Liam stayed exactly as long as it took to debrief before leaving UMG headquarters in a quiet sort of rage. He knew he needed to get it under control, because he wasn’t going home. He had been ordered to meet with the queen and there was no getting out of a meeting like that.
Honestly, he should’ve stayed in bed with Oliver and never answered his comms.
Thinking of that morning had Liam remembering he had never called Oliver to let the other man know why he had left so early. The drive across the Thames to Buckingham Palace wasn’t going to take that long, but it was still enough time to ring Oliver. It took four tries before Oliver came on the line, and the coldness in his voice had Liam frowning.
“I’m working. What do you want?” Oliver demanded.
“So was I, since before dawn this morning. It’s why I’m calling,” Liam said.
“Yes, well, I’m busy.”
“And yet, you still answered my call.”
“Goodbye, Colonel Wessex.”
Liam sighed, thinking about the way his name had sounded on Oliver’s lips last night. “I thought we were past that.”
“I don’t know what you’re on about.”
“Look, Oliver. Chapman rang me bloody early this morning. I didn’t want to wake you.” Liam glanced at the side mirror and flicked on the turn signal, switching lanes. “I didn’t want to leave.”
The quiet on the line lasted to the halfway point of the bridge, when Oliver said, “You didn’t want—”
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the truck going in the opposite direction cut across the meridian without warning and aimed for Liam’s car. He only had a split second to react, yanking the steering wheel to the right in order to swing the car around so the truck hit the passenger side rather than the driver’s side.
It still sent Liam’s car sliding across three lanes to slam against the safety railing separating cars from pedestrians. The seatbelt locked in place, and Liam was thrown against it so hard he knew he’d have bruises. The airbag exploded before his face kissed the steering wheel, bits of metal and plas-glass raining down around him. The thing wasn’t soft, not in the midst of a crash, and it took away Liam’s sight long enough that he couldn’t escape the metahuman who teleported in outside the wreck of his car in the pedestrian walkway.
Liam blinked in the face of the neuro-jammer gun leveled with his head, tasting blood in the back of his throat as he called up his electrokinesis—too little, too late.
Oliver’s voice rang sharp and furiously worried through his comms. “Liam!”
His name on Oliver’s lips sounded so different from last night.
Liam coughed, feeling rattled in a way he hated. “Don’t—”
She pulled the trigger, and the high-pitched whine of the one weapon that could derail a metahuman’s power filled his ears. Liam couldn’t even hear himself scream before everything went black.
14
Borrow Courage to Face the Damned
“Liam!”Oliver shouted into the comms. “Liam!”
Nothing but static in his ears before silence took its place, a quiet that made Oliver’s hands shake. His voice echoed in his empty home, Liam’s name fading in the air. He leaned heavily against the kitchen counter for a second, the crackling sound of the stir fry he was preparing just background noise.
Oliver shook his head hard before he turned off the stove with a press of a button. He tapped at the bioware on his left forearm, connecting to an encrypted line even as he ran for the front door.
“UMG,” a tense voice answered. “Request authorization to proceed.”
“Agent Oliver Archer out of MI6. Patch me through to Chapman,” Oliver ordered, forcing his voice calm around the knot in his throat. “Emergency line. Priority red.”
“The chief is busy—”
“I don’t bloodycarewhat Chapman is busy with. This concerns Colonel Wessex’s safety, now patch me the fuck through.”
The agent sucked in a sharp breath before saying, “Connecting you now.”
The line beeped once before Chapman’s furious voice filled Oliver’s ears. “Agent Archer, I don’t have the time to—”
