I wasn’t too late.
I collapsed on the floor, my breathing sawing in and out of my lungs painfully. The dim lighting from the apartment building started to fade into little starbursts in the distance, but none of that mattered.
Bailey was safe, and Austin was caught red-handed.
34
BAILEY
Liam’s tall,muscular frame appeared in my doorway for all of a second before he collapsed on the ground in a heap.
“Liam!” I shouted, racing to his side.
Covered in soot and scorch marks, I hesitated on touching him anywhere, afraid I would only hurt him. “Cheyenne, call an ambulance!”
Turning back to him, I barely noticed Jeff beside me as he knelt next to his brother and tried to rouse him.
“What’s wrong with him? What happened?”
Panic was overwhelming me. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, and that little niggle of dread that had been unfurling in my stomach since the day Liam broke things off with me blossomed into a twisted ache that felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside out.
“He was attacked at his house, and then it was set on fire,” Jeff answered.
“He was inside?” I screeched.
“What happened?” a voice shouted from downstairs.
Boots pounded on the stairs, but it was the face that appeared at the top that surprised the hell out of me.
“Michael?”
“Is he breathing?” Michael asked, his eyes trained on his brother as he studied every inch of him.
There were so many questions. What was he doing here? Where had he been all these years? Why was he here now?
But none of that mattered at the moment, and as the sirens grew louder, I knew there were too many of us crowding around Liam for him to get the care he needed.
“Everybody back!” I shouted as the paramedics raced up the stairs with their bags in tow.
I was shoved to the back of the group until I was almost right next to Archer and the man he still held captive.
“This was you,” I hissed.
Austin grinned at me, that sadistic look in his eyes sending chills down my spine.
“What did you do? What’s wrong with him?” I shouted.
When he just laughed, I lost all sense of reason and flung myself at him, beating him with my fists as every single emotion that had been welling up inside me over the last few weeks came pouring out of my eyes.
Liam was almost dead. He was laying in the hallway, burned and barely breathing, and this asshole was laughing.
And for what?
What did he get out of this other than to make everyone in our lives miserable?
Arms wrapped around me from behind, restringing me as I struggled to beat the smirk off Austin’s face.
“Hey, calm down, tiger. It’s okay now.”
