Thankfully, I didn’t have to say a word. Michael came storming into the ER moments later with a woman beside him.
“Did they take him back?” Michael asked. “Is he okay?”
His father took a step away from me, then rushed through the crowd of people until he was standing right in front of his son.
For a solid minute, it was like a standoff in the Old West. Neither of them moved as they watched each other, waiting for the other to make a move.
“Dad,” Michael finally said.
“When did you get in?”
“In the middle of the night. I didn’t want to disturb you and Mom, so I went to Liam’s house, but it was on fire.”
“Did you see who did this?”
He shook his head. “No, but I had to pull Liam out. He wasn’t doing all that well, but he insisted on rushing over to Bailey’s. What the hell is going on?”
And just like that, I was back in the center of everything. There wasn’t a single person in the room who didn’t turn to me, waiting on me to answer all the questions that swirled around this drama.
Except, I had no freaking clue what was happening.
“I—I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I do,” Jeff sighed. “It was Austin.”
“Austin?” his dad barked. “Why the fuck would he set fire to Liam’s house?”
“You know why,” Jeff hissed. “He hasn’t forgotten, and he’s been pulling shit since Liam got together with Bailey. Even before then. He started a fire in the barn, but Liam and I caught it in time. He tried to fuck with the truck, but we took that in to be fixed. It wasn’t until Liam decided to make a move on Bailey that things started getting out of control.”
Again, every head in the room turned to me, but I was just as confused as the rest of them.
“I have no idea what’s going on.”
“He cut the brakes on your car,” Jeff said. “Liam knew it, and he tried to get proof, but then?—”
“The car caught fire,” I finished for him, surprised at what I was hearing. “There was no evidence.”
Jeff shook his head.
My hand flew to my mouth as I realized what had actually happened. “Oh my God. That was meant for me. Austin was trying to kill me, but Liam went to fill up the gas tank for me.”
I clutched Cheyenne’s hand as the enormity of the situation crashed down around me. I was almost killed, and by some chance encounter, Liam was in the car instead.
“But why? Why would Austin try to kill me?”
All of the Parkers went silent as they shared a meaningful glance that obviously wasn’t meant to be shared with me.
I didn’t understand any of it. It didn’t make sense that Austin would try to kill me. What had I ever done to him?
“Because of the accident,” Cheyenne whispered.
“But that was years ago,” I said. “And I had nothing to do with that.”
“No, but Austin blames all of us,” Mr. Parker said quietly.
“You were connected to Liam, and he wanted Liam to pay.”
“But I don’t understand?—”
