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I remember Elvis and make my way over there; Gemma is already there assessing the damage. I reach out and take his giant glasses off his face.
“Shit. Are you okay?” I look for any more wounds, and when I don’t see any, I look back into his face. I’m greeted with dimples shining back at me.
“Aw, don’t worry about me. I’ve had much worse.” As he says the words, his eyes slowly close, and he doesn’t respond when I call out his name, nor when I shake his shoulders. I feel tears suddenly start falling down my face, and Gemma’s voice yells for paramedics over the continued chaos around us.
Liam hears the commotion and joins us beside Ford. “Ah, dude. Don’t do this to me,” he says, moving me aside so he can put pressure on the wound.
I stare at him and will him to just open his eyes, hoping I didn’t just watch my friend die. Paramedics rush in and take over from there, hurriedly loading him onto a stretcher and putting him into the back of an ambulance. Liam and I follow everyone out of the church, and I take a deep breath of fresh air. The adrenaline starts to leave my system, and I feel like I could sleep for a week.
“He’ll go to a private wing. They won’t let us in,” Liam says, grabbing my hand and pulling me to a curb to sit down.
“Will he be okay?” I ask, watching the ambulance pull away.
“He’ll be fine. Ford won’t let a bullet take his life.”
As we sit in silence and watch the FBI agents mill around us, I relish in the feel of Liam’s hand in mine and let my mind go over everything that happened. My finger brushes over his ring, and I wonder where we go from here. I’m hoping a hotel room, but I don’t want to be insensitive to what we just went through.
An older man waves Liam over, and he tenses beneath my hand. “What is it?” I ask.
“Margaret, ah, I have to let you know what happens now.” He doesn’t look at me, keeping his gaze on our hands.
“What do you mean?” I look over to the man standing there. “I was thinking we could get a room, whenever you’re done with him, I mean.”
But Liam’s expression isn’t relieved. He’s still got creases by his eyes and his mouth is tight. He’s holding something back from me, and I brace myself for whatever it is. He finally looks at me then, and I hate what his gaze says.
Goodbye isn’t what I was expecting.
“How long?”
“I don’t know,” he says quietly. “But listen, when I’m done, I’ll come find you, and everything I said will happen. I swear to you.” I believe he thinks that, but it’s hard to see it actually happening.
“And I’m supposed to…what? Return to normal?” I ask, thinking the idea is preposterous.
“Just for now.”
I scoff and pull my hand out of his, standing and putting my hands on my head, not able to comprehend what is happening. Of course, I should have seen this coming, shouldn’t I have? How many times has he left me hanging, left me behind?
“Mo, hold on.”
“Stokes.” The man in the expensive-looking suit snaps his fingers, and Liam tenses. I look to him, wondering what he’ll do, but when he looks me in the eyes, I know exactly what he’s going to do.
“It’s all right,” I say with a shrug of my shoulders, even though it absolutely is not all right at all. “I get it.” Lies. Lies. Lies.
“Mo, this is just temporary, I swear. I’ll come find you as soon as I can.”
I nod as he comes close and wraps his hand around the back of my neck. I look into his dark eyes, and they tell me what I want to hear, but it’s not enough, not after everything. He presses his lips to mine and I realize this could be the last time. With that in mind, I grab the lapels of his tux and pull him tight to me, kissing him with everything I have, telling him with the kiss what I can’t let myself say out loud.
We break apart and stare at each other for a moment before he backs away, the man behind him waiting impatiently. I let go of his hand only when I can’t hold it anymore, and I watch him walk away.
He’s put in the back of a black SUV, and it quickly pulls away from the scene. I can’t see through the dark tint of the windows, but I doubt he looked back. Liam doesn’t look back.
It’s then I realize I’m stuck in Vegas with no idea how to get myself home.
“Hey.” I turn and see Mike walk up to me. How did I forget he’s here? He hands me an envelope, and when I open it, I see a plane ticket to Denver along with the ID I thought I’d lost, a wad of cash, and a phone I’ve never seen before. “You get to go home now.” His smile is forced. Somehow, a guy who’s basically a stranger knows Liam hurt me more than Liam himself knows it.
“Yay,” I reply with false enthusiasm.
“It’ll all turn out well.”
