Deceiving The Groom

by Shadow, Lisa

  “You’re very good at this, Liam.”

  “I’ve had practice.” He sat on the couch next to her and drew her foot onto his lap, holding the cool can to her ankle. His fingers moved back and forth across her skin. He fought the urge to follow the path of skin under her skirt.

  “Lexi?”

  “I’ve had to learn all kinds of things since she came into my life.”

  Claire’s gaze floated up to the ceiling and her features slumped.

  “You mentioned you have a little sister. You’ve never spoken of her, or your family.”

  The muscle in her calf twitched against him.

  Claire’s chest rose and caught there. “It’s complicated.”

  “I know all about complicated. Does your sister live with your parents?”

  Her leg went stiff and her chest seemed to shudder slightly.

  “No. Our parents both passed away shortly after she was born. She lives with our aunt.”

  “I’m sorry. I lost my mother when I was young also.” He watched the play of her features. “You don’t seem happy about the living arrangements.”

  “Not at all. My aunt is…a hard, difficult woman. And she would never give up custody of Penny.”

  “You don’t feel Penny is safe with your aunt?”

  Her face hardened, and seemed to age, showing him a side of her he hadn’t seen before—a side that could be fierce.

  “She’s safe enough, in the physical sense. Do I think it is the best place for her? No way. Kids need love, that’s what Penny doesn’t have. That’s why she needs me.”

  A swell of horror gushed through him. He couldn’t imagine if Lexi had gone to someone else, someone who didn’t adore her. “What about legal action? Aren’t you her next of kin?”

  Claire avoided his gaze, her lips pursed together. He wondered how hard it was for her to keep it together.

  “It’s not that simple. My aunt is wealthy, and influential… I don’t have the resources to go against her.” Something snapped and she looked at him, her eyes large and a little desperate. “I love her so much. I can’t stand this. Every year that passes with her in that cold, horrible house kills me a little bit more.”

  Liam shifted and drew her against him. Her face pressed into his neck.

  “You know, when I lost my mother, it was just me and my sister Sarah. So I know how you feel. When I lost her too…” He sighed. “If it wasn’t for Lexi…”

  Her arms slipped around him and she squeezed him tight.

  “You and Penny deserve better than this. Let me see if I can talk to my lawyers about it. See what they say.”

  Claire’s stilled, she breathed like she was in pain. “How is it you keep amazing me, Liam?”

  He pulled away a fraction and tilted her face up to him. He stroked the hollows on her cheeks before he lowered his lips to hers.

  A cough rang through the room and Claire jerked away.

  Geoff stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Just how long had he been watching?

  Liam frowned, and glanced back to Claire’s pinched face. Geoff was a family attorney, why wouldn’t Geoff help Claire? Unless this aunt was his own mother? But still, there was a child’s best interest at stake, and wasn’t that the most important thing? He knew there was something he didn’t like about Geoff.

  The blare of sirens screeched past.

  Geoff’s expression shifted. “There’s been an accident.”

  Claire swung her legs onto the floor. “What’s happened?”

  “A water pipe exploded in the roof at the B&B. The whole place is flooded.”

  “Oh my God.” Claire’s fingers flew to her lips.

  “The fire-fighters are on their way to try and secure the pipe. We should go.”

  Claire nodded dumbly. “Of course.”

  “I’ll take her. She’s had a bit of her own accident already today.” Liam said, and helped Claire to her feet and escorted her to his car.

  The B&B was blocked off by safety tape. Claire rubbed her arms. Liam’s words about her own accident had snaked an ugly path of dread across her heart. An image of the white panel van welled in her mind. It’d been right outside the B&B when she left in her car.

  Something wasn’t right…

  Her gaze flickered to Geoff. He had that lawyer face on.

  He couldn’t have done this. What reason could he have to want to destroy the B&B?

  Geoff glanced at her. “I guess we need to look for somewhere else to stay.”

  Liam’s arm surrounded her. “You can both stay with me until you figure it out.”

  Geoff turned to Liam but his gaze flickered to Claire.

  “Thank you, Liam. I have a friend in the city I can stay with. Claire, I’m sure would be grateful.”

  Realization shot through her like a bullet. Her mouth gaped.

  No. He wouldn’t.

  He just wouldn’t go so far—and he’d promised it was over.

  Liam squeezed her shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. I’m sure your things can be saved, and if not, we’ll get new things.”

  Claire blinked rapidly, her words catching. “I—It’s. I don’t want to be a nuisance.”

  Liam grasped her chin. “That is something you could never be.”

  His lips touched hers and she had the sensation she was one wave away from drowning completely. He pulled back and Claire leaned into him. Did he really want her to stay with him? No man had ever offered her as much commitment. She’d never wanted one to so badly.

  Liam drove Claire back to the store and saw her inside with another kiss, promising to be back to collect her after picking Lexi up from school.

  The moment his office door closed across the road, she hobbled to Geoff’s office. She tugged the door open and stormed inside to where Geoff sat behind his desk.

  She slammed her hands down on the desk. “Tell me what you did. Do you really have no limits?”

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the B&B getting flooded. Tell me Geoff, was it you?”

  His neck reddened. “Is that really what you think of me? Of course I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You swore to me this was over. You said you were going to end this.”

  Geoff leaned back. “And I am. There’s nothing to worry about. Soon it’ll all be over and you and lover-boy can have your happily ever after like nothing ever happened.”

  Her chest went still. Is that what she wanted? Liam had given her a clean slate, was acting like he might want this for real. So why was she still scared shitless?

  Guilty conscience?

  She scanned his gaze, but the truth as always was impossible to decipher from his eyes. “So where are you staying anyway?”

  Geoff smiled. “I put a deposit on an apartment a few days ago. “

  “Always prepared aren’t you, Geoff?”

  “You know me. The B&B was never meant to be long term.”

  Claire made a sound, half hum and not quite agreement, then stepped back with a wince. She shot Geoff one last look and hobbled back to her store.

  Claire leaned over her counter and watched Geoff’s car pull away, then tugged her cell phone from her bag, calling Liam almost without looking.

  “Hello.” His low voice rumbled.

  “Um, I was wondering, do you mind picking me up a little later? I’m just a bit snowed under and need some more time at the store.”

  “Sure. I wanted to talk to Lexi first anyway, about your staying with us. What about your things, when will you be able to collect them? Do you need anything?”

  Claire rubbed her temple. That was an issue unto itself. “I don’t know. The floor has been compromised upstairs, no one is allowed up. I guess I’ll just have to wash what I’m wearing and go shopping tomorrow.”

  “Okay, let me know if there is anything I can do.”

  “Thank you, Liam.”

  Claire hung up the phone and took a breath. Must he make it his mission
to be sweet all the time? How could he be the same man she had seen rob someone of their home without an ounce of sympathy? Maybe like her, he just tended to go wrong every now and then. But she couldn’t think about that now.

  She closed up the store and locked the door, double checking all the curtains were shut tight. Claire took the flashlight from her sewing room and made the painful walk to Geoff’s office. She unlocked the door with her emergency key then shut the door behind her. The light from the flashlight flickered across the sparse space. One thing she’d learned about Geoff is that he liked a stockade to stash his goods. He’d always had a loose floorboard and a locked box, ever since he was a kid.

  He’d have it here, in the office he’d had custom fitted, she could almost smell his secrets in here. She glanced across the desk. Its glass surface left nowhere to hide. Claire went to the book shelf and tapped the panels and inspected a few of the books, finding nothing. The cupboards below held stationary, paper, recordable discs and other completely innocuous items. She tried the heavy tin filing cabinet, yanking on the draws. They were all locked. Her heart sped up. He wouldn’t keep anything important in there would he? No, not like him. There was nothing else in the room. She ran the flashlight light over the walls and the roof and found no anomalies. She followed the architraves around the floor and paused when her light touched the wheels under the filing cabinet.

  Her brow scrunched. She tucked the flashlight under her arm and leant against the cabinet. It moved an inch. Claire shone the flashlight behind it. A large white plastic grate caught her eye. Bingo. Heating ducts behind filing cabinets are a little redundant. Claire pushed all her weight against the cabinet. Even with wheels she was only able to move the cabinet enough to just squeeze behind it.

  She hooked her finger in a hole in the grate and tugged. It popped off like the lid of a takeaway container. She picked up her flashlight again and shone it into the space. A black safe, the exact same brand of safe he’d installed in the back room of the store for her. Thank God, because she wasn’t a safe cracker.

  Claire leaned closer and touched the dial. If she knew Geoff at all this would be the easiest part. She turned the dial to the right, then to the left, and once more to the right, following in order the series of numbers also printed in the date on the ornately framed college degree hanging proudly above his desk. Yes, no man was quite so proud of his profession than Geoff. It helped she had also seen him use the number before to unlock his cell phone.

  Claire tugged the dial and the door opened. She scanned the contents. A few manila files. She flipped open the top one, the file on Liam. The receipts from their sham wedding rested on top. She brushed papers aside and a photo caught her eye. She slid it out and held it to her face. To anyone else it looked like a picture of a happy couple.

  She knew the truth.

  Pain flared behind her eyes. The kind of pain she felt when she’d experienced a massive cry, but this was without the tears. She touched a finger to his smile. How would he feel if he knew the truth. Not about the con, but just about the wedding. Would part of him be as happy as he looked in the picture? Or would he be horrified to be shackled to her?

  She dropped the photo back in the file and set it back in the safe. Then opened the next, and paused. This had more photos, but this time of the B&B. Photos of the front, the back, the windows. Photos of Claire leaving, coming home, of Mrs. Rose, all with times printed at the bottom.

  The lying bastard…

  She knew it. He’d been planning this since they got back from Vegas. Claire threw the file back inside the safe with the first. She almost didn’t dare to open the next file or the one underneath it, but at this point she had to. Her hand hesitated. She already felt sick.

  She opened the next folder slowly and nearly dropped her flashlight . Her heart crashed down to rest in the bile churning pit of her guts. He couldn’t be so cruel. Print outs of an eighteen year old Claire sat at the top. Newspaper articles. She could hardly recognize herself in the five years that had past. The girl in the photo was a slightly rounder, softer, and much more naive version of herself.

  The man next to her she couldn’t bear to look at. He was the man that taught her how the best manipulators used kindness to lure their prey. She’d given all of herself to him, only to find herself tricked and used in the worst way. Then the whole world found out about it too. And it was her they’d demonized. It’d taken five years to move beyond it, yet this photo took her right back to that place.

  Her chest collapsed inwards. Tears pricked her ducts but she bit them back with ground teeth. She flicked through the remainder of the contents. Emails of their conversations, and other things Geoff had insisted she destroy in all their forms. At the back was a unlabeled computer disc. Claire picked it up and brushed her eye with the back of her hand. She knew what this was. It was his insurance policy, what he was going to use to make her do what he wanted.

  Claire swallowed over a throat of razors and tucked the disc into the pocket of her jacket and rose. She went to the cupboard below the bookshelf and took a blank disc and placed it in the back of the folder with trembling fingers.

  She returned the file and picked up the last one. Lights flickered in the sides of the curtains. Claire put the folders back and rearranged everything exactly as she remembered, then pushed the filing cabinet into place. Her heart jumped. She limped out the office as fast as her ankle would allow and pulled Geoff’s office door shut and locked it swiftly. A knock sounded on the entrance and Claire rushed to turn off the remaining light in the store and answer it.

  Liam stood in the doorway, one hand joined with Lexi and a pizza box in his other. The little girl grinned at Claire. “We got pizza to take home!”

  Lexi’s enthusiasm reached her, loosening the fist clutching her heart.

  “Are you ready?” Liam asked.

  Claire nodded and Lexi held out her hand. Claire took the little girls fingers in hers and the tension in her centre ebbed.

  “I am.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hot pizza, iced coke, followed by a giant glass of Sav Blanc and pleasant company did more than she could have imagined to keep the rage inside her from exploding. She glanced at Liam sitting opposite her at the dining table and an ache built in her chest. Liam smiled over the rim of his glass and swallowed his remaining wine.

  Lexi wiped her hands on a napkin, and bobbed on her seat looking at Liam pleadingly.

  “Claire, Lexi would like to give you something.”

  She gazed at Lexi. “Really?”

  Lexi nodded vigorously then jumped off her seat running to the other room. Liam rose and followed behind her, returning with two large plastic bags. Lexi dragged her bag to Claire.

  “I’m sorry you can’t get your things,” Lexi said.

  Claire took the bag from Lexi’s hands.

  “What’s all this?” Claire said with a catch in her voice.

  Liam moved the plates and glasses off the table, avoiding Claire’s gaze.

  “When I explained to Lexi what happened, she was upset for you. She wanted to get a few things to help.”

  Claire put her hand on her chest and looked at Lexi. The little girl’s eyes stretched wide and sparkling. Beautiful, mesmerizing brown eyes that looked at her with such trust. What would happen if she found out what she’d been involved in? Would she ever be able to trust again?

  Claire brushed the curls on the side of Lexi’s face and leaned close. “Thank you.”

  She opened the bag and began extracting the contents. Toothbrush, hair comb, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. All the practical essentials. Claire gave Lexi a compliment for every item, so by the time the second bag came along Lexi looked like she was about to burst. She couldn’t sit still, couldn’t stop talking.

  “Er, Lexi picked those out.”

  She glanced at Liam and opened the next bag, pulling out a packet of underwear. Her lips twitched. Full brief, brightly colored, princess underpants the kind she�
�d never even know could come in adult size. She cleared her throat as laughter bubbled.

  Liam rubbed the back of his hair.

  Claire turned to Lexi. “These are very pretty, thank you.”

  Lexi helped her pull out the rest of the things including full flannelette pajamas not unlike the ones she had seen Lexi wear.

  “These are my favorite.” Lexi tugged out two dresses. Two flowing, pretty summer dresses. “Will you try them on?”

  Claire paused holding one of the dress. They were nice, they really were. She just couldn’t make herself put them on.

  After everything she’d done, after what she knew Geoff was doing, how could she accept these things?

  Claire held the dress to her chest, and planted her face in her hand. Her eyes shut. Her throat locked.

  “Don’t you like it, Claire?”

  Lexi patted Claire’s back. The soft innocent touch was too much. She came apart. Her tears ravaged her from top to bottom, not an inch of her left unshaken. The room went black.

  Too much, too much.

  Lexi—Penny—Liam— Geoff —the accident—accidents. Everything that had happened that day, everything that had led up to it, everything she’d discovered. She really was drowning now. Nothing was ever going to be able to fix this.

  “Go upstairs.” Liam whispered to Lexi.

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’ll be alright, she’s had a rough day.”

  A large hand touched her back, drawing her against Liam’s solid presence. The touch reached inside her cocoon, and she spun towards it. Her fingers fisted in his shirt. His hands were like brands on her back, reminding her she was alive.

  “Liam,” she whispered and looked at him, swiping away tears.

  Her chest hurt. Her heart hurt. Not half as much as it’d hurt if everything came out. She brushed the lines on his forehead, traced his cheeks. She blinked slowly, her insides moving in slow motion.

  His hand slid to the back of her neck and stroked the groove just below her hairline. Her breath blew hot from her lips as he bent towards her. Liam cradled her skull like she might break, and kissed her like he might.

  He deepened the kiss then drew back shakily. His jaw pulsed and he drew her face into his neck. “Everything is going to be alright.”