“I fly commercial often. I don’t believe in throwing my money away, but that fifty thousand dollars was the best money I’ve ever spent.”
“You didn’t know me.”
He reaches up and strokes my cheeks. “When our eyes met in that airport, I saw another lost soul. And baby, you will never be alone again.”
I curl my fingers on his cheek.
Chapter Twenty-One
Liam and I spend the entire flight talking about pyramids and I find myself excited to talk about my family and the many amazing things I experienced with them. Honoring them, as Liam had once suggested.
By the time we walk into his home, my home, I am exhausted, but I am eager to gobble down a pizza in bed with him, and when he calls it our “habit”, it creates a sweet, warm spot in my chest. Not since I lived at home with my family have I had habits I shared with anyone. I fall asleep in Liam’s arms feeling safer than I have in a long time but as I drift off to sleep, I cannot help but think of Chad, and wonder where he is.
“Honey, grab the mail?” my mom asks as she stirs a pan on the stove. “I’m expecting something important.”
“Sure, Mom,” I say, pushing away from the table where I was working on my homework.
Humming the new song I just downloaded off of iTunes that I can’t get out of my head, I leave the kitchen and head toward the porch, thinking I’ll never get used to my mom baking cakes rather than digging in the dirt beside my dad.
“You’re fucking my mother? Are you insane?”
I stop walking at the sound of my brother’s angry outburst.
“You fucked me,”the other man says.“I just wanted to show you how easily I can fuck you and anyone near you. And she thinks she’s helping to convince me to let your father out of our deal.” A low laugh escapes him. “Good mommy.”
A rough growl escapes Chad’s lips and he shoves the man against the wall. “You touch my mother, or anyone in my family again, I swear to God, I’ll kill you.”
“You give me what is mine or you and your family will all be dead.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You’d better get it then.”
“I told you, I didn’t take it.”
“What’s going on?”
I jump at the sound of my mother’s voice behind me. She steps to the screen door and I hear a soft gasp escape her lips. She shoves open the door and repeats, “What’s going on?”
The stranger Chad was fighting with is walking down the stairs and I can’t see his face.
“You tell me, Mom,” Chad says, confronting her. “Get a little too lonely while we were away?”
I hug myself, fighting tears. This isn’t happening, but I saw her with the man in the black sedan. I saw her, and--
“I tried to clean up your and your father’s mess,” my mother proclaims, her voice shaking.
“You got used like a cheap washcloth.”
My mother gasps at Chad’s harsh words and bursts into tears, turning away from him, rushing through the door, and past me. Chad tries to follow her but I step in front of him, swiping at tears, anger surging through my body. “What did you do? What did you both do?”
“I told you, you can’t handle it.”
“What did you do, Chad?”
He looks at the ceiling, torment and self-hatred pouring off of him, before he grabs my arms, stares at me a moment, and kisses my forehead. “I’ll fix this. I promise you, Lara. I’ll fix it. Everything is going to be okay.”
I blink awake, instantly aware of Liam wrapped around me, holding me tight against his body, one leg wrapped around mine, and I realize why I hate the promise that everything is going to be okay. I hate it because of that day. And yet I am okay. I have Liam and I have survived. It’s my brother that’s in question.
Epilogue
Drip. Drip. Drip.
“Fuck! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
I lift my aching head that feels like a hundred pounds on my stiff neck, and stare at the concrete walls of what has become my cage. Where is that fucking noise coming from?
Drip. Drip.
Losing my mind, I tug at my hands behind my back, the rope biting into my flesh. “Fuckkkkkk!”
My head drops between my shoulders and I stare at the ground.
Drip. Drip.
Red dots clutter my gaze and I focus on the red puddle beneath me. Blood. Oh yeah. I’m bleeding.
The door opens with a loud grind of metal and I squeeze my eyes shut, ready to die, hoping it’s time. If Jared did what he was supposed to do and saved Amy, it will be. She deserves to live. I do not. But I will not go out a coward. Defiantly, I lift my head and I think I blink. My eyelids are too swollen to be sure. Considering there’s a gorgeous brunette in a pale, slim-cut black dress that hugs her curves in all the right places standing in front of me, maybe I’m dead already anyway. Her creamy ivory skin and pale blue eyes are pretty angelic, so yeah. I think I’m dead. Fuck though, I still hurt all over, so I must have gotten what I deserve. I’m in hell and the devil is a hot bitch playing games with me. I could think of worse nightmares. Like my life.
Drip. Drip.
Or not. The dead don’t bleed and I sure the fuck am. I give my new bitch a smirk, eying her with a nice long inspection meant to make her feel uncomfortable and send me to my hell with at least a little pleasure.
“Sweetheart, you’re going to need a whole lot more than stilettos and great legs to get me to talk, though I’m pretty sure I have some moans left in me. I’ll let you have a few, too.”
She pulls a knife out from behind her back. “Ah,” I murmur. “You like it kinky, do ya? I guess this is where things get interesting.”
“Yes, Chad,” she murmurs, her voice as sexy as her legs. “It is.” And then she, and her knife, move just where I want them. Nice and close.