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Him also teaching me various self-defense moves so I could protect myself.
He’d told me he wanted to know I was safe when he wasn’t around.
At the time, I’d gone along, if for no other reason than to spend more time with him.
I never could have anticipated he would soon be taken from me.
Shaking off the memories, I grabbed the pistol and creeped closer to the door.
When a familiar voice echoed from the other side, I came to an abrupt stop.
“Gin. Open up. It’s me.”
“Liam?” I blinked repeatedly, relief filling me.
That did nothing to sway Ollie’s determination. If anything, hearing Liam’s voice made him even more upset, his barking shifting into a growl.
“Ollie, hush,” I ordered, and the dog obeyed, albeit somewhat grudgingly.
I returned my gun to the safe, then rushed back to the door. As my hand touched the cold metal of the knob, I remembered the necklace. Not wanting Liam to worry unnecessarily, I hastily grabbed the piece along with its accompanying box and shoved it into the depths of my closet before hurrying to the door and flinging it open.
“Liam,” I exhaled as my eyes fell on my friend’s suit-clad physique. “What are you doing here?”
His dark gaze locked on mine. “You finish your first week at your dream job and you don’t think I’d come here to celebrate? What kind of friend would I be?”
He wrapped his arms around me, pressing a tender kiss to my cheek.
As surprised as I was to see him here, I couldn’t deny I was comforted by his presence, especially after receiving that necklace. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched as I stood in the doorway.
Pulling out of his hug, I scanned the street, searching for anything out of the ordinary. An older man walked his dog along the sidewalk. A young girl rode her pink bicycle, her pigtails swaying with her movements. And a Jeep Wrangler cruised by, surfboards strapped to its roof. All typical sights in this beachside community.
Yet something seemed off.
“You mean to tell me you flew all the way out here just to celebrate me finishing a week of work?” I ushered Liam inside, hushing Ollie’s growling once more. The instant I closed the door behind us, I felt better.
Safer.
Liam always had that effect on me.
Years ago, I never could have imagined we’d be this close.
Hell, I never could have imagined he’d respond to my email in the first place.
As part of my therapy, I reached out to the families of my father’s victims. It was a daunting task, but I wanted to find closure and make amends, even if I bore no fault for his actions. Hell, when he’d first started killing women, I’d been a child. I still felt the need to do something, though.
Liam was only ten when my father targeted his mother. I wasn’t sure what I’d hoped to get out of contacting him. I certainly didn’t expect to find the person who would become one of the most important people in my life.
“What are friends for?” He flashed me his debonair smile, but it wavered, betraying his true feelings.
While Liam and I had been friends for a decade now, he’d made it clear that he’d give anything to be more than friends. But I’d always resisted, not wanting to jeopardize our friendship.
Liam was the reason I fought my attraction to Samuel as hard as I did. Samuel was his closest friend. He didn’t want anything to come between them.
Like me.
But that only lasted for so long before neither one of us could deny the connection we’d felt from the second our eyes met, despite the nine-year age difference between us.
Regardless, I could see how much Samuel struggled with lying to Liam. We both did. It was why we kept our relationship a secret as long as we did. Not only was Liam his closest friend, but he was also his business partner, the two of them having developed an online gaming platform that combined social media and gaming, allowing users to design and build their own games for others to play.
