Liam (8 page)

She blinked a few times.

“Well, then go get her,” she said softly.

Not really thinking, his feet moved of their own volition.

One second he was in the house, and the next he was following the soft sobbing on the other side of her car.

“Meg,” he said softly when he reached her.

“Go away,” she groaned and turned the other direction.

He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and turned her toward him.

“I can’t,” he said. “Not with you like this.”

Meg turned to look at him, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“What do you care?” she sobbed.

“I do.” He pulled her to his chest and sighed at the feel of her.

“Whatever.” Meg pushed him away and wiped off her face. “You’ll move to Texas, and I’ll move to London.”

His face hardened at the thought. “No,” he said firmly.

She frowned at him. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

Liam shook his head. “No way I’m letting you move to London to be with them.” Anger flowed through him as he thought about all the ways they would use his Meg.

“I don’t think you get a vote.” She crossed her arms.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said and swooped down to take her mouth. Her hands gripped the fabric of his shirt, and she sighed into him.

Liam planted soft kisses along her neck and jaw. “Tell me you weren’t with them,” he whispered in her ear. She shuddered in his arms.

“I’m not their type,” she said.

Liam pulled back to look at her and frowned.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He stared at her.

Meg rolled her eyes. “It means that they are a couple, asshole,” she said.

A smile spread to his face. She hadn’t been with them.

“Thank God,” he said and took her mouth again. He pressed her back against the car and slipped his hands into her soft hair as he kissed her.

His body ached to do more as he held her in his arms, but it wasn’t the time for that. Meg opened her eyes and looked up at him when he pulled away.

“Does this mean you aren’t going to Texas?” she asked shyly.

Liam stepped back a little surprised. “I don’t really know what this means,” he said frankly. It wasn’t his intent to hurt her, but she couldn’t think he would be willing to make some sort of commitment off a few kisses.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Liam pulled it out and read the text from Finn.

Meeting in 20.

Liam sighed. His brother sure did have good timing.

“Can we talk about this later?” He looked to his phone and back to her.

Meg swung her car door, only narrowly missing him.

“I tell you what.” She climbed in the car and rolled down the window. “Why don’t you give me a call when you know what it is you want. Because I’m done.”

“Meg,” he pleaded.

She shook her head and started the car. “Enough, Liam,” she said put her hands firmly on the wheel. “I’m tired of telling you that I’m in love with you and getting nothing in return. I’m done.”

He watched in shock as she rolled up her window and drove away.

She had done it. She’d told him she loved him. Meg groaned. She told him in the lamest way possible.

Meg punched the gas in her car and enjoyed the feel of it jerking forward. She’d had enough of this crap. Liam thought he could use her like a yo-yo. It just wasn’t fair, and there was no way in hell she was going to put up with this again. How many times was she going to let him hurt her?

When she walked into her parents’ house, she was surprised to find them still awake in the living room. Harley sat patiently by her mother’s feet in hopes of something yummy.

“How was dinner?” her mother asked.

Meg plastered on a happy face. “It was fine.”

She paused to swipe some popcorn out of the bowl. Her mother watched her carefully.

“I’m going to go back to my place,” she said.

“Is it safe?” her mother asked.

Meg nodded. “It should be. Whoever it was knows I’m home now.”

Her mother looked to her father.

“Oh, poor Harley will miss out on the date with his girlfriends,” she said and looked sadly down at the dog.

Meg glanced at her father, who was trying not to roll his eyes.

“Well how about he stays one more night, and I’ll come get him tomorrow,” Meg said.

Her mother smiled at her and patted the sweet dog on the head. “He just loves seeing all the girls,” her mother said.

Meg snorted. She could bet he did.

Her mother shot her an irritated look. Meg hurried to her room to pack her bag. She was tired of living out of a suitcase, and she was even more tired of having to follow someone else’s rules. It would be nice to sleep in her own bed. If someone tried to come in, she had no problem letting them look down the barrel of her gun.

* * *

Liam drove to Finn’s house in silence, feeling equal parts irritated and happy. Knowing she hadn’t been with either of the men in London was such a relief. As much as he tried to fight it, there was something between them. Liam frowned. He just couldn’t understand why she needed to figure it all out right now. Couldn’t they just see where things went? What was the point in saying that she loved him?

His heart twisted at her words. She had seemed so defeated. Liam didn’t want to be that for her. He wanted to be so much more than that.

He sighed. Of course, that wouldn’t really work if either of them decided to live somewhere else. But if things were going well between them, he couldn’t think of any reason why he would want to move. Why couldn’t she see that?

When the car came to a stop outside Finn’s house, he grunted in irritation.

His phone startled him from his thoughts. Without looking at the name, he answered the phone.

“What?” he said gruffly into the line.

“Is that any way to speak to your mother?” his mother spoke sharply.

“Oh, Mom.” He sighed in frustration. “I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Is that how you speak to your friends?” she snapped at him.

She wouldn’t understand. He really had no friends. Sure, he liked the Allens, but most of them were busy with family affairs, and he didn’t spend a lot of time with anyone outside of work. He figured it was a good thing he worked as much as he did.

“No, Mom,” he said and scrubbed his face. “I’m just tired.”

“Oh, Liam,” she soothed him. “Are you not taking care of yourself?”

He chuckled. She was always the worrier.

“I’m fine, Mom,” Liam said and smiled.

“Not that I would know,” she huffed to him. “You haven’t been to see me in over a month.”

He counted in his head and found she was right.

“Sorrym Mom.” He felt bad that he hadn’t been to see her recently. “Things have just been busy.”

Silence came over the line. “I know what busy means for you. It means danger. Do you really have to keep up this work?”

Liam sighed. It was the same argument they had every time he talked, and he remembered why he hadn’t been to see her recently.

“Mom,” he said, his tone a clear warning.

“Fine, fine,” she dismissed him. “I won’t harp. I called to see if you want to come for dinner Friday.”

Liam thought for a moment. “I can do that,” he said. “See you in a couple days.”

He barely waited for a reply before stepping out into the night.

“Took you long enough,” Finn said at the door.

Liam walked past his brother into the main hall.

“Mom,” he said and held up his phone.

Finn closed the door and moved to stand in front of him. “Does she know you know about your true father?”

Liam shook his head.

“You’re going to have to tell her eventually when you become my first,” he said.

Liam grinned at him. “So certain I’m going to?”

Finn grinned back, his green eyes bright. “We are brothers after all.”

Despite himself, the smile slipped a little. It was still just weird to say it.

“We’ll see,” Liam said. “So what’s the meeting about?”

“Mainly to keep the men on our side,” Finn said as they walked to his office. He closed the doors behind him. “But also to see what’s going on with Meg’s break in. We can’t discount that the Russians are involved.”

Liam shrugged. “Not a lot. We’ve seen someone break into the place, but that’s about it. Seems like they are looking for some sort of paper.”

Finn frowned. “For what?”

“Don’t know.” He shrugged.

“Does she have anything of value?” Finn sat in his chair, and Liam sat across from him.

“Not that she can remember,” he said.

Finn scratched his chin in thought. “It sounds like someone has it out for her. What sort of detail do you have? I’ll put up a man if you’d like.”

Liam shook his head.

“She’s mine to protect,” he said firmly.

Finn nodded to him. “Just remember, I’m here for you. I’d like to make up for lost time.”

Liam swallowed the lump in his throat. Growing up, he had always wanted siblings, and now he had them. Granted, it wasn’t the way he had expected, but sometimes the unexpected was the best way.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice low with emotions.

Finn nodded his understanding. It hadn’t been an easy run for him, having his brother Ennis turn on him and try to take over the family, only to find out that he had more than one brother and his dad was more an asshole than originally thought. To Liam, things were strange, but Finn was dealing with a whole new level of fucked up.

“All right.” Finn stood, clapped Liam on the shoulder and grinned. “Let’s get this meeting over with, so you can get back to your woman.”

* * *

When Meg entered the living room, her mother and Harley had already gone to bed. She swallowed as she looked at her dad.

“So,” he said and laid down his evening paper. “Things are all clear at the house?”

Everything raced through her mind, but nothing good came up.

“Sort of,” she said and sat hard on the seat next to him.

“So does that mean you should or shouldn’t be going over there?”

“According to everyone, I’m not allowed to go anywhere.” Meg sighed. “I just want to go back home, Dad, and have things be normal.”

“Are you sure that’s even possible?” He stared at her with such intensity that she knew he suspected something was going on.

Meg leaned her head back against the chair. “I’m not sure of anything,” she said.

“I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told your brothers.”

Meg lifted her head and looked at him with surprise. She didn’t think there was much of anything he didn’t share with her brothers.

“Your mother wasn’t interested in me when we first met,” he said quietly.

Her eyebrows shot up with shock. “But that’s not how Mom tells it,” she said.

He chuckled. “Because it wasn’t love at first sight for her.”

Meg leaned forward a bit more. “But it was for you?”

She watched as his eyes glassed over a bit, like he was seeing her for the first time all over again.

“The moment I saw her, I knew she was the one,” he said. “She was still in high school, and I’d just signed up for the Army.”

“I thought you and Mom met at bonfire, when you were already in the Army?” Meg asked. This wasn’t the story she had always heard.

“That was the night I met her, but it wasn’t when I fell in love with her.” He smiled warmly. “No, the night I fell for her was at a different party. The music was playing, and her boyfriend at the time, Adam Crane, was slow dancing with her.”

He frowned as he talked about the other man. Even now, it still pissed him off. Meg would have laughed, but she wanted him to go on.

“Back then she had a lot more red in her hair and was a firecracker.” He chuckled. “Adam found that out the hard way. He let his hands slip too low one too many times, so she pulled back and socked him in the nose.”

“Mom punched someone?” Meg nearly jumped out of her seat. She knew her mom had a temper but nothing like that.

Her father nodded, a twinkle in his eye.

“She leaned over him and said, ‘Next time you try to feel up a girl, you should make sure her daddy didn’t teach her how to throw a punch.’”

Meg laughed at her mother’s words. As odd as it seemed, she could see her saying exactly that.

“And that was it, I was hooked.” He smiled.

“But what did you do?”

Her father shook his head. “What was I supposed to do? I had orders to leave the next day, and the odds of me coming back weren’t all that great.” He shrugged.

“So you just left without saying anything?” Meg stared at him, her heart sinking.

“I left because it wasn’t the right time.” He stared pointedly at her. “She had just broken up with her boyfriend, I was leaving for the Vietnam, and she still had two more years of high school left.”

He was right. If her father had tried at that time, things might have turned out very differently.

Tears welled in her eyes. “Do you think I need to leave like you did?”

Her father reached for her hand and patted it in his own. “Honey, you misunderstand me,” he said and looked into her eyes. “You aren’t like me. You’re like your mother.”

Meg frowned. Like her mother? How the hell was she like her mother? She’d done nothing but love Liam from the moment she saw him.

Reed had finally given in to her constant pestering to be hired. She was in her last year of college, could only work part time, and was given all the crap work, but she didn’t care. She loved the job. It had been her first day at work that she’d seen him out at the firing range. He wore a sleeveless t-shirt as he fired the gun, his muscles contracting to compensate for the power of the weapon. He had turned and told her to it was dangerous to be in there.

Irritated he would assume she knew nothing, Meg had taken the gun he was holding and fired the rest of the shots, punching a large hole in the center of the target. He had stared at her with such awe, it was hard not to fall in love.

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Dad.”

Her father gave her a knowing smile. “Ask him when you two first met.”

Meg stared at him for a moment and then nodded. She didn’t think Liam’s recollection would be much different from her own, but it might be fun.