by Janie Crouch
She couldn’t fight the darkness anymore. Her last hope was that she didn’t take Liam down with her as she drowned.
* * *
LIAM FELT VANESSA stop kicking a few feet from the surface. His own lungs burned with an agonizing intensity. He forced himself to give one more giant kick and their heads burst past the surface and into the life-giving air.
It only took him a moment to realize that Vanessa wasn’t conscious. Wasn’t breathing.
The vehicle had sunk father than he’d thought; probably nearly twenty feet. That was a long way to travel on one breath. Especially in Vanessa’s panicked state.
He swam with her motionless form to the bank and pulled her up. Ignoring the cold that was making his movements sluggish, he tried to check her pulse. It was weak and thready, but it was still there. Pulse but no breath.
He had to get the water out of her system and air in or she wouldn’t have a pulse soon. He turned her onto her side and thumped. Hard. She would have bruises on her small frame, no doubt.
“Come on, Nessa,” he said, voice hoarse. “Stay with me.”
He pulled her limp frame up, holding her with one arm across her chest, clasping her upper arm. He thumped again, leaning her forward as if burping a baby.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
The sound of her retching was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard.
He held her as she coughed and threw up the rest of the water in her system, replacing it with oxygen. Then he fell back onto the ground, taking her with him. They both lay exhausted.
“That wasn’t fun,” she finally whispered, obviously unable to make her voice any louder.
“Which part, the drowning or the epic vomiting?”
She chuckled weakly. “Both were equally gross.”
Liam knew he had to get them up and going. The water had felt a lot colder than it actually was—it was only the first of October, so it wasn’t dangerously cold—but they were both still freezing. They needed to warm up. Vanessa especially. She didn’t have the same muscle mass he had to keep himself warm.
Whatever vehicle had pushed them into the water was gone. Could it have been Webb? Could he have seen them, doubled back and been waiting for them to make their way onto the bridge?
They’d have to figure that out later. Right now? Warmth. Of course, they had no vehicle, no working phones and no shoes. At least Liam still had his wallet.
He helped Vanessa up and they began walking. They’d head for the nearest hotel—thank God, the Outer Banks was fairly littered with them—get warm and call this in.
He kept Vanessa pinned to his side as they walked, slowly and pretty painfully, down the side road.
They were both alive. That was what mattered.
Chapter Thirteen
Vanessa’s teeth were chattering and she was miserable.
If Liam reminded her one more time that shivering was a good sign, that it meant she hadn’t gone into any later stages of hypothermia, she might pop him in the mouth. She didn’t want to hear that the castanets playing in her head were a good sign. She just wanted to get warm.
They hadn’t had to walk far for a hotel, thank goodness. He had kept her pinned to his side the entire time except when he’d reluctantly let her go so he could check in. Vanessa sat outside on a bench waiting, since they both looked like something out of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Plus, he didn’t want the clerk to possibly recognize her in case the cops started searching again.
Even in her physical misery, Vanessa couldn’t ignore the overwhelming joy that permeated her body.
They were alive.
Both of them were walking, no broken bones, no obvious head injuries, no floating facedown in the Roanoke Sound. They had some cuts and definitely some bruises, but they were alive.
Liam walked back outside. “Okay, I’ve got us a room and extra bottles of shampoo and conditioner.”
This hotel was pretty nice. Not luxury, like something her family would stay at, but certainly not as scary as the other place she’d been with Karine. Liam led her inside, into the elevator and up to their room. He immediately went to the heating unit and cranked it to high.
Vanessa wanted to fall face-first on the giant king-size bed, but definitely needed a shower first.
She wondered if she could talk Liam into joining her. That would warm both of them up. She looked over at him, but he was already grabbing the phone and stretching it over to the table by the window.
“I’m going to make a call to Omega Sector,” he said. “Make sure we have backup on the way and that they are bringing everything we need.”
She knew she should be happy that he was in super-agent mode. He was getting things done. Making sure those girls were going to make it out of this situation alive. Calling in the guard.
Was it bad that she wished—just a little bit—he would be in let’s-celebrate-we’re-alive mode and join her in the shower?
Probably.
“Do you think that was Webb who rammed us into the water tonight?” she asked him.
He nodded. “Maybe. Him or one of his friends. They could’ve noticed we were following him.”
“It’s a good thing we sent those pictures already. My phone didn’t make it out of the Sound.”
“Mine did, but it’s completely useless. We’ll need to get replacements tomorrow. And figure out a plan about everything. I’m thinking the best bet is for you to go to work as if nothing happened. That would completely throw Webb, or whoever tried to kill us, off.”
“Won’t he just bring me in again?”
“Not with your dad’s lawyer there to get you out. I know you don’t like your dad’s interference, but nobody is going to bring you in for questioning unless they are absolutely sure they can charge you with something. The Epperson lawyer made sure of that, I have no doubt.” He turned back to the phone.
Yeah, Liam was definitely in super-agent mode. That was good, she reminded herself. Good.
She spun and made her way to the shower, by herself.
Good.
* * *
LIAM CATEGORICALLY REFUSED to think about Vanessa in the shower as he made his calls. First one was to Andrea to check on Karine and to make sure she knew to be even more diligent. Andrea assured him everything was okay there.
He knew Vanessa—who was not being thought of naked in the shower—would be glad to know everything was fine on the home front.
His next call was to Omega, reporting to Steve Drackett about the attack. It didn’t change much. Derek and Joe would be in the Outer Banks tomorrow morning. They hadn’t had any luck identifying the men Liam and Vanessa had sent pictures of, but the facial recognition software was still running them.
Of course, facial recognition programming was limited. Unless the men had a record or were public figures, the software might not come up with any helpful results.
By the time Liam got off the phone with Steve, the shower had stopped. At least now he could stop not thinking about Vanessa naked in the shower.
And while he was not thinking about things, he definitely should not think about that explosive kiss between them this morning before she’d gone to work. How he’d dragged her across his lap and every window in the vehicle had fogged in under ten seconds.
The bathroom door opened and she stepped out, wrapped only in a towel.
Add that to the don’t-think-about list, also.
“It’s all yours. I rinsed out my clothes because they were so gross with the Sound water. They’re on the sink.”
Liam looked everywhere but at her. “Okay. I don’t blame you.”
“Everything okay with Karine and Andrea?”
“Yes, no problems whatsoever.” He glanced over at her, drawn by the expanse of her shoulders not cove
red by the towel, then quickly away. “Andrea is on high alert, but I don’t think they can tie anything having to do with you and me to her, even if they know who I am, which is doubtful. So they’re safe.”
He glanced at her to gauge her reaction, but was instead transfixed by a drop of water that found its way from the damp hair at her temple down her cheek and neck. It moved on to her chest, only to disappear in the track between her breasts.
All Liam could think about was backing Vanessa up against that wall and following with his lips the same path that droplet had taken.
Of untying that towel wrapped around her and letting it drop to the floor. And following the routes a few more droplets of water had taken down her body, or just make up his own.
Damn, he was not supposed to be thinking of any of this.
“I’m going to shower.” He didn’t look Vanessa in the face; just went into the bathroom.
That was what he needed: a little distance, a nice hot shower to wipe out the lingering cold and salt clinging to his skin; time to just let everything that had happened today go.
Five minutes into his shower, he realized it wasn’t going to help at all.
The more he tried not thinking about Vanessa—naked, fully clothed or otherwise—the more he couldn’t get her out of his mind. He was going to have to get another room. That was the only way he’d be able to leave her alone.
He didn’t rinse out his clothes, but put them back on grudgingly, wincing at their stiffness and smell. He needed to go down to the lobby to ask for a second room. He stepped out of the bathroom still drying his hair with a towel.
“Hey, Nessa, I was thinking. It would probably be prudent for me to get my own—”
He looked up from under his towel and halted his words. Vanessa was lying on the bed, under the covers, curled up in a ball. She was fast asleep.
“Room,” Liam finished in a much softer voice.
It would probably still be prudent. But Liam had never been particularly good at prudent.
Besides, he trusted himself not to molest a sleeping woman. Even if she was the most gorgeous, feminine, sexy woman he’d ever known.
Liam went back into the bathroom and rinsed out his clothes. He laid them next to Vanessa’s to dry then turned out the lights. He got into the bed, moving carefully so he wouldn’t wake her.
So he was quite surprised when, a few seconds later, a very naked Vanessa pressed up to his side.
“I tricked you,” she said, giggling, then covered her mouth as if she was surprised at the sound.
That sweet laugh. Lord, how he had missed it. He hadn’t realized until right now that Vanessa’s infectious laughter was probably what he had missed most about her over the past eight years.
He hadn’t heard it once since he was back, until now. Sure, circumstances were dire, he knew that, but it was almost as if that sweet laugh wasn’t part of Vanessa’s regular makeup anymore. More than ever, he was determined to understand what had changed for her. What had made her stop laughing?
But he’d have to worry about that later. Right now it looked as though the laughing Vanessa had other plans.
The time for prudence had come and gone. Liam could hardly fight his own desires. There was no way in hell he could fight his and hers.
He turned onto his side so they were face to face and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer. “You certainly had me fooled, Miss Epperson.”
“I had to get you out of super-agent mode. This seemed like the easiest way.”
Liam cocked an eyebrow. “Super-agent mode?”
She rubbed a hand over his chest. “Yeah. I didn’t need an agent. I need Liam.”
“Well, he’s here now.”
He pulled Vanessa so she lay all the way on top of him. The thought that he could have lost her today—had come so close to losing her—had him crushing her to him. He wrapped one arm around her hips and threaded his other hand through her hair, bringing her lips down to his.
The heat was instantaneous, as always. It chased all traces of cold away.
“I thought I’d lost you tonight,” he murmured against her lips.
“I had the same fear when I couldn’t get you to wake up in the car,” she responded, her lips never moving away from his.
There was no more talking. Neither of them wanted to think about death. Not right now. Liam didn’t want to even think about whether this was a good idea or not.
All he wanted to think about was her body pressed up against his.
He rolled them over so she was tucked underneath him, catching his weight on his elbow and using his other hand to run down the length of her body. He heard her breath catch as he became reunited with the body he had once known so well.
She reached up and threaded her hands in his hair, pulling his lips down to hers. He got one last glimpse of the endless brown in her eyes before he closed his and gave himself over to the passion between them.
As if they’d never been apart.
Chapter Fourteen
Liam was hard-pressed to remember a time he’d been as relieved to see anyone as he was to see his fellow Omega agents Derek Waterman and Joe Matarazzo the next day. Without them Liam’s focus had been too torn: trying to make sure Vanessa was safe at work, getting some sense of where Tommy Webb was and what he was doing, plus keeping an eye out for either of the two men he’d been with, since the facial-recognition software still hadn’t netted any results.
It was too much for any one person.
Now Liam had the backup he needed. He trusted these men in a way he didn’t trust anyone else. He’d learned how to put his life in other people’s hands when he’d entered the army and then qualified for Special Forces. His multiple direct-action missions in Afghanistan had taught him the very essence of teamwork. He’d thought the camaraderie would be gone forever after he’d left Special Forces, but he’d found the same brotherhood at Omega Sector.
Of course, right now they were giving him a hard time and he wished he wasn’t stuck with them.
“Are we certain it wasn’t one of Goetz’s ex-girlfriends who rammed him off the bridge?” Joe asked, stretched out in the backseat of Liam’s new rental car.
Derek, sitting next to Liam in the front, shook his head. “Joe, you need to be serious.”
Liam nodded. “Thanks, Derek.”
“We all know there is not enough law-enforcement manpower in the world to track down all the women who would like to run Liam off a bridge,” Derek continued, causing Joe to chuckle. “We’ll have to just hope it’s some criminal. Then we have a chance.”
“Very funny,” Liam muttered. Although Liam guessed he deserved it after how much he had teased Derek about his wife, Molly, the forensic lab director at Omega.
They had already inspected Webb’s vehicle, at least the one he’d been driving last night, which he had parked at the station today. There was no damage to the front of his car. It could not have been the vehicle that had pushed them off the bridge.
That didn’t mean it hadn’t been one of his buddies, though.
“I’m going to leave you two comedians here to watch Webb. Particularly to see if he meets up with our unknown suspects again.” Both Joe and Derek had the pictures he and Vanessa had taken at the diner and they each had a car in case they needed to split up.
Liam had also gotten new phones for him and Vanessa. Being out of touch was not an option.
“I should probably check in with Andrea, make sure everything is okay there. I don’t want to take Vanessa to that house in case someone is following us. Webb might have surveillance on her that we don’t know about.”
Joe looked at him, all joking now aside. “You need to be careful out there, man. Whoever is behind this is hard-core.”
Liam nodded. “I’m just hoping those
girls are still alive and the perps haven’t moved up their timetable. We need to watch them, but nothing that will arouse unwanted suspicion.”
“Let’s just hope they’re more greedy than they are smart,” Derek said. “They won’t want to lose the money those girls will provide unless they absolutely have to.”
“I’m going to stick with Vanessa. They couldn’t get her out of the way through legal channels, so now it looks like they’re trying to get rid of her altogether.”
There was no way Liam would be leaving her side once she was out of her office, in case whoever had tried to kill them yesterday decided to come back and finish the job while Vanessa was alone.
That decision, of course, had nothing to do with the lovemaking that had occurred last night. And this morning. Twice.
It was Friday afternoon and Vanessa would be done with work soon. He wouldn’t have to let her out of his sight all weekend. He wished he could keep her naked that whole time, but knew they had work to do.
Plus, what the hell was he doing? He had come here to the Outer Banks to put Vanessa’s ghost to rest. To finally be able to move on without the thought of her hanging over every action he made.
That definitely was a mission fail.
As he waited outside her office—still not completely able to wrap his head around the fact that Vanessa was a social worker—Liam knew he had to face some hard facts.
He had never really gotten over Vanessa.
The situation had just become a great deal more complicated based on last night’s—and this morning’s—actions.
Vanessa was not the same person he’d known eight years ago. Of course, he wasn’t the same person, either. They’d both grown up. But something had changed her. She didn’t want to share it, but before he left this place, Liam was going to know what it was.
And how was he going to leave her again? He’d barely survived leaving her once. And that was because he’d been forced to. But even if they could work out their differences, her life was here and his was in Colorado.
There was one thing he had better remember and consider more than anything else: he had been in this exact place before. Eight years ago. Sitting there making future plans for him and Vanessa. Sure that all the love and heat and passion between them was two-sided.