CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
CLAUDIA
“Kansas? Why?”
My pretend, perfect little world was crumbling. The fantasy life I’d pictured for myself in Anguilla was being chipped away and I could practically see the end in sight. It was going to be a disaster. I could feel it, the thick sludge of my past and my life mixed with whatever Liam was about to tell me was about to rock all of it so hard it wouldn’t register on a Richter scale.
“Something’s come out. Something you need to know and I need to get home to talk to my family before reporters show up there.”
I was still stuck on the paper, the scribbles I could barely make out, and I was definitely still thinking of the way Liam kissed me as he admitted he’d written a song. Forme.
Goodness. I fanned myself and dropped my hand to my side. “What happened? Is it about us?”
“No.” He shook his head and unlocked his phone. “Me and my past coming back to kick me in the ass again. I gotta call my sister.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“No.” He snapped it so harshly I flinched. “Fuck,” he groaned, scrubbing his hand down his face in his typical stressed out move. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be an ass. Maybe you should spend some time packing up. I’ll explain everything once I get off the phone with Sophie, okay?”
It wasn’t. Nothing was going to be okay. Whatever had happened between us earlier today had vanished and in its place was a cold, furious man I didn’t know. The bulk of his frame made him intimidating on his own and as he stepped toward me, hand out reaching to settle on my neck like I knew he enjoyed. I flinched.
“I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“I know.” He could. He had the power to destroy me and it had nothing to do with his bulk or his power. The pain Liam dished out would be an arrow shot straight to my soul.
“I really gotta handle this. Can you give me awhile to get my head on straight?”
“Sure,” I whispered. He left the room and was barely out of the doorway when his voice filtered back to where I still stood.
“Sophie? Yeah…TMZ…shit. You already read it? What does it say?”
His voice disappeared, but the mention of TMZ didn’t. If he was making headlines, I needed to know what they said.
I left the studio room, unable to find him but figuring he was in his room. I went to the kitchen and grabbed my phone. My steps faltered as I turned to head to outside.
It wasn’t that long ago when I’d stood in this spot, touching him. Wanting him. I’d do it all over again, exceptmoreif ever given the chance again. Not because he was Liam Allistor.
But because he was a man with a damn good heart, protective of his sister and his family with whatever was flying around. That alone made him the best man I ever knew. No one else would have stopped what they were doing for any woman in my family, especially me.
I took a seat on a patio chair, tucking my summer dress skirt under my thighs so it didn’t blow up and expose me in the breeze and typed in TMZ’s website.
And there, on the front page, was a photo of Liam’s arrest he mentioned on the phone.
Four men.
Arrested.
Assault.
Community Service.
He’d gotten off with a slap on the wrist and a handful of hours serving the public when he was sixteen.
Why? How did he have that pull when he was just a kid?
And what in the heck did it have to do with his sister?
