Page 55 of Old Flame

What am I going to do?I asked Eamon, wishing he could actually respond.

You wanted a new start. You got one all right, love. Hold on tight. Seems this one is a wild ride.

If I could smile right now, I would. I could hear his voice in my head, the slight amusement in his words. He’d have made a joke about all this, and when he put his arms around me, I would have felt as if it would all work out. He had always seen the bright side of life. I’d needed that so badly. I still did.

23

Tex

Present Day

Liam was seated on one of the black leather sofas in the library when I walked into the room. He’d sent Micah to wake me up thirty minutes ago. He had questions.

He glanced up from his phone and lifted his chin toward the sofa across from him. “Have a seat,” he told me, then went back to typing something on his phone. Probably texting his wife, Liberty.

Micah followed me into the room and closed the door.

I’d thought Liam had left yesterday to go back to Ocala. His still being here wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Little kept him away from his wife and son. He put his phone on the sofa beside him and reached to pick up some papers on the coffee table between us.

“I need to know everything you know about Salem Murphy,” he told me.

Salem? Why was this about Salem?

“My mom took her in after her abusive father went to jail for killing a man. She and I ended up as a couple a few months before she turned eighteen. My mom died less than two years later. Salem went to SCAD in Savannah—it’s an art school, college, whatever. When Mom died, I went off the rails. Ended things with Salem. Mom had been working on her to go to abetter college for art, and she got a scholarship to a school in Rhode Island the following fall. She went. And that’s all I know. That was it for us. I never saw her again until I walked into Pepper’s bar about two months ago, and there she sat.”

That was the barest of CliffsNotes on what I knew about Salem. There were things I wasn’t going to share. I didn’t give a fuck if he was Prez.

“You’ve not been in contact with her since you saw her at the bar?” he asked.

I could tell by his expression that he knew I already had. Blaise Hughes could find out anything. His reach was wide.

“I went to the art gallery the morning of her interview and saw her again at the bar.” Vague. I was being as vague as I could be until I knew what the fuck was going on.

“You attached to her?”

That was a loaded question. One I wasn’t comfortable answering.

“What’s this about? You’ve known me for fourteen years. This is the first time in all those years she’s ever come up, and that’s because she was involved in shit at Pepper’s Bar.”

Liam raised his eyebrows slightly. “You are evading the answer. You’re attached.” He held up the papers. “These are things you need to know and information that does not leave this room. Understand?” He looked from me to Micah.

Dread began to creep up my neck, closing in uncomfortably. What was he about to tell me? Would I have to make a choice between Salem and the club? She was an innocent female. He wouldn’t toss her out of the compound. She’d be dead or taken and raped within hours. Both scenarios I wouldn’t be able to live with.

Micah replied, “Yeah,” while I replied, “What is it?” not agreeing to anything yet.

Liam’s neck flexed, and I could see the dislike for my refusal toagree, but he’d have to understand that there were limits to my loyalty. One limit, and he’d found it—Salem.

“I need your word, Tex. This doesn’t leave this room,” Liam repeated.

“If this concerns Salem and she needs to know for her safety…” I told him, not caring when his eyes narrowed.

“For someone you haven’t seen in eighteen years, you’re awfully protective,” he said, studying me for my reaction.

“She meant something to me once. My mom adored her.” I let it go at that.

Liam didn’t seem fooled though. “Fine. But you should know that her being given this information could put her in even more danger than she’s already in.”

Then I wouldn’t fucking breathe a word, but I was ready to snatch the goddamn papers from his hand. What was it that he knew? How was Salem in any more danger?

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