“Why did you decide to stop here? Why not eat at Aleksei and Deva’s place?”
Liam didn’t move for a moment then, for the first time since they’d arrived at the diner, he looked at her. “Why do you think there’s a reason I chose this place for any reason other than I was hungry?”
Catriona shrugged. “You seem so alert, always looking for a threat, I thought being here would go against your protective instincts.”
His handsome features remained aloof and disconnected, and she wondered if it was something he often did, a tactic he used to distance himself from the people around him, or maybe it was a useful skill in his life of work. Men had a tendency to distance themselves from emotion, and most often, avoided any show of them as they were interpreted as a weakness.
There was a hesitation in him, she could see his turmoil until he sighed. “I... I just wanted to have a bit of calm between the hospital and the apartment.”
With a nod, she took a sip. “You mean between Lazarus and Aleksei. You and your brothers are still adjusting to one another, aren’t you? Your mutual presence, being a family.”
She was glad to see a hint of surprise underneath all those layers of control. “I don’t know about the others, but being surrounded by siblings is still a bit disconcerting.”
That was the opening she’d waited for, as she’d been curious to find out more about his past. “You don’t have a family apart from them?”
Liam scoffed, and there was nothing tender about it, instead his tone was dismissive and held a hint of resentment. “It depends on your definition of family. If your definition is a mother who drank herself to oblivion because your father had raped her and left her with an unwanted child to raise, I’d say I had a family.”
Air froze inside her lungs at his revelation, but it was the pain she could feel beyond the sarcasm that hit her the hardest, rendering it impossible to utter a word.
“One day, my brothers revealed to me how they came about, how Finch had seduced their mothers into giving in, and all I could see was my mother, looking at me like I was the filthiest piece of shit on this earth. I’ve asked myself often why she even kept me. I supposed it was because she was a fervent catholic, so it wasn’t an option to abandon me or have an abortion. When my brothers asked me, I told them that if we were all bastards, I was the real deal. The true bastard. If they had found love in their mother’s arms, all I could remember was the smell of hard liquor on her breath, and the way she pushed me away whenever I longed to have contact with her.”
Catriona wanted to touch him, to take that child that was still hurting, huddled within this grown man, in her arms, and tell him that it would be all right. “What did you do?”
The swirl of silver now looked like hardened steel. “Survived. Made sure that, despite my circumstances, I got out of that hell hole and found the man who turned a woman into the monster she couldn’t help but become because of me. One day, my mother’s distant uncle visited and saw what was happening. He’d been abroad for so long, and he hadn’t heard about the rape until he came to visit his family in Ireland. The situation hit him so hard, he took me with him, adopted me. When I left, my mother didn’t even turn to look at me. The last image I have of my home was a door closing on her. I haven’t seen her since.
“My family became that uncle who brought me here and allowed me to obtain my American citizenship. But even that reprieve didn’t last long. He died of a heart attack just as I turned seventeen. He left me enough to survive, but not to pursue any kind of education, not that I fancied going to college anyway. The military was an option, however the police academy was my final choice. That’s where I found the first true family I’d ever had. And it still is. I can’t wait to return to the force full time. I’m grateful the chief has allowed me to pursue this investigation even though I’m on leave.”
With a mouth as dry as sand, Catriona tried to gather her emotions after what he just revealed. So much pain and hardship, it made her angry for the child he’d been and how he’d been forced to grow up, protecting himself behind a shield.
“Your injury, it happened while you were on duty?”
Liam relaxed a bit as it was clear this information wasn’t bearing the same emotional burden as his past. “Yeah, I was on back up for a mission with the SWAT team, and stray bullets hit me, one in my shoulder, the other above my knee.” A faint shadow descended on his face. “The last one may end my career if it doesn’t heal completely, but if in the meantime, if I can bring Jamieson Finch down, I won’t regret a thing.”
Catriona didn’t know if it wouldn’t, but she suspected that, despite his dry words, never working as a cop may impact him more than Liam would ever admit.
In his gray eyes, she saw so much and so little as they fixed on her, making her envious of God for the first time; the only one who knew the secrets of his soul.
The words she struggled to find remained stuck in her throat, and when someone materialized suddenly beside her, they both jumped in surprise.
As Liam instinctively reached for his weapon, Catriona recognized the intruder with a squeak. “Cary? Goodness, you almost gave me a heart attack! Where did you come from? I didn’t see you arrive at the front door.”
The young boy was obviously out of breath, but it was the urgency on his face and how his hands grabbed her arm that worried her.
“You have to leave now. The men following you are coming this way.”
Even as he pulled harder on her arm, Catriona froze in place, unable to comprehend his words. In that second, Liam took control of the situation, jumping to his feet and grabbing her wrist to pull her to her own.
It was as if she was disconnected from her body, seeing herself running after Liam, Cary taking her other hand. One last glance over her shoulder made her catch her breath when she saw three men go into the diner, and it was clear that none of them were there for a coffee. She caught a glimpse of weapons still concealed from customers under their winter coats. It was clear that Cary was a guardian angel in disguise. However, his appearance raised even more questions that would need to be answered if they survived this latest threat.
