Released (Caged #3)(49)

She rested her hand on my shoulder as she leaned against me.

“The baby needs love,” she told me, “yours and mine, of course, but the love of a whole family, too.”

She glanced over my shoulder, and I could see Chelsea moving up in my peripheral vision.

“You put her up to this?” I said, scowling at my aunt.

“It’s time to make amends, Liam,” Chelsea said. “We all need to move forward.”

I took a small step away from Tria and ended up with my back against the doorframe.

How fitting.

My lungs fought for air as my head began to swim.

“Not now,” I heard myself say.

Tria moved her fingers down my arms until they grasped my hands.

“Come with me,” she ordered.

A moment later she was pulling me back through the foyer and into the adjoining living room, away from the kitchen, where she shoved me down to the couch and knelt in front of me.

“Do you need one of those pills?” she asked.

I was shaking too much to give her a clear answer, but I made sure I held onto her hands. I didn’t want her going anywhere. Thankfully, the Balrog’s Backpack was nearby, and Tria had my anxiety medication in it.

I couldn’t even remember the name of the damn pills. I only knew they worked. The shaking stopped within a few minutes, and I was left with just the desire to sleep it all off. I felt like the morning after a bad night of drinking, only without the headache.

“Better?” Tria asked.

I tilted my head to the side and realized she was next to me on the couch.

“Yeah,” I said. I glanced around and saw Michael just outside the room, looking down at me. My father was several feet away from him as if he were trying to hide or something. Too f*cking late for that. Chelsea held a glass of water and asked if I wanted any, but I declined.

“You’re calming down a lot faster now,” Tria observed, “even after such a short time.”

I nodded, but there were bits of the previous conversation still running through my head.

“What did he mean?” I asked as I looked toward the foyer and then up at Tria. “What did he mean about Yolanda?”

“I…I don’t know.” Tria looked up at my uncle, who was shifting back and forth between his left and right foot. “Michael?”

“She was our best way of keeping tabs on him,” Michael told Tria. “Once we realized he wasn’t on the streets anymore—that someone had taken him in—we talked to her and made sure she was going to keep him straight.”

“Made sure?” Tria took the question right out of my mouth.

“We paid her off,” my father admitted. “Enough money to keep her working as a trainer indefinitely.”

“What the f*ck,” I mumbled. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what they were saying.

“She’d been hurt,” Michael said. “She couldn’t fight anymore and wasn’t having much luck working as a trainer. We gave her the funds to get her training business going, and she met with my PI and told him how you were doing.”

“Nice,” I mumbled.

The medicine was making me feel sleepy. I wanted to be pissed off, but I no longer had the strength. I had only been up an hour, and I was ready to crawl back into bed. It was a feeling I f*cking hated but was still preferable to ending up in the hospital again.

I closed my eyes, stretched out on the couch, and placed my head on Tria’s lap. I heard someone come over and kneel down beside me, next to my head. When I cracked open one eye, I almost flinched at how close my father was to me.

“Pretty f*cking shitty,” I mumbled. “Spying on me like that. Paying her to do that shit. Fucker.”

“Liam,” my father said quietly, “you can hate me for the rest of your life, and I will still make sure someone is looking out for you. Always. You wouldn’t let it be me, so I had to improvise. I think you’re going to understand that someday. I hope you will.”

“Fuck you,” I muttered again as my head swam a bit and everything went dark. By the time I woke up again, Douglass Teague had left and Sunday dinner was indefinitely postponed.

I was never one to count my blessings, but I was glad he was gone.





Chapter 13—Visit the Grave


With a copy of the marriage certificate in my personnel file and Tria added to my insurance through Teague Silver, she got an appointment with Chelsea’s OB/GYN and really started to take care of herself. The doctor even gave her three months’ worth of prenatal vitamins, which were apparently really important.

I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

“Do you think the lack of prenatal care contributed to what happened before?”

We had passed the magical three sessions mark a week ago, and Erin was being pretty f*cking aggressive about some of the things we talked about. She said we were going to get around to talking about my current family, but I had to come to terms with the one I lost first. If I didn’t do that, I was going to fail with the family I was trying to create, and I couldn’t let that happen. So, Erin had been pretty f*cking harsh. I kind of wished she was a fighter or at least a body builder—I wouldn’t feel as bad if I ended up hitting her.

Of course, she was doing exactly what I asked her to do.