“Alright,” he conceded. “Just let me clean up this mess.”
Scooping up my clothes, I left him to have a moment to himself. Because that was what he was asking. The mess between my legs made climbing the stairs embarrassingly awkwardly. I paused on the top landing, wiping at myself with the sleeper shorts, which were going straight in the laundry bin.
A noise below made me look back.
Crouched in the dark, the devil bent at the bottom of the stairs. I tiptoed to the bend in the wall, peering around the aperture. Liam seemed to be…praying.
With a ragged breath, he leaned forward and kissed the bottom step.
I frowned.
He lifted his head and did the same thing to the next. As he climbed, on his hands and knees, he didn’t miss a single stair.
Whatever this quiet ritual was, I didn’t understand. By the time he reached the first landing where the direction of the steps led in a different direction, I scampered back to our room. He didn’t need to know I’d seen his private moment of insanity.
Bolting under the covers, I cursed when I realized I was still naked. There wasn’t time to go back for clothes, because the monster crept into the room a moment later. He slid into bed.
“Thank you for coming down, Gabriella,” he whispered before rolling over.
I stared at his back, at a complete loss for words.
Chapter 28 – Gabriella
Liam was gone before I woke up. I swallowed the birth control pill and glared at the metal tracker. That was not how last night was supposed to go. This unknown threat needed to be dealt with—right the fuck now.
Snatching the tracker, I shoved it in the pocket of my jeans, grabbed my keys, and went to tell my guards that I was going to the construction site.
I managed to drive the whole way without killing the clutch, something they wouldn’t stop teasing me about. It didn’t matter that I’d driven the stick shift the other times without issue. I was never living down that one incident. I took the small victory as a good sign and followed three of the guards to the portable office.
Where I found an unpleasant surprise.
Amanda Messina, little miss lawyer, was sitting in the far back room, tapping away at her laptop.
“Can I help ya, missus?” a spry old woman asked from the desk next to the front door.
Liam wasn’t here, which in hindsight was a relief. I didn’t want to think about him sitting all day across from the blondebombshell, even if she was married to one of the Morelli Made Men.
“I’m looking for my husband,” I answered the receptionist.
The woman leaned back in her chair, steepled her withered hands under her nose, and studied me. “I didn’t recognize you without the veil.”
Her brogue was so thick, the words garbled.
“Gabby? Is that you?” Amanda called out, taking an earbud from her ear. Her smile was dazzling, which fit her bright, sunshine ensemble perfectly.
“Hi!” I lifted my hand.
I hated her.
Hated everything that she had. She’d gone to college. Had a shining career as a corporate lawyer. Was married to a good man.
You are too.
I shook myself. Yes, yes I was. And I was here to save him.
Liam wasn’t going to like finding out that my father wanted to track him. But he deserved to know. I wasn’t cowardly enough to keep the information from him.
“Liam’s out with his parents,” Amanda explained, coming to stand in the doorway of the inner office. “You’re welcome to wait, but I don’t know when he’ll be back.”
