Page 48 of Rivals Next Door

Alex checked his watch. “I can find him before morning.”

My gaze snapped to his face. In the dim interior of the car, I saw the certainty in his eyes. “You’ve done enough tonight. I’ll just get the cops involved or?—”

“I’ll find him, Liv. Hold off on calling the cops… unless you want a media shit show at your doorsteps by sunrise…”

I most definitely did not want that. I stared at Alex as I contemplated trusting the man trying to destroy my family legacy. What if he used my family mess to blackmail me into handing over BioTech or something?

Alex sighed. “I can see the wheels turning in your head. No, I’m not executing some ploy to set you up. You forget that Liam and I were friends when you and I…” His expression darkened. “I don’t want to hear that anything has happened to him. I’ll find him.”

My shoulders sagged with mild relief. “Okay. I’m coming with you.”

“Like hell you are.”

“He’s my brother, Alex. I should help.”

“And what exactly are you going to do to help me other than distract me with all your nervous energy? Look at you. You’re barely holding it together.”

I harrumphed, but I didn’t refute his claim.

“Go inside, Olivia. I’ll be back soon.”

While I was grateful for his help, it was still a struggle to get my inner control freak to let go and let him take care of things for me.

It took me a moment to nod and agree.

“Okay. Thank you.”

17

OLIVIA

“He’s still into you, Livy.”

I rolled my eyes at Elena’s enthusiastic declaration. “I doubt that. Alex is helping me because he still cares about Liam.” He’d said as much. It was a relief to see that what I did to him years ago didn’t completely destroy the decent and incredibly caring guy I knew.

“But he went out of his way to get you away from that dangerous guy. I expect the full story about that when I see you, by the way.”

I leaned against the window and stared out at the city illuminated by thousands of lights. I hadn’t given my friend all the details about my eventful night over the phone. “He did help me, but that’s just Alex. He never shies away from helping people. Besides, he has a girlfriend. He was on a date tonight.”

“Damn. Just when I thought there was hope for your love life…”

The tiniest smile lifted my lips as I imagined Elena snapping her fingers with disappointment. However, my amusement quickly vanished, replaced by that nagging regret that had been plaguing me since I saw Alex again. My love life would likely never include him again and that caused a wave of sadness to wash over me. Why did I do that nine years ago? If I had just?—

The buzzer went off, pulling me from plunging into the past and wallowing in my regret. “Elena, I have to go. I think Alex is back with news about Liam.”

My heart immediately started to pound. He had shown up here instead of calling. Did he have bad news?

Hearing the urgency in my voice, Elena sighed. “Okay. Let me know what’s going on when you can.”

“I will.”

After ending the call, I practically launched myself at the buzzer. “Alex?” I winced at the panic in my tone.

“Yeah,” came the reply.

“Come on up.”

As I waited for him, my thoughts raced with possibilities about Liam. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach, which I was sure was caused by excessive anxiety. However, I braced myself for bad news.

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