As it turns out, people all over the world are willing to pay quite a bit for our brand of expertise. I took only the best of the best and formed teams that operated all over the world. Even the U.S. government hired us.
Of course, my skills tended to scare away normal women. The ones who were attracted to me tended to have either have a danger fetish or were completely nuts. I don’t do nuts. I keep too many weapons around for nuts. Nuts is a bad idea. The Taliban is safer than turning your back on a crazy woman in a house full of weapons.
“Liam…” Maggie came up barefoot behind me and put her hand on my arm. I dropped the curtain and turned to look at her. “I’m sorry,” she said. I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. “I should have listened to you.” She bit her lip and stared up at me with big, apologetic eyes. “I was wrong.”
“Thank you.” I looked her up and down. “You’re right. You should have listened to me.” She looked down at her feet, shuffling the toes of one foot against the carpet and twisting her hands together. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Look, Maggie,” I dropped my chin and faced her, “let’s start over.”
“What do you mean?” Her green eyes fixed on mine and there was a little catch in her breath.
“You listen to me and do everything I say. No more slipping your guards. No more going out unprotected. In return, I keep you on your tour and safe from the crazies, and my team finds your stalker.”
Sniff. She nodded, blinking back her tears. “I can do that.”
I smiled at her, and she took my hands, offering me a wobbly smile.
I heard raised voices outside and got up from the couch to stick my head out the door.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” I shouted at Ben and Leo, who were blocking someone from entering the restricted space we’d set up around the band’s housing area.
Ben turned to me, and I caught a glimpse of a face I never thought I would see again. I stumbled back in shock, tripping over my own feet. She’s here! What is she doing here?! Excitement welled up from my belly and I forgot all about Maggie asleep back in her bedroom. Rushing out the door and across the gravel lot, I came up on my men and the woman I’d once thought I would spend the rest of my life with.
“Ben, Leo, I’ll take it from here.” I gestured with a nod for them to head out.
“Are you sure, boss?” Leo asked, looking at me askance.
“Yes. Thank you.” I turned away from them. “Come with me,” I said, taking her hand and dragging her to the surveillance van. I opened the door and ordered, “Out.” I shooed the two guys watching the screens away. “Go get something to eat. Come back in twenty minutes.”
They didn’t hesitate.
“Liam, it’s so good to see you!” she said. As soon as we were alone, she jumped into my arms. She grabbed my face and peppered kisses all over it. I caught her, reveling in the feel of her familiar weight in my arms.
She slid down the front of me, running her hands down my chest, and looked me up and down appreciatively. “Oh! You look so good! The doctors didn’t think you would ever walk again.”
And just like a splash of cold water to the face, I remembered why we weren’t together. “Why are you here Jeannie?”
“Why am I here?” She laughed. “To see you, of course, silly!” She playfully smacked my arm.
“Jeannie,” I pushed her away and held her at arm’s length. “You can’t be here. I’m working. You need to go back to your husband.”
Her eyes danced over me and she shook her head. “I made a big mistake marrying Joe. I never should have left you.”
“You didn’t just marry Joe,” I reminded her. “You had a baby with him while I lay half dead in a hospital after being blown up while fighting for my country in Afghanistan.” Saying the words out loud made the distant memory somehow closer, more real. “Go home to your family, Jeannie.”
“You don’t mean that, Liam.” She pouted.
“I do mean that. You need to go home. Now. I can’t do this right now. I’m working.”
“But, baby—”
“No! Go home, Jeannie. I can’t deal with you today.” Leaning around her, I opened the door and waved the guys back in.
“Will one of you take her back to the airport and make sure she gets on a plane back to Texas?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Thank you.” Turning back to Jeannie, I looked her straight in the eye. “Get on that plane and go back to your family.”
She batted her hurt, teary eyes as my men turned her from me. Watching them escort her away, I had to stop myself from calling her to come back. Seeing her, it felt like no time had passed, and all those feelings I thought were gone flooded back. I missed her. I still wanted her.
Chapter Nine
Maggie
“Another great show, Maggie!” My manager Julie met me at the edge of the stage with a bottle of water and a towel and traded them for the guitar I’d used in my last number.
“Thanks, Julie! What a rush!” I felt electrified. After the chaos of the last few days, it was a relief to get back to my old routine and do what I did best.
“Ready to go back to the bus?” Liam appeared out of the shadows like a ghost.
“No, I want to go dancing,” I told him. “I’ve been cooped up too long.”
“Dancing? You’ve been up almost twenty-four hours.”
“I don’t care. I want to go dancing!”
“Fine.” He touched his ear piece. “Leo, grab two guys. We need to set up security at a dance club.”
“No! No more security! Just you. That’s it.” I had followed all of Liam’s rules, allowed myself to be crowded and herded from one spot to the next for weeks. I had to get away and let loose, and I didn’t want the whole goon squad with me.
“I can’t provide enough security for you by myself. I need my team.” His face reddened. I could tell he wasn’t happy with me, but I really didn’t care. I’d been locked up for way too long.
“No!” I stamped my foot, hands on my hips.
“Leo, cancel that. Sweep the bus. Keep it ready. I’ll be escorting Miss Lane alone.” His face took on a resigned look, and I could tell I’d won.
Even at a distance, I could hear Leo saying over the phone, “Is that a good idea boss?”
“Not really,” Liam told him, “but I need to give her this one. It’s been weeks since she got a threat.” Liam ended his call and looked at me. “You win.”
I mopped my face with the towel and downed the entire bottle of water before tossing the empty back to Julie. “All right! We’re out of here!” I grabbed Liam by his hand and dragged him off the stage.
“Where are we going?” he asked. “Can I at least have my team do a sweep before we get there?”
“I have no idea where we are going,” I told him with a giant smile on my face. “We’ll find something. I just want to get away.”
“Maggie,” he protested, following along behind me.
“Don’t ‘Maggie’ me. I’ve stayed cooped up with you for weeks. I am ready to have some fun.” I danced my way out the door.
“Lead the way.” Liam finally gave in. I could tell when his shoulders dropped and he gave up even a token of resistance.
I snagged a hat and sunglasses from a roadie. Tucking my signature red hair up under the hat and planting the sunglasses square on my face, I swapped my bustier out for a black t-shirt reading “Zombies hate fast food!” with a line drawing of zombies chasing their dinner.
“What is that?” Liam pointed at my shirt with a dumbfounded expression.
“What is what?” I pretended I didn’t know what he was asking.
“Your shirt. And do you always change in the middle of the room?”
“If they are reading my shirt, they aren’t looking at my face. And yes—you do as many costume changes as I have over the years, and modesty kinda gets lost. I never took you for such a prude, Liam. Besides, I have a strapless bra on. It’s not like you saw anything
more than a bathing suit shows.”
We ducked out a back door, and he hailed us a cab.
“We need a great night club!” I told the cabbie.
“Hang on tight!” he said. We sped through the night to a trendy spot on the other side of town.
“This is going to be so much fun!” I leaned forward and rubbed my hands together, a big smile gracing my face.
“Aren’t you tired?” Liam asked.
“Yeah, but I’ll sleep tomorrow. I’ve got to work off this nervous energy.” I leaned back against him, comforted by his presence. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I was going to enjoy this brief glimpse of freedom before we got back out on the road. The next month was packed with almost daily shows. I wasn’t going to have another opportunity to be free.
Liam
“Come dance with me!” Maggie grabbed my hands and tried to drag me onto the dance floor. “I don’t want to dance with strangers!” She danced uninhibitedly, unconcerned about the world around her. Skin slick with sweat, the damp material of her shirt clung to her form and outlined her abundant breasts. I watched, mesmerized as her face radiated happiness.
“I’m working, Maggie.” Her breasts were not my concern. It wasn’t even professional for me to notice their perfect shape. I stood with feet spread shoulder width apart, my hands locked behind me, and sunglasses hiding my watchful eyes.
“Stop working, Liam! We are surrounded by people! What could possibly happen here?” She shimmied her luscious hips in time with the music, throwing her hands in the air along with everyone else as a hit pop song came on. “Don’t be such a stick in the mud!”
I snorted, pulling my sunglasses off and rubbing my tired eyes. This woman was an enigma. I could move through the night unseen. I could stalk a human hundreds of miles over the roughest of terrain. I could make a perfect shot over 600 meters away. The evilest of the evil didn’t make me flinch, but dancing to a top 40 pop song in a nightclub scared the shit out of me.
All of a sudden, Maggie fell backwards off her six inch heels, arms flailing and body knocking into a woman in a hot pink bandage dress dancing behind her. Her emerald green eyes widened, locking with mine, and her mouth formed a perfect circle in surprise.
Fooomp!
A deep thud reverberated through the club, the sound louder than the raucous music they’d all been dancing to. The second my ears registered the boom, the world slowed. I reacted, my training instinctive.
“Maggie!” I leapt forward, my sunglasses dropped, forgotten, and crushed in the melee. “Out of my way!” I knocked to the floor a hapless couple that stood between me and my charge.
Time sped up. I heard Maggie’s scream, her wail long and loud with terror apparent in every inflection. A wet red hole blossomed on her shoulder, and she went limp. Her eyes drooped shut, and her wild hair clung to her sweaty forehead.
I fell to my knees, sliding through her pooling blood, and threw my body over hers as shield. Around us, the club erupted in chaos. With one hand, I held myself suspended just above her delicate, bleeding frame. I pressed the other hand into her shoulder, trying to stop the flow of blood. We stayed that way until the stampede of fleeing dancers thinned.
I didn’t wait for the club to empty. I still needed the cover of a crowd to hide us as we fled. I couldn’t wait for paramedics and the shooter to find us. Seeing my chance, I leapt to my feet, swept a bleeding Maggie into my arms, and ran from the club into the moonlit night, leaving the sounds of approaching sirens behind us.
Chapter Ten
Liam
Running was imperative. I had to get Maggie somewhere safe so I could see how badly she was hurt, but like in war, we had to get out of the hot zone or we both would die. Long, swift strides took us several blocks from the club where I hailed a cab.
Still bleeding, I cradled Maggie like a baby and climbed in the back seat. “The Parkland Hotel parking garage!” I ordered. There was no way I’d take her back to her tour bus. We needed a safe space—one without video cameras and located outside the search perimeter they would set up around the club. “If you can get us there in under ten minutes, there’s an extra hundred in it for you.”
The cabbie nodded and took off. His eyes flicked to look at us in the rearview mirror, but he never asked any of the questions I saw reflected in them. With one hand, I pulled my black t-shirt over my head and pressed it to Maggie’s shoulder, trying to slow the blood loss. With the other hand, I slipped my cell from my pocket and called my team.
“Ben! Code red!” I knew by his sudden silence that he recognized my meaning. “Meet me in the parking garage in ten minutes. Bring the med kit.” My words were clipped, and I ended the call before he could ask any questions. Every time we worked in a new city, we set up emergency rendezvous points. Ben knew which garage I meant and how important this was.
Maggie still hadn’t opened her eyes since she’d passed out in the club. Blood oozed thick and black from the hole in her shoulder. It had slowed, but it still worried me. This guy needs killing. I wrapped my shirt firmly around her shoulder to cover the hole both in front and back.
I didn’t believe in coincidences. The stalking had escalated from threats to kidnapping to attempted murder. Maggie’s lifestyle wasn’t safe, but I was going to make sure she stayed alive whether she liked my methods or not. The woman may have thought she was stubborn, but I was ready to take headstrong to a whole new level.
The cheery yellow cab rounded the corners on two wheels, taking us airborne as it flew into the parking garage of our hotel. “Third floor. Opposite the elevators,” I ordered, pulling the promised bonus from my wallet and bundling Maggie back into my arms.
Ben waited by the black Suburban, our big medical duffel at his feet.
“Hey, boss.” He reached to help me with Maggie.
I nodded at the trunk. “Open the back.”
Beep. Beep.
He hit the button on the key fob, and the back hatch dinged as it slowly rose up on its own. I laid Maggie’s limp form on the trunk liner and ripped her zombie t-shirt open. Untying my shirt from her shoulder, I exposed the raw holes in her flesh. Ben sized the situation up instantly and was ready with disinfectant and gauze pads.
Maggie flinched but never regained consciousness as I poured alcohol into the gaping wound or when I lifted her up to access the exit wound on her back. I pressed gauze to both sides, the blindingly white cotton staining dark red immediately as I taped it into place.
“I think you’re gonna have to stitch it up, boss,” Ben said.
“We don’t have time for that. I don’t know if we were followed. We need to get her out of here fast.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I need a car. Untraceable. Nothing fancy. No computers or GPS or OnStar tracking. Supplies… for a month. Just me and her. You stay here and flush the bastard out. Trust no one who isn’t part of the team. Not her band, not her manager, not the people who clean your hotel rooms.”
“How will we get in touch with you?”
“You won’t. I’ll call you. When I can get to a town with a pay phone, I’ll make contact. Otherwise, you’re in charge.”
Ben was a pro. He didn’t question me or argue. We’d been down this road before, and he knew the drill. He keyed his ear mic, muttering a few words and then focused back on me. “Leo will have a car here in thirty minutes, packed and ready to go.”
“Thank you.” I gazed down at Maggie’s white face and prayed she’d wake up soon.
Gravel crunched under the worn tires of the faded blue Pontiac as I drove up the winding mountain road. I drove through the night to get here, going north to go south, changing direction under highway overpasses, taking random backroads, and changing untraceable beater cars three times. We were almost at our destination, and to my relief, Maggie was finally starting to wake up.
“Maggie? Maggie, are you with me?” I craned my neck to try and look at her, an unmoving mound in the backseat.
“Owwwwwwww
,” she groaned and attempted to sit up before falling back in pain. She panted as she rested against the pillow I’d propped her up on in the backseat. “What happened?” I watched her through the rearview mirror as she realized where she was… or wasn’t. “Where are we?”
“We were at the club, and you were shot.” I bit back my thoughts on the stupidity of being at the club in the first place. Now really wasn’t the time.
“Why am I in a car?” She tried to sit up again, supporting her weight on her good arm.
“Don’t move. You’ll start bleeding again.” I just needed her to hang on a little bit longer until we got to the cabin.
She chuffed at me, her breath catching at the end in pain. She tried to peer out the window from where she lay, her eyes boring into the darkness. The moon’s feeble rays failed to penetrate the thick layer of pine trees blanketing the mountain. Our route wound through the deep shadows, curving around the side of the mountain. “Why are we in the woods?”
“We are going somewhere I can keep you safe while my team figures out who’s trying to kill you.” I knew she wasn’t going to like it, but I was out of options.
“I can’t leave. I have a tour schedule. I have to be in Houston tomorrow. Or… today? Wait… what day is it? Is it tomorrow yet?” She rubbed her head and squinted over the seat back, trying to read the glowing red numbers on the tiny digital dash clock.
“You won’t be going to Houston.” I took a deep breath before breaking the bad news. I knew she was about to eat me alive. “Your tour is cancelled until further notice.”
Liam: The Lost Billionaires, Book 3 Page 5
