Chapter 16
LUCKY
My knee bounces rapidly, all the nervous energy overwhelming my body seeking an outlet. I attempt to hide it underneath Liam’s desk so he doesn’t see it and worry, but the way his eyes are narrowed on me tells me I’m doing a shitty job of concealing my building distress.
Either because I’ve been trying to for so long that it’s written all over my face, too, or simply because Liam can read me so easily.
He sees me so completely and knows exactly what’s going on in my head, even when I try to protect him from the dark places it often takes me.
In moments like this.
This is our only chance.
One shot to potentially find a way to dig me out from under the shit I’ve found myself buried in.
If this doesn’t go well…
My stomach roils, and I press my hands to it, trying to settle it before I dry-heave all across Liam’s desk.
Liam stalks over from where he had been standing by the window, watching for our guest to arrive, spins me in the chair until I face him, then squats, resting his hands on my thighs. “You don’t have anything to be nervous about, Lucky. This is a good thing. Attorney Truman is coming to help.”
I absently chew on my bottom lip—a habit I have never been able to break no matter how many times I try to be conscious about not doing it.
A familiar heat flares across Liam’s gaze, and even though the tension permeating the room is heavy enough to suffocate us, he grins.
That slow, quick tilt of his lips that first drew me to him.
I quickly release my lip, knowing full well what’s going through his head after the warning he issued me about my lip before.
“After the meeting.”
He pushes up and presses a searing kiss to my lips that’s far too intense and inappropriate for the setting—maybe intentionally to try to get my mind off what I have to do.
It works.
The McBride Lumber office melts away.
All that exists in this moment is his mouth moving over mine, his hands sliding into my hair and tugging me to him.
When he finally pulls away, he rests his forehead against mine. “I promise, it’ll be okay, Bluebell. Killian knows him and has used him for multiple things in the past. His firm is incredibly reputable. If anyone can help us figure this out, it’ll be him.”
I release a shaky breath and nod. “Okay.”
It’s the same thing he’s been saying to me for the past several weeks, since I came clean with him and confessed everything, since he relayed the information to his brothers so that I wouldn’t have to look them in the eye and tell the story again.
Which is exactly what I’m going to have to do today.
The McBrides would love to believe they can control everything, that they can snap their fingers and throw around their name and any threat just vanishes instantly. But this isn’t something simple that can be solved overnight, nor can it be “fixed” by them alone.
That’s frustrating as hell for all three of them, but it’s nothing compared to the spine-tingling sense of dread settling over me now as we wait for the man who is supposedly going to save my ass with some sort of elaborate legal maneuvering.
Footsteps sound on the porch outside, and Liam turns toward the door.
When it opens, Killian walks into the office, his jaw locked so tightly that a muscle there jumps, followed by a man in an impeccable dark suit carrying a briefcase.
Connor trails behind him, closing the door once they’re all inside and offering Liam a hard look I can’t quite decipher.
What’s wrong?
The man in the suit gives me a smile that makes my skin crawl slightly. When Killian described working with Attorney Truman in the past, I had imagined an older man, more of a fatherly figure. This guy is younger, maybe in his early thirties, and his slick style immediately puts me on edge.
He steps forward and extends a hand to Liam first. “Hi. I’m Attorney Julian Snow.”
Liam’s back stiffens along with mine, and his gaze cuts to Killian, who gives a slight shake of his head.
“Umm, hi. Liam McBride.” Liam shakes his hand, then glances at me with as much confusion in his gaze as everyone seems to be sharing. “This is Lucky. We were expecting Attorney Bill Truman.”
Attorney Snow gives us another smile, then steps over to offer his hand to me.
“Nice to meet you, Lucky. I do apologize, but Bill couldn’t be here.
I’ve worked with him for several years, and he sent me instead of cancelling the meeting or having to reschedule.
He said it was time sensitive and filled me in on the basics. ”
I swallow thickly, unease tightening my chest.
This isn’t the man Killian knows and has worked with.
I’d prepared myself mentally for that—not for this.
Liam turns back to me and squats again, offering me a reassuring smile that can’t quite hide the uncertainty in his mossy eyes. “You can do this. He can help. It’ll be okay.”
This man works with Truman.
He came to help me.
The only way he can do that is if we have a very difficult conversation.
I have to keep reminding myself of that.
Because we can’t go on like this.
Constantly looking over my shoulder is exhausting.
Secluding myself away from everyone up on the mountain and making the McBrides live on the razor’s edge wondering when my past might show up isn’t fair to them.
This isn’t really living.
It’s barely surviving.
Killian grabs a chair from behind his desk and drags it over to the front of Liam’s. “Please, have a seat, Attorney Snow.”
The man who now holds my life in his hands settles into it, crosses an ankle over his knee, and pulls out a legal pad and pen from his briefcase. “So”—he glances around the room—“Bill tells me that you’ve gotten yourself into a bit of trouble.”
I can’t help the snort that comes out at his description of my predicament, and I shake my head. “‘A little’ would be an understatement.”
Liam pushes to his feet and moves behind me, resting his hands on my shoulders and offering me his strength the only way he can right now without me physically sitting on his lap and allowing him to hold me.
Snow gives me a tight smile. “Well, I’ve already heard bits and pieces from Bill that were apparently relayed to him previously, but in order to really get an assessment of how we will proceed with this, I need to hear the full story from you directly.”
Which is exactly what I have been dreading since Killian first came up with this idea.
I understand the situation I’m in and that no attorney will ever be able to negotiate any kind of deal on my behalf if they don’t know what they’re working with, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Liam squeezes my shoulder, and Killian and Connor offer me reassuring looks from where they lean against the wall behind Attorney Snow, watching and waiting for me to proceed.
Coming clean to Liam and telling him everything was hard enough, but now having to do it in front of his brothers and a total stranger is pure agony.
I draw in a long inhale and release it, squeezing my eyes closed as I brace myself for the judgment I know is coming.
You can do this.
One more time.
“It started a year ago…”
I open my eyes to Snow nodding, jotting something down on his notepad before he glances up expectantly, waiting for me to continue.
“I was in Colombia, South Carolina, and I met a man named Brad.”
One of his dark brows rises. “Last name?”
“The one he gave me was Ryan. Bradley Ryan.”
Attorney Snow’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly, and he scribbles on the paper. “Where did you meet?”
“He came into a retail shop where I was working for a while—a small clothing store. Mom and pop type place. We chatted for a bit, and he asked me to join him for lunch. It was all very organic.” A little mirthless laugh slips from my lips. “Or so I thought.”
That volatile mix of embarrassment and anger that always surges through me when I think about how easily I was deceived comes back full-force, and I tighten my hands into fists on my lap.
It was all a game.
It was all one giant fucking game to him.
And I lost.
I release a shaky breath, refusing to give in to the burn of tears.
“He always seemed to have a lot of money, which I attributed to the fact that he told me he was an investment consultant. He drove a nice car, had classy clothes, a great watch, and he was sweet, funny. Attentive.” My throat tightens.
“He showered me with attention, and I let him…”
Because I was an idiot.
As someone who spent their entire life having to read people, having to be able to see what someone’s true intentions were so I could protect myself or my foster siblings from them, the way I so easily fell for Brad’s level of bullshit is mortifying.
Was I that lonely?
That desperate?
I find myself glancing back at Liam.
Because I need to see him. I need to see if anything in his gaze alters when he hears this again.
I need to witness the moment I lose him, which is still hard to imagine won’t happen.
But his reassurances that nothing will ever change echo through my chest and remain shining in his eyes, urging me to continue.
Clearing my throat, I refocus on Attorney Snow, who waits patiently. “Nothing was unusual for quite a while. A few months. We became romantically involved.”
Liam’s hand tightens on my shoulder, but I know it isn’t because he’s angry or jealous about me being with someone else; it’s because he knows where this story ends.
His distress is mine.
His frustration tied to the fact that he can’t do a thing to the man who hurt me so badly.
Attorney Snow jots down a few more notes, then raises a brow again. “When did things become ‘unusual,’ as you put it?”
Shifting restlessly under his assessment, I think back on those days I’ve tried so hard to forget to ensure I get it right. “When he started hanging around more and more at the store I was working at. It was right along a very busy street, across from a bank.”
“What bank?”
“Colombia Savings and Loan.”
He keeps writing, expecting me to proceed with the story.