Before Sunrise Page 20

Kennedy nodded. “I agree.”

  Harper decided to go upstairs with the twins and Mackenzie to see the famous goldfish her niece raved over. That left Liam and Vasquez alone at the dining room table with a direct view of their ladies in the kitchen, whispering and giggling. They sat in silence for a few while Liam put up the game board. He knew it wouldn’t be long before Vasquez delivered the news that Alexa had been trying to share in the hotel last night.

  “So you know we have orders.”

  “What orders?” Liam asked in a dry, disinterested tone.

  “They want you to come in. More questions.”

  “They?”

  “Pentagon. Clayton. They.”

  “You mean Alex.”

  Vasquez sighed. He dropped back in his chair. Liam avoided his eyes. They both knew that if Uncle Sam wanted it, he’d have to bend over and take it up the ass. But he’d be damned if he’d walk away from his family again, no matter for how long. He just couldn’t do it. “What’s Alex saying?”

  “That she will give you until Christmas. That after that, your country needs you. Truth is, Clayton has concerns over the failed mission. Your resurrection has many looking into why you were on the mountain in the first place. No one wants the press to get hold of Scorpion.”

  “I see.” Liam swallowed. Scorpion was the one thing he hadn’t been directly questioned about. Central Intelligence knew more about Scorpion than he did. Fuck. He’d had his orders and he carried them out. Period. He knew Clayton’s fears were only elevated because of Alex. Liam suspected she’d traded on secrets to get her appointment.

  That wasn’t the only thing bothering him. He’d allowed her crush. Thought it harmless. And part of him had always remained uneasy about serving in combat with a woman. He couldn’t help but want to protect her on those missions she flew him and his team in and out of. It was in his nature to play the hero. Where Alex bristled over the attention of others, she welcomed Liam’s. Soon enough, respect turned into unwavering devotion. Eric warned him against it, said Alex had become fixated on him. And of course, Alex always went too far. He ignored it, to the point she became a distraction from his depressive need to be home with Kay. A mental substitute. That was on him.

  Things had changed since he’d been gone. Unlike before, her obsession would be a bitch of an inconvenience, and now, with her power, it could be used for destruction. Who knew her true motivations? Her inappropriate feelings in the past would be his undoing if he didn’t think smart. Liam laughed.

  “What’s funny?”

  “Fucking irony. All these years I gave Kay shit over Phil’s feelings for her. She said they were just friends. I said bullshit.”

  “Yeah, well….”

  “And she gave me shit over Alex. Said she didn’t trust her, was jealous when Alex would call or show up at functions and want to talk about something Kennedy couldn’t be privy to. I told Kay it was in her head. You believe that shit? The mistakes I made man, that we both made—”

  “Marriage. Fuck, it’s like that, I suppose.”

  “Not mine, bro. Kay is the real thing. Pure. I fucked this is up with my girl every way conceivable. Leaving her pregnant and young to go off to a war. Bringing her into a world where she only had me, isolating her because I—Ineeded her so badly and I just never believed she could need me as much. Don’t think my head isn’t too screwed up to know it,” he sighed. “I’ll meet with Alex and see if I can get in front of the senator and convince him I’m no use to them. Get her to back off.”

  “You need to do that soon, brother. There is another thing to consider.”

  “Like?”

  “Your wife. Making that official. I got wind of Phil’s temperament. You don’t want him delaying this further.” Vasquez looked over at the women in the kitchen.

  Liam followed his friend’s gaze. Kennedy laughed, and touched Angelina’s stomach several times. Liam studied her closely. He wondered how her body had changed when she carried their daughter. He only saw glimpses of her tummy forming before he left. He imagined she’d been even more beautiful. She glanced up and saw him watching. She dropped her eyes away first, shyly. He needed to get her alone.

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “Separate the dynamic duo. Get your wife out the door. I want to be alone with Kay,” he said, his gaze never leaving Kennedy. Vasquez looked between his friend and the object of his desire.

  “Yeah, I can understand that. Now how am I supposed to extract Harper?”

  “True. I’ll set Kennedy loose on her.”

  Vasquez nodded. He rose and called Angelina over. He made a big show of looking at his watch. Angelina caught on quick. She went upstairs for the twins. Liam found his cane from the side of the table and used it to balance to his feet. He walked into the kitchen to corner his wife before everyone returned downstairs.

  Kennedy’s smile was infectious. He hated smiling, but with her he couldn’t help himself. “Are you hungry? I can warm up some meatloaf to go with this macaroni.”

  “No. Tell Harper you need her to leave.”

  Kennedy blinked, looked behind him, then back into his eyes. He stared at her.

  “Um, okay. I’ll talk to her,” she said about to step around him but he delayed her again.

  “How do you feel about coming back to the Marriott with me?”

  “What?” Kennedy gave a nervous smile.

  “To be alone. To talk.”

  “Liam.”

  “We can bring Mackenzie. I got a suite. She can take the bedroom, you can take the sofa bed and I can take the floor. Or not.”

  “No, we can stay here and talk,” Kennedy said softly, averting her eyes.

  “No we can’t, Kay. This is his house. He’s right about that. I want you to come to the Marriott with me.”

  Why did she keep lowering her gaze? He hated that. She normally met his stare dead-on. She was keeping something from him, stalling him out. She said she had made her choice. She said that she would be his again. What the fuck could be her issue? Liam felt anger swell up in him. The kind that made him want to shout and shout until his chest was less tight and he could breathe again. But he didn’t want to scare her. Fuck, he was already scaring himself.

  “If I go with you in front of the media and everyone it will send the wrong message.”

  “Wrong message? To who?”

  She lifted her gaze. “To Phil. I owe him an explanation, don’t you think?”

  “No. Fuck him.”

  “Liam. Stop it. You know me. I would never purposely hurt anyone.”

  “Kennedy, the man isn’t stupid. He knows I’m here.”

  “I can’t. I’m sorry,” she said, then walked out.

  Liam clenched his fist. He hit the wall with it so hard, the plaster chipped. Drawing away bruised knuckles he looked down at the scrapes, confused. He didn’t feel anything. No pain. It had happened several times in the desert. When torture was part of breakfast and definitely on the menu for dinner. At times he felt nothing. As if he wasn’t in the room. He walked over to the sink, a little shaken. He ran cold water over his hand and counted down his anger. He was fine. He hadn’t hit the wall that hard. Of course it didn’t hurt, he reasoned. Sucking in a deep breath, he calmed himself. He had everything under control. Though in the past, his word was law, it was obvious now he couldn’t push her. She was different. He’d have to go at her pace. No matter how infuriatingly slow it was for him.

  ***

  January 1995

  “I want to understand how far this—this—how far this thing between you and Kennedy has gone?” Andrew Washington asked.

  Liam looked up into the angry eyes of Kay’s mother. She paced back and forth behind her husband’s chair. She reminded Liam of a caged lioness, one you knew not to get to close to, or risk a torn throat and disembowelment. He’d never had anyone look at him with so much hate. Not since his stepfather. He guessed he deserved it after what Gail Washington had caught him and
Kennedy in the act of doing. Thank God it hadn’t gotten too far out of hand before she walked in on them in the boathouse. But her mother’s scream and Kay’s tears had him wrecked. He would never forget seeing Kennedy struck in front of him. He almost rushed Gail when she knocked her daughter to the floor. Thankfully, Andrew Washington walked in on the scene. He found his daughter topless and him with his pants undone. There was little Liam could have done to repair the situation.

  “I, um, I have a lot of respect for Kay-Kennedy, sir.”

  “Respect!” Kennedy’s mother shouted, her lips curled in anger. “Is that why you two have been carrying on in our boathouse behind our backs? That’s respect?”

  “Gail, we don’t know how far this has gone. I agree it looks bad but…Kennedy is a good girl, she would never—”

  “Andrew, are you insane? We caught them with your daughter’s top off!”

  Liam tuned them both out. His gaze drifted to the door. He’d never really ventured into the Washington house, only to help carry Harper in and put her to bed. Kennedy was upstairs somewhere alone. He wished he could talk to her, comfort her. She was so shaken when her mother dragged her out of the boathouse, while her father marched Liam into his study. Since their discovery she’d been locked away from him. He had to face the inquisition alone. He’d take all the heat if it meant she wouldn’t incur her mother’s wrath again. Silently he fumed over it. If Mrs. Washington raised her hand to Kennedy once more in front of him, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

  Things were out of control and it was his fault. Their hookups were a bad idea the moment they removed Sierra from of the equation and he started meeting at her parents’ house.

  Harper had played the little lookout for them when they’d sneak off to the boathouse during one of Kennedy’s baby-sitting assignments. Problem was that Harper would show up at the most inconvenient of times to sit up with Liam. Her crush was cute. It really pissed Kennedy off, until he pointed out how blessed she was to have her little sister. Kennedy actually said that was why she loved him, because he was such a softy. Earlier, he’d bribed Harper with McDonald’s, a forbidden treat in the Washington household. Kennedy’s parents were gone to one of their social events at their private club. It was supposed to go on until well after midnight. Harper had made two trips out to the boathouse to check on them. They just cuddled and watched the TV and waited until they thought Harper would fall asleep. Nothing heavy. But as usual, their hormones, or Kay’s, for that moment, got the most of them. Harper had been caught in the backyard when her mother arrived home early. It didn’t take Gail Washington long to extract where her oldest daughter was. And the rest was history.

  “How old are you?” Gail asked, narrowing her eyes on him.

  The question he dreaded.

  “Son, I think you better answer her.”

  “Let me see some ID. Now!” Gail demanded.

  Liam sighed. He fished out his wallet. When he handed the card over, Kay’s mother snatched it from him. She paled. She looked stricken. “Andrew, we might need to call the police.”

  “Nothing happened,” he lied.

  The understanding he saw in Kay’s father’s face drained when his wife handed him back the ID and he was able to check Liam’s birthdate. He looked up with anger and disgust. “Call the police, Gail. Now! You better start telling me the truth, son. How far has this thing with you and my daughter gone?”

  Liam and Kennedy were lucky. The age of consent in Connecticut was sixteen; at seventeen, the courts said she would be old enough to marry with parental permission. But they were unlucky in the fact that she was forbidden to see him again. He had never been so desperate and lost as he was the day the police led him off the Washington property in handcuffs. Kennedy’s father showed up at the station and disputed his wife’s claim that Kennedy had been raped. Kennedy had been insistent, both to him and to the detectives, that she was a willing participant. He also dropped the trespassing charges. His kindness was conditioned on the promise that Liam never see Kennedy again.

  Liam agreed. He lied.

  He could never erase the image of a crying Kay, upstairs, sitting on her window sill, as she watched him being taken away. Even Heath and Sierra warned him against trying to see her again. He couldn’t stop. Neither could Kay, though according to Sierra, her attempts to call him were blocked. He went weeks without seeing her. Then things got worse. His cousin’s Heath’s pad got raided by the police and he and the drugs were carted off. Everything fell apart. He missed the arrest warrants because of his job, but the close call spooked Liam enough to think his association with Heath might do him in. He had to make a change. A drastic, serious change and he had to do it quick. He took the two thousand dollars he’d saved and set out on a plan that would change his and Kennedy’s lives forever.

  ***

  It all seemed like a lifetime ago. Kennedy wasn’t the young, impressionable girl he once loved. She was a woman. Her own woman. He wanted to know her now, fall in love with her all over again. He looked forward to it. But this time it couldn’t be done all his way. This time he’d have to follow her lead, trust her as she did him when she dropped out of school and ran away from her family.

  He said his goodbyes to the Vasquezes. Harper had been another story. She wanted assurances that Liam wouldn’t leave or be asked to leave by ‘he-who-would-remain-nameless.’ Liam had to laugh at her protectiveness. And eventually, she too left.

  “Do you want some beer?” Kennedy asked, after locking the door.

  Liam decided to try another approach. “Yeah, a beer would be nice.”

  Kennedy seemed relieved that he accepted. As he sat in the living room and waited for her, suddenly the pain returned to his hand. He winced, having forgotten how he hurt it in the first place. He tried to concentrate on the when and where but nothing came. The fugue state was acceptable before, but blackouts now scared the shit out of him.

  “What happened to your hand, Liam?” Kennedy stopped, shocked. Liam, caught, looked up at her.

  “When did that happen?”

  “Ah, I hit it in the kitchen. It’s cool.”

  “On what? It looks like, let me see….”

  “Hey, calm down, mama bear. Give me that beer.” He took the bottle from her and put it on his swollen red and purple knuckles. “I slammed it against the counter. I’m a little clumsy with my cane.”

  She stared at him, trying to gauge the truth in his words. He smirked. “But it hurts like hell. Will you make it feel better?”

  “Let me get some ice.”

  “No, just come here. Hold it. That will help.”

  Kennedy sat next to him. She set her beer down and took his hand into hers. Her delicate fingers over the roughened skin was all the balm he needed.

  “So tell me about yourself now, Kay. You didn’t finish law school?”

  Kennedy smiled fondly. “No, I didn’t. But I didn’t give up on law. I’m a legal assistant now for some very prominent attorneys. They work me harder than any lawyer at the firm,” she said, inspecting the bruises. “Liam, this looks bad. Maybe we should get you to the doctor. How did you do this again?”

  “Legal assistant? Do you like it?” Liam pressed.

  “Huh?” Kennedy looked up.

  “Do you like it? Work?”

  She relaxed just a little. She tilted her head and looked to the ceiling as if thinking on it. “On most days, yes. Pay is bleh, but I learn a lot. They’re defense attorneys. I used to think all clients were wrongfully accused. Remember I wanted to study civil rights law at UNC? My eyes have been opened to the nasty business of defending the ones that are guilty as sin. I think of going back to law school at times though, but Phil doesn’t want…” she bit down on her bottom lip.

  Liam chuckled. “It’s okay. I’m sitting on the man’s sofa, drinking his beer. I think I can handle his name.”

  She gave him a half smile but the tension between them returned. He pulled his hand from hers so she could stop being fixated on
it. He’d rather she be fixated on him. “I wish you could have gotten your law degree. I know how much you wanted it.”

  “Liam?”

  “Yes.”

  “The reason why I didn’t agree to go to the Marriott with you—”

  “Is because you’re still not sure.” He tossed back another swig of beer.

  “No. It’s because I am. If I leave here with you, I’ll want it all with you.”

  When Liam looked over, he knew she meant physically. He wanted the same thing. Oh, how he wanted it. But she held back from him and he had to know why. “What’s wrong with wanting it all?”

  “Are you sure you’re ready to accept the changes in my life? Sometimes you seem so angry, so hurt. And you saw Mackenzie, she isn’t ready. I know time has slipped from us, but that doesn’t mean it will again. I don’t want to make any mistakes. None. I owe Phil closure, and an answer. I owe Mackenzie security. And I owe you a lifetime of making up to you all those moments we’ve missed.”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Kay.” Liam cut his eyes away. He didn’t want her pity. He wouldn’t put up with it.

  “Liam, look at me. Mackenzie is really my number one concern here. She’s had a lot happen in the past day or so. It’s exciting for her now. Soon she will want her routine. Kids do. It’s their security. We have to be conscious of that. And I know this hurts but Phil has a strong bond with her. I’m not going to end that. We have to do this right.”

  “You mean counseling?”

  “Can you consider it? For us to go through this together.”

  “You’re right.”

  “Come again?” She laughed.

  Liam smiled and downed the rest of his beer. “You’re different, Kay.”

  “Am I?”

  “I like it,” he confessed. “You’re more confident, wise, and you’re a mother. That’s really sexy.”

  Kennedy shook her head. “Thanks, but the confidence is just a show. I’m winging it here.”