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"Will one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on here?" My dad's voice reverberates off the walls. His back is to me, but I have no doubt he's glaring at them as his head swivels between the two men.
Silence. Gray stood at my side, obviously just as curious about what and why they woke him as I am.
"Well? Someone. Fucking. Speak." Dad exaggerates and articulates his every word, honing the message home that he's not putting up with this shit right now.
"He hasn't been interviewed yet and when I got to the door, he just fucking shows up when he's supposed to be at the Club being guarded since we don't have a fucking clue who's side he's on, and now he's staking some fucked up, old man shitty fucking claim on Char," Crow says as he takes a breath and steps away from my dad. And then I replay his words in my head. Oh shit.
"I swear to fucking God, I'm gonna lose my mind," my dad says as he pinches the top of his nose and looks heavenward. "Liam, what the fuck Is going on? Why aren't you at the club?" my dad asks, his head swinging to Liam as he does, his hands flying up in the air in exasperation.
Liam looks at me, his eyes tender and sincere before he looks stone cold as his gaze returns to my dad.
"I am not staying away from Charlie for another second, I don't give a shit what you think or want. They're still fucking out there and until someone annihilates the lot of them, I'm not leaving her side. You can interrogate me with her there, she knows everything anyway." Liam's words practically gut punch me.
I had spent so long since being home just becoming accustomed to being away from that place that I hadn't considered the possibility of being taken again. Without Gray and Liam there, I have no doubt so much worse than what did would happen to me. Things that I wouldn't recover from.
"It's an interview, not an interrogation." My dad sighs as he shakes his head in defeat, letting both Crow and Liam pass.
Crow reaches me first, taking me in his arms and filling me with warmth. It feels unbelievably nice to be in his arms again.
After being with someone nearly 24/7 daily for months to being without them for so long, I probably missed his presence the most.
“You alright, man?" Crow asks Gray as he pulls back from me and gives him a bro hug and pats him on the back.
I watch as Liam stands unmoving in the hallway, my dad telling him that it's not an interrogation. Liam doesn't seem to be listening or caring for my dad's words though.
It's hard to imagine how close they've been for so many years when I see Liam so detached now. It's as though the front he's always put on has been wiped away and he's been left a very nearly empty shell of the man I remember as a child.
And then for the first time since any of this happened, I think of my dad. Really think of my dad. And Liam. And the fact that I've had sex with Liam. Willingly. Encouraged it even.
Oh fuck.
How on earth I hadn’t thought of or considered this before is beyond me. I knew he was my dad’s best friend. I knew it shouldn't have happened and yet even through the force, I let it. I allowed it and even wanted and begged for it.
I've not spoke with anyone about how things unfolded with Liam. I have no doubt that the people closest to me at least will ask for more details soon enough and though part of me wants to hide the undeniable connection that Liam and I have, I hate to see him in a place surrounded by people and yet looking so isolated and lonely.
I take a step closer to him, my eyes not leaving his as he gives me a small, lopsided smile, unsure of himself and undoubtedly unsure of how I want this to go. It's one thing to be open and vulnerable and true with him when it's just him and me, but it's a whole other matter when those I care for most are around me. And yet, like Gray said - things aren't going to be the same and I'm determined to live the life I want to, doing whatever it is I want to rather than holding back for the sake of anyone else so I do the one thing that I know we both need and rush into his arms, relief filling me when I feel his head come down onto mine and his arms wrap around my smaller frame.
"Where's the shithead?" Liam asks as he pulls back from the short embrace and looks around.
"Who's shithead, exactly?" my dad asks as his brows bunch together.
"Victor," Gray answers for him. I find myself looking towards him while he speaks and see Crow watching me with a curious gaze, his eyes flitting to Liam occasionally before he nods his head as if in answer to his own question and throwing a mischievous grin my way.
"Victor wants a word with you," Crow tells me, his eyes portraying nothing as he watches me, and yet I watch as the look on his face changes when my dad turns to him and gives him a small shake of his head.
"What's going on?" I ask. It seems they both know something they aren't willing to share with me. Why am I not surprised?
"You'd think after being kidnapped and held hostage for so long, you guys would reflect and realise that I need to know stuff at this stage," I tell them both, understanding that it isn't necessarily Crow that isn't willing to tell me but rather my dad, and Crow is simply going along with my dad's orders.
"I'll go get him. The sooner you know, the sooner you can make your own decision about where to go from here," Crow says, his hooded and wary eyes catching mine as he eyes Liam once more before kissing my forehead and leaving through the front door.
Twelve
Charlie
Victor looks nervous. Very, very nervous. His eyes keep shifting around the room towards my dad and Crow, who won't stop glaring at him.
"What happened? Why are you staring at him like you want to murder him?" I ask, hoping it'll lighten the mood and one of them will tell me that they don't actually want to murder him, but they don't speak.
