Page 1 of Liam

CHAPTER 1

SERA

“You dirty, low down, motherfucking wanker,” I ground out angrily. My brother, the one who was supposed to always have my back, had just stuck a knife in it in the most hurtful way. Not that I should be surprised; he’d never been a good brother, always out for what he could get for himself. “The company was meant to be ours, Si, not yours. Ours.”

His response made me want to punch him in the face. Never let it be said that I was a girly girl. Fuck no. I’d never been one, never wanted to be one, and the Army probably hadn’t helped. I was just short of six foot and built like a linebacker, according to my dear old dad. And maybe I was.

My looks had never bothered me, which was probably just as well, as I’d come back from war with a gnarly scar from the corner of my eye all the way down my cheek towards my neck, where it abruptly ended. I’d really thought I was done for the day I’d got it when my hide had been stumbled on until Draco had turned up just in the nick of time. My spotter hadn’t been as lucky as me.

Simon shrugs, holding up his hands, “What can I say, Se? Dad didn’t know if you would make it back, so he left it all to me. What are you going to do with it anyway? It’s not like you can be the face of the company, not looking like you do.”

White-hot rage thrummed its way through me, and a haze of red blurred my vision. I wasn’t ever meant to be the face of the business, and my father had known that. I’d have taken on the installation side, as we’d always discussed. There should have been time, but Dad passed away unexpectedly while I was working out my notice, and I couldn’t get home in time. I’d missed seeing my dad alive by less than an hour. By the time I’d made it to the hospital, he’d already died.

Grief had hit me hard at losing my last parent. By the time I dragged myself out of it, finished up all the paperwork extracting me from the Army, and was home to start building my part of the business just as Dad and I’d discussed. My brother, Simon, had somehow managed to have Dad’s security company put in his name, completely cutting me out. He was such a snake. Always had been and I’m sure always would be.

How we came from the same sweet parents was a mystery to me, but my older brother had always been a nasty piece of work. His words were meant to hurt, and they did.

Even if I was the least vain person out there, it had taken me time to be comfortable with my face.

Inhaling a deep breath, I counted to ten. If there was one thing the Army had taught me, it was how to control my temper. Not wanting him to see how much his words had hurt, albeit not nearly as much as learning that the company I’d helped my dad build over the years, working on it when I was home on leave, only to come home and find it was no longer partly mine made me feel sick to my stomach. It was fine; I’d start again. It’s not like it would be the first time.

Nodding my head with determination, decision made. I’d not be fighting him for it, nor would I be letting him use me to keep the company going. “Okay, it’s all yours. I wish you well, brother.”With those words, I turn on my heel and walk out of the office and then out the door, only stopping when Simon frantically called after me.

“Hang on, Se, there’s no need to leave. Yes, I’m the owner, but you still have a job here. I mean, it’s what Dad would have wanted.”

Figures. He wanted the big office and the big paycheck that came with it but didn’t want to put the hard work in. Well, I wasn’t born yesterday.

“No thanks, Si, you go ahead and run the company. I’ll be moving on. Have a good life.”

It gutted me because I knew that the company my dad and I had bled and sweated over would not be running by the end of the year. My brother talked a good game, but he had no business sense and would spend any money the company made faster than he’d make it. I’d not be beating my head against a brick wall, though. And I didn’t want my name tied to my brother’s in any way, shape, or form—not when it came to business. Best I cut my losses while I could.

With my parents gone, there was nothing tying me to this town; maybe I’d get on my bike and ride. Draco had invited me to visit when I last spoke to him. Plus, I’d like to meet his wife; she sounded like a proper laugh, and I had a feeling she ran rings around him.

Now that I had a plan, I got into my old Jeep and drove to my childhood home. I wanted to see it one last time and take a few keepsakes—pictures and such—because I had a feeling my brother was going to put it up for sale as soon as possible, and I’d not see anything that my parents left.

It didn’t take me long; I knew what I wanted. Their wedding photo, my baby album, my mum’s jewellery box, and a shirt ofmy dad’s. I still couldn’t believe he was gone, taken too soon by a heart attack that nobody saw coming. He’d been fit and healthy as far as I was aware; I’d spoken to him two days before he died, and he hadn’t mentioned not feeling well. Taking one last look around the bedroom that had been theirs, I took a photo for my memory book before turning and walking out the door one last time.

Going to my old bedroom, I looked around, but there was nothing left for me here other than memories. Opening the wardrobe, I found the old backpack I knew I’d left in here what seemed to be a million years ago. Stuffing all that I’d collected in it to make it easier to carry, I walked downstairs, taking any pictures of them off the wall as I went until I got to the bottom, where I left my pile for me to pick up just before I left.

Removing my house keys from my pocket, I took off the housekey that had been mine since the age of twelve and laid it on the kitchen counter. The house was no longer mine because, like the business, somehow my brother had wrangled it into his name. I’d like to know how he’d done it or if it was even legal. I didn’t have it in me to fight him for it, though. Life was too short to spend fighting for bricks and mortar; I’d rather remember my parents and live the best life I could for them.

The company meant nothing to me without my dad running it. Turning in a circle, I took one last look around my childhood home before picking up my backpack and pictures. Walking out the front door to my Jeep, I came to a stop when I found my best friend leaning against the passenger door.

“Evelyn?”

“Hi, babes, we wanted to check on you and went by the office where Si is losing it. Once I understood that you’d decided not to bow to his crap, I knew the next place you’d go was here, andI was right,” she smirks at me. “JoJo and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

While Eve had been explaining why they were here, JoJo had got tired of waiting. I’d wondered how long it would take before her curiosity got the better of her.

“So, what’s the plan, Stan?” she questions, coming to a stop next to Evie. It was hard to believe they were twins. Evelyn, or Evie, was of average height, with blonde hair cut in a short pixie style and brown eyes. Joanna, or JoJo, was near my height of around five foot ten with masses of blonde curly hair and blue eyes. But don’t let her blonde bimbo façade fool you; she was sharp as a tack, just as deadly as any of us, and one of the best women that I knew, and I knew a few.

They always laughed and said their parents got one of each, with JoJo looking like their Swedish mum, who’d been a few inches taller than their dad. Evie looked more like their dad.

That they’d taken the time to check on me meant a lot. Evie had left the Army the same time as me and was looking for some paramedic work. JoJo was still grieving, having lost her husband only a year ago.

Whilst she hadn’t joined us when we went into the military, instead getting married to her childhood sweetheart, she was still a force to be reckoned with. Her husband had ended up terminally ill not three years after they got married.

She was young to be a widow, but she didn’t have any regrets about the choices she’d made. I always thought that the Army missed out on having her in the ranks. We’d certainly missed her. There were five of us from our little town; four of us had joined up together, and somehow, we’d all made it back home together.

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