Page 98 of Cruel Debts
He blinked at me, a blank stare in his eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You went from hating my guts to tying yourself to me with a knotted rope," I pointed out, watching as he processed the change in himself for the first time. "I'm just saying, it's weird. And overwhelming."
"Do youwantme to hate you?" He cocked his head, grinning chaotically. "I can go back to insulting you, if you want. All you have to do is step into the kitchen and threaten to pick up a spatula. That'll probably do it."
"Rude," I groaned, throwing a pillow at his head. "On second thought, maybe you should just lean into this sweeter side of yourself and embrace the change?—"
"Nope, too late, the usual me is back," he said with a huff, swinging the pillow back at me. "You shouldn't have opened your mouth."
"Ugh, you're right," I said with a groan, rolling my eyes. "I don't suppose you two will consider taking me to work tonight?"
"Not on your life," Hawke growled, his eyes narrowed. "Not only would Liam kill us, but I don't feel like catching an assault charge tonight."
"Says the literal Ghost." I distinctly remember how he made himself scarce the whole time Asher melted down on those two dudes in the club. "Fine, whatever. I'll just sit here and nurse my injuries while you and Asher ditch me with the holdout."
"Give him time, Trinity," he said in a moment of wisdom. "He'll come around once he gets over fighting it."
And then he was gone, leaving me to think about the possibility of Liam never 'coming around' as Hawke called it. What would that look like? Would we all just continue to coexist, with this huge wedge between me and Liam, the last of my schoolgirl and grown woman obsessions? The third love of my life? Could I live like that?
Could I walk away, if it came to it? Could I leave them all behind?
The thought was sobering. I had everything I wanted here, but I was supposed to be someone else. What would my parents do if I told them I didn't plan to be their little brood mare for the family aspirations? Would they hunt me down and drag me home?Could they?I was a legal adult. I could make my own decisions.
But they had pull, they had money, they had power. And I had nothing without them.
I stewed over that for a half an hour, and then all hell broke loose when I ventured into the kitchen for snacks.
Liam stood in the living room, staring at the wall, his arms crossed as he slowly turned into a human statue. I spared him a few seconds of a glance and then continued toward the fridge, where I liberated a bottle of ice-cold water.
I didn't even get past popping the cap when his voice grated across my spine in true Liam fashion.
"You know, this houseused to bepeaceful."
Oh, so that was what we were doing, huh? We were fighting?
Fine. I could play this game. But I was done being nice. I was done being apologetic. Hawke and Asher wanted me here, and unless this had turned into a Liam dictatorship overnight, I had more on my side than Liam did.
"Oh, did it? I can't imagine it being peaceful with you three in the same space." The sweetness and sarcasm dripped from every word that spilled forth from my mouth, and it only served him right. After all, he was asking for this. Him and his shit attitude, his abrasive comments, his bullshit act that he put on that none of this affected him at all.
"You know what I mean."
He still refused to look at me, so I goaded him on. Maybe if I could make him snap, make him face the truth, things would be easier.
"I know what youthinkyou mean. But I also know what you're afraid to say. You're just scared that you're changing, too. And you don't like it."
Liam whirled on me, stalking over like a charging bull at a red flag. I backed up instinctively until my back hit the wall, and he used that to his advantage, caging me in with his strong arms.
His teeth were gritted as he bared them at me and came nose to nose, so close I could feel the rage boiling over in his blood.
"Let's get one thing right here, Trin." His left hand gripped me by the chin, and I winced as he yanked my face up to meet his glare, the fire in the depths of his eyes unlike anything I'd ever seen there. "You're just a job. You're nothing more than a means to an end for us. Sure, the guys are having fun, but you'll go home soon enough. And when you do, they'll go back to normal, like they should." His words cut to the bone, ripped at the buried worries and fears that I didn't even let myself think about inthe privacy of my own bedroom. "You should stop fucking with them, with all of us, and just stay out of trouble until we end this contract?—"
"So you want me gone," I deadpanned, the emotion leeched out of me. Sure, I expected him to say something about how I was making things different. I expected the animosity. What I never expected from the man who once told me I was special to him, the man who promised to protect me, even before he made a blood oath with my brother, the man who took on a contract he didn't have to to find me and make sure I was safe, was that I was nothing more than a means to an end. To make me feel weak and pathetic, emotions I hated so much I swore I'd never let anyone make me feel them again.
Just a job. A means to an end.
This wasn't the Liam I remembered. This wasn't the Liam who fought with me in the gym. The Liam who agreed to teach me to shoot, even though I didn't need to learn. The Liam who stood up to two strange men and staked a claim on me to keep them from getting too close to me.
The Liam I always thought had a soft spot for me.
