Chapter 22 Liam #2
She hasn’t moved. Too shocked or too afraid, I don’t know which.
Maybe she knows it wouldn’t get her anywhere.
If I can find her, if I can beat two men twice her size until they beg me to stop, what would running do?
I’m breathing heavily as I jerk my chin at her.
“Aren’t you going to invite me into your room? ”
“I… I can explain…”
“Did I ask for an explanation?” Ignoring the groaning, whimpering men at my feet, I go to her and pick up the bag she dropped. She flinches when I hold it out. “Take it.” She stares in fear at the blood-stained plastic before snatching it away.
“I would like to wash my hands. I know you’re in room five. Let’s go in and have a little talk.”
“Liam…” she whimpers.
“I’m not going to ask again.” Something in my tone or my expression, or both, makes her take the key from her sweatshirt pocket and unlock the door, which I lock behind me once we’re inside.
It’s exactly what I imagined. Dingy, outdated, miles beneath anything she would be used to.
“You cost me two valuable employees.” I don’t look her way as I speak, crossing the small room in a few strides, stepping into a tiny bathroom tiled in pink so bright it almost hurts my eyes.
When a drawer squeaks open out there, I call out, “And if you think you can pull a gun on me and get away with it, you haven’t been paying attention, Aurora.” The drawer slowly slides shut while I continue washing the blood from my hands. Too predictable. It’s almost disappointing.
“I just wanted to get away. That’s all. I didn’t know what you were going to do with me, or if Selina was getting in your head.”
Drying my hands, I step back into the room. She stands with her arms crossed defensively and has the nerve to glare. “And look where that got you.” I muse, glancing around. “You know what would have happened if I wasn’t here when you met those two, right? Or do you think they wanted to be friends?”
“I could’ve handled it.” When I scoff, her eyes go so narrow it almost makes me laugh. “I handled your two men, didn’t I? And they weren’t amateurs, like those two were.”
Listen to this. She is Donovan’s daughter through and through. Tossing the towel aside, I cross my arms the way she has. “Have you forgotten the stakes? Your sister? Because I haven’t forgotten her. You realize you put her life at risk, not just your own?”
She looks at the floor, but not before I see realization wash over her features. She forgot, didn’t she? The reason she went along with me in the first place.
“If you were going to hurt her, you would’ve done it by now,” she decides, lifting her gaze again. “I couldn’t hang around anymore and wait for you to decide on a whim what to do with me. I had to be free.”
“Congratulations. Freedom smells like cheap air freshener and hopelessness.” Wrinkling my nose, I look around the room again. “How much longer did you think this was going to last? You had to know the clock was ticking.”
“I would have figured something out.” I don’t know which of us she’s trying to convince as she tosses her hair and shrugs a shoulder. “I figured it out so far.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of girls staying right here in this little motel who could’ve given you a few tips,” I point out.
It’s gratifying, the way she flinches. She knows what I mean.
I’ve seen those girls, seen the men walking in and out of their rooms. “Quite a lot of business gets transacted within these walls,” I add with a grin.
“I bet one of them could’ve taken you under her wing, shown you the ropes.
Then you could’ve gone into business for yourself. ”
“Stop, okay? I get your point.”
“I don’t think you do.” Enough joking around.
“You said you’re free? Enjoy it while it lasts, because you murdered two men in cold blood, and you did it on camera.
” I watch as understanding smooths away her childish pout.
“You may as well have stared into the camera and given it a little wave. All I have to do is take the footage to the authorities, and you can kiss any hope of ever being free goodbye. I hope it was worth it.”
“You could’ve already done that…”
“I wanted to get a look first at what you managed to do for yourself. And maybe I wanted to let you sweat a little. I wanted you to look back on how much better you had it before you decided to commit double homicide.”
While she pieces this together, I continue, “The authorities don’t know yet, and they don’t have to. If you come back with me now.”
She gapes in disbelief. “Right. Because I was born yesterday.”
Dammit. I like this side of her. Scornful, defiant, honest. “Those are my terms. Come back with me now, and the authorities don’t have to know what went down. Your sister will still be safe. Refuse, and I’ll have the cops here in less than an hour.”
“You’re not just going to let this go.”
“No, I’m not. But maybe I’m a little impressed at what you managed to do.”
She rolls her eyes, staring at the wall over the bed.
“Really,” I admit. “You were resourceful. You took them both by surprise. You’re capable of more than I thought you were.”
She listens but doesn’t say a word. Still clinging to the last shreds of hope.
“Your choice,” I conclude with a shrug. “Are you coming with me, or am I making a phone call?”
“I’m not going back to that cell.” Even now, she acts like she has a say in any of this.
“That’s fine.”
She’s made her decision before she ever nods. I see it in the way her shoulders sink, and the tension etched across her forehead smooths itself out. “All right. I’ll go back with you.” She manages to make it sound like I should thank her.
The men are gone by the time we step outside with her few possessions in the plastic shopping bag.
All that’s left is the blood they spilled on the blacktop.
She eyes it as we get in the car. “I could’ve done much worse,” I remind her in a quiet voice before she’s had a chance to say a word.
Because she needs to remember. At the moment, she is benefiting from my mercy.
My mercy has a limit. And she had better hope she never pushes hard enough to find where that limit ends.