Released (Caged #3)(23)

My throat seized, and I had to stop for a moment and lean against the wall. I turned my head toward the sky, and rain poured over me, soaking me completely.

Doubling over, I wrapped my arms around my stomach and squeezed my eyes shut. After a minute or so, I managed to start breathing right again, but my head was still swimming from hyperventilating. Inside my head, small, insistent voices battled with each other.

I need Tria.

She doesn’t want you.

“I don’t deserve her,” I whispered. “Not like this. She shouldn’t have to be with someone like this, not when she’s…she’s…”

Heated wetness filled my eyes and streamed down my cheeks.

“She’s having my baby.”

Biting down on the insides of my cheeks was the only way I managed to keep from screaming out loud—not that anyone around here would have noticed or cared. I stumbled across the street and into the alley, nearly tripping over a man lying near the edge. Glancing down, I saw his eyes wide open and staring blankly at the sky. I shuddered a little and moved to the other side of the alley before going any farther.

It had been years since I had been around this part of town, but I mostly remembered where things were. There wasn’t much, honestly—a liquor store, which was really a front for an illegal gambling joint, and a cheap tobacco place with at least one busted out window. There was one other relic near the edge of the street, and as I moved closer to it, I hoped and prayed it was still functional. Surprisingly enough, when I pushed back the folding doorway of the phone booth, there was still a working telephone inside of it.

Shuffling around in my pockets, I managed to come up with enough change for a local call. I could barely hold the coins steady enough to drop them down the slot, but I managed to jam all the familiar numbers in sequence. I took a long, deep breath, and then put the handset to my ear.

“Hello?” a familiar voice spoke easily into the phone. There was some noise in the background, and I figured he was in the car.

“Um…hey, Michael,” I said.

“Liam?” He was definitely surprised.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“It’s a pleasure to hear from you,” he said. “I can’t say it was expected, though. The last I saw you, I thought you were going to deck my brother during my stepson’s reception.”

“Yeah…heh…” I had no idea if I should laugh it off, apologize, or remind him it was Ryan’s manipulative little spouse that dragged me there in the first place. I might have tried to go the latter route, but I just didn’t have the mental energy, so I went with the fastest option. “Sorry about that.”

“Are you?” he said quietly.

“Not really,” I admitted.

A quick breath into the phone was followed by Damon’s voice in the background, but I couldn’t hear what he said.

“I’m already late,” Michael said to him. “Just take the freeway.”

There was some more mumbling in the background before he came back to me.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure of your contact?” Michael asked. “I’ve got to go speak at one of those jewelers’ shows over at the convention center. Your father is stuck in Lima, working out the purchase of a new mine, so everything else has been left to me at the moment.”

“Oh, uh…” I still had no idea what to say. I coughed a little and reached into my pocket to fish out a cigarette.

“Liam?” Michael asked. “Are you all right?”

“Um…I guess…no?” I didn’t mean it to sound like a question, but the weight of everything came crashing back down on my shoulders, and I lowered myself to the floor of the phone booth to keep from falling over. Without warning, I started crying audibly.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked, his tone definitely alarmed now. “Liam? What is it?”

“Tria…she…she left,” I told him.

“Oh, Liam.” Michael hummed sympathetically into the phone. “I’m sorry. The two of you seemed to get on so well.”

“I f*cked it up,” I whispered into the phone. “It wasn’t her at all. I just f*cked it all up.”

I took a deep drag on the cigarette, and then started coughing again as the rain increased around the little glass booth. Thunder boomed across the sky overhead, and a couple drunks stumbled out of the package liquor store and meandered down the sidewalk.

“If I had the money, I’d find me a bitch to f*ck!” one of them announced to the other as they walked by.

His companion smacked him on the back—which almost made him fall over—and they continued along.

Tossing the cigarette to the wet ground, I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

“I really f*cked up.”

“You know I’m always here for you,” Michael told me. “Despite all the shit in the past. Even if you had hit Douglass and set fire to the wedding cake, I’d still be here for you. That’s what family is about, Liam. Have you forgotten that completely?”

My throat tightened, and my eyes burned again. I ran my hand under my nose and sniffed.

“Yes,” I whispered.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

“Want me to pick you up and go find a place for coffee?” Michael asked. “That little mom and pop place you always liked as a kid is still open despite the major chain moving in just down the street.”