Unbroken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3.5)(24)

“Exactly why he wants it. To give it to you.”

He’s right. That’s exactly what Liam is trying to do right now. “Thanks, Tellar.” I slip out of the car and hear his cell phone ring. I pop my head back inside. “Coco?”

“Derek. He wants to come welcome you home. I’ll get rid of him.”

“Nicely,” I warn, exiting the car.

He calls out, “I’m always nice to Derek,” which is completely not true. The two of them are like brothers, always at each other. Like Chad and I used to be—and never will be again. The idea twists me in knots.

I rush up the stairs and follow Liam’s voice, finding him in the living area, his back to me, spine stiff, one hand on the windowpane. “Tonight needs to change,” I hear him saying as I stop beside the couch. “Get him here to me.” He pauses. “I won’t be here after tonight. I’m taking Amy back to the safe house.”

My heart races and I feel like the ground is unstable. He wants to run and hide again, after he just convinced me that we can start a normal life. He ends the call and puts his phone in his pocket, leaning both hands on the glass now and staring out at the sun-touched Hudson River, though I have a feeling he’s not really seeing it. As if he doesn’t know I’m here when he always knows I’m here.

Knowing what I have to do, I inhale and let it out. “I’m not going to the safe house,” I state.

He turns to face me, his gaze flashing with stubborn determination, and I’m certain this is about to get tricky. Liam needs control, but so do I. And this time, I’m going to have to own the moment, not him.





PART EIGHT




The Visitor

“WE’RE GOING TO THE SAFE HOUSE,” Liam states, his tone absolute. “Pack a bag.”

“What?” I gasp. “No. We aren’t hiding, remember?”

“We’re f*cking doing whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

“Meg didn’t try to hurt me,” I argue, crossing to stand in front of him. “We’ll find her. You had my dresses delivered, Liam. We just talked about our wedding.”

“And we will get married, and you will have your dresses to choose from. But I was also sure we’d get Meg on camera. We didn’t. We’re flying in the dark.”

“I’ll call her and set up a meeting.”

“That could be a trap,” he reminds me stubbornly.

“Who says I have to be the one to show up to meet her?” I retort.

He shackles my arm and turns me, pressing me against the round white pillar beside the window, his big body crowding mine. “You can ‘not show up’ from the safe house.”

“You’re being stubborn, arrogant—”

“And remarkably right,” he finishes.

“Remarkably wrong, though you really do have arrogant down to a science.”

“This isn’t a negotiation, Amy.”

“Exactly,” I concur. “It’s not.”

The sound of Tellar clearing his throat warns us we are not alone, but neither of us looks at him. We stare at each other, continuing our battle without words, with the same outcome. Total, complete disagreement. Until finally it’s Liam who blinks, his jaw clenching as he softly promises, “We’ll talk when we’re alone,” and pushes off the wall to face Tellar.

Taking that as his cue to speak, Tellar announces, “Coco talked to her ex.”

I step next to Liam, my adrenaline still pumping from our confrontation. “And?”

“The CIA plans to find Meg and put her behind bars, along with anyone else connected to Sheridan, Rollin, or the consortium.”

“What about Jared?” Liam asks.

“That’s where things get interesting,” Tellar comments, sitting on the edge of the couch. “The minute Coco brought up his name, her ex went cold on her and ended the call.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, folding my arms in front of me.

“My guess,” Liam replies, “is that they have Jared but they don’t want us to know.”

“But Meg told me they have him,” I remind him. “As if it’s public knowledge.”

“Unless Meg shouldn’t know,” Tellar points out.

“Translation,” Liam says. “The CIA has a leak.”

“Exactly,” Tellar agrees. “In which case they’ll want her even more, to find out who it is. If we can confirm they have Jared and hand Meg over to them, this is all good news for us. All of our obvious loose ends are tied up.”

Liam settles his hands on his hips under his jacket, shaking his head in frustration. “We wouldn’t be dealing with this if Chad had conferred with us on this plan to ‘kill himself’ before he did it. We needed the layers Josh and Dante represent between us and problems before we were thrust back into the spotlight.”

“Isn’t that the damn truth,” Tellar says. “We need to lock Dante down as our man at the party tonight.”

“No party,” Liam announces. “We don’t have time to facilitate an informal meet-and-greet. We need to get down to business. I told Josh to get him here this afternoon.”

My brow furrows. “Why didn’t we do that in the first place?”