Chapter 17 Liam #2
I shoved to my feet, already done talking about this. “If he goes after Bailey again, there’s not a damn thing I won’t do to make sure he never touches her again. You can bank on that.”
He rolled his eyes as I headed for the door. “Fuck, I guess I’d better prepare for a bloodbath now.”
“No need, Mav. Trust me, if I went after him, there wouldn’t be a trace left behind for you to tie to me.”
“You know, it’s shit like that that needs to stay inside your head!” he shouted as I slammed the door.
“Remi,” I nodded, walking toward the front. “Anything good today?”
“You mean, aside from the fight down at The Beaver and Boot?”
I hadn’t heard about that. “What happened?”
He twirled a toothpick in his mouth, grinning at me like an idiot. “From what I understand, it was over a game of darts. Lizzy broke it up with a bottle of beer.”
“Of course she did.”
“Over the guy’s head. Quite entertaining. Didn’t know she had it in her. Think I’d have a shot at her?”
Cocking my head at him, I glowered. “Did you want to see tomorrow?”
“Alright, that’s enough death threats for the day,” Maverick said from behind me. “Besides, if anything happens to me, you need Remi to get you out of whatever jam you find yourself in.”
I wasn’t entirely sure Remi could handle the shit that might go down if Austin didn’t stop pushing. But there was hope for the kid.
“I’ll see you later.” I tipped my hat as I headed out. “Bea,” I said in acknowledgement to the old lady behind the desk.
“Say hi to that handsome father of yours!”
Grinning, I tipped my hat at the cheeky woman behind the desk. “I’ll do that, Bea.”
I wasn’t feeling any better about the situation with Bailey, and now that I knew Maverick would back my play whatever I chose to do, I felt I had options. However, I would also tie his hands if I did anything to that fucker.
And to make matters worse, I was basically fucked for doing anything to protect Bailey for the next two months. The accident had totally fucked me up.
It was bad enough I couldn’t work, but the thought of Bailey walking around town completely unprotected was giving me hives. Even though I’d just seen Bailey this morning, I needed to check on her, and I knew just where to find her.
Walking into Gearhead Motors just a few minutes later, my eyes instantly searched the garage for that beautiful blonde hair.
“Is there a reason you’re here?” Wyatt asked, stepping right in the path to my woman.
His eyes scanned my injured shoulder, the sling my arm rested in, and my wrist, currently in a cast. “Looks like you got fucked up in that accident.”
“You could say that,” I retorted, trying to get a read on him. “Pretty fucked up situation, if you ask me.”
“Well, you were the one in the accident.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“No reason, other than you were the one in the car and not Bailey. Seems she got pretty damn lucky.”
I didn’t like the casual way he said it all, as if it didn’t matter to him at all if Bailey were the one in that hospital bed instead of me.
“Would have put you out of an employee for a while.”
He nodded, glancing over his shoulder at Bailey. “She can’t seem to stay away. I wonder why she’s here instead of at your house? I did give her the week off.”
When he faced me again, his eyes locked on mine in question. There was something about this fucker that I just didn’t like. Yes, he was a Callahan, but he had never actually done anything to us.
Yet, I got the feeling he wasn’t exactly against anything his brothers did. Either that or he wasn’t aware of what they were up to.
“Well, you know Bailey. She likes to be busy.”
“She was here bright and early. Said she couldn’t sleep.” His lips twitched just the slightest. “I thought she wouldn’t be able to get enough of you.” He leaned forward and whispered, “You know, now that you finally made a move.”
“I think I can hang onto my woman just fine without your help. If I were you, I’d worry about your own wife.” I pretended to think about it. “Didn’t she leave town? It’s been so long since anyone saw her.”
Something dark flashed in his eyes, and for the first time, I wondered if maybe she didn’t leave town on her own. I glanced over his shoulder, wondering if it was really safe for Bailey to be here by herself.
“Was there something you wanted, Parker? Or did you just come here to waste my time? Some of us still have jobs to do.”
He just loved to get in that dig whenever he could.
“Wasn’t Bailey’s car brought here after the accident?”
He nodded. “Towed into the lot not long after. Why?”
“Just seems odd that the car exploded. You don’t happen to have any footage of it, do you?”
“Of a car exploding? No. There are no cameras back there.”
I nodded. “Strange, don’t you think? The firemen put out the fire, yet it came back here, and hours later…boom,” I said, mimicking an explosion with my one good hand.
“What the fuck is your point?” he snarled.
“Just seems to me that someone didn’t want any evidence to be found.”
“Evidence of what? Your inability to drive?”
No matter how much I needled him, he just seemed irritated. There was no guilt or malice in his eyes. Only a desire for me to leave him alone.
Maybe he really didn’t know about any of it. And if that was true, he wasn’t covering for his brother, which meant that little psychopath was doing all this shit on his own.
If I could believe what I was seeing.
“Is that all you came here for? To spy on your girlfriend and ask stupid questions?”
I glanced at Bailey one last time, then turned on my heel and walked out.
“Good chat, Parker! Let’s not do it again sometime!”