Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Fucker deserves to die.”
“I told him I’d take care of it. But that he had to leave. Get out of my sight and never return.”
“That’s why I never heard from him again?” she asked.
Liam grimaced. “Yeah, baby.”
“So, what happened?” Regent asked.
“I pretended to be Michael and I got instructions on where to leave the money the next day. I put a GPS chip in to one of the stacks of cash. Nico and I followed the fucker back to where he was keeping her. I pulled up outside, assessed the situation. Nico made a tip-off call to the detective in charge of her case. I always have a burner phone in my vehicles.
“As I entered the building, I saw the bastard running out the back door. Got a pretty good look at him. I was going to give chase but then I saw Lottie. She was . . . lying on this filthy mattress, face battered, bruised, and beaten. I rushed over to her. I, fuck, if there had been someone else in that house, they could have shot me before I even saw them because all I saw was her.
“I had just reached her when Nico rang me. The cops were pulling up, they must have been close by. I wanted to snatch her up, take her with me. But I also wanted to chase down the bastard who’d taken off. So, I ran out the back of the house. Nico followed her to the hospital, and I went on the hunt.” Liam looked over at her. “I have few regrets in life, baby girl, but leaving you . . .” He shook his head.
“Oh, Liam.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “If you’d stayed, the police probably would have arrested you.”
“And with his past arrests, it wouldn’t have been good,” Nico added, resting his head on Liam’s shoulder.
He wrapped his free arm around Nico, drawing him close. He kissed them both, breathing them in, not caring about his audience.
“I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t want you to hate me.”
Liam could feel the walls inside him crumbling. They were the only ones with this ability. Nico and Charlotte.
“No,” she whispered. “I could never hate you.”
He kissed her gently.
“You two saved me.” She turned to Nico and kissed him as well.
“I tried to get in to see you at the hospital,” Nico told her. “But they wouldn’t let me in.”
Regent cleared his throat, bringing back their attention. “So, you followed that bastard and killed him? You didn’t do a good job of getting rid of the body.”
Liam frowned. “It wasn’t me. He had a head start, but I was tracking the chip. Only the chip had been left on a fucking bus.”
“How’d he know the chip was in there?” Victor asked
“I don’t know. But he acted quickly, going through the money, finding the GPS, and placing it on a bus. He barely had a fifteen-minute head start on me. My guess is he jumped on a bus, went through the money, and found it. Left it, then jumped off the bus with the money.”
“So, we still have no idea who killed him.” Regent frowned.
Liam shook his head. “Don’t know. I’m guessing he was jumped. The money was never recovered.”
“I’m sorry,” Lottie said.
“Don’t,” he told her firmly. “I would’ve have paid a hundred times that for you to be safe.”
“You still should have told us,” Regent said.
“And what would you have done differently? I needed to move quickly.”
“It gave your brother time to escape my wrath.”
“I don’t like the little bastard any more than you. But he didn’t mean for her to be kidnapped.”
“I’ve change my mind, I think it would be best if you both found a hotel to stay in.”
“Regent, no,” Lottie said, tightening her hold on him.
“I think some space is needed and I don’t want them doing anything under my roof.”
“This is my house too, isn’t it?” Lottie asked.
Regent’s eyes widened. “Of course, it is.”
“Then I can have whomever I want stay over. I’m not some young teenager, Reggie.” Lottie rose and went to her brother. Liam wanted to pull her back, but he forced himself to let her go. She knelt in front of her brother. “I know you want to protect me, and I love you for it. But when I’m with them, I feel safe. Protected.”
“You don’t feel that with us?” Regent asked stiffly.
“Of course, I do. But you shouldn’t dedicate your life to taking care of me. And the truth is, you’re all so busy. I want something more than sitting at home while life happens around me.”
“It’s late,” Victor said. “Be hard to find a hotel now.”
Regent turned to look at him. “You support this?”
Victor frowned. “Lottie’s right. She’s not a child. She’s smart. Although she is naive.” He looked to Liam and Nico warningly. “And she will not be pushed into anything she’s not ready for.”