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Of course it was.
My blood pressure spiked as I stared at the device. I should let it go to voicemail. To join the others he’d already left.
I picked up the phone, just feeling the vibrations on my palm as the last ring came over.
I ran a shaky finger across the screen to pick up the line. It took every ounce of willpower I had to quickly answer. “I’ve said everything I need to say, Liam. Leave me alone.”
Silence. Then a crackling sound and a dulled man's voice speaking. I pressed the phone against my ear.
“Liam?” Suddenly every single one of those crime documentaries that were binged this year came rocketing through my mind.
It was him. It sounded like him, just distant, gritty, like the phone was being used through fabric.
“Liam, answer me right now. If this is some kind of sick joke, then I will never see you again. Again. I will block your number. I’m not kidding.”
More crackles. Then that distant version of Liam’s voice again. I could hear the clanging sound of his truck's open-door alarm, and I had a horrible realization of what could be happening.
“Liam, if you can hear me, stay with the truck, okay? I’m coming to get you.”
I hung up, shoving my feet into a fair of brightly colored sandals and snatching my keys from the counter. I looked around my apartment as if waiting for an answer to appear for me. What did someone bring to a possible attack, car theft, drunken brawl, crime scene?
I wanted to be prepared. I nodded to myself. I needed backup.
Cici? Oh gosh, that was all wrong. She’d filet Liam herself if we got close enough.
Lucidity slipped into the tangled mess of my brain, and I dialed the all too familiar numbers before I could second guess myself.
He picked up on the first ring. “Ashlyn, hey, what’s going on?”
I glanced at the clock, biting my lip. “Carter, I need your help.”
“Anything.”
I reeled off my address while sprinting down my narrow stairs to wait outside. Carter’s voice in my ear was a comforting reminder that even now, I had someone who would answer my calls. Even if I sounded a little crazy.
Ten minutes later, I was pulling into Liam’s exclusive parking lot with Carter by my side. The light in his top floor was on, shining like a damn beacon in the night.
Carter jogged over from his side of his car. He fell in at my side, the friend I had missed so much. I hoped to God I hadn’t just made things worse between us.
“Do you know what we are walking into?” he asked. I gave him a long look. I’d made the right choice. While Cici’s tongue was sharp as a knife, what I needed here was sheer size and bulk. Carter brought that in spades. I must’ve caught him coming from the gym, as he was wearing a pair of soft-looking gray sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt.
I shook my head, pulling an access key card from my wallet.
Carter raised his eyebrows. “Thought you two were donezo.”
I’d given Carter a brief overview of the past few days in our short drive over.
I blushed. “We are. I just haven’t had time to bring this back over yet.”
“Uh-huh. And just to be clear, we are here to rescue your now ex-boyfriend because he accidentally called you and it sounded suspicious? This being the same guy who wanted to stomp my face in when he saw us having dinner, like, last week?”
“Well, when you say it like that…” I led him across the checkerboard entry and down to the penthouse’s private entrance. “And he was really sorry about that. He and I have some communications issues we are still working through.”
“Clearly.” Carter chuckled, following me into the elevator.
Liam’s floor looked perfectly normal. But then I saw it. The entry table, knocked clean over. I gasped, slapping my hand over my mouth.
Instantly Carter’s bulk pushed me behind him, an enormous blond shield. He held out his hand behind him, silently asking me to stay where I was.
