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It was a small house, and it didn’t take much time to clear out the place. Most things were easily parted with. Pictures and keepsakes my mother had from her parents and our life here were the main things that went with us along with clothes worth saving.
Time passed far too fast before the agent announced it was time to leave.
“You don’t have to wait for me,” I told Liam for the millionth time as I tried once again working the ring off my finger.
“I will find you. However long it takes,” he said, refusing to take the ring back. “When I do, you’ll either be wearing it or you’ll give it back.”
I wanted to say something.
“Don’t answer now. Just kiss me.”
I lifted on my toes and did just that, pressing my mouth to his. “I love you,” I whispered against his lips.
“Forever,” he said before reluctantly letting me go.
He stood there in front of our house as the agent herded us into a black sedan. I turned to watch him fade in the distance as we drove away.
Twenty-Three
Liam
The federal trial against Nicolas Cortez had ended. It was now in the jury’s hands. It had taken months before the trial began and more months to sift through the mountains of evidence against him. I’d watched every minute of the live broadcast as I felt my life depended on the outcome.
It had been just over a year since I’d seen or spoken to Natalie.
“Come on. Let’s go get a drink,” Griffin said.
I still worked for him and my dad. I worked every day I could so I wouldn’t go crazy thinking about her.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
He slapped me on my back. “Yes, mate. The verdict isn’t going to happen any quicker by you watching round the clock news.”
Griffin had that way about him. I let him drive me to a dive bar in Manhattan. He was telling me a story about how he’d tried and failed to win Lizzy there. I barely paid attention.
“Things changed,” he said when we walked in.
The dive bar he described with pool tables looked more like a lounge with couches and a dance area filled with bodies.
“We can go,” I offered. I wasn’t in the mood.
“Let’s check it out.”
The way he was scanning the room, I knew what kind of checking out he wanted to do. He led me to the bar area and ordered us a couple of whiskeys. I downed the first and asked for another.
A woman in a short tank top and shorts came over. She approached the big guy first. Then again, I had a don’t bother look on my face.
“Hey, handsome, will you buy me a drink?”
She looked barely legal to me and Griffin felt the same. “You have ID, darling?” he asked in his perfect American accent.
That wasn’t the answer she wanted. She tried her luck with me. “How about you?”
“I’m married,” I said. I didn’t need a piece of paper to know who I belonged to. I downed the second shot.
The scowl on my face kept most women away. Those that tried, I gave the same line too. When I’d hit my limit and was ready to go home, Griffin’s eyes were trained on a woman on the dance floor.
She was a looker. So I didn’t blame him. For the first time that night, he made a move. Gorgeous women had thrown themselves at him and he’d turned them all down. I was fascinated how this one had caught his attention to the point he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. All I could think was damn. It was happening to him just like it had to Kalen, Conner, Grant, and me.
Griffin, the biggest player I’d ever met, was dancing. His eyes were locked on the woman as hers were on his. I knew in that moment I would need to find my own way home. The way they gazed in each other’s eyes was like there was no one around. I smiled sadly remembering the moment I’d accepted that Natalie was mine. I hadn’t been tempted to be with anyone else.
I sent him a quick text that I was leaving and stumbled out into the night. New York was alive again. The virus in the rearview mirror, I had a taste of what it was like to walk the streets with hundreds of people all around me.
Somehow I ended up in Times Square when an alert played across several of the screens.
Nicolas Cortez had been found guilty on all charges.
* * *
Natalie
When the news came, Mom and I hugged and cried, and then hugged some more.
“It’s over,” she said.
“It’s over,” I repeated.
Valentina and some of father’s cronies had turned over evidence or were witnesses in his case. They hadn’t needed Mom or me. I was grateful for that. Not that anyone knew who we were.
