by S. R. Jones
She frowns. “I haven’t been anywhere. Boo hurt his paw and I didn’t even dare take him to the vet’s I’m that paranoid, so Nancy did.”
I’d seen her go to Nancy’s with Boo and assumed they were having a coffee and a chat. Then I’d seen Abi go back to her boat without Boo and not thought much of it. I assumed Nancy was dog sitting for an hour or two so Abi could go out, and when Abi hadn’t gone out, I guessed she’d simply changed her plans.
“I gave her money and she paid in cash. He’d got a splinter from the dock and the vet removed it and dressed it. Nancy gave her name and address though, not mine.”
I think carefully for a moment, then something occurs to me. “Is Boo chipped?”
She nods and her eyes widen. “Oh crap, do you think the vet scanned his chip? But how the hell would that get to Nick?”
“I don’t know,” I say truthfully. “Maybe he had an alert out on Boo.” To be fair, if I was looking for someone and they had a chipped dog, it’s the first thing I’d do.
I curse myself for not thinking of it and warning Abi. Then I curse myself for not having my head in the game full stop. From now on, I need to focus and stay sharp. No more wanting things I can’t have. I’ll tell Abi as much of the truth as I can stomach to share with her, and she’ll hate me anyway. I won’t tell her I witnessed her humiliation at Nick’s hands or that I heard her moaning my name in her sleep. I half convince myself it is because I don’t want to embarrass her, even though deep down I know it’s because I don’t want her to hate me more.
“I’ll have someone with you within a couple of hours. Stay put. Get Abi packed, and don’t let any fucker on that boat. Once my man arrives, you two can get out of there.”
“Thanks.” I close the call and turn to face Abi.
She’s looking at me with anger but something worse is there, something akin to the disgust I’ve seen her glance at Nick with.
“You lied to me,” she whispers, her quiet delivery worse than any shout.
“I know. I needed to, I had to keep you safe.” It sounds like crap to my own ears.
“Did you need to sleep with me to keep me safe, too?”
Her words piss me off. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t see you not enjoying the heck out of that encounter.”
“I wasn’t working as your secret protective detail. Surely there are rules to what you do? Or do you fuck all the women you protect with your creepy ‘getting to know you’ routine? Let’s go look around the city,” she mimics.
I grit my teeth and give her a cold stare. “There are very few people in this world I’d allow to speak to me in such a way, Abi. Tread carefully. I’ve apologized, and from now on we’ll keep this purely professional.”
She gives a harsh laugh. “You bet we will. You don’t have any other choice.”
I go to her and try for conciliatory. She’s shocked, upset. I note the way her eyes keep darting toward the dead man on the floor but skittering away before they land on the sight of him laid out, eyes open.
“You need to get packed.” I rest my fingers on her forearm, wanting her attention.
I get it alright.
She hisses as if I’ve scalded her and pulls her arm back. “Don’t touch me,” she snarls.
Fine. She wants to play it this way, I’m all in. I move my hand and bark out an order. “Get your stuff packed within the hour. Get all your shit together because as soon as the guy arrives to clean up this mess, we’re leaving.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she says.
“Yeah, you are. Do you want to end up like him?” I jab a finger at the dead guy. She winces. “Didn’t think so. You’re coming with me.”
“So, you’re a kidnapper as well as being an amoral bastard. Nice.”
“If it means saving your ungrateful life, then yes, I’m a kidnapper.”
Fuck me, she’s got me wound up. I liked her. A lot. This side of her? Not so much. I’ve just killed a man to save her life and she’s acting like some prissy bitch whose nose has been put out of joint because I wasn’t totally upfront with her before we screwed.
I get my face right in hers. “And lose the attitude, Princess. I’m not the only one here who has been loose with the truth.”
And then I turn away from her and let her stew in her own juices. She doesn’t move. I can sense her standing there, staring at me. I turn around and click my fingers at her. “Get packing.”
“God, you’re such an utter dickhead.” With those final words, she grabs a bag and stomps into the bathroom where I hear her throwing bottles into something and gathering her things. I take advantage of her distraction to take the burner phone she has in her bag and note which one it is she’s currently using. When I did the sweep of her place, I noted all the numbers. People think burner phones aren’t traceable. They are if you know the number and the phone has battery life. I know Abi’s numbers.
I sigh and rub my eyes and then I go cover the man’s body with a sheet from the bed before standing on the deck to make sure no one else approaches the boat. I might be pissed at her, but I don’t want her seeing something that will terrify her, and his cold, dead eyes will surely do so.
Chapter Ten
Abi
He killed a man. He killed a man. He killed a man. It runs on an endless loop through my mind. He fucking killed him. Shot him dead in the chest. Twice. With an icy calm enough to chill anyone’s blood. Liam, the guy I thought a simple traveller with a great body is a stone-cold killer. A mercenary, maybe, because he said this is an off-the-books case. He’s been spying on Nick. What does he know about me? He said I’d lied. Does he know my past?
I shudder as I think of his hands on me. The same hands he used to fire the gun and kill a man were touching me. Making me tremble. I still want him on one level. In fact, deep down, in a tiny, scared part of my soul, I want him more because he saved me. He killed a man to protect me. It’s horrifying, and terrifying, but also strangely attractive, because he didn’t even blink or think about his own safety. After the shit I’ve been through with Nick, a man being so selfless is deeply attractive.
But then my rational mind comes to the fore, and I shudder at the horror of what I’ve witnessed. I won’t ever get those images out of my mind. And worse, he’s clearly done this before, probably many times. He’s a killer, and a liar, and he’s probably got the morals of an alley cat. The last thing I need is someone like him.
I can’t believe he lied to me. After what I’ve suffered at the hands of Nick, who lied and lied his way into my heart, before only showing his true colors when it was far too late for me to leave. Liam lying this way has ended anything between us.
My body might still yearn for him—the pathetic bitch—but my mind is made up. I don’t know who I can trust anymore, and Nick is clearly in a much deeper shitpile of trouble than I even began to suspect. He’s so far into the criminal underground he can hire guys to kill me because I’ll bet that’s what this man was. He’ll send more, I’m sure of it.
My brain begins to compute all the horrible permutations of this situation. Nick wants me back. I know this. He won’t kill me if I go crawling back to him. He’ll make my life hell, but he won’t kill me. If I keep running though, he’ll presumably simply keep on sending people after me, and that puts Liam in danger, too. Liam, who may be a liar, but whose death I don’t want on my conscience. It also puts Boo in danger. Maybe I should go back? If I go back, Nick might call off whoever is next on the list to come get me. I can leave Boo with Nancy and go home to face the music.
My stomach lurches at the thought of being in the same space with Nick again. It will be like escaping hell only to go back down into the fiery depths. I splash my face with water and try to focus. Deciding I’m far too traumatised to make a rational decision, I settle on leaving things for now and staying with Liam. For the moment at least.
Heart pounding and mouth dry, I finish packing up my bathroom things. My mouth tastes horrible, and I can only think it must be
to do with me being so upset. I scrub my teeth before throwing my toothbrush into the bag with my toothpaste. All packed in the bathroom, I need to face Liam and go pack my stuff in the main part of the boat. When I step into the room, my eyes dart to the side as if of their own accord, and I give a sigh of relief when I see the bedsheet covering the body. Liam is nowhere to be seen and I experience a brief moment of panic, before I see his tall broad frame on the deck, standing guard like a sentry outside the glass doors.
Why did he have sex with me? I’m pretty damn sure he broke all the unwritten rules of what he does. Even if he’s some sort of private investigator, or muscle for hire, I’m sure they aren’t supposed to shag the people they are protecting. If he is protecting me.
I’m Nick’s wife. There are clearly a lot of people after Nick because of whatever it is he has done, or what he knows. Perhaps Liam is only keeping me safe so the guys he works for can get information out of me. Maybe he’s with the bad guys, too. There doesn’t have to only be one group of them.
I know I’m getting paranoid but it’s hard not to. Without thinking, I pat my washbag where the tampon box with the USB stick hidden inside sits. Do they know about the stuff I downloaded? I’ve not had chance to look at it yet, so it may be nothing, but it might incriminate Nick, which I’m fine with, but what if Liam ultimately works for Nick?
All I know is, he’s not law enforcement, he’s not official, and I only have his word he’s helping me and on the right side of this.
It takes me a while to pack all my stuff, and then I simply sit and stare at the walls because I can’t go out there and join Liam, and I daren’t look anywhere near that sheet- covered body. It’s a horrible thirty minutes where I feel utterly trapped, but then heavy bootsteps pull me out of my depressive meditation on the crap show of my life.
I look to the doors and see a man with a huge bag talking to Liam. They’re using hushed tones, and every now and then they glance inside toward me.
Pulling the doors fully open, Liam strides in. “You ready?” He barely looks my way.
I nod and go to get my big holdall, but he beats me to it. He hefts the bag onto his shoulder and then picks Boo up. The sight of my little dog in his big arms shouldn’t do something to my ovaries but it does. Damn traitors!
“See you.” Liam nods at the guy who is unpacking sheets and other things I do not want to take notice of for fear of never getting them out of my mind.
The man only grunts and crouches down by the sheet, which I take as my time to leave. Stepping out onto the deck is surreal. The world around us is turning as normal. The sun is shining and the air is mild. A few people are out and about farther down the dock. It’s all so strange and mundane. Will I ever live a normal life again? The sort of life where my biggest stressor is I forgot to buy milk at the shops and must go out again?
“This way, Princess.” As we near the end of the walkway, Liam turns right, away from where my car is.
I give him a glare and he chuckles. “What about my car?” I ask.
“Oh, you mean the amazing, expensive, fantastic piece of machinery you don’t want to lose because it’s such a great car?”
Rolling my eyes, I don’t bother to answer him. I don’t point out, the last I knew his car was parked up by mine. What with him being my stalker-ish kidnapper and all.
We enter a small parking lot behind some sort of shop, and there’s a big truck with blacked out windows. It’s a Chevrolet of some sort, and Liam heads to it and opens the door with a beep-beep of some keys he pulls from his pocket.
“Did the guy who does the…what did you call it, wet work? Did he give you the keys to this?”
Liam nods, but doesn’t say anything else. He opens the back and throws my bag in and then he grabs a blanket from under the seat and gently places Boo on it. “Does his harness clip into the seatbelt?” he asks.
I nod, and he motions for me to do it. Once I’m sure Boo is secure, I glance at Liam, to see he’s already holding the passenger door open for me. I climb up and in, and sit, waiting for him.
Once in the driver’s side, he slams his door shut and puts his arm over my seat as he looks behind him to reverse back slightly and pull out of the lot. Why is he acting as if I’m the one who has done something wrong? I’m not the lying killer for hire.
“You know,” I start, and he shoots me a look to shut up a lesser woman. “I don’t know if I can trust you. You say you’re on my side, but how the hell do I know you aren’t working for Nick and about to take me back to him, or for some of the people who want to hurt Nick?”
“In which of those scenarios would me saving your life fit?” he grinds out. “Furthermore, in saving your life I made a big mess. A mess where Nancy or anyone else could have discovered me and a dead body. I put things on the line for you today, Abi. I did so because you were stupid enough to treat your dog and get yourself found, and I did so without hesitation, so you can trust me or not. Either way, you’re my problem now, which means you do as I say so I can keep you safe.”
He glances at me for a moment, taking his eyes off the road. “Speaking of which, I need the USB stick”
I stiffen at his words, and my heart kicks up a notch. “How do you know I have the stick?” I demand.
Were they watching Nick. Watching me? Has Liam seen everything? Oh, my God. I start to experience the beginnings of hyperventilation, but Liam simply says. “Nick’s been trying to find it, he knows you’ve taken it. Been blabbing to loads of people about it, which is why your life is probably in danger now. We know about it because we’ve been bugging the phones.”
I’m so relieved I sag in my seat. “I don’t have anything.” I lie. I still don’t know if I can trust Liam.
He narrows his eyes but doesn’t look at me. “Okay, we’ll play it that way.”
Not sure what the hell he means and scared to find out, I shut up and look out the window.
All I know is I must have found something important to Nick amongst his files, and now I have it on the USB stick. I’d done it as a form of insurance, and so I could go to the cops if I ever got up the courage, but now my actions have made me a target.
The man next to me says he’s on my side. And his words have a certain logic to them, but how can I trust him? He’s lied to me. He fucked me while supposedly protecting me, which I still cannot see as remotely okay. And now he’s like a different person. The laid back, nice guy I met has turned into a scary, closed off man I’m honestly more than a little afraid of. I always sensed that side of him, but seeing it at the fore makes me wonder if his casual side is a disguise. Like those supposed lizard people who hide their true selves under a human skin.
I need to talk to someone I can trust. Get a different opinion on all this. I decide to call Jay as soon as I can.
We drive for hours and hours. We stop for lunch at a diner but barely speak. Boo gets some food, and water, and a few toilet stops, and we finally knuckle down and Liam eats up the miles as we both brood. I close my eyes and let the motion soothe me.
“Hey. Abi.” The words penetrate the fog, but I don’t want to move. “Abi, wake up. We’re here.”
My head is on my shoulder and my top is wet from dribble. Lovely. I blink a couple of times, wipe my mouth, and turn to face Liam. “Where is here?”
“Home for the night. Salt Lake City.”
“What?” I blink at the motel in front of us.
“Needed to get us out of California. Did so, put as much distance between us and there as I could. Now we need to rest. I’ll speak to Reece tomorrow and decide where we go from here.”
He clambers out of the car and I follow him. “Leave Boo in the car,” he orders. “Not sure if they allow dogs.”
“He can’t sleep in the car.” My heart lurches at the thought.
Liam stops moving and pins me with an irritated glare. “He won’t be. But they don’t have to know we have him with us.” He jabs a finger at the run-down reception outbuilding and I nod.
&nb
sp; This place is one of those classic horseshoe shaped motels around a pool, with two stories worth of rooms. It’s faded and has seen better days. I glance at the road beyond and see we’re in a residential area. One with a few take-out places, late night stores, and other businesses with harsh strip lighting and winking signs.
“Room for two, please,” Liam says as we enter reception.
“I think my own room is preferable, thank you.” I interrupt his words to the clerk with a stern look at Liam. I’m not sharing with him.
His annoyance flashes across his features and the clerk watches us, her face growing concerned.
“Adjoining rooms is great, thanks.” I tell her with a smile.
Who does Liam think he is? I can’t go anywhere, for God’s sake. He’s got the keys to the truck and we’ll be right next door to one another. I can scream for him if I need to, but I want my own space. The thought of sharing his is too much, in a multitude of ways.
“Oh, darling. Come on.” I realize then that Liam has been putting on an American accent while talking to the receptionist, and it’s pretty damn good. “Don’t go holding grudges.”
Then he smiles at me all soft, and it changes his face completely. He’s suddenly gorgeous. And despite me kind of hating him, my stupid stomach still does a little flip.
“Sorry, but after today, I think we’re better off sleeping separately. I’ll take the room next to his.”
I’m not even given a moment to enjoy my victory because Liam’s lips are on mine, crushing them in a hard, demanding kiss. “Told you I was sorry, baby.” He says baby with a whole world of warning in it. Then whispers in my ear, while nibbling it. “Get with the program, Princess. You don’t get to sleep in your own room, and you keep on making a scene you only increase the likelihood of us standing out. If you don’t care for your own life, think of Boo.” He says the cold, hard words in a seductive murmur.
Then he pulls away and kisses me again. Soft this time, and his thumb brushes my chin as he smiles again. I swear he is looking at me as a husband looks at a much-loved wife. The clerk is buying it. Her face has gone all soft and she’s smiling happily.