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“Wow.” She blinks. “I don’t remember any of that,” she says, closing her eyes tight, and I can’t imagine how much pain she’s in. “Feels like a hammer is pounding against my skull, though.”
“I’m so sorry, Maddie. God, I’m so sorry,” I repeat over and over, choking on each word.
“You didn’t do this,” she says, even in a state like this. Sweet, compassionate Maddie won’t allow me to blame myself.
I shake my head. “It’s all my fault. I was targeted and you got hurt. This is my worst nightmare,” I admit, hating the discomfort that’s written all over her face.
“I’m okay. It’ll be okay.” I fucking hope so. But I know she’s a fighter.
“Your sisters are here. Do you want to see them? We’ll have to take turns, but I’ll force myself to leave and let them in.”
Her eyes are sad, but she nods. “Yes, please.”
I smile and give her a soft kiss before standing.
“I love you, Liam,” she tells me before I walk out of the room.
“I love you too. Always.”
I go into the waiting room, and Sophie and Lennon both jump up when they see me.
“Well?” Sophie asks.
“Just waiting on the results of the CT scan, but she’s finally awake,” I explain.
“Oh, thank God,” Lennon breathes out and places her hand over her heart. Hunter is holding baby Aaron in his lap, but he’s listening intently to everything we say.
“She wants to see you two.” I look at Lennon and Sophie. “I told her you were here.”
The two of them argue about who’s going first, but Sophie plays the oldest sister card and wins. “I won’t be too long,” Sophie tells her, then gets a visitor’s badge and is escorted to the back. Before I can sit down with the others, a detective walks up. Mason stands and shakes his hand, and I’m sure they know each other because of their professions and who Mason’s father is.
“Hi, Liam Evans?” He’s older, but it looks like he could take any of us in a fight.
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s me.”
“I’m Detective Knight.” He turns his head and looks around. “Do you have a moment to chat in private about what happened?”
I glance at Mason and Hunter. Mason gives me a head nod, and by his reaction, I know I can actually trust this guy. The two of us walk into a long hallway with no one else around us other than the random person going from the vending machines back to the waiting room. The detective pulls a small notepad from his pocket and begins with his questions.
“So the car is registered to Victoria O’Leary. Did you not change it over into your name?”
“That’s my ex-wife,” I explain. “She was coming to pick it up soon.” I blow out a breath. “I actually have to call her and tell her about this because she’s not aware.”
“Oh, alright, makes sense. Can you tell me what you were doing before the explosion?” he asks.
I go through the afternoon, about how I went to work and explained what I do for a living. Then I tell him we had a few beers and the girls came back from being together, and how I remembered I had bought something for Maddie. I recall every step from kissing her, to going inside, to unlocking the vehicle.
“So it blew up after you hit unlock?” he asks.
I nod. “Within seconds.”
He studies me carefully. “Do you know anyone who would have some sort of vendetta against you? Someone who’d want to hurt or kill you?”
“Considering my profession, I’d say there are a lot of people who don’t really care for me.”
“Enough to want you dead?” he asks.
My mouth goes dry as I go through the list of people I’ve brought to jail this year. “Most of them have issues. They all seemed pretty upset, but I couldn’t name any one who would go to this extreme.”
“No one?” he presses.
I think about Victoria again, but the last thing I want to do is name-drop her and bring more attention to the mob than necessary. It’d just open more drama, and she’d somehow spin it to make me look insane, but it could be her.
“No one,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Well, here’s my card. If you think of anything or anyone, please give me a call. We’ll be doing a full investigation due to the nature of the explosion. Stay safe, Liam. This is a dangerous situation until we figure out who did this.”
“Thanks, Detective.” We exchange a firm handshake, and before I go back to the waiting area, I pull out my phone, look around, then call Victoria.
Having to reach out to her fucking sucks, but I need to confront her, though I’m not sure she’d admit it anyway. Surprisingly, she answers the phone on the third ring.
“What do you want?” she asks in her typical bored tone.
