Insatiable (21 page)

"Don’t tease her about it," Mari smirked. There was no sting in her words.

"I don’t mind really. I've never felt this way before. I never knew that I could feel this way. I feel like bragging and strutting my stuff." She laughed. "Martin is so incredibly kind and attentive and patient. Oh my god is he patient."

"And patience is definitely something that you both need right now." Aurora looked around at her friends.

"I know I shouldn’t be thinking, let alone saying this, but I miss Nick. I mean is that normal? Shouldn’t I be in a deep, depressive state of mourning? You know something? The last time that Ronnie beat me, I knew that things were coming to a head. You see for Ronnie, he believed that my leaving was entirely my fault. He figured that now he'd have a police record and his perfect reputation would be tarnished. I knew that after he was arrested, he'd take no responsibility for his actions. It's funny, all those times that he was away fighting in the war? Those were some of the best years of my life. Is that wrong of me?" Her voice broke.

Aurora took a slow, labored breath, and another long drink. "Absolutely not Mari."

"You know, I could never say that to anyone but you two." She smiled, and the tears began to flow. "With all the terrible, horrible things that have happened, I'm happy. By God, I'm happy. And I can't help myself. I met the both of you, I met Nick. I love you two so much, there I said it. I do, I love you guys."

"We love you too Mari, and you're right, with all the bad stuff that's happening around here there are some good things to compensate for the bad. Some very good things" Aurora said and raised her glass to Mari and Rosie.

They had spent the rest of the evening drinking, laughing, and talking. They were talking when Aurora's cell phone vibrated. She'd put it on vibrate, and it was in another room. She'd missed Liam's calls.

After he and Gary signed off on their million dollar deal, and at the insistence of their client, they'd stayed at Masa's longer than expected. By the time the car dropped the two off at their hotel, it was well after midnight. She's probably sleeping, Liam told himself before heading to bed. He was glad that Gary was able to book an earlier flight out for the both of them. Gary had told him that although he had no desire to go home early, he wasn’t one to stand in the way of true love. "I guess I can handle going home early," he teased. "At least the kids will be happy to see me."

"Shit!" I missed Liam's phone calls. It was ten o'clock in the morning when she woke up, her head was pounding, and a half empty wine glass stood next to her on the night stand. She vaguely remembered crawling into bed last night. "Must have drank a couple bottles on my own." She winced when she tried to sit up. It was a good time though, she couldn’t help but grin. She eased up and sat propped against the pillows as she listened to Liam's messages. He told her that he was sorry he missed her and that he hoped that everything was alright. In the second message he told her that he was able to get an earlier flight and that he would be back in Rhode Island sometime before six o'clock. When she heard that she had to smile. She had to admit to herself that she missed him, she missed him and he'd only been gone a day.

Geez, what the hell is the matter with me?
After making sure that Rosie and Mari were alright, she headed into the shower. She needed to tidy up the house before Liam got back, and she was thinking of cooking him dinner. I must really like this guy, she made fun of herself. She hadn't offered to cook dinner for any man other than her husband, and that was obviously years ago. Yet here, right now, it was something that she wanted to do. And maybe she'd let Rosie and Mari take her car back to Huntington Cove and spend a few days alone with Liam. Just the thought of him inside of her made her wet. As much as she hated to admit it, she was desperate for his touch and couldn’t wait until they were alone.

Chapter Thirteen

Since there was some time to kill before their flight, Liam and Gary checked through security and made their way to Lafrieda's burger house. Named after Pat Lafrieda, the burger house boasted specialty, made to order burgers, and the best milkshakes around. They sat down and ordered a couple of beers. "Shit," Gary cursed. "I forgot to get something for the kids. I told them that I'd make a special trip to FAO Schwarz, and pick them up something cool. I completely forgot," he frowned.

"The holidays are coming up. Maybe you and Melissa can bring the kids and make a small trip out of it. I'm sure they'd love to participate in all the activities. And the tree will be up in Rockefeller center." Liam tried to convince his friend.

Gary took a sip of beer before answering. "That is a good idea buddy. And Melissa loves shopping in the city. There goes my American express," he said and made a wincing sound.

Liam chuckled, he couldn’t hide his excitement. "I got something for Aurora," he said and reached into his briefcase.

Gary took another swig of beer. "What do you mean you got something for Aurora? You didn’t go and get anything crazy now did you?" He hoped his friend hadn't completely lost his mind and gotten the woman a diamond.

Liam could read his friend like no other. "And no, I didn’t get her a ring," he scoffed. Although he had to admit to himself, he did look while he was at the jewelry store picking out her gift. How could he not? The engagement rings were right there, and the salesgirl practically shoved them in his face. But he told her that it was too soon for that, so she showed him something more practical.

The Quiet Courage pendant necklace was the essence of Aurora. The sterling silver necklace held four separate charms; a yin and yang symbol for balance, a garnet stone for vitality, courage and passion. Smokey quartz to help manifest dreams and the antique diamond heart pendant was something that he had the salesgirl add to the necklace. Aurora had won over his heart, and he wanted her to know that.

Gary whistled low when he saw all of the gorgeous pendants. "You think she'll like it?" Liam asked.

Gary nodded his head. "There are diamonds on that necklace, of course she’ll like it," he grinned.

"She's a lucky woman."

"I'm the one who's lucky buddy."

 I just hope that she accepts it," he said closing the box and putting it away.

"I'm sure she will buddy."

Just then his cell phone vibrated, and when he saw that it was Aurora, he excused himself from the table.

"I was wondering when I'd hear back from you," he smiled.

"Sorry about that. I know we had a phone date last night but after those wonderful massages and mani-pedi's, the girls and I got to talking, and once the wine and champagne was poured, well… let's just say I barely remember making it to your bed last night. Thank you so much for doing that for us Liam, the girls and I had an exquisite time," she grinned.

"The beauty technicians, they were female right?" He had to ask. The thought of another man putting his hands in places where only he wanted to touch drove him crazy.

Aurora bit off a smile. "Yes, they were all female," she giggled.

"So… how'd it go? Did you get all the paperwork signed?"

"Yes we did. Newport is officially the second home to one of the music industry's biggest names. And when I get back I want us to celebrate."

Aurora lowered her voice. "I was thinking that maybe I'd cook you dinner and then after, you could have me for dessert."

"Baby that sounds… Hang on there's so much noise. There's something go on. Hang on Aurora." Liam made his way towards the front of the restaurant, and that's when he caught a glimpse of the gunman. "Holy Shit! Someone's…"

She could hear the loud, immersion of chaos in the background and stayed quiet so that she too could figure out what was going on. A cold chill went up and down her spine as she heard sharp, shrilling screams coming from the background. She heard Liam's voice, but it was as if he was holding the phone far away from him. Then she heard him shout, "Get down!" And there was a series of loud popping sounds before the line went completely dead.

"What the hell was that?" She spoke out loud as she tried his cell again. This time it went straight to voice mail. Panic set in, and she rushed downstairs to tell the girls.

By the time he realized what was going on, it was too late to run. Liam crouched down behind the restaurant podium. A man had entered the airport terminal, took an assault rifle out of his bag and opened fire. Screams were coming from all directions and outside of the restaurant; Liam could see bodies lying on the ground. He couldn’t tell whether or not they were dead, nor could he tell where the gunman was or how many there were. He kept his head low and crawled over the broken glass and debris as he made his way over towards the table. Gary was no longer there and a quick glance around told him that maybe he had managed to escape the mayhem. He could hear and see people running, and law enforcement had now come inside and were securing the entire airport. He guessed that several of the restaurant staff had managed to make it back into the kitchen, but Liam found himself desperately looking for his cell phone.

After a short while, he gave up and when a police officer quickly came in and told them all to stay down and get behind the bar, he followed his directions. It would be several hours before law enforcement secured the entire airport.

Thanks to social media, she was able to see and read all the reports of a gunman who went on a shooting spree at an airport in New York. Apparently he was a disgruntled TSA employee who'd been fired several weeks prior. It was then that she lost it. Her calls to Liam continued to go unanswered, and she cursed when she wasn’t able to get through. "Fuck!" She shouted. She took a deep breath and with hands still shaking, she placed a call to Nick. After making sure that she and the girls were safe, Nick told her that he would do everything he could to find out what happened. "So far, all I know is what you've just told me. We're getting our information from the internet as well. But I've got a friend on the police force in Queens. Let me see what I can find out, but in the meantime I need you to calm down Aurora. I'm sure he's fine, have you tried calling his office? Maybe someone there knows something."

She fought back more tears and swallowed hard. "I… called… I already called; it's closed for a few days because of his business trip and all the calls are being forwarded to his cell phone. He's not answering his cell Nick!"

"Okay, calm down, how about his assistant? The guy whose wife you chewed out. You'll have to give her a call and see if she's heard anything. Just calm down, I'll get back to you as soon as I find out what went down."

It was while she was in his office that Aurora noticed that Liam didn’t have a landline telephone. She also remembered him telling her that he'd had all of his calls forwarded to his cell phone. There was no way he would be able to get in touch with her.

Aurora sat at Liam's desk and began going through his Rolodex. About thirty seconds later she was dialing Gary's home number. When one of the children answered she fought hard not to cry. She didn’t want to alarm them in any way. "Hi sweetheart, can I talk to your mom?"

"Uh-huh. Hang on. Mom, telephone."

Aurora could hear Melissa making her way to the phone.

"Hello?"

Aurora wasted no time getting to the point. "Melissa this is Aurora, Aurora Collins. Liam and I were at your house the other night for dinner?"

Melissa held a long pause and Aurora swore she heard a snicker come out of her mouth.

"Melissa?"

"What?"

"It's Aurora…"

"I heard you the first time."

"Okay good. Listen, have you heard from Gary? He and Liam are…"

"Yes, he and Liam are in New York, I know. What do you want?" This time her tone was full of utter annoyance. Either she hadn't heard yet, or she was being an insufferable bitch.

"Melissa, there's been an accident…"

By the time she'd finished telling Melissa what she'd seen and heard Aurora once again choked back tears. No sound was coming from the other end of the line and she was sure that Melissa was in shock.

"Melissa, I hope that you can hear me. Whatever you do, please try and keep the kids away from the television and internet. It's all over the social media sites. And please call me if you hear anything, anything at all. Melissa? Melissa are you there?"

"I have caller ID, I'll call when I hear something and please, you do the same."

"Of course," Aurora said before hanging up the phone.

Three hours later, they'd heard nothing. Nick called and told them that his friend down in Queens didn’t have much to tell. "Please Nick, tell me something, anything. Nick could hear the desperation in her voice.

"All they know is that a pissed off employee walked in and started shooting up the place. The whole city is going crazy. But listen, he did say that there weren't many casualties."

"That's not very reassuring Nick. I need to know if Liam is alright! I've called every single hospital and no one will help me! Why won't anyone help me?"

She felt sick; she could feel the bile start to rise in her throat. Mari and Rosie caught her before she fell. Mari took the phone away from her and continued the conversation with Nick. "What do we do Nick? Tell us what to do, and we'll do it."

Nick tried to calm her as best he could, and before she hung up with him he'd told her to stay put.

"Oh we're not going anywhere," she reassured him. Aurora sunk onto the floor and broke out in sobs. She hadn't realized how much she cared about Liam until now. "Oh God how I would change things," she sobbed into her hands.

"Aurora, you can't think that way. Liam is alright, he's alright. I'm sure with all the chaos he just can't get to a phone."

Rosie handed her a tissue. "She's right Aurora. When things settle down, he'll be on the first flight back here, back to you."

Aurora hoped that her friends were right, but something told her that things weren’t going to turn out that way. For so long she'd been the one coming to the rescue. She'd been the one that women had turned to for help. And now here she was sobbing like a child, and frantically missing her man. Be strong Aurora, now is not the time to fall apart, she told herself.