Chapter 21 Liam
LIAM
“Are you sure you want to do this?” my brother asked, tossing me the bottle of pain pills.
It caused more pain than I wanted to admit just to catch the damn thing, but whether or not I was injured was the least of my worries.
I had Bailey to think about.
“It’s the only way.”
“No, it’s actually not the only way,” he sighed. “Look, you said yourself you’re not sure if it was a dream or if it was real.”
I had been going over it in my mind for hours, trying to convince myself that not a second of it really happened. But the truth was ringing in my mind.
He was there.
And that meant that as long as Bailey was with me, she was in danger.
“It has to happen.”
I leaned back into the couch, my eyes already burning with the need for sleep, but I fought it with every fiber of my being. I had to make sure Jeff knew what I wanted in case I couldn’t keep her safe.
“Man, if you do this, how can you be sure you’ll ever get her back?”
“That’s a risk I have to take.”
“You could tell her,” he snapped. “I’ve been saying this from the beginning.”
“And look at how fast he’s escalated,” I argued. “Two days ago, he tried to kill Bailey. It was pure luck that I took her car to the gas station. That would have been her, and it’s all because she’s seeing me.”
“And if you tell her, she can be careful.”
“No,” I shook my head, already knowing it wasn’t an option. “If she knows she’s the target, she’ll dig in her heels and refuse to leave.”
“So, you’re going to force her to leave instead?”
I didn’t like the idea either, but what choice did I have? Austin was psychotic. This was what he wanted, for all of us to be miserable, and he’d get his wish one way or another.
“Better for her to leave than to be dead.”
Jeff plopped down in the seat across from me. I knew he didn’t agree; I saw the way he searched for any way out of this. Hell, I wished I could think of something, too. But as it stood, the quickest way to remove her from the threat was to remove her from my life.
No matter how much that fucking hurt.
“Your phone’s buzzing,” Jeff snapped, tossing it at me.
I barely caught it before it hit me in the face. Lizzy was calling, and she never fucking called me in the middle of the night.
“Lizzy,” I answered immediately. “What’s going on?”
“Your girl is drunk and just got in a fight.”
I sat up, already on edge. “What?”
“Yep. She came in with Cheyenne, and the shit I heard…” She let out a low whistle. “Brother, I really hope what I heard is not true. Please tell me you did not treat your girlfriend like shit after she was kind enough to pick you up from the hospital.”
I glanced at Jeff, who was pointing at the phone for me to tell Lizzy. But I couldn’t do it. No one else could know the truth.
“She’s the reason I was in the hospital,” I said, putting extra bite in my tone.
Jeff flopped back, tossing his hands up in the air in frustration.
“Are you kidding me? She was scared and made a mistake.”
“And I almost died two days earlier because she didn’t take care of her car. Pretty fucking hilarious since she’s a mechanic.”
Silence greeted me. I had her right where I needed her. Pissed as hell and ready to end my life.
“Are you seriously blaming the woman you love for the accident?”
“Never said I loved her,” I answered nonchalantly.
“Liam—”
“Was there a point in you calling me?”
“Yeah, I thought you might be concerned that your girlfriend is getting hauled down to the station. Clearly, I was mistaken.”
“A night in jail would do her some good,” I answered before ending the call.
My chest ached as I stared at the phone.
“Man, that was really fucking low.”
“She is safer in jail,” I muttered. “Until I can figure out how to eliminate Austin, I can’t let her anywhere near me.”
“Maverick as good as told you he would back you up if you wanted to…take care of Austin.”
“He also said his hands would be tied. Austin’s old man would come after the whole fucking family. I can’t put everyone through that.”
“So, instead, you’re going to break Bailey’s heart. You’re actually going through with this.”
“It’s my only fucking choice at the moment,” I snarled. “Do you think I want to do this? Do you think I’m happy to hurt her when I know she might never forgive me?”
I shoved to my feet, ignoring the pain coursing through my body. At least if I was in pain, I wasn’t focusing on my heart splitting in two by what I was about to do.
“I’ll break things off with Bailey, and Austin will leave her alone. Then I can focus on how to get him out of my life.”
“And in the meantime, Bailey will hate you. She’ll never forgive you for not telling her what’s really going on,” Jeff pressed. “If you told her, she could go along with it.”
“No,” I snapped. “Do you think she could fake that kind of heartache?”
“I think you might be giving yourself a little more credit than you should,” he argued. “Do you really think she’ll be that devastated that she won’t be able to move on?”
“You said yourself I would be breaking her heart.”
“Because I wanted you to think with your dick for once! Everyone else does it. Why can’t you?”
“Because I fucking love her!” I shouted, my heart racing as I broke out in a cold sweat.
“Just the thought of her being in danger makes me want to puke. And if she can’t pretend that I broke her heart, then I might as well put a bullet in her head because Austin will see through it.
He will go after her, and he won’t stop until he’s killed her. ”
I shoved my fingers through my hair, yanking on the ends to add to the pain.
“He won’t stop until he’s ruined all of us, and this is how he’s going to do it,” I snapped.
“Alright,” Jeff said quietly. “Alright, I get it.”
“She can never know. It would only put her in danger.”
“What about Archer?”
“He can watch her.”
“He might fall for her. Hell, did you think about the lengths he’ll go to—”
“Yes.”
Fuck, I’d thought about it. I knew what he might do, but I would have to be okay with that. If it meant keeping her safe, I’d do anything.
Sighing, Jeff finally agreed. “What do you need me to do?”
“I can’t be seen with Archer—not if he’s going to protect Bailey.”
“If Austin sees me talking to him, do you really think it’ll go any differently?”
“Make it look good. As for Bailey…”
Give me updates? Tell me how she was? Would that really make anything better? No, it would be so much worse. If I had to hear about how she was moving on, I’d be fucking devastated.
“As for Bailey, what?”
“Nothing,” I shook my head. “Don’t tell me a damn thing unless it’s necessary.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. As for our breakup, you act like everyone else. You don’t understand what the hell I’m doing. You think I’m an asshole…all the usual stuff.”
“Well, I can sure as hell do that. I already feel that way.”
At his smirk, I grabbed him by the shirt and forced him to look at me. “If anything happens to me, you get Bailey and you get the fuck out of here. I don’t care where you have to take her, but you get her away from Austin.”
The smile on his face vanished, replaced only by a solemn look that matched the gravity of the situation. “I understand.”
Slowly unclenching my fingers from his shirt, I took a step back. Relief at his promise slid over me, putting my fears in the back seat for tonight. As long as I knew he would watch over her, I could handle the shit with Austin.
I didn’t know how I was going to remove him from the equation or how I was going to keep my family safe, but I’d find a way.
And then I’d pray to God that Bailey still wanted me.