“What? Ask you a question?”
“You’re playing interrogator. You asked an assumptive question, and I’m supposed to confirm or deny it.”
Damn, he forgot how intuitive she was. “Maybe. So, are you going to tell me if you have one or not?”
“Why should I? We broke up.”
Yeah, why should she? It’s not like he gave her any reason to remain faithfulto him like he had for her in hopes they could put aside their differences and get back together. “Because I want to make sure you're happy.”
“You didn’t have to break into my house to find out. A phone call works just as well.”
“Would you have answered my call?” Cora clamped her lips shut. “That’s what I thought. I was respecting your wishes and giving you space like you asked for but you'reupset with me when I do that.”
“Yeah well, I’m a girl, were complicated.”
“You don’t suppose.”
“Are you done yet? I still have things I need to do,” Cora snapped at him.
Liamstayed quiet, and after a minute he grabbed hold of the corner piece of the shard. "Here we go. Take a deep breath." As Cora inhaledLiamtugged on the piece and it pulled clean out of her foot. Cora cried out butquickly silenced herself.Liamdumped the shard in the sink and cleaned out her foot with alcohol and put gauze and bandages over it and wrapped it tightly. "All done. Try to stay off it for a while."
When Cora remained silent,Liamstole a glance at her and felt his heart break. Cora was hunched over with her bottom lip between her teeth and a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Oh, Cora. I'm sosorry." He tilted her head back and swiped the tear away.
"It's not so bad," she grumbled with her eyes closed tightly.
"There's my brave Amazon."It had been a long time since he had called her that. But it felt right. She was an Amazon warrior. Fierce and protective. It was also a nickname that she hated and always seemed to rile her up.
Just likeLiampredicted, Cora's eyes popped open,and she glared at him. "I am not your anything. Thank you, Liam, for your help. I can take it from here."
"Kicking me out already?" He smirked. He knew it had been coming. She had made her feelings plain and clear.
"I think it’s for the best," Cora said looking away from him.
"Best for whom?"Liamasked losing his playfulness.
"Look, Liam. I appreciate what you did, but I think you shouldgo. I'll be careful on my foot, but I have to get the downstairs cleaned up." As far as excuses went, it was lame, but she needed him gone. She should never have answered the door, to begin with. Now that he knew she was injured it would give him another excuse for him to want to visit her and she didn't want that.
Liamlooked away clenching his jaw. "I’ll take care of downstairs and get thewindow boarded up. You just rest."Liam started to walk away but pivoted on his heel to face her again. “And don’t think our earlier conversation is over. I still need to talk to you about your client.” Hefled the room before Cora could protest.
She didn't want his help, and she sure didn’t want to discuss her clients with Liam. He had never seemed interested in them before. Why now? And howdid he even know she had a new client for that matter?
Cora slid off the counter carefully and went into her room to change so she could ask him. She could hear Liam downstairs sweeping up the glass. It should be her down there doing that. It was her house after all, but she knew she was hardly in any condition to be cleaning up the glass or boarding up a window. Cora slipped on her pajamasand hobbled downstairs. She finally reached the bottom step just as Liam was finishing up putting a board on the window.It wasn’t a piece of wood she recognized but with Ben only next door she was sure Liam had found something there. Had she been gone that long for him to already be done, or did he just work that quickly?
He turned and looked at her and quickly looked away. "That should holduntil you can call someone to replace it."
"Thank you, Liam, for helping me. I know I seem ungrateful, but I’m not."
Liamnodded absently.
“And before you start, I don’t discuss my clients, so you can just forget it.”
Liam shook his head at her. “This isn’t a game, Cora.”
“No, this is my life. My job. You don’t discuss your assignments, and I don’t push.” Liam looked away but not beforeflinching.
“That’s different. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself involved in."
“You don’t have a say in what I do and don’t do, Liam. You’ve kept secrets from me before, and you’re doing it all over again. I won’t have you disrupting my business. Who I work with is none of your business. Now get out.”
A tick worked in Liam’s jaw, and she could see that he was debating if he shouldkeep pushing her. He must have realized it was futile because he nodded his head at her and closed the door.
Cora flinched at the slamming of her door. It was for the best though. Liam Macintosh broke her heart once. She wouldn't give him the opportunity to do so again.And he had no right barging back into her life after all these months.
Cora did a quick sweep of her house and made sureall the doors and windows were locked. A small voice nagged her in the back of her mind warning her that the broken window wasn't an accident. Alejandro had warned her not long before the window had been broken and there had been a car parked in front of Ben’s house, but she shook it off. She was just being paranoid. Who would break her window on purpose? She didn't have enemies. Her parents werelong retired, and if someone were after Ben, they would go to his house, not hers. Alejandro was a client, and he didn’t know where she lived. Since she worked from home, she never met her clients there. She either met them online or at a public place, if they were close. And what she did wasn’t worth harming her over. No, she was just being paranoid. It was a random accident where a teenager gotbored, nothing more. Cora shook her head at herself and went to bed.
