by Camy Tang
Liam and his family were doing strange things to Elisabeth. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it all.
“Looks like they’re done haggling.” Monica released Elisabeth’s hands just as Liam broke away and headed toward them.
“What’s the damage?” Monica asked.
“I’m paying him back.” There was a stubborn set to Liam’s jaw.
“Of course you are. You know that Brady’s charging you interest, right?”
Liam’s scowl dissolved into a smile. “It’s nice of him. But don’t tell him I said that.”
“He wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
Elisabeth gave a snort of laughter.
Liam nodded at a white Mazda 4x4 pickup truck. “That’s the one. Brady drove it around the block earlier. Transmission is sticky, but it’ll work.”
“That’s a Lexus compared to your old truck,” Monica said.
“Hey, it runs.”
“It’s an eyesore,” Monica said.
Liam cleared his throat. “The Bagsics won’t recognize the Mazda, and even if they checked the license plate, the dealer may not have yet submitted the notice of transfer to the DMV. And the DMV will take a while to update their records.”
“I’m guessing Shaun is asking the dealer to hold off on submitting that notice of transfer?” Elisabeth asked.
“By law, he has a certain amount of time to send it in.” Liam turned to Monica. “Shaun and Brady won’t accept my thanks, so I’ll tell you instead. Thanks for helping us out.”
“We’re family. Of course we’d help.”
Monica said it so matter-of-factly, and again Elisabeth was struck by how the concept of a loving family came so easily to the O’Neills. What if she’d grown up differently? She’d spent so much time blaming the men in her past. Was it too late to have a different perspective?
Soon Elisabeth and Liam had transferred their things to the cab of the Mazda truck. Elisabeth drove and they headed north, with Shaun following a little ways behind them to make sure they weren’t followed out of town, while Brady followed Monica in Elisabeth’s car to Liam’s dad’s house.
A little ways past Geyserville, Shaun called Liam, who put the call on speaker. “I’ll leave you two here,” Shaun said. “I’d tell you two to stay out of trouble, but you were never good at that.”
“Thanks,” Liam said drily.
Shaun’s voice was more sober as he said, “So I’ll just tell you guys to stay safe.”
“We will,” Liam said, and disconnected the call.
“Your family is...”
“Annoying?” Liam said.
“Amazing.” Elisabeth licked her lips. “You don’t know how good you’ve got it.”
“Believe me, I do.” He looked steadily at her as she drove. “I’m sorry if my family bothers you.”
“They don’t.”
“Sometimes you get a kind of look...”
Elisabeth frowned. “I hope I don’t look annoyed. Because I’m not.”
“No, not that. You look sad.”
She bit her lip but didn’t answer.
“The subject of family seems to bother you sometimes,” he said. “I’m sorry if my family makes you feel worse.”
She took a breath, then another. “They don’t. It’s me.”
They were silent for a mile or two, then Liam said, “What happened to make you lose your faith in families?”
Elisabeth felt the heat rise up her neck.
“I’m sorry,” Liam said immediately. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.”
He was always so kind, so considerate of her.
“When did your mother die?” she asked him.
He was surprised at the question, but answered, “When I was sixteen.”
“Really? So did mine.” She saw the cremation urn in her father’s hands, the careless way he handled it. “My father got a girlfriend right away, or maybe he’d already had her when Mom was dying. His new girlfriend didn’t like me very much, so one day she and Dad packed their things. Dad said the rent was paid up for the month, but they were taking off and they didn’t want me tagging along. And they left.”
Liam closed his eyes, his face full of pain. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought this up.”
“It’s all right. It’s been years. And to be honest, I’ve met women at the shelter who have experienced much worse.”
“He didn’t...beat you, did he?”
“No, not at all. What made you think that?”
“I thought he was the reason you have that scar.”
She touched the scar above her left cheek. Most days, she avoided mirrors and forgot about it. “No, this was from my ex-boyfriend’s ring.”
She saw Liam’s hand clench in his lap, and strangely, his anger on her behalf made her feel...precious.
“I have no respect for men who prey on fragile people, or who take advantage of women who are alone,” Liam said in a hard voice. “You were only sixteen...”
“Cruise didn’t come into my life until a few years after Dad left.”
“Were you in a foster home?”
“No, I was alone.” At his incredulous stare, she said, “It’s easier than you think. I got a job and I passed my GED. I took classes at the community college.”
“You’re amazing.”
His words made a warmth spread across her chest. She felt as if she’d been covered by a cozy blanket. “Actually, I was selfish and self-centered, but after I landed in the hospital, some women helped me.” She hadn’t thought of them in years—kind women from a local church. They’d been a bit legalistic in all the rules they followed for their religion, but they’d helped her when she’d had nothing. She’d just had a hard time trusting their God after He had allowed Cruise to hurt her so much.
“Is that why you help battered women?”
“Yes. After my jaw and arm healed, I got into counseling, and my therapist helped me to heal inside. And after that, I refused to allow myself or anyone else to be a victim again.” It was the reason she felt responsible for Joslyn and wanted to protect her. The gang’s relentless pursuit was a form of bullying, and Elisabeth wouldn’t stand for it. She wouldn’t be bullied by a man again, and she wouldn’t let Joslyn be bullied by them, either.
Maybe it was good she was telling Liam all this. It reminded her why she shouldn’t—couldn’t—put too much trust in people.
But unbidden, Monica’s words came back to her:
Even in the midst of suffering and pain and loneliness, He’s there with us, and He loves us, and we’re not alone.
It was strange to think about God being there for her and loving her when she’d been so used to feeling isolated and unloved. Everything inside her resisted trusting Monica’s claim, especially when she hadn’t seen God act in her life anytime before.
She remembered that phone call, and overhearing Liam being attacked.
But that was God acting on Liam’s behalf. They were best buds. God wasn’t her best bud.
But what if He could be?
But why would He?
She was fine as she was. Liam made her feel special, and his family made her feel cherished, but it was only temporary. The risk wasn’t worth more pain, no matter how close she and Liam had been becoming. She respected him, and she valued him, but she couldn’t let him get any closer. It was better for her to be alone.
So why did that thought leave her feeling so desolate?
They drove in silence for a while, then Liam cleared his throat. “Are we going to talk about the, uh...”
The kiss. She swallowed. “I’m sorry. I was worried for you, and relieved. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Maybe we should forget about it.”
He was quiet a long moment. Then a bleakness and resolve came over his face. He nodded firmly. “Yes. Let’s forget about it.”
What was that about? But she couldn’t ask when she’d just told him not to talk about it.
For a while after that, they drove in silence, but eventually they st
arted talking about other things. Their favorite sports teams. Favorite music. Favorite books. She told him about working her way through college to get her degrees. He told her about his time in the army. He was able to speak about his shoulder injury and surgery dispassionately, but she could hear in his voice the thready pain at memories still raw.
After several hours, Liam insisted he was feeling fine enough to drive. The paramedics had cleared him, saying he didn’t have a concussion, so she let him take the wheel.
They were about half an hour from Penny Bay when her cell phone rang. She recognized the number as Joslyn’s burner cell. “Joslyn, we’re almost—”
“He’s here!” Joslyn’s voice was hoarse with panic. “Somehow Tomas followed me from Mattsonville. He’s here in Penny Bay!”
FIFTEEN
“Joslyn, where are you now?”
The urgency in Elisabeth’s voice made Liam’s pulse pound. “What’s wrong?”
“Stay out of sight,” Elisabeth told Joslyn. “We’ll be there as fast as we can.” She hung up. “Tomas is in Penny Bay.”
“Wasn’t he in Mattsonville? How’d he find her?”
“She doesn’t know. She happened to see him on the street, so she ducked into a yarn shop.”
“Will she be safe there?”
“I hope so. She says the shop is hosting its weekly knitalong, so there are a lot of women there. But Tomas and his men must be searching the town for her. She can’t stay hidden for long.”
“We’re almost there.”
Her worry was etched into her face, but she was making an effort to stay strong. He admired that about her, her caring combined with her bravery. After hearing about her father and her ex-boyfriend, he wanted to protect her from anyone else who would hurt her.
He was falling in love with her.
But the realization only felt like a knife digging into his chest. He wasn’t in any shape to have a relationship with anyone, not with his nightmares and his hallucinations. He couldn’t burden anyone else with what he was going through. If he found a way to heal himself, then maybe he might consider it. But until then, he was too broken.
As he took the exit to Penny Bay, he said, “If Tomas and his men see us, they’ll know for sure that Joslyn is here.”
“And they won’t scruple to hurt other people to get what they want.” Elisabeth chewed on her lip. “We need to distract them. But we can’t put anyone else in danger.”
“We shouldn’t go directly into town, or they might spot us.” Liam turned onto a bypass road rather than continuing on to Main Street.
Penny Bay sat directly on the coast, on the edge of cliffs that fell hundreds of feet into the churning winter sea. Just beyond the town was a historic lighthouse that was apparently a tourist stop.
“Wait, turn in here.” Elisabeth pointed to the lighthouse entrance.
The driveway split into a wide road to the right and a narrower utility road to the left. A sign had an arrow pointing right that said Parking Lot and an arrow to the left that said Penny Bay Historic Lighthouse and Penny Bay Downtown, One Mile. No Parking This Direction. Beneath that was another sign that said Lighthouse Closed Dec-Mar.
Liam turned the car right into the mostly empty parking lot.
“Looks like there’s barely anyone here to get hurt if we could lure the Bagsics there,” Elisabeth said. “But I don’t know how we’d do that.”
“I have an idea,” Liam said slowly. “But it’s a little crazy.”
She eyed him narrowly. “How crazy?”
“Like...backing the car into me and the Tumibay in Faye’s apartment parking garage crazy.”
After he told her his plan, she pursed her lips as she thought, but finally shook her head. “Definitely crazy, but I can’t come up with any other ideas.”
They parked the truck and then walked down the utility road toward downtown Penny Bay. The air was frigid. The road hit a T-junction, with the utility road heading right toward the lighthouse and a footpath veering left toward the town.
They kept their heads down and headed onward, keeping their eyes peeled for any Bagsic members. They ducked into a coffee shop to avoid one who had just turned the corner to walk down the street directly toward them. They managed to head out the back way of the shop.
The small town had an eclectic collection of shops and residential homes, all decorated with cheerful Christmas lights, fir boughs and tinsel garlands. It was close to sunset, and the daylight glowed a warm orange on the weathered walls of the buildings. The town was laid out in a rough grid, and it seemed every shop had a back door that opened into an alleyway or lane.
“There’s the yarn shop.” Elisabeth pointed to a small building to their left.
Liam scanned around and saw an internet café down the street in the opposite direction. “That looks like a good place.”
She nodded, her eyes apprehensive as they rested on him. “Be careful.”
He wanted to touch her face, as he had outside the parking garage. But he couldn’t do that to her. She deserved better. “You, too.”
He turned down a side road until he hit Long Street, one of the main streets of the town, bordered by shops. It ran parallel to the road they’d just been on. He glued his cell phone to his ear and started shouting, “Joslyn? Is that you? I can barely hear you.”
He didn’t have to walk more than a block before a Bagsic noticed him. The man wasn’t familiar to Liam, but he wore the distinctive purple and gray colors. Liam pretended not to see him and continued shouting into his cell phone. “Where are you? I’m here in town. Joslyn?”
Liam made his way toward the internet café and away from the yarn shop, away from Elisabeth and Joslyn. He kept shouting Joslyn’s name into his cell phone to draw the attention of any other Bagsics nearby, luring them away so Elisabeth could sneak inside and bring Joslyn out without being seen. He was almost to the front door of the internet café when he glanced in the window.
Sitting beside the window was a Bagsic at a table, typing on a laptop. He had finer clothes than some of the other gang members Liam had seen, although not quite as fine as Tomas’s. He seemed to be higher up the food chain, maybe just below Tomas’s level or equal to it. He hadn’t seen Liam and didn’t even look up as Liam walked past the window. But Liam noticed the flash of metal on his wrist.
He wore a vintage Rolex watch. The same watch Liam had seen in the photos of Joslyn’s father.
This man had been there when Tomas killed Felix Dimalanta. And he had stolen the man’s watch.
Liam’s jaw ached, and he realized he’d been clenching it. He had to stay focused or he’d never make it out of Penny Bay alive.
At the door to the internet café, he stopped and turned to face the street. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Bagsic following him duck into a souvenir shop—still within easy earshot.
“What?” Liam shouted into his phone. “You’re where? The lighthouse? Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He pocketed his phone and turned back the way he’d come. He didn’t look into the souvenir shop and made his way quickly down the street to where it narrowed into the utility road and continued out of town to the lighthouse.
He thought he might have seen Tomas out of the corner of his eye as he passed a restaurant. By now his men would have told him what they’d overheard about Joslyn at the lighthouse, and they’d be following Liam. Hopefully at a distance.
The utility road was a straight shot that ended at the lighthouse perched on the edge of the cliffs. The road passed between two rows of historic houses converted into vacation rentals, gussied up with Christmas decorations even though it looked as though they were empty of tenants at the moment. There were one or two tourists milling around the lighthouse, but they were far down the path looking out to sea.
Liam’s cell phone rang. He saw that Elisabeth had called and hung up, as they’d planned. She was in position.
He took a deep breath. He continued walking until he’d just p
assed the corner of a house, then he suddenly cut right and ran around the side of the building. Shouts rang out behind him.
He took another right around the backside of the house and sprinted with all his might toward the utility road. At the same time, he heard the gunning of an engine. The Mazda truck.
Elisabeth shot into view, jamming down the utility road in an intercept course with him. She turned quickly onto the grass, the truck’s four-wheel drive handling the off roading with ease. She slowed as he neared her, and he took a flying leap, planting his foot on the bumper and jumping into the back of the pickup.
He landed against the metal bed, aware of Elisabeth accelerating back toward the utility road. He slid toward the tailgate, bouncing violently as the wheels jounced around on the earth. There was nothing for him to hold on to, so he just concentrated on not flying out of the truck.
Once Elisabeth reached the entrance to the highway, she stopped. Liam climbed out of the bed. The gang members were still far down the road, running toward them.
Joslyn opened the passenger door and Liam climbed inside. “Go!” He slammed the door and fastened his seat belt as Elisabeth jammed forward, then turned onto the highway.
It was a few miles before he was able to relax against the seat. They had done it.
But now there was no going back to his family for help. Tomas knew with certainty that Liam and Elisabeth had Joslyn.
And he wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t hesitate to hurt people, until he had her.
* * *
Elisabeth was a few miles from Penny Bay before she said, “Where are we going?”
“We can’t take Joslyn back to Sonoma,” Liam said.
Joslyn shook her head. “Tomas knows I’m with you.”
“So we should find somewhere she can stay and be safe,” Liam said.
“We can’t leave her alone,” Elisabeth argued.
“No, we won’t do that. But I think I know someone who can help us. Head to Mendocino.”