Tame: Carter Kids #3 (19 page)

It went against everything inside of me to walk away from Teagan tonight.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew my title shot with Cole was on the line and would be pulled if I put a foot out of line, but she was so much more important to me.

I was disgusted with myself all the way to the cage and that self-loathing only escalated when I was faced with my opponent.

In my fucked up state of mind, this asshole was the reason I wasn’t with my wife right now.

Goddammit, she had some special sort of hold on me.

I was raised hard. I grew up with mother fuckers ten times worse than JD Dennis. I was taught the tricks of the trade, the keys to surviving in a gangster's world, but fuck me; my emotions for that woman were blinding my survival instincts.

When the bell rang, I left it all in the cage.

Every frustration, every worried thought and notion.

My anger and fear was overpowering me, and driving me to inflict more pain than necessary on the poor bastard fighting me. I put every ounce of tension and angst into pummeling the poor bastard, not caring about giving the crowd a decent show.

My desire to get back to my wife was overriding all professionalism inside of me and I knew they would have to drag me off his body tonight.

I felt better the moment I stepped into the shower back in our suite. The spray of boiling hot water on my body had instantly made me feel a little better and a little less icky. Sinking to the shower floor, I wrapped my arms around my knees and bent my head forward as my mind continued to torment me about what I'd heard earlier tonight.

There was nothing I could do, I thought to myself sadly.

Nothing I said or could say was going to change Beau, Tommy, and Quincy's opinions of me.

Suddenly, I missed Lucky desperately. He was my only friend out here and I wouldn’t see him until the final leg of the tour in Vegas.

I was going to miss that strange guy something fierce.

The sound of male voices rising from outside the bathroom dragged me from my reverie, alerting me to my first sign of trouble.

The sound of a door slamming was my second.

Scrambling to my feet, I switched off the shower before reaching for the towel I had hung over the glass door. Wrapping the fluffy white towel around my body, I stepped out of the shower and padded over the bathroom tiles, stopping when I reached the door.

Curling my fingers around the brass knob, I held my breath and listened to the conversation taking place in our bedroom.

"What are you doing here?"
That was Lewis – the same Lewis who had
never
come into our suite before without permission. His voice rang loud and clear through the air when he said,
"Who's this prick?"

The very first thought that popped into my head was that Lewis McGowan was a spy and I was about to get my head blown off by JD Dennis.

Fear gripped hold of me so tight in that moment that I thought I might faint.

With my back to the door, I remained exactly where I was, heart in my mouth and my eyes clenched shut.

Praying to god for a miracle, I blessed myself repeatedly.

I didn't want to die tonight.

Please don’t let me die tonight…

"…None of your business…"
a strange voice said, drawing me back to the present.
"…things to discuss…"

I strained to hear the person Lewis was talking to, but I could hardly make out the voice with the sound of the contractor fan over my head and I couldn't very well stick my arm around the door to switch it off without being seen.

Releasing the door knob like it had burned me, I curled my fingers around the lock and, as slowly as I possibly could, switched it sideways.

The tiny click it made was barely audible and I sagged in relief.

"In here?"
That was Lewis' booming voice again, piercing the air.
"Are you fucking with me?"

"…I don't answer to you…."
Definitely a man's voice, I decided. Whose, I couldn't be sure of, but the other person in my bedroom was one hundred percent male.

"Never said you had to."
Lewis' tone was laced with disgust.
"But you sure as shit should have to answer to your conscience."

Quiet mumbling was followed by the sound of footsteps retreating.

I didn't move a muscle.

The seconds rolled into minutes and then hours, and the longer I stayed behind the bathroom door, the longer nothing continued to happen.

Surely if JD was here he would have killed me by now?

I was in the perfect position to get my brains blown out. He was never going to get an opportunity like this again, so why wait?

It didn't matter what JD was plotting, I decided.

I wasn't going to risk my life by going out there. I knew exactly what happened to the curious kitty, and this cat planned on staying the hell alive.

Nu-uh, I had watched too many episodes of The Walking Dead to even contemplate leaving my safe place.

But that notion sprung to life a new problem for me.

They obviously
knew
I was in here.

I mean, Lewis would have told them.

He wasn't guarding the door for shits and giggles and it was pretty freaking obvious by the steam creeping out from under the door that I was inside the locked bathroom.

On my hands and knees, I crawled across the damp tiles in search of a weapon.

If I was going to die tonight, then I sure as hell wasn't going down without the mother of all fights.

Maybe if I drew blood from my perpetrator the cops would have enough forensic evidence to make an arrest.

Glancing wildly around the room, my eyes landed on… a bar of soap.

What the hell was I going to do with a bar of soap?

Wash my killer to death?

Stupid fucking hotel bathrooms…

I wanted to kick my own ass for being such a girl.

When had I turned into a defenseless princess that hid and waited for a man to save her?

Fuck this… 

Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed the metal toilet roll holder in my hand.

Rushing over to the bathroom door, I unlocked it before swinging it open.

My mouth was open, the words
Die Motherfucker
were on the tip of my tongue, but the moment my eyes landed on the broad back of a man sitting on our bed, my voice vanished into thin air.

Shock encompassed my features as I stared in bewilderment at the stranger sitting on my bed – the naked stranger.

Not just any naked stranger, I realized, when my eyes landed on the tricolor green, white, and gold flag tattoo on the top of his right butt cheek.

Liam…

"Liam?" I repeated his name out loud as I stood mere feet away from the bed absolutely shell-shocked. "What the hell are you doing here? And naked?" I squeezed out, mortified.

"Teegs." Liam jerked to his feet. He turned to face me and immediately I felt a deep flush of embarrassment waft through me as I took in his nakedness.

I watched Liam's gaze rake over my bare skin. "Do you mind?" I snapped, tightening my hold on the towel covering my dignity.

Liam shrugged. "It's nothing I haven't seen before." Resting his hands on his hips, he added, "Nothing you haven’t seen either." A cocky smirk lifted his full lips.

"Or ever will
again
," I shot back with a glare. Rushing over to the pile of clothes on the floor, I grabbed the jeans and tossed them at my ex-boyfriend.

"Are you sure you want me to put those on, Teegs?" he purred. "We could go again – for old time's sake."

And just like that everything began to make sense.

Liam's reappearance.

The hushed voices outside the bathroom.

"He might just do that," Beau piped up, voice suddenly smug. "When he sees what I've got planned tonight, Noah might just put her on a plane and send her packing…"

Awareness smacked me straight in the face.

I was being set up.

This room was stinking of betrayal.

I wasn't stupid. I knew exactly how this looked. I was soaking wet and naked beneath the towel I had wrapped around me. My ex-boyfriend was alone with me.

Bending down, I grabbed the rest of Liam's pile of clothes and tossed them at him. "Do you honestly think I don’t know what you're doing?" I shook my head in disgust. "Get the hell out of here before I call the cops on your dumb ass."

"I'm here for two things," Liam countered evenly. "Once I get them, I'll go."

I stood, unmoving, on the opposite side of the bed, refusing to speak to him until put his pants back on.

Finally, he did.

"I need you to sign off on the business," he told me as he dragged the denim up his narrow waist and slipped his feet back into his shoes. Pulling a folded envelope out of the back pocket of his jeans, Liam tossed it towards me.

The envelope landed in the middle of bed and I frowned.

Hoisting myself onto the bed, I reached over and retrieved the envelope before quickly opening it.

"You want to buy me out?"

"No, Teagan, I don't want to buy you out," Liam replied in a clipped tone.

I shook my head in confusion as I reread the paperwork in my hands.

"This says you want to buy me out." I lifted my gaze to his face. "For less than a quarter of what I'm owed."

"Yeah, well, I didn't sign up to run a business on my own, but shit happens," Liam shot back coolly.

"So, you're trying to rip me off because I left
and
sabotage my relationship with Noah?" I narrowed my eyes in disgust. "I never would've put you down as so vindictive, Liam."

"Come home with me and we'll forget about it," he blurted out, stunning me.

"You must be joking," I deadpanned.

"Come on, Teegs," Liam urged, tone gentler. "You don't belong over here with these people." Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, Liam stared into my eyes. "You belong at home with me."

"I belong with
Noah
." My voice was rising like the panic in my gut.

"Are you sure about that?" he countered.

"Liam, why are you making this harder than it needs to be?" I sighed. "Just leave."

"You loved me once," Liam countered with a smirk.

"When we were
children
," I retorted, purposefully bursting his bubble. "And it was puppy love, Liam. It wasn't real." It wasn't a smidgen of the love I felt for Noah.

"If you hadn't moved to America in sixth year, then we'd still be together!" Liam hissed. "We were supposed to be together, Teagan."

"Well shit on a stick," I shot back sarcastically. "I'm so sorry that my mother's death and my father's imprisonment inconvenienced your plans for the future. If I recall, you found someone pretty fast to make you feel better." My stomach churned inside of me again, but I was too furious to acknowledge the pain.

"You haven’t thought this through," Liam argued, meeting my glare with one of his own. "You're spontaneous and reckless so I understand the appeal a guy like Messina has," he added. "I truly do. But it's not permanent, Teagan.
He's
not permanent." Letting out a heavy sigh, Liam twisted his body to face me. "This won't last," he continued to say. "It's lust. It's not
real
."

Shaking my head, I forced myself to rein in my temper. "It's about as real and permanent as it gets," I shot back. "He married me."

"You're kidding?" Liam deadpanned. The tattoo circling my ring finger caught his attention then and Liam yanked my hand towards him. "Teagan, tell me you are fucking joking?"

"You have no right coming here demanding anything of me." Burying my hurt under my sarcasm, I snatched my hand away from him and sneered up at my oldest friend. "You screwed me over years ago when you dumped me and fell into bed with Katie Horgan."

Liam paled and I continued, furious.

"Yeah," I sneered. "You didn’t think I knew about her? Well I did."

"I was seventeen," he shot back, tone shakier now.

"You were twenty-five when you allowed a man to sexually harass me for months," I countered, not giving an inch. "What's your excuse for Ciarán O Reilly?" I demanded. "Your age? Or the financial state of our business."

"I didn’t allow him to harass you," Liam shot back, clearly disgusted. "It wasn’t like that."

"It's always excuses with you, Liam," I hissed. "You're full of them."

"And you're a fucking idiot!" he roared into my face. "You've made a huge mistake with that one, Teagan."

"The only mistake I ever made was taking you into my bed."

Liam flinched. "Don't."

"I thought of him the whole time I was with you," I continued to taunt him. "It was the only way I could bear your touch – pretending it was Noah."

"You know what?" Liam stood up and sneered down at me. "You deserve him." Laughing humorlessly, Liam ran a hand through his blonde hair before retreating a few steps. "Don't say you weren't warned when he loses his temper and uses you as a punching bag or when he comes home reeking of perfume and sex."

"Get out of here," I seethed. He wanted to make me mad. Well, I was burning mad, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing his words were getting to me. Reaching for the pen on my nightstand, I scrawled my signature on the paper he'd given me. Replacing the cap on the pen, I placed it back down on the nightstand. "Take you papers and your pathetic attempts of ruining my marriage and get the hell out of here. Don’t ever contact me again."

Liam glowered at me. "You're only a body for that one, kid," he said, continuing to taunt me. "A hole to get his kicks off."

"Enjoy it, dickhead," I sneered. Scrunching the paper in a tight ball in my fist, I tossed it towards Liam. "Now get the hell out of my life."

Liam bent down and picked up the papers. "I am going to enjoy reading about your life going to shit – because it
will
go to shit, Teagan."