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“But we’re bleeding out all over again, and right now it seems like we were better off,” he sighed. “I’m done with this, Melody. Right now I just want peace.”
I took a deep breath, but didn’t say anything. My chest felt too heavy to speak about this anymore.
LIAM
She had kicked my world off its axis. I didn’t know where to start or how to even begin to process everything she had just told me. It was like one blow after another with her. Her phone call replayed over and over in my head. And not once did I realize how much trouble she was in. Why hadn’t she said anything? She always had this wall up, and I was tired of trying to break through it.
I tried not to look at her but it was hard. She was comfortable in the corner, her gun tucked behind her back, as strong as ever.
It was selfish of me. I know. But I wanted…I needed her to need me as much as I needed her. I was fucking confused.
Would she have come back if it weren’t for Ethan?
It seemed that after two years, we were back to square one. Was this how all marriages were? A neverending roller coaster of emotions trying its best to beat the shit out of you?
SIX
“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
—George Bernard Shaw
CORALINE
I paced slowly, from the door to the window of our bedroom, waiting to see what my husband had discovered.
“Well? Do you see the footprint thing she’s talking about?” I asked Declan as he worked.
He shook his head. “Baby, I would have known if someone was…holy shit.”
Rushing to his side, I almost pushed him out of the way to stare at the screen. It was a map of Europe, and it was littered with tiny red dots.
“What am I looking at?” There was no conceivable order, just dots.
“It’s hard to think when you’re so close to me,” he whispered before kissing my cheek and pulling me into his lap. Trying to get a more comfortable position on his lap, I felt him harden underneath me.
“Declan, concentrate,” I muttered, as I bit my lip.
“I am,” he mumbled as he kissed my shoulder.
A shiver went down my spine as he kept trailing kisses along my body. I had to clench my eyes shut in order to get out my next sentence, though it pained me to say it. “Declan, the computer…footprint thing…this is important.” At least it sounded like a complete sentence in my mind.
“Fine,” he sighed, kissing my neck once more before stopping. “But this isn’t over.”
Turning to him, I kissed his lips quickly. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Now what is this?”
“All the spots Mel checked in from.”
“Holy shit.” There had be at least a hundred dots all over Europe. France, Poland, Romania…the list went on. How did she move around so much?
“From what I can tell, she’s been keeping tabs on Ethan and was able to access the video feed, but not audio. Thank God for that, I think I might have told Ethan a few of his parents’ secrets,” he snickered and I could only imagine what those were.
Between him and Neal, Ethan was going to be a hellraiser and a heartbreaker. Females of the future, you’ve been warned.
Wait.
“She said she knew that Ethan liked to listen to the sounds of the ocean. How could she have known that if she couldn’t hear?”
He pulled up the live video feed of Ethan’s room, Liam and Mel could both be seen sleeping in opposite corners of the room. Declan zoomed in on the iPod dock.
“It’s labeled Ocean,” he chuckled at me.
Well duh. Now I felt stupid.
“You said she was rearranging the room?” he questioned as he swept the entire room over with the camera. “She put Ethan’s crib in the best defense position for her. With her sitting near the window like that, she can see through the back and have a clear shot at the door before anyone can make it further in.”
It’s not safe yet. That’s what she was talking about.
“I think there’s another mole in the house.” There were at least a dozen people that came into Ethan’s room to take out the trash, clean, sweep for bugs…
“Great, I’m sure Liam and Mel will love hearing that,” he muttered, as he rested his head on my shoulder.
“I’m not going to tell them right now, not yet, at least not until I figure out who it is.”
“You?”
“Yes, me. And don’t say it in that tone. I’m kickass, remember?”
He grinned and I glared, which only made him grin even more. Ugh! I hated him sometimes.
“Okay. Am I a suspect?”
“Keep looking at me like that and you will be. And I was right about Mel. I knew that she couldn’t just drop of the face of the planet without a care.” The way she looked at Ethan after just giving birth, that was the look of a mother in love. She couldn’t just forget him.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This proves she cares about Ethan. But it does not absolve her of all her sins. If only she cared about Liam that much,” Declan muttered, as he continued to click through the data stream.
Getting off of him, I bit my bottom lip as I began to pace again.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” he asked, spinning to look at me.
I wanted to tell him, but I wasn’t sure if I should. Mel would be pissed.
“Coraline.” The smile on his face dropped as he looked me over carefully. “Are you feeling sic…”
“No!” I said quickly. “I just know something, but I don’t know if I should tell you. I want to because…you know I’m going to end up blabbing later, but Mel would—”
“Just tell me before you pass out.” He smirked, crossing his arms. That smug look on his face was so annoying.
“I’m not going to pass out.”
“Now you’re trying to change the subject.”
“Now you’re being a butthead.”
“A butthead? What are we, five?” He laughed and I loved seeing him so carefree, even if it was at my expense.
“I’m trying not to curse. Ethan’s going to grow up thinking normal people use ‘fuck’ in every sentence.”
“Fine, I’m a butthead. So just tell me, you know I can keep a secret, after all, I still haven’t bragged about that thing you do with your—”
“Oh my God, shut up, I’ll tell you.”
And the asshole winked at me.
“So after we left Ethan’s room, I was coming to see you but I forgot my watch. I went back and I found Olivia standing outside the door, when she saw me, she asked about Ethan and I told her he was fine then she left.”
“Okay, we all know Olivia can’t let Ethan out of her sight for more than an hour,” he frowned, leaning back.
“Yeah, I know. That wasn’t shocking to me, but it was what Mel said to Liam.”
“So you were eavesdropping?”
I didn’t like that word. “I was outside the door when they started arguing in hush tones. How was it my fault if I overheard what happened to her? You know I have good hearing.”
“Her, as in Mel?” he asked.
I nodded.
“And what happened to her?”
