Page 40 of Divine

I shook my head to refute her statement. “Liam is just nice.”

“That doesn’t take away from the facts.”

“The fact is we are just friends,” I countered.

“I’ll take that for now and pretend to be surprised when you two announce your engagement.”

“That’s just it. I’m ready for marriage and babies. I want to find the right person to live happily ever after with, but I can’t really do that with the boys in the way. It’s like they want to pick my husband for me. I don’t want an arrangement like Bishop’s. I want to find true love.”

“I’ll talk to them about standing down. I know how hard it is trying to be an adult with them constantly in your business, baby girl. If you want them out of your business, you have to put your foot down and show them you’re more than our pretty, pretty princess. Of course, they think they’re your fathers. They pay all of your bills. If you want to be treated like an adult, it needs to apply to all areas of your life.”

I rolled my eyes and poked my lips out knowing that she was absolutely right. I was so used to the boys doing things for me that I didn’t even see the bills for my utilities most of the time. I didn’t worry about them either because I knew without fail that one of them was going to take care of it.

The server came over and took my and Liam’s order. I went ahead and requested another glass of wine since my mom let me know the toasts were coming up. Everything was normal. We ate, drank, and laughed our hearts out.

Liam was lighthearted and even drank a glass of scotch. Everything was fine. Then it wasn’t. Slow chaos seemed to tear through the room as someone yelled something about a shooting. I didn’t have time to react before Liam swept me up into his arms. Effortlessly, he carried me out of one of the side exits and down some stairs.

With my face buried in Liam’s chest, I held onto him for dear life. He didn’t stop moving until we made it to the car. I had no idea what had happened inside. His eyes were wild and laced with concern as he placed me in the passenger seat of his car. He always refused to drive one of my cars when we rode somewhere together. Tonight was no different.

It was a good thing he’d had the foresight not to valet his car because just as quickly as we had entered the party, he was strapping me into the passenger seat of his car and shuffling around to hop in and drive away.

“Liam, what the hell is going on?”

He was quiet at first. He wasn’t ignoring me, but he was laser focused on maneuvering through the slew of cars in the parking lot of the venue. Once we were in the clear, he looked over at me with a sobering expression.

“Bishop was shot.”

* * *

Tears seeped down my face, saturating my pillows. The past forty-eight hours had been a whirlwind. Liam hadn’t wanted to leave my side when I finally left the hospital to get some rest. For hours, he stood then sat with my hand clutched in his while we waited on the news, any news.

Bishop wasn’t even out of the woods yet when my world was shattered by the most devastating news in the world. The only person who got me better than Candice or Liam, the only person who I could turn to when everything in the world felt hopeless was gone. I didn’t know if life would ever be the same.

“What do you need from me, Divine?” Liam’s voice caused my eyes to pop open.

I had turned my bedroom into my own version of a cave by making my house freezing cold and pulling all the curtains closed until the room was pitch black. His voice surprised me because the only light in the room was the clock on my nightstand. Liam was four hours early for his shift.

“I don’t think you can fix this, Lee,” I said, unable to keep my voice from cracking.

“If I can’t fix it, let me help you tolerate it. What do you need from me, Divine?”

“I just want to lay here and cry,” I confessed.

“Fine.”

The bed shifted under his weight before I heard his shoes drop to the floor one by one. He scooted his frame across the bed, searching for me in the darkness with his large hands. Once his hands found me, he pulled my head into his lap. While I lay there, he stroked my head, making long passes down my back before sweeping up and starting all over again.

His woodsy scent held a slight edge of citrus that usually caused my body to heat, but in the moment, it seemed to soothe me. Liam brought me comfort that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere else. I heard a flicker before the whoosh of a flame filled the silence in the room. The pungent aroma of weed floated across the cool air, and I inhaled a deep breath, hoping its soothing effects found me sooner than later.

I jumped slightly when Liam’s hand touched my lips. Realizing that he was holding the blunt to my lips, I pursed them around it and inhaled the musky smoke. I released the smoke from my lungs and rolled over onto my back. This time when Liam put the blunt to my lips I tried to take it from his hand.

“Just relax, love. I got you,” he instructed.

With those words, I relaxed into him. Since Liam was controlling all the puffing and passing, I just waited my turn. Soon enough, I felt heavy and light at the same time. Rest had eluded me since the night of the party. With my cousin fighting for his life and my mom losing hers, I had been afraid that I wouldn’t sleep for a long time.

As soon as Liam showed up, everything shifted. He continued to stroke my hair as we smoked. I realized that we had never smoked together. I didn’t even know that Liam smoked weed. I guess he didn’t find it appropriate for work, even though I did everything I could to keep the time he spent with me from feeling like work. I heard myself breathing lightly as I finally drifted off to sleep.

Right before I went out, I heard him mutter, “I love you so much, pretty girl. Don’t worry, baby. I got you.”

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