Page 28 of Secured By the Buyer

He then takes a vial of blood for testing and tells Liam, “I should have the results later today, but I’ll have to come back to take a fresh sample in ten days to check for pregnancy.”

My heart skips a beat at those words. With my free arm, I push against Liam’s chest, rearing up inhorror. It hits me like a freight train, the memory of Liam’s cum flooding my body during my Heat.

If the Mark took, then there’s a chance his seed did, too. His baby could be growing inside me right now.

“Ten days?” The blood drains from my face. Bile rises in my throat, and I choke out, “I’m going to be sick.”

Alarmed, Liam bolts off the couch with me in his arms like I weigh nothing.

He races into the bathroom, plonking me down on the cold tile floor in front of the toilet. My head spins as he pulls my hair back with gentle hands.

“Let it all out.” Liam rubs my back in soothing circles. “Don’t worry. If you’re pregnant, I’ll do right by you, princess.”

With a surge of anger, I twist to smack at him with my free arm. “I’m not going to marry you!”

He frowns in confusion. “You don’t want to?”

“Are you fucking crazy?” I spit, my heart pounding in my chest. “I’m not going from one enslavement to another. You need to have your head checked, because you washed out your reasoning along with the hair dye.”

Liam’s expression shifts into something almost sad. “I would’ve had you at the altar by dawn if wehad done things the right way and met at the vending machines as planned.”

I sit on the chilly tile floor, the cold seeping through my expensive pajamas, and narrow my eyes at him. “How were you going to juggle pretending to be Caruso, hunting down the bad guys, and meeting me all in four hours?”

“Soon as I spotted our target, I was supposed to alert Caleb and Damien,” he reveals. “They would have apprehended him before he disappeared again, leaving me plenty of time to make our appointment.”

Curiosity piqued, I work on untying my legs while asking, “Why are you after this guy?”

Liam’s face hardens. “He ran a sex and human trafficking ring out of the apartment complex he managed. He and his partners tried to kidnap my cousin’s fiancé.”

When I remain suspicious, he pulls out his phone, showing me a picture of a broad-shouldered Alpha with dark-brown hair holding an angelic blond Omega with a belly swollen with child. The two stare at each other as if no one else exists, stupidly in love.

The image tugs at the part of me buried deep inside that yearns for family, but I push it away and focus on freeing myself. The knot fights me, but aftersome tugging, it unravels and I curl my legs up to my chest.

“Was your cousin’s fiancé forced into Heat, too?” I ask, unable to keep the tremor out of my voice.

Regret flickers across Liam’s face as he pockets his phone. “Nolan saved Leo before it got that far. One of the people running the ring was taken out, but the other two escaped. That’s how Jade was shot.”

I bite my bottom lip, feeling the slight sting of teeth against flesh, followed by the burst of blood. “So, are you really a good guy?”

I want so badly to believe he is, that despite everything that happened, Liam is my savior, not my jailor.

For a moment, Liam hesitates, but then he shakes his head, letting out a quiet, almost imperceptible sigh. “No, I’m not a good man. I’ve done illegal things and killed people, though that’s not usually my job.”

“People besides Caruso?” I whisper.

He nods.

My bottom lip trembles. “Bad people?”

“People who stood against our goals,” he says, which isn’t the same thing, but I’m not sure I have it in me to press further on the topic.

“What’s your usual job?”

“I do security for all the Rockford holdings and personal properties. I hire bodyguards when necessary.” He touches my cheek. “I protect what’s mine.”

Gaze darting around the room, I search for a sign of surveillance. “Where are the cameras?”

Liam points to the lights above the vanity. “They’re not on right now.”

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