Chapter 31 Liam
LIAM
“Liam!”
The pounding on my door woke me out of a dead sleep, but it was the frantic voice on the other side that had me jumping out of bed.
Dressed in only my boxers, I didn’t bother with anything else as I ran for the door and flung it open, panting hard as I stared at the woman on the other side. Glancing past her, I saw Archer waiting in the truck, lifting his fingers in a jaunty wave.
“Bailey, what’s—”
Stumbling inside, she tore off her shirt, casting it aside. “I’m here for one last fling, and then I’m going to leave you like you left me,” she chuckled. “And then I will have my revenge because you will miss me when I’m gone.”
She had no fucking clue how right she was about that.
I snatched her shirt off the floor, sighing as I walked over to her. “Bailey—”
“You don’t get to do this, Liam. You don’t get to pretend that I mean nothing to you when you…” She flung her arm wide, nearly falling over in the process. “You cast me aside like I meant nothing! I was good for you!”
Her voice quivered as she looked at me with tear-filled eyes, but the smell of alcohol lacing her breath cued me in to the reason for her distressed state. Christ, how did she even get out here in her condition?
“I went home with someone else tonight,” she laughed. “I was going to use,” she jabbed me with her finger, “him,” —jab— “for” —jab— “sex.” —Jab— “You know what that’s like, don’t you?”
My fists clenched tight as I fought every instinct in me to run over to her and tell her she was not just some random woman I brought home. That I was in love with her and I always would be. But her words had me holding back.
“So,” I said casually, “who was this mystery man you brought home?”
“You saw him,” she grinned sloppily. “You saw him walk out of that bar with me.” Sauntering over to me, she pressed her hand to my chest.
“Archer,” I grunted unhappily. “Fucking prick.”
Even though I had pushed her into his arms, there was no stopping the uncontrollable rage that simmered under my skin.
What else was I hoping for? I’d pretty much begged him to look after her, knowing he would do whatever he felt he should to keep her safe, even if that meant taking her to bed and wiping me from her memory.
“So, was he any good?”
“I didn’t fuck him,” she murmured, sliding her hand south. “He didn’t make me feel like you could.”
I clutched her hand just as she lowered it over my boxers. Hell, if she put her hands on me now, there would be no stopping what would happen next.
“You should go home. You’re drunk.”
“Because of you,” she snarled. “Because the only way to erase you from my mind is to get blindingly drunk! Do you see what you’ve done to me?” she screamed. “Is this what you wanted?”
“I didn’t want any of this,” I snapped.
“Right,” she laughed. “Not me. Certainly not anything I could offer. It was all a game, wasn’t it?”
“You are not a game,” I hissed.
“Then what the hell was that?” she shouted. “Why would you do that to me? What the hell did I ever do to deserve to be tossed aside like I meant nothing?”
“Bailey—” I reached for her, but she twisted out of my grip.
“No, you don’t get to touch me. Not unless I say so.”
I stiffened at her words, pulling back despite every instinct telling me to go to her. “I thought you came here to fuck me.”
“When I say so,” she slurred, slumping into a chair. “You know, it’s funny. I waited my whole life for you. What a disappointment.”
I knew I was a disappointment, and worse, I knew that no matter how hard I tried to change what I had done, nothing would ever make it right.
Sitting down on the coffee table, I took her hand in mine. “Bailey, you are by far the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met, and I know you would never let anyone ruin you.”
“I used to think so,” she said softly.
“I know so. I am not worth this.”
She snorted softly, curling up into a ball in my chair. Just the sight of it sent my heart racing. But she couldn’t stay here, no matter how much I wanted her to. Hell, Austin could be watching right now, and he’d already proven to be difficult.
“You need to get the hell out.”
When she didn’t move, I decided to be the asshole she already assumed I was.
Grabbing her by the arm, I yanked her upright. “Either fuck me or get the fuck out of my life,” I hissed.
When she didn’t say anything, I pulled her flush against me and pressed my mouth to hers, getting lost for a moment in the feel of her lips on mine. Fuck, it was everything I dreamed of, everything I could ever want.
Sliding my hand around to her ass, I groped her like I was an asshole after a good lay, and not at all like the man who loved her.
“You want to fuck me, don’t you?” I hissed. “Drop your pants and ride my cock. Otherwise, get the fuck out of here.”
She stiffened in my arms, my words finally breaking through the fog of alcohol muddling her thoughts.
“You’re such an asshole,” she whispered.
I cursed myself as the words tumbled out. “And if you were a better lay, I might have kept you around.”
The final blow struck hard as intended, though I was pretty damn sure it hurt me a hell of a lot more than it hurt her. With any luck, she wouldn’t remember my words in the morning.
Snatching her shirt, she shoved past me and stumbled to the door, barely pulling her shirt on before running outside.
Quickly following, I saw Archer rushing out of the truck to catch her just as she tripped and nearly went down. The look he shot me only made me feel like a bigger ass than I already was. But there was nothing I could do about it.
Bailey wasn’t mine, and hopefully, now she would finally get the message.
As he pulled out of the driveway, he tipped his head at me, letting me know he had her. That was the only thing that kept me from losing my shit.
But as the taillights disappeared over the ridge, I turned and looked at my lonely house that used to have the woman of my dreams, and I lost it.
“Goddamnit!” I shouted, throwing a rocking chair across the living room.
It crashed into a light just as I picked up the table and upended it. My fury knew no bounds as I systematically went through the house and destroyed anything I could get my hands on.
It was only when my shoulder started to hurt that I finally stopped my tantrum and looked around at the mess in front of me.
It was an ironic representation of my life—how Austin was trying his best to ruin my life, but I ended up doing it all on my own.
I was at his hotel before the sun came up, pounding on his door.
When it swung open a minute later, Archer was not only sleepy but grumpy as hell. “What the fuck do you want?”
“What were you thinking, bringing her out to my house last night?” I asked, shoving past him, only to stop when I saw Bailey sleeping in his bed.
Naked.
Fury raced to the surface, but just as I was about to swing at him, he dragged me over to the bathroom and shut the door.
“She was puking all night. Nothing happened.”
While my anger was instantly squashed, guilt washed over me a second later. She was like that because of me, because I had done this to her. Fuck, I really hated myself.
“Why the hell would you bring her out to see me?”
“Did you want her to get in a vehicle and drive herself into a tree?”
“What?”
“She was wasted.” Rolling his eyes, he stepped back. “Granted, it may have been my fault, but I was not expecting her to down an entire class of rum and Sprite.”
“She didn’t get that drunk off one glass,” I hissed.
“No, that would be the second and third glass.”
I grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him up against the wall. He didn’t even try to fight back.
“Hey, you said to keep her safe. That’s what I’ve been doing. You should be fucking happy that I haven’t tried to take her to bed yet. Trust me, there were offers last night.”
I swung without thinking, slamming my fist into his jaw for even mentioning it.
“Hey! I said I didn’t do anything!”
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have even brought her back here!”
“She was going home with someone. I figured if it was me, I could at least keep an eye on her.”
He had a point, no matter how much I wanted to beat his ass for even considering sleeping with her.
“What about Austin?”
“Oh, he’s been around,” he grinned. “I may have given him a flat tire last night. Figured it might put a kink in any plans he had.”
“What about since you’ve been watching her?”
Shaking his head, he sighed. “That fucker is all over the place, but he’s not just after Bailey.”
“Who else?”
“Ellie May. Though, since you haven’t been around, he seems to have lost interest in her. I put up some cameras outside her shop and her house. So far, nothing’s happened.”
“And Bailey’s place?”
“He never approaches. I’ve gone through the footage when she’s at work. He’s never once gone to her door. He knows he could get caught too easily.”
“He got to her already. He was there that night she stabbed me, and he left her fucking door unlocked. He wanted her to know someone was there.”
“Yeah, well, he did a damn good job of scaring the shit out of her and Cheyenne. Neither one of them leaves without triple-checking the locks.”
“But she’s safe,” I hedged, hoping he would confirm that again.
“I’ve had my eyes on her every second of the day. Hell, I even brought in my truck for routine maintenance just so I could get eyes on the shop.”
“And?”
“And you don’t have anything to worry about with Wyatt. He’s clean. Or, as clean as he can be.”
Sliding my hand through my hair, I slumped back against the counter. I was fucking tired, barely able to sleep a wink after what happened last night. Every time I started to doze, I thought of Austin catching her at my house and what he would do.
“Something has to give, man. I can’t be on her indefinitely.”
“I know. I’m working on something, and if it goes right, it’ll get him off me for good.”
“Prison or death?”
“I wish it was death,” I huffed. “But Mav made it perfectly clear that if anything happened to Austin, it would come back on my family, and his hands would be tied.”
“Prick,” Archer muttered.
“Mav will do what he can for me, but there’s only so much he can get away with before he’d lose his badge.”
“Well, let me know when you come up with a plan. I gotta say, this isn’t exactly my dream job.”
“I’ll pay you for it. I swear.”
He shook his head, opening the door. “Didn’t do it for the money. Besides, from what I hear, your family has enough going on right now without this.”
I stepped out, glancing back one last time at Bailey, who was still sleeping peacefully in bed.
“I’ve got this. Now get out of here.”
I was about to go kiss her goodbye when I realized what a horrible mistake that would be.
“You’re lucky you didn’t fuck her,” I muttered.
“Don’t worry. She’s not my type.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“Single and willing to spread her legs.”
Rolling my eyes, I yanked open the door. “You’re disgusting.”
“And be glad of it, otherwise, last night would have turned out a lot differently.”
He shut the door in my face, which only further pissed me off because he was still in the room with her.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed Mav. “I have a plan. It’s time to get this fucker out of my life.”