Liam: The Lost Billionaires, Book 3

by Allison LaFleur

  Liam

  First thing in the morning, we tacked plastic up over the broken walls of the room.

  “Why are we doing this?” Maggie asked as she handed me the staple gun so I could secure another sheet of painter’s plastic. The ladder leaned slightly and Maggie reached to steady it.

  “I want to keep any future damage to a minimum. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.” I reached for another piece to cover the last opening. “Most of the house is still intact,” I tilted my head, “even if a bit smoky. I want to keep weather and animals out until I can get back here to fix things.”

  I had dragged the charred contents of the room out into the forest, and swept the space out as best I could. There wasn’t much I could do for the damaged walls other than cover them.

  Maggie was on cloud nine, more than excited to resume her normal life. It didn’t take long for her to pack. She didn’t have much besides her clothes and notebooks. Once we had the cabin as clean as we could get it, we packed the car together and filled our afternoon with laughter and teasing.

  Snap! I whipped a towel at Maggie and smiled when she yelped.

  “Stop that!” Giggling, she danced away to hide on the other side of the car as I tried to smack her again.

  “You can’t get away!” I laughed, vaulting over the hood after her.

  “Nooooo!” she squealed, racing around the car again. “We have to go! Get in the car, Liam!”

  Laughing my head off, I leaned against the car, balled the towel up, and threw it at her. I hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. “We’re almost done!” My ribs ached from the laughter as I took a deep breath and wiped my streaming eyes. “I left the extra food and electronics in the cabin. I figure I’ll be back soon. I can’t leave it like this too long.”

  A sudden somberness fell over me, and I looked back at my poor cabin. After spending the past few weeks there with Maggie, it no longer held the same awful memories. In fact, I had a whole new appreciation for the bathtub. My reluctance to leave the home I’d avoided for so long took me completely by surprise.

  “Hey, Liam, have you seen my notebook?” Maggie was looking through the bags we had loaded in the back of the car.

  “Yeah, I think it’s in your backpack.” I turned back to see her top half in the side door, and her back half wiggling enticingly at me.

  “Hmmm.” She rummaged for a minute before popping back up triumphantly. “Here it is!” She gripped the cap of her pen in her teeth, yanked it off, and flipped open her notebook to scribble something down. “Okay!” she announced when she was done. “I didn’t want to forget that line.”

  “You ready?” It was a question I had to force myself to ask.

  She wiped her wrist across her forehead and stood, hands on her hips, looking at our jumble of stuff. “I think that’s everything from the house. You ready?”

  “I am.” I strode up the porch steps and grabbed the cloth case there. I didn’t dally, swinging back down off the porch and trotting over to the car. I slid my sniper rifle between two bags in the backseat and closed the door with a thunk. We were finally done.

  Maggie wasted no time settling into the passenger seat. I joined her on the driver’s side, and we were off. I drove us down the winding path, which was just as overgrown as when we’d arrived weeks ago. Bittersweet memories assaulted me. Doubt crept into my mind. Will Maggie still want me when she no longer needs my protection?

  “So they got him?” she asked, breaking my reverie as though she could read my mind.

  “I don’t have all the details.” I gripped the steering wheel as we bounced down the road. “Ben and Leo are neck-deep in interviews and paperwork with the FBI, but Ryder confirmed he is in custody.”

  “Who was it?” In my peripheral vision, I could see her cock her head and watch me.

  “Some guy named Elmer Watkins. An introvert living in his mother’s basement.” I flexed my hands on the wheel. “Ben and Leo tracked him down.”

  Maggie sat there, staring at me with her wide green eyes. “Have I ever met him?” Her mouth opened just a bit and her little pink tongue appeared between her parted lips.

  “I don’t think so.” I kept glancing over at her. The frivolity and merriment of the afternoon was gone, and worry lines appeared between her eyebrows again. “He had tickets to all your concerts, but Julie says there’s no mention of his name on any visitor logs and no records of issuing any backstage passes to any of his aliases.”

  “Why me?” Distress clouded her formerly sparkling eyes. “Why would he fixate on me?”

  “Why not?” I reached over and wrapped my big hand around her dainty fingers. “He has a pattern of stalking women he sees in the media. It started with a teacher who was honored in the news and escalated from there.” I gently squeezed her hand, trying to warm them. “He had a shrine behind his bedroom door. Pictures he’d cut from magazines and photoshopped images of you and him together.” I choked on the words, unable to go on.

  “Oh my God.” She breathed deep and the freckles stood out stark against her bone white face.

  “Ben said it was awful.” I forced myself to relax my fingers. “But it’s over. We got him.” I didn’t tell her anything about the sealed juvie records we had opened. She never needed to know that.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Maggie

  The minutes ticked by in silence. I sat and stewed, consumed by thoughts of the man Liam had identified as my stalker and the work of returning to my tour. I picked up my phone and watched for a signal. Except for Liam’s super spy setup, we had been totally cut off. They don’t build cell towers in the middle of nowhere.

  I fiddled with my phone. I was dying to start texting and calling Julie and the band. I needed to set things up so I could slide right back into my life. I opened the notes app and made a list:

  1. Tell Julie we are coming back.

  2. Alert venues of upcoming concerts.

  3. Write new songs.

  4. Album?

  5. Teach songs to band.

  6. Get number 1 hit.

  The rhythm of the car’s rocking changed, and I looked up and out the window. We’d left the dirt road and had started moving faster on a paved surface, winding our way down the mountain. I realized Liam hadn’t said a word for miles. Together, we rode quietly through the night, the headlamps lighting the highway, which stretched toward the horizon.

  “You want to tell me what happened?” I finally broke the silence and scooted across the bench seat, snuggling up to him as he drove. I leaned my head on his shoulder, enjoying the natural heat his body always emitted.

  “What do you mean?” He glanced down at me and slid an arm around my back. A smile curled his lips as he returned his attention to the road.

  I gazed up at him, my curiosity getting the better of me. “Your leg, Liam. Why didn’t you tell me about your leg?” I ran a fingernail up and down his thigh. “All those times I whined and cried about my life, and never once did you mention it.”

  “It’s not really something I talk about.” I watched his jaw clench and his hands rock on the steering wheel.

  “You didn’t tell me until you absolutely had to, Liam,” I sat up and faced him, tucking a leg up under me. “Why?”

  “It was my third tour across the pond.” He gritted the words out. His lips pinched together, and he sighed out his nose before starting again. “My team had hiked all night. We were tired, and we hadn’t even started the mission.” He reached up and wiped a tear as it escaped.

  I didn’t say a word, not wanting to interrupt his memories.

  “As the horizon just started to brighten, we approached a small village. There was nothing but chickens and a few dogs wandering around. Our intelligence team had received reports… sightings of the Jack of Spades. He was our target. It was my job to find a vantage point. I was the team’s sniper.” He cleared his throat and looked down at me. Then he stared out at the road and remained silent for several miles. I could tell he was
gathering his thoughts, and I waited for him to continue.

  “I crossed a dirt road to take cover in a gulley. I needed a vantage point to monitor the residence we suspected was harboring Jack. I had just stepped into the gulley when one of my team members stepped on a roadside bomb.”

  His words echoed through my mind, and I wanted to stop him before he went any further. I could picture the horror, the bomb blast, and the screams. It was a terrible vision, but I forced myself to hear him.

  After a few moments he went on. “Two team members were killed instantly. Two others got injured when they were thrown back by the blast. I thought I was fine. I was on my back in the gulley. I thought I had escaped the worst of it, but when I tried to stand I couldn’t. My leg was hanging on by a strip of blackened flesh. It was so mangled I wouldn’t have known it was my leg if it hadn’t been attached.”

  I gasped, the sound a mix of horror and sympathy. My hand flew up to cover my mouth, and quiet my reaction. Tears instantly filled my eyes.

  “I lay there, trying to get up, but I couldn’t. I bled into the sand so long I must have passed out. When I woke up, I was in a military hospital in Germany, and my leg was gone.”

  “Oh, Liam!” I cried out, unable to contain my emotions. I was devastated by his story. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  His big shoulders shrugged. “It took months to heal and hours of agonizing physical therapy to get back on my feet.” He took a deep breath. “It was hard, but I did it. I got out in three months instead of six because I had a goal.”

  I reached over and clasped his hand in mine, still shocked.

  “Jeannie, my girlfriend at the time, had told me she was pregnant.” He swallowed, fighting to get the words out. “It was right before we went on that last mission.” He shook his head. “I was stunned. We’d been careful. I still don’t know how it happened, but I was determined to do the right thing. I wasn’t the first guy it had happened to over there, so I asked her to marry me over video chat. It wasn’t the least bit romantic, but I was determined that when she gave birth, I would be there to hold my son or daughter in my arms. She said yes, of course, and after we hung up, I made plans… big ones. We’d get married. I’d take them both back to the cabin I’d built. Life would be good.”

  I sniffed. “What happened to Jeannie?”

  “I’ve told you a little bit.”

  “She was the fiancé that didn’t wait for you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But you were injured.”

  “I know, but that didn’t matter. She moved on.”

  I never asked what happened to the baby.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Liam

  We drove straight through the long night. It was almost six in the morning, and hints of pink barely peeking out from behind the buildings, streaking the sky in magnificent color.

  “Maggie, wake up.” I reached over, gently rubbing her arm, the only part of her left exposed. The rest of her body was completely hidden under the quilt we’d brought along for the drive. “We’re here, sweetheart.”

  I parked next to Maggie’s coach. Everything looked exactly as it had when we’d left it that night to go dancing at the club. The buses were arranged in a semicircle near a field just outside the fairgrounds. Dust had settled across the windshields, and empty cups and food wrappers blew across the otherwise empty gravel lot.

  “Home sweet home.” Putting the car in park, I let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding for a month. I leaned over to Maggie and ran the back of my hand gently down the curve of her cheek. She looked up at me, her eyes heavy with sleep.

  “Mmmmhhh.” She let out a massive yawn as she emerged from her cocoon and stretched like a cat. “Come to bed with me?”

  “I’d love nothing more.” How could I say no to you?

  I followed her from the car as the locks beeped behind us. We opened the trailer door and stumbled inside. My hands found her waist, and I trailed her to the bedroom where we tumbled onto the bed in a heap. I wrapped around her, holding her close, my nose buried in her coconut-scented hair. Only a hint of smoke from the fire still clung to her.

  We fell asleep that way, curled together like two kittens.

  Maggie

  I woke in Liam’s arms several hours later to the sound of someone banging on the trailer door. The blinds on the windows were no protection against the full strength of the sun. I blinked and buried my head in his chest to keep from being blinded.

  “Maggie, you in there?” Elijah’s sweet voice reached my ears, and I smiled.

  “Ahhh…” I rolled onto my back and sighed.

  “Back to reality.” Liam’s laughter rumbled next to me. He lay on his stomach with the sheet pushed down to his waist. My fingers itched to touch the sculpted muscles of his back. His shoulders looked even broader with his arms above his head, folded under his pillow.

  “Maggie?” Elijah banged again.

  “Coming!” I swung my feet over the side of the bed. The sheet tangled around me and exposed even more of Liam. I really wanted to crawl back in with him. Forcing myself to my feet, I walked the two steps to the bathroom where my robe still hung. Yanking it off the hook, I wrapped it around my shoulders and tied the belt around my waist on my way to the door.

  “What do you want?” I threw the door open practically knocking Elijah off the step.

  “You’re back!” He sprang forward, hugged me, and spun me around. Then he set me back on my feet and hollered, “She’s back, guys! I told you she was back!”

  “Elijah! Stop it!” I giggled and slapped his arm.

  “Hey, where’s Liam? Is he here?” Elijah craned his neck to look behind me into the dim trailer.

  “Hey, Elijah!” Liam walked out of the back bedroom with his hair standing straight up on one side. He was wearing nothing but cargo pants slung low on his hips, exposing that delectable V on his abdomen and the light dusting of dark hair leading downward.

  “Liam!” They gave each other a guy hug, complete with a pat on the back before separating. “So it’s over?”

  “We think so. We’ll stick around for a bit just to make sure we didn’t miss anything, and then we can all get back to our lives.”

  “Cool, man. Thanks for taking care of our Maggie here. She’s like a sister to us all.” I rolled my eyes as he tried to puff up his chest and look as big as Liam, which was not possible. Elijah, with his metro look, ripped t-shirt, and skinny jeans looked positively scrawny next to Liam.

  I felt a flutter of desire deep in my core as I watched them interact. A beat started within me, and words began to run through my mind. “My notebook? Where is my notebook?!” I panicked, not wanting to lose a single word.

  Liam looked amused as I rushed around looking for a pen and paper. “Maggie.”

  “Where is it? Where is it?!” I hummed a few bars.

  “Maggie.”

  “What?” I whirled to face him. He stood there amused, looking down at me. In his hand, he held up my notebook and my favorite baby blue gel pen. “Hmmph… thank you.” I snatched them out of his hand and stalked back to the bedroom, ignoring the sound of both men chuckling behind me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Maggie

  “Can I come in?” I peeked in the doorway, one hand gripping the frame so tight my knuckles turned white.

  Liam looked up from his seat in the surveillance trailer. Those cheater reading glasses from the dollar store were perched on the end of his nose. Again, he’d been diving deep into the bowels of the internet. “Sure. What’s up?”

  “I… uh… I wondered if you’d come sit with me.” Standing on the top step, I stared down my feet.

  He thought for a moment. “I really need to finish this.” He glanced between me and the computer screen as information scrolled up, trillions of bytes of data I could tell he was dying to read.

  “Oh…” My shoulders fell. “Um… ok.” I hung my head and backed out. Turning and trudging back to my trailer, I
climbed the steps, dragged myself back to my empty room, and crawled into my bed alone.

  Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes. What had been so wonderful back in the cabin, we seemed to have left behind. An invisible wall now stood between us, and I didn’t know why.

  The loss crushed me. I needed to focus on my music, but my light seemed to have gone out, and my song fell quiet. The music inside me was so faint I could barely hear it.

  It had been days since Liam had lain beside me, and the bed was unbearably cold and empty. I curled up, hugging my pillow to my chest and wept. Everything I’d loved about my life before I met him seemed hollow without Liam by my side.

  I wanted to touch him, to feel his arms around me. The memory of his bedroom voice echoed in my ears. I needed to taste his skin and smell his musk, but he wouldn’t let me close anymore.

  Through my tears, I saw a single short brown hair he’d left behind on his pillow. I grabbed the pillow and pulled it to my face, burying my nose in his lingering scent. To my surprise, the pillow crinkled.

  I stopped crying at once and pressed my hand against the pillowcase. Something flat and stiff rested between the sheet and the stuffing. I reached inside, pulled out a photo, and stared.

  Oh my God it’s not over!

  In my hand, I held another grainy photograph of that damned doll. In this picture, it was pinned to a cutting board with a knife through its heart. I choked on my own breath. My chest tightened and my pulse raced.

  I have to tell Liam!

  But what would I say? I’m sorry Liam. I never told you about these photos, but guess what! You caught the bad guy, but look here! I got another one! Yeah. That would go over well.