on his cheek clapping in the air.
He grabs her arm, moving her with him, and then yanks open the back door of the car. His back is to me and they exchange more incoherent words before I hear him clearly as he orders, “Get in.”
And she does. Oh God. Oh God. Why is she getting into the car? I stand up as he follows her into the backseat and shuts them inside. He’s going to hurt her and I think about calling the police or my father, but there isn’t time. I burst from behind the shrubs to help my mother, only to be yanked back behind the bushes.
“Don’t,” Luke warns,
I turn on him, grabbing his shirt. “Let go. I have to help her. I have to.”
“She doesn’t need help. She’s getting naked with that man.”
“She slapped him.”
“You didn’t hear his reply?”
“No. What are you talking about?” I jerk on my arm. “Let go. Let me go.”
“He promised her he’d fuck her until she apologizes.” He grimaces. “Just like last time.”
My throat goes dry. “No. No. That can’t be.”
“It is. Just stay here and I promise you she’s going to get out of that car looking well fucked and smiling like a well-fed cat.” He grabs my hand and pulls me around the house and I dig in my heels.
“Stop, Luke. Where are we going?”
“You aren’t watching this. It’s upsetting you.”
“I have to stay.”
“Just do what I say and it’s going to be okay.”
He starts pulling me away from the side of the house and I let him. I shouldn’t let him. I should do something. “Luke--” Blackness flashes in front of my eyes. I can’t see Luke. I can’t see the yard or my mother or who the man is. I have to turn b
ack. I have to see who the man is. But I can’t. It’s too dark and Luke is pulling me. He keeps pulling me. No! No! No!
“No!” I jerk to a sitting position, gasping into flickering shadows, water pellets hitting a window, a storm all around me, and I yank the clip from the back of my throbbing head. “Where am I?”
“Easy, baby,” I hear, a moment before I’m pulled back into the cradle of a hard body and a car door behind me.
“Liam?” I whisper, unsure what is real, only that my cheeks are damp and there is a tangled mess of images in my mind. My mother fighting with the stranger. Liam and I fighting behind the diner.
“I’m here and you’re safe,” Liam assures me, swiping the dampness from my cheeks. “You blacked out for twenty damn minutes and scared the hell out of me. Is that normal? Do you always black out that long?”
“I...I don’t know. I think...I…maybe.” Nothing is normal. Nothing is right. My fingers ball around his shirt, and the murky dark waters of what remains of my flashback threaten to pull me under with guilt. “If I’d done something that night. If I...If I’d told someone-”
“What night? Told who what?”
I blink and snap my lips shut. What am I doing? What am I saying to Liam who I cannot dare trust? “Nothing,” I say and try to pull away from him.
His arm shackles my waist. “Talk to me, Amy. Let me help.”
My hand goes to his wrist where he holds me captive, the heat of his body radiating into me, arousing me, confusing me. I am alone without him, but I am tired of lies. From me. To me. About my life. “You shouldn’t have looked for me.”
“I should have found you sooner.”
“And that only makes me ask, why? Why Liam? There are so many ‘whys’ I have for you and you have yet to give me an answer that makes sense.”
His fingers lace into my hair. “Nothing about us made sense from the moment we met and yet it makes perfect sense.” And then his mouth comes down on mine, and I tell myself to fight him, but I don’t, I can’t. He is sweet bliss and burning passion that steals my breath in all the right ways. The taste of him, all hot spicy demand and primitive need, has my senses swimming and I try to think, but there is only what I feel. He molds me closer and somehow my hand is in his hair, spiking through those long, dark strands of sexiness I have missed touching. Just as I have missed him and this. My resistance is gone. I’m not sure I ever had any.