Liam: The Lost Billionaires, Book 3

by Allison LaFleur

  I listened to the flight attendant rattle down the aisle with her beverage cart while her partner handed out tiny crinkling bags of peanuts.

  She stopped her cart next to me. “Drink, sir?”

  I pushed up my face mask and peered over the empty seat next to me with one eye. “Vodka, neat.”

  First class had its perks. I loved the lay-flat seats. Time passed faster when I could sleep the hours away without kids kicking the back of the seat, or overly friendly passengers aggressively seeking short-term relationships. No one fights you for the arm rest in first class. Thanks again, Scorpion Security.

  My company was my life—really. On my last tour overseas, when Jeanie had discarded me, I’d thought my life was over. Lying in my hospital bed, I couldn’t think of a single thing to live for. Then, out of the blue, Noah called.

  “You get your ass out of that bed!” he’d shouted. “You are better than this, Liam! I taught you boys to have a plan. What is your plan, son? What are you good at? What can you use your skills to build?”

  The verbal ass kicking went on for thirty minutes, but when it was done, Scorpion Security was born. I owed my whole life to my business. That was no exaggeration.

  “Call for you, sir.” Interrupting my stroll down memory lane, the flight attendant stood next to me, a sat phone held out in her hand.

  I pushed the button to raise my seat up and reached out to take the phone. “Thank you.” I nodded at her and turned to the wall. Out the window, it was still night. The sky was purple and blue with just a fuzzy halo of orange lighting the horizon. Admiring the beauty, I pressed the phone to my ear. “Liam Fox.”

  “Boss?” Ben’s voice crackled and popped over the weak connection. Airplanes were not designed for phone calls.

  “Ben? What’s wrong?” I sat up straight. For Ben to track me down on a commercial airliner halfway across the Atlantic, something truly disastrous had to be going down. My heart started pounding triple-time as adrenaline rushed through my veins. “Is Maggie okay?”

  “That’s just it, boss.” His voice cracked. “She’s gone.”

  “What do you mean? She’s gone? Gone where?” My throat constricted, forcing out a strangled sound. This can’t be happening. Not again.

  “I’m sorry, boss. She never showed up for her sound check. Eli went to her dressing room to get her, but it was empty. Her chair was knocked over, and she was nowhere to be found.”

  “Could she have just stepped out for some air?” I was grasping at straws, and I knew it, but I was stuck on an airplane, hours from land. If she was really gone, anything could happen before I managed to get back to the states and find her. I suddenly felt powerless.

  “Call the Phoenix team in,” I demanded. “I want all hands on deck. This plane lands in three hours. I’ll get the first flight back.”

  Shit! Shit! Shit!

  The next three hours were excruciating. I had to sit and wait when all I wanted to do was rush to her aid. Customs was a nightmare. The lines were long, and the airport was stifling and hot. Once I finally cleared all the red tape and retrieved my weapons, I ran back to the counter and booked another Dreamliner flight back to the states. Short of bringing the Concorde out of retirement, I wasn’t getting back across the pond any faster.

  I exited the airport at a dead run and slid into the dark car waiting for me at the curb. “Talk to me, Ben. What do we know?”

  “Not much.” He merged into traffic and drove up onto the expressway. “It looks like a multiple kidnapping. Her manager Julie is missing too.” His eyes were unreadable behind his dark sunglasses.

  “What do we know about Julie?” Maggie’s kidnapping threw me for a loop. My typically cold and calculated response, the one that made me so good at what I did, was failing me. I was way too close. I cared too much.

  He handed me the file. “I’ve compiled dossiers on all Maggie’s employees and crew. We started them last time, but I updated what I could.”

  I snatched it from him, snapped it open, and flipped through it page by page. I pored through every word, every detail, desperate for some direction. Then I found it. “Wait! Did you see this?” I stopped on a page in Julie’s file.

  “What?” He drove with one hand and held the other out for the file.

  “Julie was hospitalized as a teenager.” I looked up from the file. “Do we have her hospital records?”

  “Ah, no. They were sealed.” He realized I wasn’t giving up the dossier and hit his bluetooth.

  “Then unseal them! I want to know why she was under psychiatric care for six months!” Fuming, I looked back down and continued reading Julie’s life story.

  Ben activated his phone and called Leo. “Boss needs medical records for Julie Lawrence, Maggie’s manager. She spent six months in the hospital when she was thirteen.”

  “Hey, boss. Glad you are back.” Leo’s voice crackled through the car speakers.

  “Leo, you have any questions, call us. We’re heading back from the airport to talk to the band.” I watched out the window as the city flew by.

  “I’ll get right on that, boss. I’ll send anything I find to your phone.”

  “Roger that.”

  Ben pressed a button to end the call and turned to me. “Trailer or buses first?” He eyed me from behind his mirrored sunglasses.

  “Take me to the makeup trailer. We’ll search Maggie’s and Julie’s buses after that.” I rested my arm on the edge of the door, staring blankly out the window.

  Ding!

  My email alert went off. I pulled up the message, and my eyes widened as I read it. How did we miss this?

  “Oh my God.” I sucked a breath in through my teeth. “Julie’s not missing. She took Maggie.”

  “How do you know?” Ben glanced over at me as he drove.

  “At thirteen, Julie was diagnosed with a personality disorder. Her doctors note impaired empathy and remorse, obsessive compulsive disorder, and disinhibited, egotistical traits.” I looked up. “Potential for delusions and possessive behaviors.”

  “So she fixated on Maggie?” He stared straight ahead, both hands on the wheel.

  “I think so. I have no idea why, but it has to be her.” I kept reading, mumbling to myself. “It all fits. It was her all along.”

  “Hey, boss.” Ben interrupted my reading.

  “Yeah?” I slid the glasses down my nose and looked at him.

  “Leo’s in my ear. Jeannie just showed up at the office. You want me to take you there?”

  “No.” I didn’t even hesitate. “Take me straight to Maggie’s place.”

  “Are you sure? We don’t even know who took her?”

  “I’m sure.” And I was. If I had to choose between Jeannie and Maggie, it was no contest. Jeannie was my past. Maggie was my future.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Maggie

  The trunk lid flew open, and a bright light shone down on me. I blinked and tried to shield my eyes.

  “Get up!” A hand reached down and grabbed the front of my shirt. It yanked me up and dragged me over the edge of the trunk. There, it dropped me in a heap on the dirt at her feet.

  “Ooomph” The fall knocked the air out of me, and I gaped like a fish out of water.

  “Not so high and mighty now, are you?” A gloating smile spread across her face as she stared down at me.

  “Julie?” I shook my head. “Why?”

  “Why? You want to know why?” She started to pace, and I used her inattention as an opportunity to look around. We were in the middle of nowhere, up on a hillside with low scrub all around us. The city skyline gleamed way off in the distance.

  “Please, Julie. I thought we were friends.” I begged now, this whole situation was out of control.

  “Friends? Friends? You thought we were friends?” She tilted her head back and laughed. “I drove you to sing in those bars. I got us those gigs. I sang with you after waiting tables double shifts. I showed up, Maggie! Every single time, I showed up!”

 
“You’re right. You were a good friend, Julie. You still are.” I looked up at her as she pointed her finger in my face.

  “Right. I was a good friend, but what about you?” She resumed pacing, which was creepy and maniacal but at least put some distance between us.

  “What do you mean?” I was way too confused to follow her line of thinking.

  “Remember that gig I booked? The one the talent scout came to?” She stood with her back to me, looking out over the desert.

  “Yeah.” I nodded, thinking back to that night. “He heard us sing a couple of times.” Where is she going with this?

  “Right, but I missed that gig. My car broke down. You took what that talent scout offered and left me in the dust.” She stalked towards me. “After all those hours we sang together.”

  “Julie, he offered you a contract. You didn’t take it.” How can she blame me for not taking that contract? Seriously? I just gaped at her.

  “That piddly thing? Scraps at your feet. That offer wasn't’ worth the paper it was printed on.” When she started pacing again, I noticed a hop in her step. She seemed jittery and jumpy.

  “It was the same contract I signed!” I cried. That contract is what got me this far!

  “Pffft. He gave you millions!” She waved her hand, dismissing everything I said.

  “After ten years of playing every dive bar, rodeo, and fair across the country!” I raised my voice, hoping the volume would knock some sense into her. “It took me years to get to this point, Julie! And I’m still an opening act!”

  “And what did you do for me?” She sneered. “Huh?”

  “I made you my manager! You didn’t want to be a duo anymore! I did everything I possibly could to bring you with me!”

  “Scraps!” she screamed. The veins in her neck and forehead bulged. “You threw me scraps!”

  I tried to stand, my hands still tied behind me, but I as soon as I reached my knees, Julie pushed me back into the dirt. I landed on my ass with a painful thud. “You just stay there until I figure out what to do with you.”

  “Julie, please untie me.” I lay on my back, stuck like a turtle.

  “Untie you? Why do I want to untie you? I want to be you!” She stood next to me, toeing me with one foot. I squirmed until she placed that foot in the center of my chest.

  Lying helpless under her shoe, I realized I was in serious trouble. She didn’t want to punish me or teach me a lesson. She wanted to erase me. “Julie, what are you planning to do?” I was nervous before, but now I was completely terrified.

  “I should have been the star, Maggie! Me! You don’t deserve any of this! It was all me! I wanted to start a band. I wanted to sing. I hit the pavement and booked all those gigs. And you? All you did was whine.” She made a twisted face I assumed was supposed to be mine and raised the tone of her voice to that of a child. “‘Julie, I’m tired. Julie, I have class. Julie, I have plans Saturday night.’ And what do you do? The one night I can’t make it, you take my big break. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!” She lifted her foot and kicked my bad shoulder.

  Oh, God! She is nuts! I am going to die! A vision of my dead, vulture-picked body flashed through my brain. Nothing I said would change her mind, and I was pretty sure arguing with her would only make matters worse.

  “What do you want me to do?” There had to be some way to appease her short of my death.

  “Nothing! I want you to do nothing! I tried to get that crazy fan to take care of you. I told him where we would be, when you’d be alone in your trailer. Stupid fool got himself caught before he could take care of you.”

  “He shot me!”

  “No, you idiot.” She slapped her hand against her chest. “I shot you.” She grinned like a lunatic. The whites of her eyes showed, and her smile exposed more teeth than I’d ever noticed she had.

  “You shot me?” Any lingering doubts I had about my impending doom instantly disappeared. I was not going to make it out of this alive.

  “I followed you and that stupid bodyguard to the club. There were so many people no one saw a thing. My only regret is that you didn’t die. How perfect would that have been? They would have blamed it on your crazy stalker!” She laughed again, and a crazy glint shined in her wild eyes.

  I scooted up to a seated position. Glancing around, I searched for anything to cut my wrists or ankles free on. Julie’s insanity was a threat to me, but it was a hindrance to her too. It drove her to pace more and more frantically, and threw her off her game when she started arguing with herself. While she wasn’t paying attention to me, I slowly inched back toward a line of scrub, feeling around the ground for any tool or weapon nature might provide.

  “Ouch.” My hand closed around something sharp and I had to stifle my cry. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. The unseen object bit cruelly into the flesh of my palm, but that didn’t stop me from scraping it against the rope around my wrists. I sank my teeth into my lip to keep from crying out as I felt the blood begin to drip from my hands. Eureka! I pulled against the partially severed rope, and it dropped to the dirt without a sound.

  I kept my freed arms behind my back and slowly tucked my legs under my butt. This positioned my ankles behind me and out of Julie’s sight. Hands slick with blood, I could barely hold on to the jagged glass as I swiped the sharp edge across rope over and over.

  Still fully engaged in conversation with herself, Julie failed to notice my movements. Her arms flew around wildly, and her fingers jabbed at the air. I think she’d finally snapped.

  All at once, she swung her head around. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her mouth was curled into a snarl. “You must die.” She took a step, advancing in my direction, and I cut faster at the tie around my ankles.

  “Julie, listen…” I tried slow her advance, but it seemed she couldn’t even hear me.

  “You are the reason my life is shit!” She took another step as I sawed frantically. I no longer cared how deep the glass cut into my palms. If I didn’t get free fast, I was going to die. “It’s all your fault! You did this to me!”

  “Julie, stop!” Just ten more seconds… please!

  “You were supposed to die when those bikers broke in. I paid them five thousand dollars.” She shook her head. “That was everything I had, my whole life’s savings. A total waste. Those morons couldn’t even kill one weak, pathetic little female.”

  I gasped. “You hired those men?”

  Snap. The rope gave way. Before she could take another step toward me, I awkwardly leapt to my feet. Pins and needles ran up and down my legs, and I lurched to the side. Limping into a trot, I forced myself to go faster, running away from her and hopefully back toward civilization.

  “You bitch!” She screamed as she chased after me with clenched fists. I swear I could see steam pouring from her ears.

  Looking back at her cost me time, so I focused on my goal—survival. I had to get as far away from her as possible. I ignored the stabbing pain in my shoulder and the burning sensation in my lungs. Forcing my shaky legs forward, I barely felt the stitch in my side. I didn’t have time to hurt if I wanted to live… and I did.

  I ran faster than I had ever run in my life. Catching a glimpse of red brake lights through the trees, I veered off the road we’d just driven up and dashed through the scrub. Brake lights meant cars, and cars meant people. People meant help. I had to reach the other road.

  Behind me, I heard Julie start her car. Her engine coughed and sputtered to life. Then it roared as she floored it to chase me down like a dog. My heart beat so hard, I thought it would explode. Don’t look back! Just run!

  Chapter Thirty

  Liam

  “What do we know?” I walked into the command truck with Ben.

  Leo looked up from his monitor. “Hey, boss, I think we found Julie’s car.” He pointed to a blinking light on his monitor.

  “Where?” I watched the screen over his shoulder.

  “It’s at the edge of town on an old dirt road leading into the desert.
It was stationary a minute ago, but now it’s moving back toward us.”

  “Mark where it was,” I ordered. “If she left Maggie out there, she might still be alive.” I didn’t want to think the worst. I couldn’t even imagine Maggie buried in the desert.

  “No, wait—it’s stopped.” Leo clicked the mouse and began to type. “Sending coordinates to your phone now.”

  Without a word, I turned and walked back to the SUV. I uploaded the coordinates to the GPS and took off, wheels spinning and gravel flying behind me.

  “Boss, you maybe want to let me drive?” Ben held tight to the oh-shit handle on the passenger side.

  “Nope. Just hold on.” I turned the wheel too fast, and the car lifted up on two wheels as it screeched around the corner. I merged into traffic inches from the front bumper of the car I cut off. I stomped the gas pedal to the floor, and the beast’s engine surged to life. We flew past car after car, advancing quickly on the little blinking dot in the GPS screen.

  Ding!

  Ben checked his phone. “Leo just sent us a picture and the info on Julie’s car.” He swiped his finger down the phone screen. “It’s a rusted red thunderbird with gray primer on the rear quarter panel.”

  “Keep your eyes peeled. We should intercept it in five minutes.” My jaw clenched as I white knuckled the wheel of the powerful SUV. Ben just nodded in my peripheral vision.

  We had to find Maggie. Alive. I needed her. Sitting on that airplane, flying over the Atlantic, I’d realized how much I missed her—so much more than I had ever missed anyone else. I missed our silent morning coffee as we watched the sun rise and her random humming as she moved around the house. I wanted the feel of her, warm and soft. I craved her little snuffling snores next to me all night.

  “Boss, up ahead. See those lights?” Ben pointed at tail lights growing closer.

  “I see them.” Turning the wheel, I aimed right for them.

  “Watch out!” he shouted, bracing himself against the door and the dashboard.