In the back of her mind, she could hear Liam. If you get into a situation where your safety is threatened, remember, it’s you or them. No holding back. No doubts.
Steadied by the thought of him, Riley fisted her hand around the pitiful weapon. If she made it through this, she owed him so much more than an apology.
“What about this stuff in vials?”
“I said everything.”
“We’re running out of room.”
“We do not have time for you to be reading labels. Hurry the fuck up so we can get out of here.”
He waved the gun for emphasis, and Riley moved, hooking one arm around his gun arm and yanking, even as she stabbed down and back with the Epipen. Her assailant roared. Riley stepped back, struck with her elbow, but she caught his ribs rather than his gut. Pain burst along her arm as they fought for control of the gun. He struck her hard across the cheek with his free hand. She felt herself start to fall, her hands still around the wrist of his gun hand, griping like a vise. Her momentum tipped them both. In horror, unable to make her fingers release, she watched his aim come down, down toward the floor, as if in slow motion. His hand clenched, his finger squeezed the trigger.
And the gun fired.
Chapter 17
“Okay, you’ve had a good three hours to sulk. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Liam scowled at his mother. “I’m not sulking.”
“Brooding then.” She sat down beside him on the porch swing. “Did you and Riley have a fight? I could tell something was off with her when I left.”
“The only thing wrong is that she’s the most stubborn woman on the goddamned planet.”
Molly nodded. “A fight then. It was bound to happen sometime. You’re both strong-willed people.”
“Remind me why I thought that was an attractive trait in a woman?”
She laughed. “Because a pushover would be boring. What did you fight about?”
“She found out I helped her mom out with the up-front costs to lease the apartment and got pissed.”
“Found out? As in, you didn’t tell her you were going to do this?” Her tone said everything he needed to know about what she thought about that plan.
Liam hunched his shoulders. “No She’d have said no, her mom would still be under her roof, and her stress level would be somewhere around the stratosphere. If she was gonna be mad either way, it seemed like they’d both be happier in their own places. Riley’s been so much less stressed the last couple of weeks. At least until Mrs. Wofford spilled the beans. Now she’s furious. I don’t get it. What the hell is wrong with me taking care of her?”
“Oh, my sweet boy. Nothing is wrong with the desire. But Riley has taken care of herself and her mom for a long, long time.”
“Shouldn’t she be grateful for some help with that?”
“It’s not that simple.” Molly toed the swing into motion. “You already know Riley took a lot of flack from others about her mother’s bad decisions and the help they needed because of it. That night they came for dinner, Riley didn’t repeat any of the kinds of rumors that spread about Sharilyn out of respect for her mother, but she was on the receiving end of plenty.”
Liam sighed. “Gold digger looking for a sugar daddy?”
“Among others. You’ve met her mother, so you know that’s not really how she is, but people rarely care about the truth. Riley has always hated that Sharilyn looked to anyone else to fix things, hated that she didn’t or couldn’t deal with it herself. Sharilyn always expected to find that stability elsewhere. My point is, Riley’s not going to naturally do that. She’s been the anchor in that family since she was a child. She doesn’t know how to let anyone take care of her because no one ever really has. Your father and I have done our best, but you know we’ve been subtle about it. What you did wasn’t subtle.”
“Subtlety is overrated.”
“No. Subtlety allowed your dad and I to give Riley help while actually staying in a position to keep providing it. Your way backfired. This isn’t something you’re going to be able to blast through with a brick of C4.”
“There’s no room for these kinds of walls in a relationship.”
“Long term, no.” Molly paused. “Is that what you want? Long term?”
He hadn’t come home looking for long term. A part of him never thought he’d get past the hypothetical of a lifetime commitment to a woman. But Riley had worked her way under his skin—her strength, her determination, and that icing of sweetness that came out when she felt safe and happy. He wanted to give that to her, wanted to make a life where safe and happy were the norm instead of fleeting bursts. He wanted to give her the life she deserved, one where she didn’t have to fight and claw and struggle. And, damn it, he wanted her to let him.
“She’s it for me, Mom.”
His mother smiled. “I know.”
Liam looked at her, then shook his head. “Of course, you did.”
“I’m just glad you’ve figured it out for yourself.” She leaned over, kissed his cheek. “Give her time, baby. And try to see it from her perspective.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Well, to keep to your analogy, you see these walls of hers as something to breach. That’s what you’ve spent the last twelve years doing, so I understand the impulse, but that’s not how things work with emotional walls. They get built for a reason, to protect somebody. You don’t just come in and rip away someone’s shield because you think it’s time for them to give it up. You’re upset because you feel like that wall is standing between the two of you, but you have to remember, she didn’t build it to keep you out. She built it to keep everyone out. For you, it shouldn’t be about breaking through the wall but about scaling it to get behind it with her, making her feel safe enough to dismantle it when she’s ready. That’s how long-term relationships work.”
He loosed a long sigh. “And I went all bull in a china shop about it.”
“Now you know better. I’m sure you’ll get past it.”
Liam sure as hell hoped so.
Inside, the phone rang.
“Awfully late for calls.” Molly rose and went to answer it.
He checked his watch. Just a little after ten. Not so late. It might be Wynne coming in after an evening event. Or Norah calling over some detail or other to do with coalition business. But he went inside anyway.
At the kitchen counter, his mother’s face went ashen.
Liam crossed to her in two strides, slipping an arm around her. “Mom?” The bottom dropped out of his stomach as he waited interminable seconds to hear whether it was news about Jack or Cruz.
A voice on the other end continued to speak as she tipped the phone away. “The panic button.”
He felt his world stop. Not his brothers. “Riley.”
Liam tore out of the kitchen, taking the stairs three at a time, sprinting to his room to grab his keys and the Ruger in his nightstand. In less than a minute, he was squealing out of the driveway, demanding every ounce of speed from the 351 Cleveland engine. Being after ten, nobody was on the road, and he was grateful as he drifted around corners and blew through stop signs.
Three minutes.
Please. The word repeated in his head. A litany. A prayer.
He’d trained Riley for this. She’d said he was paranoid, pushing her through scenarios, making her practice how to handle them. But she’d humored him, done the work. Learned. She wouldn’t do anything foolish. She’d be okay. She had to be. But a part of him wondered how well his teaching would translate into the moment. A real, live threat was a whole lot different from practice in a gym.
He couldn’t think about what was happening. Didn’t dare imagine it. He needed a cool head to do whatever needed doing, so he shifted into combat mode as he flew into downtown Wishful. The clock ticked over to five minutes as he hit Pitts Street and saw the lights of the pharmacy glowing in the distance.
Please.
The pharmacy door opened. He screeched to a halt, bumping one wheel
up on the sidewalk, as he caught sight of Riley stumbling out. His vision constricted to one pinpoint view of her. Nothing in his training, nothing in his experience had prepared him for the sight of the woman he loved, covered in blood.
Liam all but fell from the car, scrambling to catch her as she hit her knees on the sidewalk. He hit his own, holding her up, fighting the urge to crush her to him. “Riley, baby, where are you hit? How bad is it?” Bad. It had to be. God, her clothes were soaked, her hands covered.
Those hands fell to his chest. Her eyes were glassy with shock. “You came.”
“Yeah.” He swallowed, chanced touching her face. A bruise already bloomed on one cheek, but he couldn’t see any wounds at her throat. “Where are you hurt? We need to stop the bleeding.”
In the distance, sirens screamed.
“Not mine.”
“What?”
“Not my blood. I’m okay. Maybe concussed.”
Liam did crush her to him then. “Oh God, oh God, I thought I’d lost you. You shaved at least ten years off my life.”
Riley wrapped her arms around him as the police arrived, spilling out of their cars. “You came.” She was shaking. Or maybe he was. Liam didn’t know.
“Christ Riley, how bad are you hurt?” Judd was already radioing for an ambulance before she could answer.
Riley eased away a bit, making a visible effort to pull herself back together. “Not bad. One of the robbers got shot. Bullet nicked the femoral artery. I’ve got a tourniquet on him, but he lost a lot of blood.”
“How many were there?” Judd asked.
“Two. After his partner got shot, he took the bag of drugs and ran. I don’t know which way. Um, white male. His shoulder came to the top of my neck, so, maybe 5’10” or so. Dark clothes. Ski mask.”
Judd radioed dispatch.
Two assailants. At least one gun. A dozen scenarios unfolded in Liam’s mind, none of them good. And yet Riley wasn’t the one who got shot. “He shot his partner, not you?”
“My fault. I stabbed him with an Epipen in the process of trying to disarm him.
“You—” He felt another five years shaved off his life as he imagined how that went down.
“I got the gun. Just like you taught me. Well, almost. I went down in the process and the other guy got away.”
“I’ll be proud of you when my heart starts beating again.”
“Oh, speaking of—Judd, the other guy won’t make it far. You should be looking for somebody sweating profusely, having massive heart palpitations. If he hasn’t had a straight up heart attack by now. He might show up at the ER, if he can get there.”
The police sprang into action around them.
Riley straightened. “You should probably let me go. I’m disgusting.”
Liam cupped her uninjured cheek. “Not a chance. I’m hanging on, and I’m taking care of you. And you can hate it as much as you want, but you’re going to have to learn to get over it.” Probably an ultimatum wasn’t the best tactic with a traumatized woman, but his own heart hadn’t slowed to anything resembling normal yet.
She let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Liam I—”
“I need to do this, okay?”
Her lip wobbled but she held the tears back and nodded. “I’m sorry for the things I said.”
Liam shook his head. “None of it matters. You’re okay. That’s all I care about. Everything else can wait.”
As his mother’s car, the ambulance, and more police cars arrived, he thought it might have to wait quite a while.
~*~
The door slammed and Riley flinched, hearing again the shot that had so very nearly hit her. The shot that could’ve ended everything.
Liam pulled her closer, pressing a kiss to her brow. He’d stayed by her side, a rock, through the whole thing.
“We’ll need you to stay on-site, while we finish collecting evidence.” The agent from the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics offered her an apologetic smile. “And I’m sure we’ll have more questions.”
Of course you will.
“Fine.” She might have to bust out the No Doze to make it, but she’d do what had to be done and fall apart later. She was good at that. But she wished, oh how she wished, she could do more than wash the blood from her hands. Her clothes were stiff with it and the faint smell of copper coated the back of her throat, making her gag. She just wanted to go home.
“Have you cleared the apartment upstairs?” Liam asked.
“It was still locked, and a sweep didn’t turn anything up,” Judd said. “So yeah, it’s clear.”
“Then you can be done with her for long enough to shower.” Liam’s tone brooked no argument.
The agent nodded.
Molly appeared from somewhere, a bag in her hand. “Towels, toiletries. Change of clothes for you both.”
Riley stared at her. “When did you…?”
“Liam sent me.”
A wet fist of tears squeezed in her chest.
Molly squeezed her arm. “Go on. Get cleaned up, sweetheart.”
Liam took the bag and led her upstairs. “There’s nowhere for you to lay down, but at least you can get clean.”
Riley couldn’t speak around the fist, so she just nodded and followed him into the bathroom. He emptied the bag, neatly laying out towels and clothes on the counter, putting soap, shampoo, and conditioner on the edge of the tub. Quick, efficient, he turned on the water, adjusted the temperature.
“Arms up.” With minimal help from her, he stripped off her bloody clothes with equal efficiency. “In you go.” He handed her into the tub, waiting until he was satisfied she had her legs before letting go of her hand. “I’ll be right outside.”
“Thanks.”
He pulled the curtain to. She heard the quiet close of the door. He wouldn’t go far. There was extraordinary comfort in that. In knowing that, when it mattered, he stuck, whether she was being difficult or not.
She stepped beneath the spray, wanting at once to shrink back and lose herself in the steady fall of water. Her body shook, cold down to the bone. Even knowing it was shock, she dialed the temperature almost to scalding. Water sluiced down her body, pooling pink at her feet before circling down the drain. That had so very nearly been her blood. And for what? The thief had gotten away. He’d be caught—the epinephrine should’ve messed him up enough. But the drugs were gone. With everything else—her business wouldn’t be far behind. And then what?
She’d spent her life scrimping, saving, and clawing her way out of the debt incurred after her father’s death. The thought of having to start over, of having to do that again, without a a job, without prospects, had the fist in her chest clamping down to the point of pain, squeezing her heart, closing her throat. What pharmacy would hire a pharmacist who ran her own pharmacy into the ground? What was she going to do?
A sob wrenched free of her constricted throat. Bracing her hands against the wall, she fought to hold back the panic bubbling up in her chest as the brutally hot water beat down on her. Instead, another wounded animal sound spilled out.
The curtain was ripped back.
Before she could get a scream out, Liam was stepping into the shower, clothes and all, pulling her into his arms, tucking her against chest. “I’ve got you.”
He was strong, capable, and in control. Everything she hadn’t been since her world started spinning off its axis. He was her port in the storm, and she was tired, so goddamned tired, of rejecting that gift on the grounds of some stupid personal principle. She needed him. As the shower continued to pound on her back and steam rose around them, Riley pressed her face into his throat and let herself fall to pieces.
The water had gone to lukewarm by the time she quieted. Without letting her go, Liam reached past her to grab the soap. Throat raw, feeling weak as a newborn kitten, she stood as he gently scrubbed away the last signs of violence. It was an intimacy so different from being lovers. In bed, she felt they were on even ground—giving, taking. But th
is, this, for her, was a deeper trust.
Liam helped her out of the shower, wrapping her in one of the big fluffy towels. She drew the line at letting him dress her again, and took over the drying herself.
He stripped out of his own wet clothes, reaching for the other towel.
She squeezed the towel tight beneath her chin. “I’m sorry.”
Irritation flashed in his eyes. “You don’t have to apologize.”
“No, I do. I over-reacted.”
“We don’t have to talk about this now.”
“I need to get this out. I need to, at least, explain why this is important to me.”
“Okay. But I have an apology of my own. I’m sorry I went behind your back on the apartment for your mom. She and I made arrangements for her to pay me back, and to my mind that made it okay. It wasn’t meant to subvert you, and it wasn’t her manipulating me. I saw a chance to do something that would make life easier on you. Getting your own space back, seeing her out on her own lessened some of your stress. I couldn’t not do that when it was within my means. But I should’ve told you.”
The dry clothes she slipped on were some of his. “I understand why you didn’t. You knew I’d fight you about it.”
“Yeah.”
“I hurt you today, and I never wanted that. You’ve given me so much, and I’ve been so ungrateful.”
“I’m not keeping a balance sheet, Riley.”
“No, you wouldn’t. That’s not part of who you are.” Autumn had seen that before she had.
She sat on the closed lid of the toilet and tried to find the words. “I don’t know how to accept help with her. For so long, it’s just been us, Mom and me. And our roles got reversed so long ago, I don’t even remember what it was like to be the child instead of the one in control. It’s like…when you carry an exceptionally heavy load, and it’s something really important that you can’t drop. And it’s more than you can reasonably bear for a long period of time, but you don’t have a choice, so you just dig in and hang on.”