Chapter 8
8
Liam
L iam was dragged from his sleep by the sharp sound of his phone ringing. His groggy mind didn’t know what it was at first. No one had called him in the middle of the night before. Rolling over, he groaned. His hand slapped down on the bedside table several times until he found the vibrating nuisance. The cold glass of the phone hit his cheek and he mumbled, “Yeah?”
“Liam?”
He shot up in his bed, pulling the phone from his ear to look at the caller ID. It wasn’t a number he knew, but the voice sure was. “Margot? What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“Can you come pick me up?”
Liam was already out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans. “Where are you?” he demanded once more.
“There’s this diner on the side of the highway?—”
“Are you at Sal’s?”
Margot was quiet for a moment. He couldn’t hear anything in the background. It was one in the morning, so where on earth was she? “No,” she finally mumbled. “It’s a few miles outside of Colorado Springs.”
“ Colorado Springs ?” He tugged on his shirt, leaving it unbuttoned, before grabbing his keys from the dresser. There was only one reason she would be calling him at one in the morning. Something was wrong and she didn’t want to call her father to bail her out. Of course she wouldn’t. Knowing her father, he would be livid.
He practically tripped down the stairs as he hurried toward the door. She still hadn’t explained herself, but that didn’t matter. He would have come to get her if she’d been all the way in Denver.
“I need to know exactly where you are. Do you have your phone?”
“It died,” she said sheepishly.
Liam nearly asked her about her date—the guy who had taken her out for the night—but he already knew the answer. The guy wasn’t there for whatever reason. He didn’t matter. The only person who did was Margot, and Liam wasn’t going to leave her hanging. “I’m on my way. I need you to figure out the address. Is there someone you can ask?”
“Yeah,” her voice cracked. “Liam, I’m so sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night like this?—”
“You don’t have to apologize for anything. It’s going to be alright. I’ll be there as quick as I can.” He wasn’t going to be held responsible if he ignored the speed limits, either. This was an emergency. Margot was in the middle of nowhere, alone and without someone to help keep her safe.
“I’ll get the address. Hold on.” She was quiet longer this time. After she gave him the address, she insisted she had to hang up. There was someone else who wanted to use the phone. Ending the call gave him anxiety. He didn’t know if he’d hear her voice again. Anything could happen between now and the time he arrived at her location. All Liam could do was pray that she would be able to handle herself until he got there.
The roads were darker out on the highway. Without any reason to light the roads, it was harder to see where he was going. Liam peered through the glass at each and every object that could have been mistaken for a person. While he’d told Margot to wait for him at the diner, he didn’t have much faith that she’d comply. The Margot he knew in high school would have started her trek home and insisted that she was helping out by closing the distance.
Why did she have to be so stubborn?
His assumptions were correct when he came within five miles of the address she’d given him and saw a lone figure wandering down the road. She had her arms wrapped around herself and her head down.
His fury continued to grow as he turned the truck around illegally and made his way toward her on the other side of the road. She looked startled as he slowed beside her, but as soon as she recognized him, the relief practically poured from her.
Margot clambered into the truck and pulled the door shut faster than he’d ever seen a person move. She shivered, not looking directly at him. He couldn’t decide what was worse—that she was ignoring him or that she’d started walking home.
No, he knew which was worse.
“What do you think you were doing?”
She stiffened at his sharp tone. “If I wanted a lecture, I would have called my dad.”
“Maybe you should have,” he said, trying to keep his tone even. “Do you even realize the kind of danger you put yourself in?”
“I can handle myself,” she said quieter this time.
“I’m not talking about the men who could have hurt you, Margot. I’m talking about the coyotes and other wild vermin out here in the middle of nowhere.”
That seemed to get her attention. Her eyes widened, and she glanced around them as if she’d be able to catch sight of something in the darkness.
Liam groaned, unwilling to start the drive home until he helped her understand the depth of trouble she could have gotten herself into. “And where’s your date? I’d like to have a few words with the sorry excuse for a man who would willingly leave a woman to fend for herself in the middle of the night. What’s his name?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, you bet it does. You’re going to tell me, and I’m going to look him up. Then my brothers and?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said more firmly, finally lifting her eyes to meet his. “This was my fault. All of it.”
Liam snorted.
“It is. I gave him the wrong impression and he…” Her voice trailed off and she looked down at her hands. “Can you just drop it?”
“You want me to drop it?” Liam huffed, then let out a derisive laugh. “You want me to drop it after you called me in the middle of the night and begged for me to bring you home.”
“Yeah, well, I’m realizing how big of a mistake that was. I didn’t think you’d be so judgmental,” she snapped. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Friends don’t let friends self-destruct.” The words fell from his lips before he could pull them back. It was only after her mouth dropped open that he realized what he’d said to her. He frowned and looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“No… you’re right.” She heaved a sigh. “I’m a mess.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“You just did—not in so many words, but you did.”
He bit down hard. She didn’t need his judgment. She was right about that. She’d already had a miserable night. From the smell of it, her date was either a smoker or the place he took her was smoker-friendly. From what he could remember, she’d never wanted to touch the stuff. Her body was too important for her to consume anything that could hurt it. That was typical of most dancers, according to what he’d heard. Something had changed. Margot wasn’t the same girl he knew.
Liam fidgeted with the steering wheel. “How about I just take you home. You can start fresh tomorrow.”
She stiffened again. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
Margot swallowed hard and once again studied her hands. “I think it’s better if I don’t have to wake my father up and ask him to let me in.”
“Don’t you have a key?”
She grimaced. “He’s still got the same rules as when I was in high school. There’s a curfew, and if I’m not back in time, the doors get locked. He’s got this special keypad, and sometimes he even changes the code. There’s a place for a key, but I’m not allowed to have one on account of losing too many. The house is his. I just live there.”
“And you don’t think he’d let you in if you woke him up?”
“Oh, I know he’d let me in.” She frowned as she picked at her cuticles. “But if this situation is anything like the ones I endured when I was younger, he won’t let me go to bed any time soon. I’ll get a lecture, and he’ll guilt me into agreeing to new restrictions.”
He nearly asked her why she was staying there if it was so bad, but he refrained. It wasn’t hard to see that she was more than struggling. They were both exhausted, and the morning would come soon enough. “So, where do you want me to take you?”
She didn’t look up at him. Her voice shrank when she spoke, and she squirmed beneath his stare. “Would you care if I slept in here tonight?”
“ Here ? As in, you want to sleep in my truck?”
She nodded.
“Over my dead body.”
Her eyes widened.
“You can sleep in my bed. The shower is right next to my bedroom, and you can freshen up.”
“But what about you?”
“I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“You can’t do that,” Margot argued.
“Sure, I can. It’s not that bad. I’ve done worse.” He started the truck up again.
“But it’s your room. You deserve to be comfortable.”
“This isn’t a discussion. You get the bed. I’ll have the floor. And in the morning, I can take you home.”
Margot didn’t argue with him after that. They made it back to his place in record time, and she did as he’d suggested. After a shower, she climbed into bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Liam wasn’t sure he’d be able to do the same, but then suddenly his alarm went off.
He shot up off the floor to reach for it and that’s when he noticed the empty bed. It was five in the morning and Margot was gone. She’d slipped out when he’d finally managed to fall asleep.
He shouldn’t be upset, and he couldn’t take offense. It wasn’t like Margot was his girlfriend. Maybe this was just another sign that Liam had made the best decision by reminding himself she wasn’t a possibility. Margot had some issues to work out. That much had become clear. She had some self-destructive tendencies—major red flags.
And yet Liam was even more drawn to her. It wasn’t the fact that she was a mess. He just wanted to repay what she’d done for him all those years ago. What good was a connection if he couldn’t do anything with it?
His muscles ached as he gingerly got to his feet. The hard floor definitely wasn’t something he wanted a repeat of. Thankfully, Margot didn’t need another place to crash tonight. She was probably home right now telling her father that her date had gone well and she was excited to see that piece of rubbish again.
Or maybe she’d talked herself into going home, telling the truth and facing her punishment.
He rolled his eyes as he gathered the things he needed for the shower. If there was one thing Liam didn’t like, it was the thought that even in a pretend world, that man who had abandoned her was being spoken of in a kind way.
One way or another, he was going to get that information out of Margot. Scum like that didn’t deserve to be given second chances, and Liam was more than willing to make that a reality.
He stepped into his hot shower and let himself think back to the one positive in the last twenty-four hours.
Margot had picked him.
She’d called him when she was in a bind.
That had to mean something good. He just didn’t know what.