Page 85 of Cosmo

Then Liam thought of Taran, and how his eyes shone when they looked his way. Murphy was right, of course. He couldn’t go through life pushing people away because his childhood had been so horrible.

That pain, however, left scars that made a tough layer around his heart. Getting through it would not be easy, but Daiq had been the one to crack it. “This is all your fault, and if they all hurt me, I’m going to argue with you.”

“Meow,” he cried as Liam stopped petting him.

“Sorry. Bossy brat.”

Taran called him and asked to meet him outside the pub. It was nine in the morning, and he was barely dressed, but he got dressed quickly and toed on his sneakers before he rushed down the stairs, laughing at himself at how excited he was to see the guy.

Taran was parked right on the corner, illegally at that. “Must be nice to be a cop and park wherever you want.”

“It’s nice, yeah. I just came from a meeting with our…you know, guy, and I wanted very badly to see you.”

Leaning on the car with arms crossed on his chest, a cheeky little grin, crooked, and looking luscious, Taran’s smile warmed Liam right through. After a kiss hello, he asked what Taran was doing there so early.

“Where is he? Is he hot? You crushing on him too? More important, if the answer to that is yes, can I kick his ass?”

“I don’t know. He’s pretty tough. He’s got these nice arms, heavy biceps. Very sexy. But, alas, I’m already crushing on you.”

Liam kissed him again and chuckled. “You must really want to get laid.”

“Yeah, I sure do. Should we go to my place or is here okay?”

“I don’t think I could wait to get to your place. Still, you’d better park across the street and put in a few hundred bucks for parking into the meter.”

A heavy sigh as he gave into Liam’s request. “Okay, but don’t you go anywhere. I want to watch you walking up the stairs. That view is…”

“I’ll wait right here for you.”

The car was pulled away from the curb on the corner and Liam watched him crossing the street and do an illegal U-turn to get into the one parking spot left. He parked and messed with the meter for a minute, then jogged straight across the caddy-corner from where he’d parked, ignoring the crosswalks.

“I am being a very bad influence on you,” Liam called, and then…everything changed.

A man neither of them had noticed walked out into the street and as he pulled a pistol out of his hoodie pocket, Liam started screaming at Taran.

He felt like his feet were in cement, and he couldn’t move as fast as he needed, but the shot sounded, echoing off the buildings all around them, and Liam watched in horror as Taran was thrown forward, the coward shooting him in the back.

Liam got to him, rushing into the middle of the street, holding up his hand at the two cars approaching the five-way stop. “Taran! Taran!”

On his knees, he cupped Taran’s cheek, his tears falling on Taran’s face. It all hit him, everything, but topping it all was the anger at himself for letting himself care again. Everyone he cared about, those he loved, they all died.

Then, like a fucking miracle, Taran’s eyes opened, those shocking blue eyes wide as he coughed and writhed on the ground. That was when Liam realized there was no blood. He ripped open Taran’s shirt to find a Kevlar vest on him.

“Taran?”

“I’m okay,” he croaked. “Who was that?”

Liam barely heard the question as his head turned to see the man ducking into the parking garage where Murphy kept his SUV halfway down the block across the street.

He ran as his vision went red. It had been so long since that kind of anger had come over him, but the world was awash in a blood colored haze and he couldn’t think, couldn’t stop himself. He ran after the shooter, and the cries behind him were lost in the rampant beating of his pulse in his ears.

Like he was flying over the pavement on the wide street, heading to the garage, his sneakers slapping to match his heart rate, he was hyper focused on getting to the man and beating him to death.

Both hands were curled into fists as he rounded the corner, and the parking attendant screamed at him as he ran past. He didn’t care or see, but he saw the man pulling out from a parking spot, the hoodie still pulled over his head.

He was headed right for Liam, but Liam didn’t stop, didn’t turn and didn’t dodge away from the car as it barreled at him, gaining as much speed as he could coming from his parking position.

Liam jumped on the hood of the car, and he pulled himself up by the hood where it hinged on the windshield. The man behind the wheel stared, amazed, but he stopped the car, like he couldn’t believe Liam would jump on the moving vehicle.

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