by Paula Cox
Cliff wasn’t somebody who liked taking orders; Liana understood that. But she didn’t understand why he had to be so goddamn grumpy about it. What use did that serve? It just made the car ride long and boring.
Luckily, once they were back in the city, entertainment was just around the corner. Too bad it was the wrong kind.
“Oh my God.” Liana gaped, bringing her face close to the window as if the image was merely distorted by the glass.
Cliff released a string of expletives that would have made a sailor blush. Liana, on the other hand, was used to it.
All the windows of Cliff’s townhouse were smashed. The door looked like someone had taken a battering ram to it. And it looked like it was only going to be worse when they got inside.
“Cliff,” Liana whispered. She looked over at him. His knuckles were white against the steering wheel. “Cliff?”
He thrust the car into park and got out, leaving it idling in the middle of the road. Liana looked from the empty driver’s seat to where he was stomping up the path to the front door. She put her hand on the door handle.
As if he sensed it, Cliff whirled. “Stay in the car!”
Liana let her hand drop. He had left no room for argument. She took advantage of the alone time and pulled out her phone, turning it on. Immediately, it began to buzz with missed voicemails. She cast a glance over to the house, but Cliff was nowhere to be seen. At least she’d be occupied until he returned.
“Hi, Liana. This is Lincoln, the entertainment manager at Rick’s. I’m calling to tell you that unfortunately, we will not be booking you in the future. You did a wonderful show, but our staff have been receiving anonymous death threats calling for your dismissal.”
Liana gasped.
“We have reported these concerns to the police. They’re looking into it, but at this time we will not be continuing our working relationship with you. Please accept my sincerest apologies. All the best.”
Liana let the phone slip from her fingers as soon as she ended the call. Tears pricked at her eyes. Where would it end? Would she ever have any peace? Why was Colin doing this? Liana scanned the house for signs of movement but saw nothing. What if Colin was still inside? What if he was going to take Cliff away from her next?
Liana wrenched the key out of the ignition and jumped out without thinking. She didn’t have any thinking left in her. All she had was rage and sadness. All she had was Cliff. She marched toward the door and pushed inside.
There was nothing left.
Everything—from the sculptures in the study to the banister on the stairs—had been smashed to smithereens. Pieces of splintered wood and broken glass crunched underfoot as she moved from room to room. Liana was afraid of what would happen if Colin were here, so she stayed quiet. Or tried to, at least.
She couldn’t hear anyone else in the house. Not at first. Just as she’d finished her sweep of the first floor, she heard a thump from upstairs. Tentatively, Liana approached the stairs, gazing up at the mangled chandelier. Had Colin done this alone? It must have taken him hours.
Footsteps approached the stairs, and Liana froze and bunched her muscles, preparing to bolt.
“I told you to wait in the car.” Cliff breezed past her. “Come on.”
Liana tagged along after him. Why wasn’t he yelling at her? What was going on? “Cliff,” she called weakly.
He stopped in the doorway, illuminated by the shaft of light that slipped through the broken door. His eyes looked so weary, no longer flashing steel but brooding clouds. His jaw was tight. She wondered how much he’d lost with this discovery. She wished she could have prevented it.
They should never have come. Liana might not have been able to prevent what happened here, but she could have prolonged the time until Cliff discovered it. Outside, traffic cruised by. Sirens crooned in the distance. People went on living their lives.
In here, there was a solemn silence. It was as though the outside world lay behind some kind of barrier. A shield. Or it had. This place had been Cliff’s refuge. It had been Liana’s too. She remembered how safe she had felt here, how warm and wonderful those days with Cliff had been when he wasn’t making her want to tear her hair out with frustration. And now the shield was cracked. Cliff was cracked.
“I’m sorry,” Liana croaked out.
“It’s not your fault.”
She approached him, feeling each crunch of glass underfoot as though it were her own bones. “I know. But I’m commiserating with you.”
“You don’t need to do that.” His stern brow and sharp nose seemed even more severe in the half-light.
“But that’s what people do when they care about each other,” Liana said. She raised a hand to cup his cheek. It was still smooth from his shave this morning. He’d insisted on shaving. He never did anything looking ruffled.
“If there weren’t other people’s houses attached,” Cliff said, glancing around. “I’d burn this place to the ground.”
His voice was sharp as a blade. Liana stumbled back, but Cliff’s hand snatched her wrist out of the air and held her to him.
“I don’t want you to see the part of me that’s about to surface,” he said, his grip tight.
“Then don’t let it.”
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t.” Liana splayed her fingers over the side of his face, stroking his cheek. “You don’t need to be a monster to catch a monster.”
“I don’t know how to be anything else.”
Liana stepped in closer, pressing her chest to his. His aftershave was fresh and pungent, like the forest after the rain.
“You know how to be with me,” Liana whispered. “And that’s where you are. You’re with me.” She leaned up onto her toes, lips brushing his as she spoke. “We’ll do this together. And when it’s done, we’ll still be ourselves. No monsters needed.”
Cliff leaned down and caught her mouth in a tender kiss. He continued to hold her hand to his face, continued to seek out the comfort of her touch.
“You should know,” he murmured. “Nobody has ever given me an ultimatum before and lived to tell the tale.”
Liana chuckled, but she wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. At this point, she didn’t care. She kissed him again, fiercer and hungrier. He returned her fire with some of his own, spearing his tongue into her mouth and deepening their kiss. They might have stayed there forever, broken house be damned.
But Cliff’s phone rang.
“I should get that,” he said. His eyes shone like newly forged steel.
Liana nodded.
He answered the call, still holding her as if he never wanted to let go. “Julian.” Cliff nodded a couple times, and then his jaw went tense.
Not a good sign.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Cliff hung up and looked down at Liana, pushing some of her hair away from her face. “I need to take you somewhere safe.”
“What?” she balked. “If you’re going somewhere, I want to go too.”
But Cliff shook his head. “I can’t take on Colin if I’m worried about you. There’s been a progression, and it doesn’t look good.” He sighed. “Ellis has been framed. A bunch of documents surfaced that implicated him in a child pornography ring. Of course, they’re forged, but the NYPD has suspended him without pay while they conduct their investigation.”
Liana’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? How can they do that when somebody is running around dropping bottles of champagne on doorsteps?”
Cliff shook his head. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t want you caught up in the chaos. I’m going to take you to be looked after by a few of my guys while I go to Julian’s to regroup with Ellis and Amos.”
Then Liana remembered the original reason she’d come in the house. She bit her lip. “There’s one more thing.”
Cliff raised his eyebrow.
“I’ve been dropped from the bill at Rick’s,” she revealed. “The staff have been receiving death thre
ats. Understandably, I wasn’t worth the risk.”
“Shit.” Cliff gritted his teeth. “I’m so done with this bullshit. I’m going to make Colin wish he was never born.”
His face took on a kind of intensity Liana hadn’t seen before. He was hard. He was ice. But he was not brittle. If anyone could save them, it was Cliff. But things were beginning to look like they had gone too far to be saved.
Cliff’s house: destroyed.
Ellis: fired.
Liana’s career: over before it had even begun.
It didn’t strike Liana just how much of a blow that voicemail had been until she thought about it in those terms. Odd. Before, any hiccup in her performing career would have meant automatic water works. But now?
Now she had Cliff.
“I’ll go,” she said. “I’ll let your men look after me.”
He smiled down at her. “You’re not going to fight me?’
Liana shook her head, running a hand down Cliff’s chest. “I know that you have to do what you have to do. But just promise me one thing, okay?”
“Anything.” She could see that he meant it.
“Come back to me.”
“There isn’t a thing in this world that could stop me.”
Chapter 26
The only word Liana could think of to describe the apartment was “Ritz-y.” It was decked out in gold, art deco accents, with glass everywhere she looked. The carpet, a mottled brown, was fraying in several places. Nonetheless, it was impeccably clean. At first glance, the apartment was luxurious and lavish. But upon closer inspection, the rest of it was just as worn as the carpet. The glass paneling in the hallway was chipped. The geometric chandelier was missing crystals. And the patterned wallpaper was curling slightly at the edges.
“Where are we?” Liana asked. She knew the basics: the forty-fourth floor of one of New York’s highest skyscrapers. But the details were a mystery to her. They may as well have walked into Jay Gatsby’s mansion in miniature.
“He never fucking changes anything in here,” Cliff muttered under his breath.
“That’s not true!” came a male voice around the corner. A pale blonde head popped out, followed by a lanky body encased in a sharp pinstriped suit. “I change the lightbulbs pretty frequently. You wouldn’t believe how easy these old fixtures are to overload.”
“I think you’d find I would,” Cliff said. His face broke into a grin, and he walked forward to slap the man on the back. “How are you, Gus?”
The man—Gus—shrugged. “I’ve been better. I don’t like to hear that somebody’s been messin’ with my friends.”
Liana stayed where she was, examining him. His hair was parted slightly to the left, greased and combed. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think the white thing around his neck was a cravat.
Gus caught her staring at it. “Got it in an auction,” he said. “Once worn by Buster Keaton himself. The price was ten thousand dollars and a slice of information about gun runners in Chicago, but I would have paid twenty thousand and my own mother.”
Liana blinked. Had she fallen asleep somewhere along the line? Because she was having a very surreal, very campy dream.
Cliff stepped over to her and gently guided her toward Gus. “He can be a bit much when you first meet him, but he’s a good guy,” he explained. “His family are long time friends of mine.”
Gus bowed before me. “How ya doin’, doll?”
“And he doesn’t always talk like that,” Cliff added.
“I don’t understand,” Liana said, looking around. “Is this all…”
“Original?” Gus walked over to an oblong lamp, patting it affectionately. “This apartment was boarded up in 1928 and purchased ten years later by my grandfather.” Gus smiled, eyes glazing over. “As a bootlegger, you see, he missed the roaring twenties. Kept this place exactly as it was. Went off to fight in the war, came home. Then it was, even more, of a sanctuary.”
“And now you live here?” Liana filled in.
“You betcha.” Gus grinned and extended his elbow toward Liana. “Can I give you the grand tour?”
She looked over at Cliff questioningly; he merely shrugged with a small smile. Liana took Gus’ elbow, feeling more awkward than she had in months.
“I guess I’ll leave you two to it,” Cliff said.
“Wait!” Liana’s eyes flew wide open. She hastily unhooked her elbow from Gus’ and flew into Cliff’s arms. “Don’t leave me with him,” she whispered. “I thought you said you were leaving me with guys. Plural.”
Cliff chuckled, circling his arms tight around her. “He’s a good guy, Liana. He’ll take care of you.” His tone grew sober. “There are very few people I trust these days, and even few who I’d trust to take care of you.”
Liana’s heart swelled with warmth. If Cliff trusted Gus so much, she would have to trust him too.
“I’ve arranged to have any calls to your phone redirect to Gus’ telephone,” Cliff said. “Keep your phone off. I’ll call you when I can.”
Liana nodded against his chest, squeezing tighter. The scent of him surrounded her, and she sucked it in greedily, unsure of when she’d get to smell it next.
“Be safe,” she whispered.
“For you? Anything.”
In the next moment, Cliff was gone. Liana was left staring morosely at a closed door while Gus slid the deadbolt across. Then he affixed several other locks until the door looked more secure than a prison.
Liana just hoped this didn’t end up being her prison.
***
Leaving Liana with Gus was one of the hardest things Cliff had ever had to do. When thinking of who he could trust to look after her, the only person that had seemed even halfway reasonable was Gus. Gus didn’t have his own agenda, not when it came to stuff like this. He’d successfully kept himself on the fringes of his family’s dark world for years now, and he put a higher value on personal relationships than he did on anything. Though Cliff had never tested Gus’ friendship against an old dead guy’s accessory, admittedly.
Still. Gus was almost completely off the grid. Colin wouldn’t even know he existed—and that made Liana safe.
Now he had to get to Julian’s and figure out what the fuck they were going to do and how they could make it hurt the most.
Cliff sped like a maniac the whole way. He needed to get back to Liana more than anything. Besides, any cop worth his salt would know better than to pull over the son and heir of the Corelli crime family.
Lost in his thoughts at a red light, Cliff didn’t notice the man who jumped out of the vehicle next to him until he slashed the first of Cliff’s tires. He didn’t get the chance to slash another one before Cliff leaped out of the car and punched the guy up the face, sending him teetering to the ground.
The man rolled onto his back, blood streaming from his nose, and laughed.
That was the last thing Cliff had seen before fifty thousand volts of electricity speared through him, and a black bag was roughly pulled over his head.
***
Bariiing. Bariiing.
“Is that your phone?” Liana asked.
Gus was seated on the couch opposite her, reading. He looked up from his book; half-moon spectacles perched on the end of his nose. “Good ear.”
When Gus began to close his book, Liana put out her hands to stop him. “Don’t worry yourself,” she said. “I’ll grab it.”
“Cheers, darling.”
Liana leaped off of the couch and ran toward the black device on the wall in the hallway. She stared at it, wondering if she’d spoken too soon. How was she supposed to answer this thing, anyway?
“Just lift up the receiver,” Gus instructed from the living room.
Liana did as he said, holding the earpiece to her ear and standing close to the box. “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Liana?”
Not Cliff, and a woman’s voice to boot. Though he’d only just left, Liana felt more than a little anxious already. “Yes,” Liana repli
ed. “Who is this?”
“Hi Liana, this is Michael’s mother, Lorna. Do you remember me?”
“Mrs. Sinclair!” Liana exclaimed. “Of course I remember you. How are you?”
Lorna sighed. “I’ve been better, but I’m making do,” she said. “There are some things I need to discuss with you. Can I come out to where you are? I remember who Lando is.”
“It means a lot that you called, Mrs. Sinclair,” Liana said. “But we’ve actually already identified Lando as Colin Lear.”
