Page 3 of Liv Parrish

“Not very manly, I know. Promise you won’t use it against me?” For a moment she looks like she’s giving this some genuine consideration. I know she’s teasing, and it looks so damn cute on her that I can’t hide my smile despite her mock serious expression.

“I don’t know about that. It is extremely valuable information. I might not have a choice.” There’s a twinkle in her eye, a mischievous look on her face and I can imagine her as a child with a sibling, threatening a tickle war, laughing hysterically. I consider for the hundredth time asking her questions about her life, finding out every little thing about her, but then she’s pulling off her gloves and reaching into her back pocket before handing me her phone. “Here, you should call your friend. People must be worried about you.” The gesture is so out of the blue that I just stare at her for a moment before reaching for the device. Our fingers touch briefly, sending bolts of current up my arm, which only serve to intensify the disappointment I feel that she suddenly seems eager for me to leave. In the blink of an eye her entire demeanor seems to change and I feel it like a punch to the gut.

“Are you sick of me already? And here I thought I was being on my best behavior.” Yeah, I know it’s a dick move to put her on the spot like that but I couldn’t help myself. She’s walking to the bathroom so I can’t see her face, but I don’t miss her brief response.

“It’s time.” Right.

She’s right, of course, but it doesn’t change the fact that I would much rather stay than face what’s waiting for me outside of these walls.

Twenty-seven minutes have passed since I made the call to Aaron to come get me. Minutes filled with anticipation and dread for the impending farewell looming before me. Now I’m back on Liv’s sofa, wearing my freshly laundered jeans and a blue sweatshirt that doesn’t belong to me but fits like it does. My thoughts keep returning to the identity of the owner, to his place in this apartment and his relationship to this woman I felt such an instant connection with. It would be easy to convince myself that I saw flashes of interest in her dark eyes when she looked at me, stolen glances when she thought I wasn’t paying attention, but maybe that’s what I wanted to see and now there’s only distance between us. Liv is hovering in the kitchen, watching the clock the same way I am. She doesn’t meet my gaze and she’s holding onto the countertop as if trying to hold herself in place or keep herself from pacing. I would give my right arm to know what she’s thinking because her expression isn’t giving anything away, but if it’s anything close to what I’m feeling …

The buzzer by her door sounds, breaking the silence and she walks over, presses the intercom button but doesn’t say anything. Aaron’s voice comes over the speaker.

“Hi, I’m here for Heath.” She looks over at me, and when I nod, she pushes the button to let him in. When she opens the door, all three of my brothers walk in and the space in the apartment immediately shrinks to half its size, and not just because they appear physically intimidating. We served together in the Navy, belonged to the same SEAL team, work together now and are closer than blood, so even though we aren’t related, these men are as close to me as my actual siblings. Liv doesn’t seem to notice though. She remains standing by the door with Aaron and Riley while Mike saunters over to me and hands me a pair of sneakers.

“Good to see you, man. You doing okay?” He’s a qualified medic and even though we were all trained to handle medical emergencies in the field, Mike was always our go-to guy if anyone needed patching up. He looks me up and down as if he can see through my clothes.

“It’s good to see you too. I’m fine, Liv took great care of me.” He nods, accepting my words at face value before focusing his attention on Liv, but I know I’ll be getting the third degree later. Aaron also turns to Liv but keeps a respectful distance.

“Thank you for what you did. I’m Aaron, this is Riley and that’s Mike. You might not think it was a big deal, but you saved the life of someone who has saved our lives many times over. That’s not something we take lightly, so you ever need anything, you call. One of us will always come.” I see him slip a business card into her hand and then he turns to leave, as is his way. A man of few words never described a man more accurately than it does Aaron, but he is also one of the best people I know. He’s a man of his word and that means more than a hundred sentences spoken with feigned intent. Riley and Mike follow closely but I hang back so that I can have one last moment alone with Liv. She doesn’t say a word and keeps her gaze to the floor until I’m standing right in front of her, my breath caught in my chest, my heart pounding behind my bruised ribs. Then she lifts her eyes to me, giant pools of chocolate brown that hide so much, and I must fight the urge to take her in my arms, to comfort her. I have no idea why she might need it, and I’m pretty sure she won’t tell me if I asked, but that just makes the urge stronger and more difficult to ignore.

“Liv, I don’t know how to thank you for what you’ve done, except to say I’m so grateful you were the one who found me in that alley.” She looks away again, not saying anything. “The number Aaron gave you; you can reach me on that too. If you ever need anything …” I trail off because there are a hundred things I want to say to her, and goodbye isn’t one of them. She turns her gaze back to me, stares into my eyes as if looking for something only she knows how to find, then steps up on her toes and places a brief kiss on my cheek. Her lips are soft and warm, and sparks ignite where we make contact, but she pulls away before I can soak it in the way I desperately long to do.

“Goodbye, Heath. Take care.” And that’s it. All that’s left for me to do is walk out of her apartment and join my brothers who are waiting to take me away from her.

§§§

We sit in Aaron’s SUV, heading back into the city. No one speaks, not even Riley, the most outgoing and talkative of our group. It won’t last, there are too many questions to answer, but I appreciate the reprieve. I stare out the window, watching the scenery flash by without taking anything in because I’m still in that apartment on the wrong side of town, with a woman I want to get to know better, but who kissed me on the cheek before shutting the door on any possibility of a future. I know it’s too soon to feel this strongly about someone I just met, an attraction that refuses to be relegated to something as mundane as mere lust, but the fact that there seems to be no future for us makes those feelings all the more intense. The loss of something I never had, a glimpse at what I’ve always wanted. I also know she won’t call the number Aaron gave her, and I get it. Liv was helping someone who needed it, nothing more. She remained detached because she understood that our time together would be finite. Usually that would be me, one foot out the door, so why am I so bothered by this? The simple answer? I wanted her to feel the same pull I did. I know there was chemistry between us, it couldn’t possibly be one-sided, but getting Liv to admit it might take all my SEAL training and then some. I know it would be worth it though.

It takes us almost an hour to reach our offices due to the mid-morning traffic. Fortress Security is situated in an old warehouse and was renovated to include everything we would need to operate our private security company. Amongst other things it contains a state-of-the-art medical facility which is where I find myself now being examined by Mike. We don’t talk about the last twenty-four hours, or about Liv. He just asks me about each of my injuries, how they occurred and then proceeds to examine how they were treated, making up his own mind about her skills. Once he’s done and I’ve changed into clean clothes, all of them my own, we walk over to his office where Riley and Aaron are waiting for us.

“He’s fine,” Mike begins. “There’s no sign of infection and the wounds are healing as expected. The concussion doesn’t seem to be that serious either, but I’ll keep an eye on him.” He faces me again. “You were incredibly lucky. This could have gone wrong in a dozen different ways.”

“Yeah, well. You know me, Lucky’s my middle name.” It’s not. Really, it’s William.

“That’s great. So, what happened?” Aaron doesn’t mince words, but then again, he has the most riding on this op. Two years ago his sister Melissa disappeared and was believed to have been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring. We were all still deployed at the time, which was a mindfuck in itself, but this was the event that set us on the path of leaving the Navy and starting our own private security company. There was never any doubt that the four of us would do this together. The Navy made us a team, but our experiences made us family and that’s just the way it is. Add to that the fact that Melissa was like a little sister to all of us, even though she’s twenty-three years old, and the whole situation became very personal very quickly.

Fortress does all the usual stuff you’d expect from a private security company: home and business security systems, bodyguards for visiting dignitaries and celebrities, as well as cybersecurity. Then there are the services that don’t make it onto the About Us page on the company website, those where we team up with government organizations and federal agencies when extra boots are needed on the ground and our skills and training can be utilized. Finding Melissa is not one of those. We worked all the intel, followed every lead, did all the leg work. We managed to infiltrate the organization that appeared most likely linked to her disappearance with me going under cover as a low-level runner, someone who could blend in while still having enough access to gain more intel. And it was working. We have information now that we couldn’t have gathered any other way, even though just being close to those people made my skin crawl, but things started to change just this past week. Everyone became more cautious, more watchful of what was going on around them, as if they knew something was about to go down. Nobody said a word and suddenly I was cut off from the flow of information like a tap being shut. And then, four days ago, while out on a routine run with three other guys not much higher up the food chain than I was, they jumped me, which brings us here, with new questions to answer. Was this just some random attack or was my cover blown, and if so by whom? More importantly, what are the implications for the girls currently being held captive? There were seven of them that we knew of, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-four. Of course, none of them is Melissa, but Aaron refuses to give up hope that we will find her. Meanwhile these girls’ fates become more precarious with every passing moment.

We discuss all the details at length, from everything I’ve learned while working in the organization to the details Riley found from his cyber sleuthing. It is true, companies in our line of work need a solid cyber investigation department and Riley is one of the best in the business. It’s all about knowing what information is needed, where to find it and being quick about it without leaving any trace or drawing attention to ourselves.

I think we are just about done when Mike speaks up. “So, are we going to talk about what happened last night?” He gives me a pointed stare and I know there is no way around this, but I’m still reluctant to share the details.

“There’s not much to tell. Liv found me in the alley I was dumped in, which happened to be close to her apartment. She was going to call an ambulance, but I convinced her not to, didn’t want to risk the attention. She offered to patch me up and that’s it. This morning I called you guys to come get me. The end.” Blank stares meet my gaze from two of the three men I call my brothers.

“Liv. Pretty name for a pretty girl.” I should have known Riley would notice. He’s the quintessential playboy bachelor who refuses to admit there’s such a word as commitment in the English language and right now he’s poking at the one nerve that’s far too raw and exposed, grinning like he’s just figured out some big secret.

“Don’t.” I don’t even bother trying to keep the threat from my voice.

“And does Liv have a last name?” Riley asks, obviously choosing to ignore my warning. He will probably start looking into her the moment he sits down in front of his computer.

“I’m sure she does, but I don’t know what it is. And you are not going to dig into her life. She has nothing to do with this.”

“So, you think it’s a coincidence that she was in that alley right when you needed her. And she just looked at you and thought, ‘Sure, let’s take this complete stranger home, even though he looks like shit with the stab wounds and bruises.’ Come on, man. We have to look into this, just to be sure.” And yeah, I know he’s right, but a part of me still wants to protest because Liv is mine, at least the little bit I had of her. I realize how that sounds, but she’s private and I don’t want anyone digging into her life, even these men who are closest to me.

“I’ll take care of it. If I need help, I’ll let you know,” I reply. Mike looks like he wants to argue, but only shakes his head.

“Fine, you can do that tomorrow. Go home and get some rest. We’ll carry on with what we’ve got here in the meantime.” Aaron, as usual, remains quiet and watchful from his corner of the office.

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