Page 43 of Knot Just Their Nanny
“Want me to get that?” Liam asks, indicating to me chopping onions on the other side of the kitchen.
“Sure,” I say with a smile, and then I freeze. I’d forgotten all about the call earlier. “Actually, just leave it…”
Too late.
Liam has the phone to his ear, saying, “Hello?”
Chapter 25
Liam
“Who the fuck is this?” a deep voice growls at me over the line.
I frown and pull the phone away to glare at it before slamming it back to my ear. “Who the fuck isthis?”
“Hang up,” I hear Zara hiss at me from where she’s still slicing onions, but I’m already caught up in the confrontation, and this pillock has wound me up the wrong way.
“Listen here, pal,” I say firmly into the phone, “if you’re looking for trouble, you’ve called the right number.”
Zara looks like she’s about to bolt across the room and grab the phone out of my hand. Ben and Henry have gone dead quiet, their attention shifting between the phone and Zara’s increasingly agitated movements.
There’s a pause on the line, and then the voice returns, dripping with malice. “You tell Zara that Eddie isn’t done with her yet. She can run, she can block me, she can change her number, but she can’t fucking hide.”
My blood runs cold, and I feel anger boiling up inside me like a kettle set to scream. “You fucking what?” I growl, ready to throw down with this asshole, but the line goes dead.
I lower the phone slowly and meet Zara’s gaze, her face pale. Her eyes are wide, her hands have stopped moving, and a half-chopped onion has been forgotten on the cutting board.
I feel Ben’s presence before he actually speaks, his tone urgent with concern. “What the hell was that?”
Zara, fear on her face, takes a shaky breath and looks like she might crumble right there in the kitchen, so I do what my alpha instincts are yelling at me to do. I cover for her.
“Some dickhead ringing the wrong number.”
Zara gulps, and our eyes meet. There’s a silent understanding between us.
Ben and Henry look sceptical, but they don’t push it. They decide to let it lie, for now.
“I’ll set the table,” Ben says after a moment.
“Thanks,” Zara says, her voice steadier than her hands as she goes back to chopping.
I keep my eye on her as she finishes the onions and slides them into a pan, wishing I could do something more to help her, something to take that fear away from her eyes, but I’m at a loss. Instead, I focus on putting together a salad with a bit too much vigour than is probably necessary.
After Zara manages to whip up a delicious-smelling pasta and sit down to eat, she is quieter than usual.
“What a day,” I murmur.
“Yeah,” Ben agrees, finishing up. “I’m knackered. I’m going to bed. I’ll feed Mia before I crash.”
“Okay,” Zara says quietly.
“Guess that’s my cue to beat it,” Henry says, giving me a lingering stare which speaks volumes. He wants answers about that phone call. But then, so do I, and until I can talk to Zara, no one is getting any.
Henry gets up and claps me on the shoulder. “Catch you in the morning.”
I nod as he heads out, leaving just Zara and me with the remnants of dinner and a heavy silence. I clear my throat, trying to cut through the tension that’s hanging between us like a sodden towel.
“Look, Zara,” I start, keeping my voice low, “about earlier –“
