Authors: Tammy Blackwell
Liam closed his eyes. “Thank you.” His voice
was husky. My heart cracked straight down the middle at the sight
of him. I wanted to wrap my arms around him to offer comfort, but
thought he wouldn’t want it. Although, if I knew he would be
kissing me less than twenty-four hours later, I would have chanced
it.
Chapter 14
The whole
sitting-by-the-bathroom-so-no-one-will-sit-near-us thing worked out
pretty well most of the trip. The problem occurred when we changed
busses in Minneapolis, and to be perfectly honest, it was mostly my
fault.
Okay, okay… It was
all
my fault.
The thing about taking a
bus across the great nation of the United States of America is it
takes
forever
.
Like an infinite amount of time, plus one more day. Sure, you think
it’s going to be no time at all since there are only 3,000 miles
from one coast to the other and you’re not doing any overnight
stops, but what you are doing is a million and a half little stops.
Thirty minutes in this small city, an hour or two in this big city,
and ten minutes in every little town in between. So, by the time we
got to Minneapolis we had been on the road for over twenty hours. I
was tired. Cranky. And my stupid wig was so hot and itchy I
considered asking the spaced out chick with evident track marks on
her too skinny arms if she had any Xanax to share.
As far as mistakes go, what we came to call
The Minneapolis Incident was one of my more idiotic screw-ups, but
I still contend that an insanity plea should be accepted
considering the circumstances.
I was in the bathroom at the terminal. I
thought I was alone, but honestly I wasn’t really paying attention.
All I knew was my head was going to explode if I didn’t take off
the wig and the plain black knitted hat I had replaced my UK hat
with back in Indiana. So, I did. I sat them both carefully on the
ledge of the mirror, leaned my head over the sink, and ran some
gloriously cold water over my head.
When I straightened back up an older woman
was staring at me.
“
Hi,” I stammered out. She
didn’t say anything. She just kept staring at me, and I could
almost see her matching my face and hair with the picture they
flashed on TV for weeks. “Looks awful doesn’t it?” I grabbed a
handful of paper towels and started rubbing them over my wet head
so I could put the wig back on. “They said it would look different
after it started growing back in, something about the chemo and
chemicals and hair follicles and stuff, but no one said it would
look like this.” Her expression didn’t change, so I just kept on
rambling. “My mom won’t let me dye it yet because she thinks it’ll
make the cancer come back or something crazy like that, so I’m
still stuck with the wigs.” I lifted mine up to demonstrate. “I
really thought I would be able to throw these away by now, but
there is no way I’m going around with my hair looking like
this
.”
The old lady turned around and left the
bathroom without saying a word. Once I got everything back in
place, I went in search of Liam.
It didn’t take long since he was waiting for
me on the bench just outside the restrooms. It wasn’t nearly enough
time for me to finish my internal debate over whether or not I was
going to tell him what happened. On one hand, we were trying this
whole new honesty thing on for size. On the other hand, Liam was
scary when he was mad, and this was really going to piss him off
good.
On a third hand, or perhaps a foot, he still
hadn’t told me why we were going to Fargo, so we weren’t really
doing very well with that open communication thing yet, anyway.
Yeah, there was really no need to tell
him.
The bus was crowded, more so than any of the
others had been. Liam and I got on first and took our customary
stinky seat. It wasn’t until almost everyone boarded that she
climbed on and sat directly across from us. She settled herself
into the seat, placed her bag of knitting supplies in the empty
seat, and then turned to stare at me again.
“
Liam?” I said as quietly
as I could without moving my lips. His lifted eyebrow told me to
continue. “See that lady across from us?” A slight nod. “She may
have seen me without my wig on.”
Liam rolled his eyes to the heavens and took
in a deep breath through his nose and then let it out slowly
through pursed lips. “Follow my lead,” was the only warning he gave
before grabbing onto my face and placing both thumbs over my lips.
Then he leaned in and placed his own lips on the other side of his
thumbs.
What the Hades…?
It took me a second, but I realized the wet
smacking noise was coming from Liam’s mouth, which was separated
from mine by less than half an inch. When he moaned out my name I
knew he meant it as an admonishment for not joining in quickly
enough, so I grabbed onto his shoulders, tilted my head, and
attempted to make my own make-out noises.
At first it was awkward and weird because,
come on, I was fake making out with Liam freaking Cole. But then
something changed. I don’t know what it was, but one minute I was
feeling more than a little ridiculous and the next my heart was
going all pitter-patter. Occasionally the corner of Liam’s lip
would brush against my flesh and it would cause little electrical
storms of sensation to travel from that spot all over my body.
Being that close, his smell, which Wolf Scout has always
appreciated, completely encompassed me. I found myself flicking out
my tongue to see if his skin tasted as good. And then I might have
sort of tried to suck his thumb into my mouth. Fortunately,
somewhere between opening my mouth and actually doing something
stupid, I realized what I was doing and jerked back.
“
She’s gone,” I croaked out
through my now too small windpipe.
For the record, Liam looked like he just
finished changing the batteries in a remote control. “Good.”
I pressed tightly up against the window. It
was too bad I couldn’t pull a Kitty Pryde and phase through the
side of the bus. Sure, we were running seventy miles an hour down
the Interstate, so there were some risks involved there, but I was
willing to take them if it meant getting the Hades away from
Liam.
“
What was that?” I finally
asked since my attempts at becoming intangible weren’t panning
out.
“
What was what?” If I
hadn’t been focusing so hard I might have missed the way he said
the words a little too fast or the way his pulse sprinted
erratically in throat.
“
You kissed me.”
“
I created a diversion.”
Definitely not my imagination… he was talking
fast
.
The corner of my mouth
lifted slowly and little bubbles of glee bounced under my skin as
redness started creeping up the back of his neck.
He’s blushing
, I
thought.
Just like--
And with that thought my mouth flattened and
all my bubbles popped.
What was I doing? This
wasn’t some random cute guy. It was Liam. Alex’s
brother
. How could I even
think of thinking the sort of thoughts my brain was starting to
think?
“
I’m sorry,” I said, my
voice back to normal, if you call really quiet and slightly freaked
out normal. “I wasn’t being careful. I won’t let it happen
again.”
Liam’s head jerked in a quick nod.
“
Do you think she knows who
I am, or that she’ll tell the police?” It was an honest concern,
and really should have been the more important issue at hand. Being
more worried about who I was kissing or almost kissing than whether
or not we got caught said something about my priorities, and it
wasn’t a very nice something.
Liam didn’t look at me when he answered. “I
think she’s just a nosey old lady.” I followed his gaze up the
aisle where she was now blatantly reading over the shoulder of the
middle aged woman she was sitting beside. “But we’ll have to be
extra cautious once we get to Fargo.”
“
I can do that.”
The look I got in response said he highly
doubted it.
***
Fargo looked nothing like I imagined. In my
head, it was a quaint little place with a general store ran by a
man named Fred who wore flannel and flirted with Sally the waitress
at the diner down the snow-filled street. In reality, it was just
like any other mid-sized American city. The buildings were
industrial looking and dirty, the stores boasted names so familiar
they felt like old friends, and there wasn’t a flake of snow to be
seen. Sure, it was cold, but not so much that it made me happy to
have on the wig and hat.
Liam was back to the silently aloof person I
met over a year ago, which was fine by me. I needed some distance.
What happened on the bus, the way I reacted, wasn’t okay. At
all.
At the bus station Liam pulled out an
until-now-unseen phone. “I’m at the Greyhound station,” he said by
way of greeting. “How soon can you be here?”
Almost no time at all later, a silver BMW
pulled up to the curb. Liam was opening the back door before I
understood this was supposed to be our ride. I rushed to catch up,
and jumped into the seat beside him. I felt kind of silly with both
of us getting into the back, but since Liam had left the door open
and slid over behind the driver’s seat, I figured it was what was
expected of me. The seats were upholstered in a soft brown leather
that smelled new and the windows were tinted so dark I wondered if
they were actually legal. The driver was a black man in his
mid-fifties who sported what appeared to my untrained eyes to be a
rather expensive business suit. With the two of us in the back seat
and the driver looking all posh while silently driving us through
the city, I felt a bit like I was being chauffeured around, which
would have been ridiculous enough for a girl like me even if I
hadn’t just finished a twenty-seven hour bus ride and was in dire
need of a shower and change of clothes.
We ended up in one of those rich people
subdivisions, which apparently looks the exact same no matter where
you are. The BMW didn’t stop until we made it to the very back
corner of the little community. The house wasn’t one of the biggest
we had passed, but it wasn’t exactly small. The arched doorway and
professionally manicured lawn made it look more impressive than it
actually was, as did the detached three car garage where we
parked.
“
That’s a Rolls Royce,” I
said, staring at the car next to us. I had no idea as to what model
it was, but I did know it was old and in pristine condition. I
decided there was no way I was getting out on my side. I would
crawl across Liam’s lap if I had to, but I didn't want to
accidentally ding a car worth more than my parents’
house.
“
You know cars?” the driver
asked, speaking for the first time.
“
Just enough to know a
Rolls when I see one,” I answered honestly.
He smiled and it was one of those great big
smiles that show all your teeth. I felt myself relaxing at the
sight of it, despite knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt this man
was a Shifter, and if my aura-reading was anywhere near accurate, a
fairly Dominant one. “I’m not exactly an aficionado myself. My wife
picked this one out for me, and that one was an inheritance from my
father.”
“
That’s an awful nice
inheritance.”
“
It is,” he agreed, “but
I’d rather have my dad.”
“
I’m sorry,” I muttered. I
could feel my face flaming red. Seriously, how stupid could I be? I
really shouldn’t be allowed to speak. “I didn’t mean--”
His smile was more subdued, but the kindness
in his eyes was evident. “Of course you didn’t, sweetheart. I
wasn’t chastising you, just voicing my grief.” He opened the door
and got out of the car. I was waiting for Liam to move so I could
scoot across the seat when my door opened. Our driver stood outside
and offered me a hand. “You know, my dad died more than ten years
ago, but I still miss him every single day.”
“
I know what that’s like,”
I said, letting him help me out of the car. His hand was roughly
the size of my mom’s favorite frying pan, but having it wrapped
around my elbow made me feel protected, not shackled.
“
I thought you might,” he
said. His hand squeezed my elbow ever so gently. “It’s in your
eyes.”
“
Funny, it’s my heart that
hurts.”
With a small, sad smile that said he
understood, he let go of me and gestured for me to walk ahead of
him toward the door. I wasn’t completely comfortable at having
another Shifter at my back, but I allowed it since he seemed to be
one of the good guys.
“
You went and found
yourself a poet,” he said to Liam, who waited for us by the
door.
Liam didn’t even acknowledge the statement
or anything it implied. “Thanks for coming so quickly.”
The older man clasped him on the shoulder.
“You know I’ll always come for you, son. Always. No matter
what.”
And with that I knew this man, no matter who
he was, had my trust, one hundred percent.
We entered the house through the backdoor,
which opened up into the kitchen. More specifically, the kitchen
where a curvy Latino woman with greying hair was making cookies
that smelled like warm-baked heaven. “Liam!” she squealed in a way
more suited for a fourteen year old girl than someone old enough to
be the mother of a fourteen year old girl.
Liam wrapped his arms around the lady, his
face filled with pure joy. She squeezed him back with as much zeal
as you would expect from an adult who squeals.