And what had really changed since then? Everything and nothing. He was still nothing more than a hired thug. His bosses had gotten richer and more sophisticated, but he was still a pawn who did their bidding. Something that a girl like Liv didn’t deserve to be around.
But even though he knew that hanging around here was firmly wrong, he couldn’t leave. Not with Josh still in the path of danger.
So he held the door open for Liv as she walked out and promptly locked the door behind her. That was new. As a kid, he and Melissa had never worried about locked doors. It seemed rather silly when the thing that scared them the most had a key to the house anyway.
Then he remembered that Liv hadn’t had the door locked yesterday and he’d gotten in. No wonder she was more on top of it today.
Liv tucked the key in the pocket of her floral dress, and he realized she didn’t have a purse. He didn’t remember the last time he’d been out with a woman who didn’t carry a purse. Well, the last woman he’d really spent time with was Toni Murray, and she didn’t carry a purse, but her laptop bag basically did the same thing.
What did that say about her? She was always ready to run, maybe. Probably didn’t have a weapon on her. Sure, in that loose dress it would be easy to conceal a thigh holster, but for women it was much more likely that she would carry a weapon in her purse.
Because she was in a dress, he assumed she wasn’t about to go for a ride on his bike, so he followed her to her car. It wasn’t a long walk to downtown from here, but even at this time of the morning, the temperatures were climbing up. If it weren’t for his shoulder holster, he would take off his jacket, but he assumed Liv wouldn’t appreciate the sight.
“So you’re in charge of distracting me?” he asked as she started down the road.
“I’m in charge of talking to you reasonably,” she said carefully. “Melissa wasn’t sure if she could contain herself.”
“She’s that mad, huh?”
“She’s confused. In her mind, you were so close as kids. You didn’t just abandon Josh, you know. You abandoned her too. Now you’re back and acting like she should just forgive you.”
“I never said anything about forgiving me.”
“Then what exactly do you want, Peter? Why are you here?”
He stiffened. He hated when people called him that. Even his parents had barely ever called him by name. Usually they used adorable pet names, like “piece of shit” or “dumbass.” The only people who had called him Peter on a regular basis were Lacey and Melissa. And for them, he had been Peter. The protective older brother. The loving husband.
He wasn’t that person anymore. Peter had died right along with Lacey. Now all that was left was the shell of Peter. The dangerous, toxic waste left behind. He reached up and gripped the “oh shit” handle in Liv’s old sedan and tried to rein in the memories. She turned down Main Street and the familiar sight didn’t help stop the flood of memories.
Damn, he hated this place. He tried to keep the memories at bay by focusing on the biggest change to his hometown. Liv. “Tell me about you.”
She glanced over at him and frowned. “What do you want to know?”
“I’ve never seen you before so you must not have grown up here. Where are you from?”
She winced and glanced away. Apparently she didn’t like remembering her past either. Tough shit. If she wanted to distract him, this was how.
“I’m from West Virginia. Grew up in a nice house with a nice family. At least everyone thought they were nice. My dad, don’t get me wrong—he wasn’t like your dad or anything. He never hit me.”
“Hitting isn’t the only way to hurt someone.”
“I... I know that now. Now I can see the ways he’d chip away at my self-esteem and self-worth. But when I went to college, I just thought I was someone who could never get anything right. And I kind of gravitated toward someone who made me feel the same way.”
Slade didn’t know where this was going, but he stayed quiet, waiting to see what else Liv was going to reveal.
“Trevor was exactly like my father, but different in so many ways that I never saw the trap I was walking into. He was a bad boy. A young rebel. But just like my dad, people fell all over themselves whenever he was around. They did whatever he said whenever he said it, and seeing that, it made me think he was right. Why else would so many people respect him, right?”
“What did you father do?”
“Politics. He was mayor of the town I grew up in.”
“And Trevor?”
Liv looked pointedly over at him. “Trevor was a gangster.”
Slade snorted. The line between politician and gangster was oddly thin. He could see how Liv would think that Trevor would be an escape from the life she grew up in. He could also see how wrong and dangerous that assumption could be.
“My family disowned me when I started to see Trevor. And after I realized how shitty he was, I was stuck. It was only when Melissa offered to take me in that I saw a way to get my life together. That’s when I officially moved to Laurie Falls and started to take care of Josh.”
“And Trevor never gave you any trouble after leaving him?”
Liv’s hand tightened on the steering wheel, and he had a feeling there was a lot more to this story. “Tell me something about you,” she said, effectively changing the subject.
“Seems like Melissa has told you everything about me.”
“About you ten years ago. What about now? I’m very obvious proof of how much can change in ten years. What have you been up to? Jet-setting around the world, enjoying your status as a dead man?”
“Is that what Melissa thinks? That I left so I could go off and have fun?”
“Melissa has no idea what to think because you’ve told her jack shit about what really happened. What is she supposed to think?”
“The benefit of the doubt would be nice.”
“I think you forfeited the right to any benefit when you left her.”
He gripped the handle tighter and Liv turned the car in to a parking spot on the side of the street. He looked out and saw that they were in front of the local credit union, Shultz Law Offices—which had been open since he was a kid—and Sunshine Bakery.
“I can’t believe Sunshine is still open,” he said to himself.
“Caffeine and sugar. It’s the perfect business plan.” Liv put the car in park. But she didn’t get out. She stayed there and stared straight ahead, with one hand on the wheel.
Slade clenched his jaw and tried to figure out what he was doing. He didn’t belong here. He didn’t belong in the same town as this woman or his son or his sister. They all deserved better than him and the shit he brought with him.
Except the shit had found its way here with or without him. Now he had to try to fix it. “I worked in private security for a guy I didn’t like. I didn’t want to work for him, but he had... information on me. I didn’t have a choice. The things I did.... The person I was.... I know it sounds like it’s just an excuse, but it’s true. Josh deserved better than me.”
“You’re right. It does sound like it’s just an excuse. Josh deserved a father. He deserved to know where you were. He deserved better than to be lied to his entire life. How do you think this is going to affect him? His entire life was based on a lie. That’s not the kind of tragedy that just goes away, Slade.”
He couldn’t say anything to defend himself. Fuck, at this moment, he almost hated himself more than anyone else. He climbed out of the car and froze. Walking down the road were two men in posh black suits, but he saw right past the nice clothes and recognized the two teens that he had spent so much time with when he lived here.
They weren’t teens anymore, obviously. Kenneth and Ray Simms were the same age as him. Late thirties and looked as if they had cleaned up, except he could see from the bulge along their hips that they were carrying.
Slade straightened to his full height and stared down the brothers. He didn’t try to run or hide. It was too late, and
in a town this small, they were bound to know he was here sooner rather than later. Let them look him in the damn eye and see exactly how unafraid he was of them.
He heard Liv shut her door but didn’t turn around to look at her. Instead, he kept his gaze squarely on the threat in front of him. He saw the exact moment recognition hit the Simms, and they stopped in their tracks, each of their hands going to their guns but not unholstering the weapons. Slade didn’t reach for his. He knew these guys weren’t going to come after him. They’d run to their boss and get permission before they made any moves.
Hive mentality didn’t allow for individual thought. It made them easy to predict, but the pure quantity of soldiers out patrolling the streets was almost impossible to fight.
“Why don’t we—” Liv must’ve realized the silent exchange taking place in front of her. “Ken, Ray. How are you two doing?” she asked carefully as she moved to stand next to Slade.
He reached an arm out, crossing over her stomach and holding her a few inches behind him, letting Ray and Ken know in no uncertain terms that she was under his protection.
“Liv,” said Ken, all the while not taking his eyes off Slade. “You’ve fallen in with a bad crowd.”
“You should leave,” warned Slade.
“This is our town,” said Ray. “Way I see it, this has been our town our entire lives. You’re the one who went off and died. Shame you didn’t stay dead.”
“This is ridiculous.” Liv started forward, but Slade’s arm held firm, keeping her in place. He could practically feel her seething with annoyance, but thankfully she didn’t fight him. “We’re just going to get some coffee, guys. Do you mind?”
There was a tense silence before Kenneth and Ray both backed off. “You two have fun,” said Ray, eyeing Slade suspiciously.
“We’ll be seeing you,” added Ken ominously.
Slade stood right where he was as he waited for the Simms to get the fuck out of his sight.
As they rounded the corner, Liv pushed his arm away from her and glared at him. “What the hell was that?”
Slade sighed and rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Nothing good.”
“Your dad is alive.”
Melissa’s heart broke as she saw Josh’s face crinkle as he tried to work through the bombshell she just dropped on him.
He picked up one of his cut-up pieces of pancake, but didn’t eat it. He just fiddled with it and stared at the table. He never put butter and syrup directly onto the pancake. Instead, he’d dip the cut-up pieces into the syrup and then the separate bowl of whipped cream they had the waitress bring over. It was a special treat he only got as a reward for doing a particularly hard chore or a good report card.
Which meant he’d known long before she sat him down at the table that something serious was up. That didn’t make this conversation any easier.
Melissa racked her brain for anything she could say to cheer him up, but she drew a blank. She couldn’t possibly explain something she herself didn’t understand.
“Did he say how long he was going to be here?”
Melissa’s mouth fell open and then she shut it. Of all the thousands of questions she expected from Josh, that wasn’t the first one. Sometimes she still thought of him as a baby, but even at ten—almost eleven—he was wise beyond his years. It was a delicate line between not wanting to baby him and not wanting to take his maturity for granted either.
“I don’t know how long he’s going to be here. I only saw him last night and... it was a shock. He came back for you, though. He is worried about you.”
“Because of the guys who tried to take me?”
She blinked. Everyone else she talked to liked to tiptoe around the kidnapping attempt. Referring to it as “the incident” or “that day.” But not Josh. He would always face challenges head on. “I think so. But I want you to know that you’re my number-one priority, Josh. I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“He’s my dad. I can’t not see my dad.”
“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. You have all the power here, Joshy. I’ll be your personal pit bull. You tell me what you need done and I’ll do it.”
“Garth has a pit bull. He licks my face a lot. Are you going to lick Dad’s face?” Josh smiled at his own joke and Melissa couldn’t help but smile back at his strange sense of humor.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Lick Peter’s face.”
Josh let out a little laugh, but then went back to quietly fiddling with his pancake.
Melissa let her chin fall into her hands and sighed. Even though she offered to let Josh go without meeting his father, she knew he was much too stubborn to let this opportunity go by. Even if it ended in nothing but heartbreak.
Melissa looked away from the boy, trying to give him a limited amount of privacy with his thoughts as he thought over the messed-up situation. Except she realized that they weren’t alone. Someone sat at a table across the aisle and looked right at her and Josh. Not subtly either.
She’d be more worried about it if she didn’t recognize him immediately. Gage. Peter’s little friend who had tracked her down at Cassie’s bar last night. Son of a bitch was having her followed.
Which meant that no matter what Josh chose, Peter already had this all planned out. One way or another, Josh was going to have to confront his father.
Liv looked out the window of the Sunshine Bakery as she sipped her sugar-filled coffee. There was no sign of Ken or Ray, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t wander back.
The bakery had a slow but steady stream of guests. It was almost eleven in the morning, so the little seating area was almost empty, which made her feel all the more conspicuous sitting there with Slade.
It didn’t help that every time anyone walked in, their eyes would skim over her and then land squarely on her strange breakfast guest. Not that she was surprised. He was an imposing figure. It was hard to tear her own eyes away from him.
“Coffee is good.” Slade took another sip.
An oddly casual statement from someone not so casual.
“What’s your deal with Thurrond?”
He took another sip and met her eyes over the cup that seemed much too small in his massive hand. “Why are you asking?”
“He has some issue with you, doesn’t he? I’m not an idiot. If Ken and Ray are running after threatening you, they’re going to him. They’re basically his lapdogs who do whatever they’re told. If your problem was with them, they’re not subtle enough to wait to deal with it until later. The only reason they’d show any type of restraint is if they were going to run to Thurrond to figure out what to do with you.”
Slade set the cup down and Liv had to fight to control her anger. It was one thing to yell at him in the middle of a dark, deserted street, but they were downtown and prying eyes were everywhere. She’d gone through so much trouble to keep Josh safe and here Slade came, rolling into town with all his gangster problems. With Thurrond, no less!
All the pieces started to fall into place. She leaned forward, the rage escaping through her eyes. “This is all your fault, isn’t it?” she hissed. “We’ve been trying to figure out who would go after Josh for weeks, but it was all you. You did something to piss Thurrond off and he’s trying to get back at you through your son—like you’d care about him, for some reason.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked and she was worried for a second that she’d gone too far. “You don’t know a damn thing,” he said in a low, surprisingly controlled voice.
She shook her head. “No. Things are becoming more and more clear. You did this to us, didn’t you? Thurrond has it out for you.”
“Thurrond had it out for me. Past tense. When he thought I was dead, he moved on with his life. The problem happened when he found out I was alive.”
Liv ran her fingertip along the rim of her cup and avoided looking at him. “How did he find out you were alive?”
“The man I was working for ha
d an arrangement. As long as I worked for him and kept my mouth shut, he wouldn’t let any of my enemies know about my current status. Well, my boss died about two weeks ago.”
“Just before they tried to take Josh.”
“Sterling’s death must’ve triggered some sort of communication with Thurrond. The second he realized I was alive, he started going after the people I care about. Starting with my son.”
“And Lacey? Is he the reason she died?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Don’t talk about her.”
Liv tilted her head and glanced up at Slade. “I hate to break it to you, but Lacey is a pretty big part of my life, alive or dead.” She knew the “D” word was a bad choice, but she wasn’t worried about his comfort at the moment. Now that she was starting to understand his true reasons for coming back, the stakes at play were so much more evident.
“The car that hit us was meant for me. Lacey wasn’t supposed to die that night.” The words were low and barely audible.
Part of her knew she should feel privileged. This was information Slade probably didn’t share with anyone. But the majority of her was just frustrated and, to be honest, scared. If she was honest with herself, the further they’d gotten from the kidnapping attempt, the more it felt like a dream. Like something that hadn’t actually happened. Having Slade here and, for the first time, understanding who was behind the kidnapping attempt and their reasoning, she began to realize that the threat wasn’t over. If anything, with Slade here now, the threat was closer than ever.
“Josh shouldn’t be alone,” she said finally, hating herself as she confirmed what Slade had been telling her all last night. But she hadn’t understood back then. She didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle when he’d so abruptly broken into her bedroom.
The Vengeful Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 5) Page 6