Trusting Liam(91)

BY THE TIME we got back from the restaurant, Dad was so in love with Liam he wouldn’t let him stop talking. In Dad’s defense, he had tried to continue hating him. He’d made sure to talk only to Rhys, and then it was only about stuff that was going on in the department and about undercover operations. I don’t know how, but Liam had somehow injected himself into their conversation with a comment I hadn’t been able to hear. All I knew was that my dad had looked shocked for about ten seconds before smiling and including Liam in on every conversation he’d had throughout the rest of lunch.

I’d asked Liam what he’d said to him when we were on our way back to the condo, and he had just looked at me with a serious expression and said, “I’d rather not be killed, so I can’t tell you.”

“Who would be killing you?” I’d asked in amusement. “Dad or me?”

“Guess we’ll never know,” he’d mumbled. That had been the end of that.

“Girls, we have something we’re excited to tell you about,” Dad announced suddenly after we’d been back at the condo for about half an hour.

Mom smiled widely and sat up on the love seat as she waited for Dad to tell us the news.

“I know originally we didn’t know how long you’d have to be here, and I know this wasn’t exactly something you wanted to do.” He cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Kira. “But after almost seven months, I can now say that it’s safe for you to come back to Florida.”

“Really?” Kira screamed excitedly. “Oh my God, finally!”

But only she and Rhys looked happy about the news. My stomach dropped, and even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could feel Liam’s eyes on me.

“It’s safe now?” I choked out. “But how do you know? Matthew found us.” I wasn’t worried about more guys finding us, but I wasn’t ready to leave.

“Out of the five men who had the possibility of getting out, two of them were denied parole, one is dead, and the other two are already back in jail—as of a couple days ago. There was only one other man helping Juarez’s crew, the guy funding that Matthew kid, and he was caught when we looked up the bank card Matthew had been given. He was one of the gang members’ sons, and he didn’t make it three days in jail before a couple members from a rival gang had him taken out. The three members who had been released retaliated, and it obviously didn’t go well. One was killed, the other two killed a man and were caught.”

“That’s a nice bedtime story,” Kira said sarcastically, but her face still showed how excited she was to be going home.

I finally turned to face Liam, and my chest constricted at the terrified look in his eyes. It looked like he wasn’t even breathing as he waited for my reaction. Cupping my hand against his cheek, I said, “It’s time for me to go back to Florida . . .”

He exhaled heavily as if someone had hit him, and his gaze dropped to my lap.

“ . . . so that I can pack all my things and move to California for good.”

Arctic-blue eyes shot back up to mine and widened. “Are you serious? You hate it here.”

“It’s not so bad.” I shrugged. “But I do need to get everything from back home. I mean, after all, I have to get my cow.”

Liam’s lips twitched up before spreading into a wide smile. “Hell yeah, Bessie.” He grabbed my face in his hands and pulled me closer to kiss me thoroughly—never once caring that my parents were sitting a few feet away.

“Hell. No. You’re not staying!” Dad yelled.

“Kash, stop. I moved to Florida for you,” Mom reminded him, and he scoffed.

“It’s official. I don’t like him again.”

I leaned back an inch to look into Liam’s eyes and laughed softly. “You really thought I would leave? I’m yours,” I whispered.

“You are,” he agreed, his voice equally soft. “And I’m so fucking glad you’re staying, Moon.”





Epilogue



December 23 . . . One year later

Liam

I OPENED UP the door to our new house and called out for Kennedy as I stepped inside. There were still random boxes scattered throughout the place that I knew I needed to unpack since Kennedy couldn’t, but right now I needed to do something that was more important.

“Moon?” I yelled.

“In here!” she called back.

“Where is here?” I mumbled to myself as I walked through the house trying to find my wife.

Although our parents had tried to stop us, we had our wedding in Vegas at the beginning of July. We didn’t have the cliché Vegas wedding, that had never been the plan. We just wanted to get married in the city where we’d met. Thanks to Kennedy devoting all her time to planning since we’d set a date that was only two months after we’d decided to get married, the night ended up being amazing.