Page 6 of Mysterious

Liam leans forward and holds out his hand toward where I sit on the bed. “Mia, come here.”

Afraid of the serious tone of his voice and the somber expression he’s wearing right now, I slide up the bed until I’m right next to him. He takes my hand in his, and for a moment, everything inside me calms, but then I look into his eyes and see that seriousness in them.

“Mia, you don’t have to feel bad about what happened. I think that’s what all of this is about, isn’t it?”

I shake my head, refusing to admit the truth, especially to him. “No, not at all. I just need you to be in the best shape possible for when the tour starts in a few days. As for those goddamned reporters and photographers, that’s how I always feel, but you didn’t deserve to have to fight your way to the car after being in the hospital.”

His warm skin against mine makes me feel like my insides are melting, but I don’t see anything like that in him at all. I thought when we were out on that street that he was trying to tell me he cared but he didn’t think he should. Did I misunderstand?

“I’m going to be fine. Honestly. It wasn’t that bad. I guess I’m just a big bleeder, like the doctor said. And the press was nothing.”

The mere mention of him bleeding out on that sidewalk as I hovered over him praying for anyone to stop him from dying brings tears to my eyes, and I hang my head so he can’t see them. If I’m wrong and he didn’t want to tell me he cares about me, the last thing I want is for him to see I’m that affected by him getting shot.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

I shake my head again, but it’s no use. The tears come streaming down my cheeks like I’m some pathetic little girl who can’t control her emotions.

“Mia, look at me.”

When I refuse to do as he wants, he slides his finger under my chin and gently lifts it so he can see my tears. “I was so scared you’d die there, Liam. I didn’t know what to do. I felt helpless, and I hate feeling that. I control everything in my life as much as I can, as you well know, but I couldn’t do a thing to stop you from bleeding from that bullet.”

“I do know you like to control everything and everyone, so I imagine seeing me down for the count was a lot to handle. I’m fine, though. See?”

He flexes his bicep to show me his right arm works fine, and I smile. “So you can show off? That doesn’t mean you’re fine. You got shot, Liam.”

My teasing him makes him laugh. “Okay, I wasn’t trying to show off, but you don’t have to worry. It’s going to be okay.”

I hang my head and whisper the ugly truth I’ve hated since I saw him fall to the ground last night. “You got shot because of me. I don’t know how I’ll ever forgive myself for that.”

With a heavy sigh, he says in that way that sounds so reasonable when I want to be completely unreasonable, “You didn’t shoot me, so this isn’t your fault. And I don’t want to hear anything about how you left the estate and if I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have been shot.”

Smiling, I lift my head to see him smiling too. “Well, since you’ve taken away my entire argument for feeling guilty, I guess I can leave you feeling utterly innocent of my crime. Thank you, Liam.”

“Go get ready for your first dates. You don’t have much time, and there’s no way I want to be the one your entourage blames when you aren’t on fire that first night. And you know they will.”

I can hear Ainsley and the rest of them already saying he’s a distraction I shouldn’t give into now that the tour is so close to beginning. Not that I give a damn what they have to say about Liam now. He took a bullet for me, and no matter how much he wants to claim I’m not to blame for him getting shot, the hard facts are if I hadn’t dragged him down to that part of town and I hadn’t run down that sidewalk making him chase me, he never would have been in any position to be shot by anyone.

“Thank you for not hating me, Liam.”

The words barely come out loud enough for anyone but me to hear them, but when he nods and winks at me, I know he heard me. I don’t know what I’d do if he hated me. Not after last night.

“If I didn’t hate you when I first got here, there’s no way I could hate you now. You saved me last night. Don’t sell yourself short, Mia. You called 9-1-1 and told them exactly where to go. A lot of people would have unraveled, but you kept your cool. Things might have turned out way differently if you weren’t there.”

I know what he’s trying to do, and even though I won’t argue with him about it, he’s wrong. I set everything into motion for him to get hurt last night. Whatever I did to help doesn’t make up for what I did that made it possible for someone to shoot him.

Joking, I stand up from the bed and look down at him as I say, “Well, this hero needs to get working. Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“I will. Go rehearse so you’re ready for this weekend.”

For a moment, our eyes lock and I think I’d like nothing more than to kiss him right now. I wonder if he’s thinking that too.

CHAPTERFOUR

Mia

Happy after thetime I spent with Liam, I practically bounce down the stairs and meet my mother and her assistant when I hit the first floor. She looks particularly dour today, but she’s probably just worried about what happened last night. I get that. She never handles when I go out on my own, but the fact that someone got hurt is likely making her ten times as stressed out.

“I want to talk to you about your security situation, Mia,” she says, frowning.

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