Chapter 18
"When did you get so good with a gun?” I whisper as we huddle together and hear distant police sirens.
She smiles softly and grips a hold of my hand, "My dad made me take some defensive courses, including gun safety when I was in high school. I always keep a gun in my purse. Don’t worry, I’m licensed.”
Yeah, because that's what I'm worried about right now, I take a deep breath and cover my face to try to make the tears pass but there's so much adrenaline in me right now that I can't seem to control any bit of emotion right now.
Krista just hugs me until we hear a banging on the door and someone yell, "Police!"
She gently untangles herself from me and runs to the front door to let them in and I curl into myself as I hear her telling the story of what happened. The next moment, a police officer and a couple paramedics come into the room.
The paramedics come over to me, "Ma'am, are you ok?"
I nod shakily, "She didn't do anything to me...I have a fractured leg from an accident a month ago, but she didn't hurt me anymore."
"Ok, ma'am, but we're going to look you all over just in case."
I just nod again and let them take all my vitals and see another team of people come into the room to take pictures of everything and gather the gun up. Then I notice someone has a body bag and have to cover my face because I don't think I can handle seeing what's left of Alexia. All that beauty and talent all lost for nothing, jealousy destroyed her.
Before the paramedics leave the room, I stop one of them "Our bodyguards, she mentioned something about poisoning them. Are they ok?"
"Yes ma'am, we found them knocked out in their cars out front. They're going to need recovery time, but they'll be alright.” he nods at me and he and his partner leave the room.
When I finally see Krista come back into the room, I feel completely drained.
"Are you ok?” I ask her worriedly.
She nods and squeezes my hand again, "Just had to answer a lot of questions and fill them in on what happened with the accident and everything."
"Oh God, I need to call Liam, and you need to call Scott!"
"I already did sweetie,” she says calmly and hugs me, "They're getting the first flight out. They already informed the important people of what's happened and they've rescheduled all interviews and everything. Everything's going to be alright, ok? How about we call your Mom to see if we can stay there until they get here, I don't think I can stand to sit in this room another second."
"I agree. Could you help me into the living room?"
She pulls my arm through hers and I limp into the living room and watch all the madness of the police collecting evidence and speaking with neighbors and everything.
"We really need to get out of here.” I whisper shaking my head as I call my parent's house and relay our ordeal. As expected my mother starts having a meltdown and my dad comes on the phone to tell me he'll come pick us up.
"All set.” I tell Krista taking in everything going on around us. "When do you think the guys will be here?"
"Just a few hours...and I swear if they think they can get away with going somewhere without us again, they have another thing coming. Scott is staying at the very least in the same state as me from now on."
"That's going to go double for Liam.” I sigh closing my eyes for a minute, "God, I'm so glad this is all over. I hate that it came down to my life or hers...but I'm glad it's over."
Krista just walks over and hugs me, "Me too."
Later, I've crashed in my old room from pure mental and emotional exhaustion when Liam barrels in and I barely get to open my eyes before I'm in his arms and his head is buried in my neck, “Baby, I'm so sorry....I shouldn't have even gone to L.A...If Krista hadn't been there,” his voice cracks and I pull back to look him in the eyes.
"Hey...I'm alright. Krista WAS there, don't let the what-ifs get the best of you, ok? I've had enough of that running through my head as is.” I tell him and hug him tight, "I'm so glad you're here."
He lets out a breath and looks me up and down, "You’re sure you’re ok?"
I nod, "I am, I swear. What’s going to happen now, Liam?” I ask in a whisper.
He lets out a frustrated sigh, "A lot of headaches most likely. Krista will probably have the worst of it because she's the one that shot Alexia, but I think with all the evidence it'll be obvious that she acted in self-defense."
I close my eyes wishing I could block out the memories. "What time is it? Is Krista still up?"
"She's resettling down for the night with Scott right now. I think she just wants to forget as much as she can right now."
I sigh and pull him onto the bed with me and lay my head on his chest, "I don't blame her. I would like nothing more than to never have to face those memories ever again."
"I didn't get your text...I slept through the noise. Then Krista called Scott and he ran and was banging on my door like a mad man and it finally woke me up...” He shakes his head and kisses my forehead, "When I found out what happened, the first thing I did was call the airline and got us tickets on the earliest flight possible. Then I called Mitchell and the director and let them deal with calling whoever was in charge of interviews and everything to reschedule them. All I cared about was getting back here."
"I'm glad you did...or else I would have been itching to find a way to get where you were."
"Katy, I swear, I'm never letting you out of my sight again.” he leans over and kisses me and grips his hand in my hair. "You could have been gone tonight...and the last time you would have saw me would have been me rushing out the door to get to another airplane..."
"Liam..."
He silences me by kissing me again before kissing down my neck and all my breath leaves me, he leans his head on mine and lets out a breath, "I don't want you to think that work comes before you do, baby. I might be this big actor now, but I made that mistake once. I refuse to make it again. You are my priority, not the filming or awards or any of that. God, all I can think about is Alexia could of gotten her way and shot you, and I wouldn't have had my chance to tell you over and over that I'm so sorry about who I was four years ago, and that I love you more than ever and I really want to marry you all over again and someday have miniature versions of us running around, if you’ll have me.” He says softly and looks me in the eye.
Tears swim in my eyes but I lean up and kiss him with all the pent up love and hope I have inside me, “I will. The last four years may have been a mess, but we have the future. I don't plan on running away this time around."
He gets a big grin on his face and then there's no space between us, he kisses me and runs his hand under my shirt kissing his way down my neck and then my shoulder as he removes my shirt he looks down at me, "Is this ok?” he asks breathlessly and all I can do is nod.
My shirt is off in the next moment and I yank his off over his head and run my hands over his tight ab muscles and I hear a groan from deep in his throat, “I’ve missed being this close to you, Katy.” He pushes my hair back and starts an agonizing trail of kisses down my shoulders, my chest and my stomach, it’s not very long before we’re both stripped down and wrapped up in each other’s arms.
“I have too….I missed you every day, Liam. Right now, I just want to focus on that love we pushed away for so long. Tonight, let this be all that matters,” I start kissing him and sink into the oblivion of us.