“Anyway, hello,” he mumbles, running a hand through his already messy hair. He stands just inside the door, looking at me with pretty sad eyes.
“Hello?” I mock. “After that entrance, that’s all you have to say?”
“It’s a start.”
“A start to…?”
“To talk to you, cupcake.”
Cupcake. When was the last time I heard him call me that?
I’m silent, not knowing what to say as I look at him.
It’s awkward, the energy between us so different than anything we’ve gone through before.
First it was lust—I mean, I was ready to give up my V-card to him at a party where Julian decided to ‘teach me’ a lesson—and then second, it was hate, then the blunt, cutthroat banter that turned into friendship… until a few weeks ago when he decided to side with his brother, it was back to hate.
Like I said, whiplash.
Now, we’re just looking at each other from opposite ends of the hospital room, only this time, I’m the one who was just wearing a hospital gown and he’s dressed in faded black distressed jeans, a black shirt and a long black hooded cardigan cloak and black Balenciaga sneakers.
He looks like a punk rock sex machine, all dark and broody. And sad.
That’s not Liam. Don’t get it twisted, Liam Fitzgerald is an expressive asshole who says anything he wants to say, with no regard whatsoever for anyone’s feelings or the repercussions, but even with all that, he wasn’t like his brother.
Liam is the life of the party kind of guy, the one who makes you smile when you don’t want to, but right now, he looks as beaten up as an abandoned puppy and just as devastated.
“Are you all right?” I whisper, my heart tugging as I look at him.
“Am I all right?” he scoffs, looking at me as if bewildered. “Are you fucking serious right now?” I shrug, not knowing what else to say. “Look at you. Look at where we are, and you ask me if I’m all right? Jesus, I should be the one asking you how you are feeling? How’s your head? What about that gunshot injury? Does it hurt? Did they take the bullet out?”
“It’s—” I start but he cuts me off, now pacing in front of the door.
“And why the fuck were you jumping in front of a fucking gun for, Mia? My brother that bastard could have taken that shit and if he died well, shit happens, either way, it wouldn’t be you!”
“I…”
“How could you be so reckless with your life like that?”
“Liam, listen—”
“And what happened to all the bandages you were wrapped in?”
“The bandages?”
“Yeah, Nicky allowed me to sit with you for ten minutes each day when you were in a coma.”
“She did?”
“Well, I had to grovel so hard and basically gave her a PowerPoint presentation that I wasn’t my brother and that I care for you and you’re like my best friend, so you’d appreciate me sitting with you a bit.”
“So, basically you lied. Typical,” I mutter. “But it’s not your fault. You did warn me that you and your brother were recovering liars. I guess some habits never die.”
He shifts on his feet, then he looks away from me. “I didn’t lie.”
I turn away, wanting to keep my hands busy. “You must’ve otherwise, why would you tell her you and I are best friends, Liam?”
I feel his silence as the tension between us expands.
“Mia…”
“You come in here, berating me about jumping in front of guns and everything I did, but you were the one who told me I don’t deserve your brother and that I sit on a throne of lies.”
“Okay, I admit it. I’m a hypocrite.” I chuckle humorlessly, but he just goes on. “I was wrong, cupcake. Julian’s the one who doesn’t fucking deserve you.”
“We don’t deserve each other,” I say instead, then swivel around to look at him. “Apparently, he deserves a Bishop twin. Or both.”
And bingo!
Liam’s face clouds with anger, turning red like a freaking fire engine truck. I see his hands ball into fists at his sides.
“Apparently,” is all he says.
“That’s all you have to say about that?” I probe, watching him intently. “Come on, Liam, I know you must have something to say about your new in-laws.”
“I. Don’t,” he grits out. I know I should drop it but me being a self-damaging bitch who claims to not want anything to do with Julian from this point on, can’t help but prob the wound deeper with a singular intent. Drawing enough blood for all of us to drown in the misery that’s been taking me down from the day I met Julian Fitzgerald.
“Well, that’s not what I heard,” I say calmly. From the corner of my eye, I see him studying me, tracing every step I take. I can see him debate whether or not to bite the bait.
“What do you mean?” he finally demands after a while.
“Well, just the other night, I had a little interesting and highly informative chat with Roxy Bishop.”
“You did?”
“Shocking, isn’t it? She came to visit me.”
Liam frowns, just barely. “She visited you? In the hospital?”
It looks like he doesn’t know Roxy was originally visiting someone who’s in here. Or someone who was in here. Urgh, that girl is a fucking mystery that makes my head ache.
“She said she heard I was here, and she came to…” What did she come to do? Rub in my face that she’s getting married to Julian? Or is it about Liam?
“Come on, Mia. Don’t have a brain fart now and leave me hanging! I fucking hate cliffhangers,” he mumbles.
“Hey, I was thinking! I have no idea why she really came, but she knew where to find me and what happened to me. Does everyone else know?”
“What do you know?” he questions, folding his arms as he leans back on the wall beside the door.
“Uh, I know Sean is dead.”
“Good fucking riddance.”
“Shane is missing.”
He scoffs at that, a hard glint in his eyes. “Not for long. I promise you that.”
“Wait, what does that mean?” I demand.
“Never mind that, what else do you know?”
“No, don’t wave your hand at me like a little beauty pageant diva. What do you mean by not for long?” I demand.
I really study Liam now. To be fair, he was always a bit reserved and unpredictable but now, I have no idea what to make of him at the moment.
“Trust me cupcake, the less you know, the better. You’ve been through enough already and frankly, someone will have my head if I involve you in something not even he knows about.”
“Julian doesn’t know?” I frown. Julian usually knows everything about his brother. Even the things Liam thinks he doesn’t know. “Are you two doing okay?”
“Well, as much as we can when you discover your brother’s been keeping quite a pile of shit from you.”
Ah, of course.
Julian takes overprotective to the farthest degree. I’m not surprised that this time, it pushed Liam over the edge. I guess it explains the hints of anger in his dark gaze.
“What do you mean?” I ask softly.