by Joss Wood
No, her only option was to run, as soon as they could and as far as they could. Mexico? Alaska? God, it was all so overwhelming. But first, she had to get Liam to leave.
Liam nudged a suitcase with his foot. “Going somewhere?”
She didn’t want to lie to him, she really didn’t. But she had already once today—and such a huge one—so the damage was done. “I’m taking Joshua on a short trip.”
“No, you’re bolting,” Liam stated, folding his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you ask me for help instead?”
Joshua opened his mouth to speak but a hard look from Liam killed whatever he was about to say. He lifted his hands. “I’m going to give you some privacy.”
Liam waited until Joshua had left the room before speaking again. “Well?”
Teresa lifted her head. “I don’t need your help, Liam. I can handle whatever happens in my life.”
“By running away? When did that ever help?”
It would help him to stay alive! But she couldn’t tell him that! Why was he pushing her? He should be at home, cursing her name. “Why are you here? After what I said today, I never expected to see you again.”
“You’re a really bad liar, Teresa, and I know the truth, because I know you. You did not sleep with my dad and you only said that to create some distance between us. So that I would let you go.”
Dammit, dammit, dammit. Teresa glanced down at her bags. “I’m going anyway.”
“You’re staying exactly where you are,” Liam stated, his face implacable. “It’s over, Teresa.”
What was over? Their relationship? Yes, she already assumed as much. “I know. There’s been too much craziness between us to make us work.”
“That’s not what I was talking about,” Liam said, pulling a small flash drive from the pocket of his suit. He handed it to her and Teresa frowned as she took the drive.
“What is this?”
“That is proof that Joshua’s debts have been paid, that he is no longer in danger from any criminal element, anywhere.” Liam narrowed his eyes. “But if he finds himself entangled in that world again, I will not be pleased.”
Teresa heard his words but they didn’t make any sense. Feeling her knees turning mushy, she sat down on the arm of her sofa and stared up at Liam. “I don’t understand. How did this happen? What did you do?”
Liam picked up a wooden sculpture of a hummingbird on a stand and ran his thumb down its smooth back. He replaced the sculpture before jamming his hands into the pockets of his pants.
“If you’d just put your stubbornness aside and asked for my help, this could’ve been handled weeks ago.”
“But the money...it’s a lot of money. And they threatened you, Liam.”
“The threat was an empty one and we would’ve figured that out together if you’d just talked to me. And it’s just money, Teresa, and I have a lot of it.”
But how would she ever pay him back? How would Joshua? But before she got to that, she needed to know how her life went from falling apart to...not. “Tell me everything.”
Liam hesitated as if he was trying to decide where to start.
“You know I also have a guy who does things for me, someone I have on speed dial. He has connections that you and I—” Liam hesitated “—do not. He helped me arrange to pay off the debt. It’s done. But as Nicolette suspected back in Napa, it was more personal than we realized, Teresa. Somebody went to a lot of effort to make your life hell.”
Teresa sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. She didn’t want to hear this, and she knew that Liam didn’t want to tell her this part of the story. “Do you know who?”
He nodded. Liam met her eyes and in the green depths, she saw pain and mortification. “My mother.”
Teresa’s mouth fell open. “What?”
“My mother blames you for the breakup of her marriage. She refuses to accept that you didn’t have an affair with Linus. She was behind the tabloid stories, the rumors, the escalation of the debt. She was also, I am mortified to admit this, behind today’s threat to have me killed. She didn’t mean it but she knew it would be effective.”
“Your mother?” Teresa spluttered.
Liam’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” Liam pushed his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d completely understand if you want to press charges against her.”
Teresa’s brows flew up. Have his mother arrested? Was he nuts? “Could I prove anything?” she asked.
“Probably not,” Liam admitted.
Teresa forced herself to think, to distance herself from her anger. “That would create another scandal that Christopher Corporation doesn’t need right now.”
“I don’t give a flying...fig how it affects the company.” Liam pushed the words out between clenched teeth.
“Yeah, Liam, you do. And you should,” Teresa said. She made a quick decision. “I’m not going to take this any further. Your mother is a sad woman and I think she is living her own type of hell.”
She couldn’t miss the relief that she saw in his eyes. Catherine was, after all, his mother, and although she was pampered, spoiled, narcissistic and a complete bitch, he didn’t want to see her humiliated. Teresa, who’d always protected her own mother, could see that from a mile away.
Teresa stared down at her hardwood floor and allowed herself to relax, finally starting to believe that it was all over. She felt like an elephant had been lifted off her chest, like her mind had been vacuumed. Laughter, relief and joy bubbled up inside her. She wanted to throw herself into Liam’s arms, express her gratitude in the most basic way she knew how...naked and horizontally.
But Liam, when she looked at him, still looked as remote as he did when he walked into her apartment. “Why do I feel like you are about to drop another bombshell?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to know.
When he just looked at her without saying anything, she shrugged. “I don’t have to marry you today to save Christopher Corporation, do I?” she joked, hoping to see humor flash in his eyes.
Liam just held her eyes. “Would you? If it came down to that?”
She would. Today she’d realized that there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for him. She’d been prepared to run to save him and his reputation, to give him a life that, she’d assumed, was better without her in it. She’d given him everything and anything she could, in any way she could.
“If you wanted me to...”
Emotion as bold as a lightning strike and as fragile as a butterfly wing flashed in his eyes and in that moment, Teresa released all resistance to what she was feeling. She loved him and while she was intensely grateful that he’d saved her brother’s life, her career, her home, she was not confusing gratitude with love. She loved him—intensely, passionately, forever.
What was the point of keeping her heart, that useless organ that now only thumped for him, to herself? Wasn’t love—especially something so rich and wild and desperate to be free—meant to be shared?
“I love you.”
She dropped the words into the quiet space between them, and she immediately felt his body tense. His eyes lightened and darkened and, for one brief moment, she thought he might reach for her, pull her into his arms, but he just stood there, his eyes locked with hers.
“I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear but I do. I think I always have. I know I always will.”
Liam ran his hand over his head, obviously agitated. “Dammit, Teresa.”
Not the reaction she wanted but also not one that surprised her. She never expected Liam to drop to his knees, overcome with emotion; that wasn’t his way. Besides, her love had nothing to do with his response; it just was.
Teresa stood up and placed her hands on his chest, looking up into his face. “You and I have had a rocky road and have dealt with things
no couple should be forced to face. It’s been rough and hard and tough. And that’s okay. I can handle anything with you standing next to me.” Teresa stroked the fabric of his shirt, feeling his hot skin beneath it, felt the thump thump of his heart beneath her palm. “But love, true love, grown-up love, isn’t based on what you get back. It’s judged by how much you give.”
“I don’t understand.”
Teresa’s smile was sad. “I know. I didn’t, either. I loved my mom and protected her, loved and protected Joshua, and all I wanted was for them to love and protect me as much as I did them. I wanted something back. Maybe, initially, I wanted that from you, too.
“But now I don’t expect, can’t expect, you to love me just because I love you. Love is not conditional. I understand that now.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Liam muttered, his rigid arms still at his sides. “I’ve got things to work through, stuff I need to find out.”
Teresa saw the confusion and misery in his eyes but knew that there was so much he wasn’t telling her. He still couldn’t trust her. And she couldn’t blame him. With parents like his, trust was impossible. Teresa placed her hand on his cheek. “I’ll always be on your side, Liam. No matter what.”
Liam covered her hand with his and closed his eyes. After a minute he told her, his voice rough with emotion, that he needed to go.
Teresa dropped her hands and blinked back her tears. “I know.”
And she needed him to go before she begged him to stay.
Because love, she thought as Liam left her apartment and her life, could not be demanded.
Eleven
Teresa, dressed in yoga pants and a tank top, walked down her hallway and into her kitchen, squinting at the bright sunlight streaming in from the open windows. She loved her apartment and she was so grateful to Liam for providing her the means for her to stay in it and for, obviously, saving her brother.
While she waited for her coffee to brew, Teresa placed her elbows on the granite counter and her face in her hands. Four days had passed since Liam handed her the flash drive and their freedom and she and Joshua had spent that time getting used to the idea that they were free.
Since she’d repaid The Fixer by organizing Brooks’s wedding, Teresa was also free of him. Corinne was fielding a bunch of queries for her to organize events and had already delegated some of the smaller, less high-profile events to her staff. Corinne had also declared that Teresa needed a few days off so, not having the energy to argue, Teresa opted to stay home. But she’d had enough of doing nothing except missing Liam.
Thinking about Liam.
Needing Liam.
Teresa tried to ignore the knife in her heart, the barbed wire wrapped around her stomach. She should go back to work; she wanted her life to go back to normal, but most of all, she wanted to go back to Liam.
Teresa heard her front door opening and walked through to her living room, frowning. Joshua slept late as often as he could and frequently didn’t surface until around noon. God, she needed to do something about her brother and soon.
She loved him but she couldn’t live with him.
Joshua walked into the living room, his body sweaty. What was going on? Joshua didn’t exercise. Ever.
“Are you feeling okay?” she asked.
Joshua ran a hand towel over his glistening face. “Fine, why?”
“It’s not even seven thirty and you’ve been exercising. What’s up with that?”
Joshua rubbed his head with his towel and Teresa thought she heard something about Liam and boxing. Yanking his towel away, she glared at him. “Say that again?”
“Liam told me that I had to be at his gym at six this morning,” Joshua told her, heading in the direction of the kitchen. Teresa followed him, trying to make sense of his words. Joshua pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and Teresa grabbed the edge of his T-shirt as he tried to edge past her to go to his room. “Hold on there, Josh. You went to the gym with Liam?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me I had to. I started two days ago,” Joshua replied, holding her intense stare. Okay, so that was new. It had been ages since Joshua had managed to maintain eye contact.
“And why are you listening to Liam?”
Joshua lifted a thin shoulder. “Because I owe him.”
Teresa started to protest but Joshua slapped his hand over her mouth. His sweaty, recently-been-in-a-glove hand. Yuck. Teresa shuddered and slapped it away. She pointed to a bar stool next to the counter. “Sit. And explain.”
“I can never repay Liam the seven mil, I know that,” Joshua said.
“I’ll repay him when I sell the shares back to him.”
Joshua smiled. “He said you’d say that and he said to remind you that he doesn’t want your money.” Joshua took another long pull of water before carefully placing his bottle on the counter. “Besides, the money has nothing to do with you.”
Teresa frowned at him. “Maybe so but you don’t have the money to repay Liam.”
“I know that. So does Liam,” Joshua said, sounding irritated. “But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s my problem, not yours.”
Okay, technically true but she’d looked after Joshua all his life.
“Liam says it’s time that I act my age, that I take responsibility for my actions.” Joshua lifted his chin and Teresa saw her own stubbornness in his eyes. “I’m working it out with him.”
Oh. Ohhhh. She narrowed her eyes, not pleased. What was Liam up to? She loved the man but she’d still go to war with him over Josh. He was still her baby brother.
“Liam expects me at the gym four mornings a week,” Joshua replied. “I’m also starting work at Christopher Corporation next week Monday. And I’m going to school at night.” Teresa opened her mouth to ask how he was going to pay for school but Joshua beat her to it. “Apparently, Christopher Corporation has a few interns who work shorter hours for a smaller salary and study part-time.”
So, wow. “What are you going to study?”
Joshua ducked his head. “I’m really interested in computers. Maybe software engineering?”
“That sounds great,” Teresa said, still needing to know more. “How long do you have to work for Liam?”
“He didn’t say. He just wants me to give it a decent shot. He says that he believes that I can do anything I want to, if I started to trust myself and if I made decent decisions.”
Teresa placed a hand on her heart, thinking it might beat out of her chest. Man, Liam was such a good man. A good man who was keeping his distance. She could just slap him. Why were they being miserable apart when they could be happy together?
“I’m proud of you, Josh. I think you’re going to be just fine,” Teresa said, patting his hand. She wanted to hug him but she’d do that after he’d showered.
Joshua rocked the bottle of water from side to side. “You both have the same look in your eyes. Both of you are so damn unhappy but trying to be strong.”
Well, that was what adults did. “I’m glad you get to spend time with Liam, Josh. He’s a really good man.”
“A good guy with a hell of a right hook,” Joshua said, rubbing his jaw. “Did he tell you that his mom paid some guys to drug me, and that they suggested that I crash that party and insult those people?”
Not exactly but she’d figured that was what happened. “Catherine is convinced that I slept with Liam’s dad and she wanted to punish me.”
“She’s nutso.”
Teresa agreed with him. “Liam explained everything to me. His mother is a loon, his father isn’t his father and that’s why he’s off to Oahu this morning,” Joshua said.
What?
“Whoa, back up. What did you say?”
“Liam flew to Oahu.”
“No! What do you mean that his father isn
’t his father?”
Joshua looked guilty. “I don’t know if I should’ve mentioned that. It wasn’t like he told me that.”
She was going to wrap her hands around his throat and squeeze the information out of him. “Tell me exactly what he said, Joshua David.”
Josh winced when she used his full name. Good, she was not playing around. “Yesterday I told Liam that I was heading straight home but I changed my mind and headed to the showers. I think Liam thought they were alone—”
“Who is they?” Teresa demanded.
“Oh, his friend Matt joined us for a workout.”
“Go on.”
“I only got bits and pieces of what he was saying. He mentioned DNA testing and that someone called Dutton had tracked down his real dad. And that he was still in Hawaii.” Josh pushed his wet hair off his forehead. “Then today Liam tells me that he’s flying his plane to Oahu, that he has some business there to see to. It wasn’t difficult to add two and two together.”
Teresa stood up, needing to pace the small area between the living room and the kitchen island. Typical Liam, determined to do everything by himself. When would he realize that she was on his side? That they were stronger together than they were apart? She’d tried to give him space, to give him time to reach the conclusion she had but she was running out of patience.
Stopping abruptly, she sent Joshua a hard look. “Do you know where he was going in Oahu?”
Joshua shook his head. “Nope. Why, are you thinking of joining him?”
Teresa slapped her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t care if you think it’s a bad idea. I’m going anyway.”
Joshua shook his head. “I think it’s a great idea. You love him and he, I’m convinced, loves you. It’s stupid to be apart. You might run out of time.”
Just like their parents had. Teresa nodded. She and Joshua both understood how important it was to live in the moment, yet she was here and Liam was not. She was over it.
“How are you going to find him?” Joshua asked, genuinely curious. “Oahu is a big island.”
Happy to have something to do, a direction to follow, Teresa flashed him a grin. “Watch and learn, young one.” Picking up her phone, she punched in the number and put the device on loudspeaker.