Liam: The Lost Billionaires, Book 3

by Allison LaFleur

  Bells rang as the system beeped, and words and images flashed across the screens so fast I couldn’t identify them. “They are making progress,” he announced.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look,” he pointed to one of the monitors, “here is a message from Ben. They got a fingerprint off that last note. He’s getting sloppy. We never had a fingerprint before.” I watched his eyes flit back and forth as he read. “He sent it off to one of my guys at the Pentagon. If it’s in the system, we should hear back by tonight.”

  Ding!

  “What’s that?” I watched as another box popped up at the bottom of the screen, and text started scrolling through.

  “That’s Leo. He’s working with your crew to interview everyone, do background checks, and confirm alibis. Nothing so far.”

  “Why are you wasting your time with my crew? Everybody has been with me since the beginning.”

  He turned and gave me a look. “Maggie, you have to trust me. This is what I do, remember? And I’m good at it.”

  I flopped back, forgetting I needed to baby my shoulder, and yelped at the pain. “You’re right, you're right.” I held up one hand in supplication. “I’m sorry. I forget sometimes. This is all still so unreal.”

  He turned and took my hand again, moving the ottoman out of the way so he could scoot close. My knees fit perfectly between his. “I know this is hard for you, but you have to trust me. All it takes is us finding one note, identifying one fingerprint, discovering one fact this psycho doesn’t want us to see, and the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. This is what we do. We will find him, and you will get back to your life.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Liam

  Our days ran together as we fell into a routine. Like clockwork I awoke before the sun and had coffee ready and waiting for Maggie as she stumbled with bleary eyes into the kitchen. She’d blindly hold out a hand, and I put a full mug in it, and then she’d retreat to the porch where she’d write and sing for several hours. Creatively, she seemed to prefer those crisp, cool early morning hours. She liked to watch the fog lift and the day start.

  A little before lunch, she would wander in, blanket dragging across the floor behind her. She’d join me at the computer where I dug deep, looking for anything odd in the reams of information my team dug up and sent to me.

  Nothing was out of place. Everyone was as she said they were, so we moved outward. Her band we checked first, then the crew, then the support staff, casting wider and wider circles in a tireless effort to find whoever was after her.

  By noon, she was restless and itching to drag me away from squinting at computer screens. “Let’s go do something outside,” she’d say. She was used to performing for hours several nights a week, and staying in shape was just who she was.

  We started slowly, walking a bit around the cabin, until day after day, she built her strength back up. She had lost a lot of blood and got easily frustrated at her own weakness. “I don’t understand why I’m so tired all the time!”

  “Give your body a break, Maggie. You need to relax and let it heal. You will know when you’re ready.”

  “My shoulder itches so bad it’s driving me crazy.” She slowly rotated it in circles, checking her mobility and carefully stretching it. The limb was still stiff from being stuck at her side for so long.

  “Here. Let me look.” I gently peeled back her gauze pad and was thrilled to see the bright pink flesh with a scab in the center looking back at me. “It’s healing beautifully. No infection, but you got shot, Mags. That doesn’t go away overnight.”

  She growled at me, her green eyes snapping and hair standing on end. “I am bored to death!”

  “Okay, okay. Let’s go for a walk then.”

  “Fine, but none of those sissy walks where we circle the cabin twice, and you pronounce us done.”

  I sighed. She really must be feeling better if she’s giving me this much attitude. “You tell me where you want to go, and we will. But just be careful.”

  She bumped my shoulder with hers, and leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. Electricity zapped when her lips touched my flesh, and we both jumped back, eyes wide.

  “Must be some static in this wool blanket,” she said, shrugging it off and draping it across the back of the couch. “Come on. I’m going to put on my shoes, and we can go.”

  “Sure,” I said. “Be right there.”

  I was stunned by the feelings that shot through me when her lips touched my cheek. That was ornery, frustrating, live wire Maggie Lane, lead singer of Indigo. She had her own life, her own band. She was building her own fortune. She was already celebrity and growing more famous all the time. She certainly didn’t need my money with talent like hers. I couldn’t even think about getting involved with her. What would she want with a half-man like me?

  “You ready?” She came out of her room with her fresh-scrubbed face shining, her bright red hair pulled back in a bouncy ponytail, and jogging shoes at the end of her long slim legs.

  “I sure am!” I admired her figure as she passed me by.

  She still held her arm close to her side, trying to relieve the stress on her shoulder, but more and more, I saw her carefully using her hand. I was relieved by how well she was healing. I had medical training from my time in the military—we all did—and I had augmented it when I started the company. We all got certified as paramedics, and a couple of guys even went to nursing and physician’s assistant school just to make sure we could patch ourselves up if we got hurt. Still, this was Maggie, and I was responsible for getting her shot. I never would have forgiven myself if things had gone south.

  “Liam? You coming?” She stood expectantly at the doorway, waiting for me to join her.

  “Yeah. Let’s go.” I grabbed a light jacket from the hall closet and followed her out.

  “How did you ever pick this spot for your cabin?” She gazed at the small area cleared around the house.

  “This is where my family is from originally. We didn’t always live in the city. I remembered my grandfather, a few years before he died, talking about growing up in a one-room cabin in the mountains.”

  She looked back at the house. “This is no one-room cabin.”

  “No,” I chuckled. “Jeannie would never have been happy in something like that. But when I decided I wanted to build us a home, I knew I wanted it to be here—a place we could come to get away from all the craziness. We’ve all got a touch of PTSD. Loud noises startle us. We get uncomfortable and anxious around too many people. We can’t let our guard down. We always think something is going to happen. It makes us great at what we do, but not so good at relaxing. I knew I could do that here.”

  “Relax?” she asked, and I nodded. “How did you build it?”

  “I know some people.”

  She just looked over at me as we walked, one eyebrow raised as if to say, “Really?”

  I guess I said that a lot, about knowing people. “Okay, okay. I had some contacts. Some guys I met overseas worked constructions. I contacted them, told them what I wanted, sent them plans I’d had drawn up years ago for the cabin, and they made it happen. It was done by the time I finished my last tour.”

  “What did your fiancé think? Did she like the house?”

  “She never saw it.”

  “Wait, what? You built it for her and she never saw it?” We kept a good pace as Maggie led us down the mountain, following the long driveway that wound along the side of the mountain.

  “No. That last tour, I got injured and spent some time in the hospital. When I got back stateside, she was gone.”

  Maggie stopped in the center of the path, sucking in a gasp of air, a look of horror on her face. “She left you like that?”

  “Yeah.” I bent down, plucked a loose stone from the path, and hucked it as far into the clearing as I could. “She couldn’t handle it. She told me it wasn’t what she signed up for, said she’d been waiting too long and her life was passing by.”

/>   “That’s horrible.” Maggie’s voice bled sympathy.

  “At least, that’s what she said when I finally tracked her down at her new husband's place. She answered the door six months pregnant. I guess I made her wait too long.”

  “Oh my God. Liam, I am so sorry.” Maggie threw her arms around me in an impulsive hug. When her slight weight hit my chest, I instinctively wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. I breathed in the sweet coconut smell of her hair. The wisps that had worked their way loose of her ponytail tickled my nose.

  My eyes opened suddenly, this felt too right.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Maggie

  “Come on, Liam. I want to go for a walk.” Restless, I needed to get out and do something. Between performing and regular runs and workouts, I hadn’t been this sedentary in years. My shoulder ached and felt stiff, but my body was healing nicely. My mind just couldn’t stand being cooped up another day.

  “Just a minute,” he said, staring into the monitors. “Leo sent over more info on a crazy fan we’ve been tracking.”

  I walked to his side and stood over him, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “Okay, I’ll just go and get started. You can catch up.” Tossing my ponytail over my shoulder, I turned to head outside.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” He reached out and grabbed my good wrist, pulled me to his side, and slid an arm around my waist while he finished typing with the other hand. “I’ll go with you.”

  A warmth filled me as I stood there tucked against him. I draped my left arm over his shoulder and idly played with his hair. We fit. Happiness glowed inside me, spiraled up from my belly, and made me smile.

  “Done.” He hit send and stood, absentmindedly keeping me held against him. “You want to try running today?”

  “Can we?” I looked up at him, beaming with excitement.

  “I think so… if you promise to tell me if your shoulder starts to hurt.”

  “Absolutely! I promise!” I clapped my hands. “I have been looking forward to this. Now I just want to know when I can go home.”

  “Soon.” The door clicked shut behind us and I started stretching my hamstrings on the porch. I spotted a bald eagle as it soared through the sky above us, held up on the soft breeze of rising air from the valley.

  “How soon? Did you find the guy?” I hooked one heel up on the railing and bent over, laying my cheek on my knee and reaching my good hand out to my toes.

  “We think so. I dispatched Leo and Ben to pay a visit to our current suspect. I’ll check in with them when we get back.” Liam declined the ballerina stretches and stood on one leg, bending the other up to grasp his toes.

  “If it’s him, can I get back on my tour? I’ve missed too many concerts as it is.”

  “Very likely.” We stretched together for a few more minutes and then set out. My feet beat a steady rhythm down the dirt road.

  It was almost two miles to the access road, and I was toast before I made it halfway there. I bent over, sucking in huge lungfuls of air with hands on my knees. My shoulder shrieked in hot pain.

  “Oh my God,” I panted. “I am so out of shape.”

  “You okay?” Liam came up next to me, placing a hand on the small of my back. “Let’s sit down a minute.”

  “I think I’m going to die.” I straightened up, put my good hand on my chest, and tucked the other close to my ribs.

  “Here, take a drink.” He handed me a water bottle from his running pack and guided me over to a rock to sit down. “Maybe this was too soon.”

  “Ya think?” I was too winded to filter my thoughts, not that I censored myself very often anyway. “If I can’t even make it to the mailbox, I’ll never make it through a whole concert.”

  “You’ll get there.” Liam rubbed slow circles on my back while I caught my breath.

  “Maybe we’ll just walk back.”

  “I think that might be a good idea.” He was humoring me, but I didn’t care.

  I limped into the house after our disastrous run and growled. “I’m taking a bath.” My traitorous body had betrayed me, and I was disgusted with myself. “Dammit,” I shouted as I threw my shoes at the door and listened to them land. “Stupid shoulder!” Thud. “Stupid body!” Thud. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

  I couldn’t believe how weak and incapable I’d become. My shoulder hurt for the first time in days. Angry tears streamed from eyes, and I shook as I struggled to peel off my leggings.

  Giving up for the moment, I leaned over the lip of the tub to turn on the water. “Ohhh!” I gasped in shock as pain shot through me. I rocked back on my heels and grabbed my shoulder, massaging it gently to calm the spasm.

  Liam stood just outside the battered door. Satisfied my anger had run its course, he stepped into the room. “Let me help you." He crouched down and leaned past me, turned the handle and started the water flowing into the big tub.

  My frustration rose again at my helplessness. Angry thoughts began to sputter but then relaxd. I still needed Liam’s help. The thought of giving up control to him didn’t make me resent him or panic like it normally did. He had wormed his way into my life, and I was strangely was okay with that.

  Steam filled the bathroom, fogging the mirrors as hot water filled the tub. I watched with hooded eyes as Liam opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a bottle of bubble bath, added a capful to the swirling water. Bubbles formed, and he sank his hand through them, checking the temperature. "Is it warm enough?"

  “Help me with my shirt,” I purred, rising from my knees to perch on the edge of the tub.

  I slowly lifted my arms above my head as far as my shoulder would allow and held his gaze as he grasped the hem of my tank top and lifted it, exposing my skin inch by inch. I heard his quick intake of breath as my breasts came into view, no bra hiding them from his hungry eyes.

  “I… uh…” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing convulsively as he let my tank top fall to the floor. Spellbound, his eyes never left me as I stood, straight and tall before him.

  “You're not done.” I thrust a hip forward, so he could grasp the waistband of my leggings, baring me completely to his view.

  Silently, he complied, peeling the material from me. Finally naked, I stepped one foot and then the other into the fragrant water, completely at home in my skin. “You going to join me?” I asked over my shoulder, flipping my hair until it settled down my back.

  The silence stretched between us as he digested my invitation. We had flirted back and forth these last few weeks, neither of us ever crossing that line. I was tired of running, of being scared. I was a grown woman, ready to take charge of my life. I wanted Liam. He made me feel special, safe, and loved. He remembered how I took my coffee. He didn’t resent the time I spent on my music. He supported my career and respected it. Yes, he was paid to be here, but he did so much more than the job required, always going above and beyond to be there for me.

  Yes, I was attracted to his lean, muscular frame, his sandy hair, and his brown eyes. But I was also wildly attracted to the man inside, and that was the man that mattered.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liam

  My God. She looked like Venus rising from the water as she stepped into the tub. Her long runner’s legs flexed as the water swirled and rose around her calves.

  My eyes bulged as she turned to face me again, perfect breasts jutting proudly towards me with delicious pink tips. Her cheeks were rosy from the heat. “Are you coming?” She quirked an eyebrow and lowered herself into the water, sinking below the surface until the water just lapped over the top of her breasts.

  My mouth went dry, and my voice abandoned me. I felt fifteen again like a jittery, nervous teenager with my crush offering herself to me.

  “Ahem,” I cleared my throat, my eyes widening as my brain finally slammed into gear. Ripping my shirt over my head, I unbuckled my belt and paused. Remembering my condition, I looked down. Will she accept me?

  “Liam?”

  “I… I
can’t.” The thought of sharing my secret made my blood run cold.

  “Liam, what’s wrong?” Maggie’s eyes were wide and dilated with desire. I could see myself reflected in them. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I was so afraid of being rejected again.

  “I…” I closed my mouth with an audible click. It was now or never. I untied my boots and stepped out of my pants where they fell to the floor, a puddle of black fabric.

  Standing there, I watched Maggie’s face for a reaction. From just below the left knee, my leg is made up of rubber and steel. There, I’m nothing more than a high-tech bionic leg, courtesy of a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Jeannie couldn’t take it. She’d left me for another man, a whole man, before I’d even made it back to the states. I’d never shown it to another.

  “Oh, Liam.” She sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She held her hand out to me. “Come here.” She knelt down and ran her hand down my thigh, over the rubber cup my stump rested in, and along the steel shaft of the leg. “It’s so powerful.” She looked up at me from where she crouched. “Just like you.”

  In an instant I had my leg off and was sliding into the water behind her, gently settling her between my legs, her head leaning back on my chest. “Are you sure?” I felt my voice vibrating beneath her as my arms wrapped around her waist to settle on her hips.

  Her skin was smooth, silky, her body half hidden beneath the bubbles. She purred, leaning back into me, and rubbed her hands along both my legs. “I’m sure.”

  I pressed her forward and started to massage her shoulders, carefully avoiding her barely healed wound. I worked the stiffness from her muscles and the knots from along her spine. My fingers trailed down her back to just above the dimples in her rounded rear.

  “Ohhhhhh,” she groaned out, her head falling forward. Red hair flowed forward, blocking her face. I could feel the tension draining at my touch.