Page 87 of My Best Friend Is Broken
“Alright,” Dario says finally. “Molly stays with you until this is resolved. I’ll send additional security for the building, discreet surveillance. But Nicolo…” his voice drops, becomes something harder, “if anything happens to him, if he gets so much as a scratch because of this, there’s nowhere you can hide from me.”
“Understood.”
It’s not a threat. It’s a promise, and we both know it. But I’d expect nothing less. If our positions were reversed, if someone failed to protect Liam, I’d be exactly the same. Worse, probably.
The meeting continues, strategies discussed, contingencies planned, violence authorized. But I’m only half-listening now, my mind already racing ahead to how I’m going to explain this to Liam. How I’m going to tell him that his peaceful, healing existence is about to be invaded by the realities of my world.
That the safety I’ve been trying so hard to build for him is more fragile than either of us wanted to believe.
Ifind Liam in the kitchen when I get home, making lunch and humming that Italian phrase I taught him. He looks up when I enter, his face breaking into a smile that makes my chest tight.
“How was the meeting?” he asks, turning back to the sandwiches he’s assembling.
“Complicated.” I lean against the counter, trying to figure out how to explain this without scaring him. “We have a situation with the Russians. It’s getting serious.”
His hands still on the bread. “Serious how?”
“They’re escalating. Going after people connected to the family, trying to hit us where we’re vulnerable.” I take a breath. “Molly needs protection. Somewhere safe that the Russians don’t know about.”
“And you offered our place,” Liam says, not a question but a statement of fact.
“Yeah. I know it’s asking a lot, having someone else in our space when you’re still…”
“When I’m still crazy?” he interrupts, but there’s no heat in it, just sad acceptance.
“That’s not what I was going to say. But this is serious, Liam. These are dangerous people, and having Molly here means we become a target if they find out.”
“Molly is your boss’s boyfriend?”
“Yeah.”
“The one you’ve told me about? The person who has been a really good friend to you?”
“Yeah,” I say again, this time flushing a little, because damn have I been too self-absorbed to realize it. Molly has become an amazing friend. He is far more than simply the boss’s boy.
Liam sets down the knife and turns to face me properly, his expression thoughtful. “Molly is Dario’s whole world.”
“Yes.”
“And Dario is trusting you to keep him safe.”
“Yes.”
“Then we keep him safe.” He says it simply, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Whatever you need me to do, however I can help, we do this.”
The ease of his acceptance catches me off guard. “Just like that? No questions about the danger, no worry about what this means for your recovery?”
Guilt gnaws at my insides. Liam’s reasons are much more wholesome than mine. He doesn’t even know Molly, and he is willing to help purely out of the kindness of his heart. Whereas, while I do want to help keep Molly safe, my main motivation is the protection it extends to Liam.
“Are you sure?” I ask, and my voice trembles a little.
“Nicky, I work for a mafia doctor now. I stitch up gunshot wounds and treat overdoses and keep my mouth shut about who I see and what they tell me. I’m already part of this world.” He crosses to me, taking my hands. “Besides, you’d do the same for me, wouldn’t you? If I needed protection, you’d move heaven and earth to keep me safe.”
“Without hesitation.”I already am. That is why I am doing this.
“Then we do it for Molly. Because he matters to Dario the way I matter to you.”
Jesus Christ, Liam is a much better man than me. And the parallel he has drawn is exact, perfect, terrifying. Molly and Liam, both vulnerable, both precious, both the soft centers in the lives of hard men who would do anything to protect them.
