Always (12 page)

“Deal. James, how about you? I need you to think about your beautiful family and not risk yourself.”

“I’ll try, Teeg. That’s all I can give you. I can’t stop picturing you in the hospital, though. He broke your damn nose, and your face was swollen and black and blue. For Christ’s sake, I barely recognized you. He broke you, Teeg, and it killed me to leave you there. I should have made you come back with me when I found out what he was doing. I should have stuck around and given him a taste of his own medicine way back then, instead of trying to pretend it never happened. I can’t let that go. I can’t go through that again.”

“And I should have listened to you. I was a broken person back then. I still am in some ways, but the difference now is that I’m fighting to make things right. Will you ever forgive me for that?”

“There’s nothing to forgive you for, Teeg. He’s the piece of shit, not you.”

“James, please.” She placed her hand on his arm to keep him from fleeing.

“I said I would try.” He yanked his arm away and began to back away from her.

Chapter Fifteen

As soon as the men finished grilling her for information, Liam took her to the police station to issue a formal complaint. There she made a statement and started the procedure to get the restraining order in place. Now, a few days later, she was hoping Oliver was spooked enough to leave her alone. He hadn’t called again, so that was a good sign.

“We’ll be fine, Liam.”

“Parker says the boat’s acting up, and I just want to check things out. I’ll only be an hour or two, tops. Can’t you wait for me? I don’t care if he hasn’t called you back. That bastard’s still out there, and I don’t want to take the risk.”

Parker had gone to school with them and was Liam’s second-in-command at Bates Tours. He claimed one of the boat motors had overheated, and Liam wanted to check it to make sure nothing was stuck inside. He’d been taking more time off than usual to keep an eye on her, and while Teegan appreciated his caring gesture, she was frustrated that her situation was affecting his life so dramatically. The last thing she wanted was to keep Liam from his obligations. It was getting ridiculous.

“Come on, we’ll go to the Superstore on Warwick. It’s not that far. I promised those boys I’d let them help me shop. They’re looking forward to our pizza-making date, and I don’t want to let them down. It’s a small town, Liam. Oliver wouldn’t be stupid enough to take me in broad daylight, not to mention I’ll be in a crowded grocery store.”

“I don’t know, Teeg. I still don’t like this.”

LJ and Dylan honked the car horn, impatiently waiting for them to get a move on.

“Oh come on,” Teegan said. “Don’t you see how much they’re looking forward to this? Plus it’ll give me extra quality time with them. I’ll even give you a timeline, and we’ll meet you at the dock. An hour tops, I promise, and then you can continue your Teegan-guard duties, and I won’t even complain. Please…” She pouted before wrapping her arms around his waist.

“An hour and not a minute longer.” He smiled as she went on her tippy toes to kiss him quickly. “I love making you happy, Teegan, but I still don’t like that you’ll be on your own. I’m worried about you. I have a bad feeling he’s up to something. The man is clearly messed up.”

“Remember, it’s broad daylight in a public grocery store, I’ll have the boys with me, and we’ll only be an hour,” she said as they finally made their way to the car. “Have I told you how much I love you yet today? Because I do. I love you, Liam. I love you so much.”

“And I love you too, Sunshine. I love you too.”

***

“All right, so we’ve got the yeast, flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar for the dough. Now we’ll need some tomato sauce, a lot of mozzarella cheese—that’s it, Dylan, grab a couple blocks of those right there—and now for our toppings. What would you guys like?”

“Everything,” the boys announced in unison.

“We like meat and veggies, just not anything fishy.” LJ scrunched up his nose in disgust, making Teegan laugh.

“Hey, I thought you enjoyed seafood. You’ve eaten lobster and scallops in these last few weeks.”

“Oh, I like it, just not on my pizza.” He shuddered, and he was so cute she had the urge to rustle his hair.

“No fishy pizza is all right with me. Let’s get this over with, then, so we can pick up your father and get started.”

After choosing mushrooms, green olives, bacon, pepperoni, and sausage, they were all set to go. Back in the parking lot, the boys stood at the side of the car talking while she tried opening the trunk with one hand while juggling the grocery bags in the other.

The sound of screeching tires close by halted her movement, and it all happened so fast. The loud noise startled her into dropping her grocery bags, and she leaped to get the boys to safety. From the corner of her eye, she could see the truck quickly approaching them and couldn’t take any chances. She darted forward, grabbed both boys by their shirts, and ran in the opposite direction. Seconds later, she heard the truck ram into the rear end of her car. Screeching tires echoed the near-empty lot again, and as she looked back, the truck reversed and headed straight for them.

She knew only one person crazy enough to run a woman and two children down in the middle of town, in the middle of the day. One person crazy enough not to care who got hurt as long as he got what he wanted, which was her. Her adrenaline was pumping wildly as she passed her cell phone to LJ.

“Run, boys, run far away from me, and fast. LJ, I need you to call the police and then call your father. I love you guys.”

“But—but…”

“Go quick.”

The boys screamed in fright as she ran in another direction, hoping to get Oliver to follow her and leave them alone. It worked. Tires screeched again as Oliver slammed on the brakes and followed Teegan down a side street.

Damn it, where is everybody when I need them?

Nobody seemed to be helping her; they all just stood clear and watched, and she wasn’t nearly fast enough to outrun a speeding truck. She jumped onto the sidewalk and couldn’t look back to see how close he was.

The horn honked, and he pulled up alongside her, motioning for her to stop. “Like hell,” she shouted as she flipped him the bird.
Crazy bastard!
“You want me, come and get me yourself.”

Sure, Teeg, piss him off more. If I could just make it a little farther, I might be
able to get to Liam myself. At least the odds would be a little more even, and he’s closer
than the police station. Damn, I hope the police are on the way.

The truck jumped the curb in front of her, making her lose her balance in her panic to turn around and run in the other direction. She could finally hear sirens in the distance and prayed to God they’d hurry up just as Oliver yanked her up by the hair.

“No, please God, no!” she panted. “Oliver, please don’t do this.”

“Just shut up,” he yelled and gave her a good backhand across the face. He wrapped his fist tighter in her hair and forced her closer to the open door. “Now get in the fucking truck.”

“Hey, let her go,” a man shouted. Now that the truck was no longer a threat, a group of men had finally assembled and began to cross the street toward them, but the sight didn’t deter Oliver.

He pulled her close, using her as a shield as he whipped out a gun and pressed the barrel of it to her head. “Don’t come any closer. I’m warning you.”

Everyone halted while he walked her backward toward the truck to escape.

He pushed her in from the driver’s side and ordered her to scoot over while keeping the gun trained on her, then jumped in after she complied. As soon as he slammed the door shut and locked it, he hit her in the head, making her collapse in a heap right where she was. The blackness took over, and Teegan’s fight to get away safely failed miserably.

***

Liam

Liam sat in the dark nursing his heartache with a beer. LJ was sound asleep, and he was left alone, wishing he could sleep again, hoping to escape reality, no matter how briefly, to take away his fears. Instead, he’d barely slept in days and was stuck reliving the moment his heart sank and dread took over. The moment LJ and Dylan had hurried up to him, frantic with fear.

“Dad, Dad!” The two boys ran down the docks in a panic. James happened to be there as well, and LJ and Dylan plunged into their arms in tears.

“Whoa, slow down there, Dylan. What’s the matter, buddy?” James lifted his chin up, a concerned look on his face.

Liam couldn’t shake the bad feeling he had. He normally would have given the boys heck for running on the docks because they knew better than to horse around there, but he was too worried now to care.
Where the
hell is Teegan? Please come into view, please come into view…

“This madman tried to run us over,” Dylan whimpered. “Aunt Teegan pushed us out of the way and gave us her cell phone to call the police and said to come get Uncle Liam. She pushed us out of the way, and he kept driving fast to try and get her…” Dylan cried harder as he hugged James tightly.

“She saved us, Dad, but we couldn’t save her back,” LJ sobbed.

Liam and James looked at each other, wide-eyed.

“He said I would regret it, said I was his, and that if I didn’t want anyone I cared about hurt, I’d meet him so he could take me home. He told me to say good-bye. I don’t know what to do, Liam. I can’t risk any of you being hurt, but I just can’t go back with him. He’ll probably kill me.”

Liam felt sick to his stomach as he remembered Teegan’s words. He had lost her once and would be damned if he’d sit by and do nothing to bring
her back.

While James held on to his anger from the abuse he’d witnessed a few years before, they now had yet another thing to agree on: they would not rest until she was found. James was fueled by love for his sister, while Liam was driven to fight for and find his soul mate. He couldn’t live without her again, wouldn’t, and the son of a bitch who’d taken her was going to pay for this one way or another.

They’d taken the boys to Susan and went to look for Teegan. Hours had passed with no luck, and eventually they’d felt as though they’d been driving in circles. They’d finally gone back to James’ house and met with police to issue statements.

As they’d talked to the officers, Liam got a good look at this Oliver character again as Susan began to dig through pictures to help with the investigation. He’d burned Oliver’s image into his memory so he’d know who to look for. Liam guessed he was about six feet tall. He had blond, curly hair, green eyes, and an athletic build. He looked like a pretty boy, not a monster. Liam snorted. Looks were obviously deceiving in this case.
The fuckin’ nut job.

Liam walked out to the yard to try to clear his head. He was going stir-crazy and was tired of feeling helpless.

Thinking of what Oliver had done, what he might be doing to her now, and if she was hurt or worse was eating him up inside. He was supposed to protect her. He should have never let her go. Thank God the boys had made it out okay. She’d saved them, and now Liam had to figure out a way to save her back.

“Fuck!” He threw his bottle of beer at a nearby tree and watched the glass shatter into a hundred pieces.

His frustration mounted, and he couldn’t control the rage that festered and demanded to be released.
She has to be alive. If he fucking hurt her, I swear to God…
“Teegannnn!” he shouted as loud as he could and destroyed the side of his shed with his fist. Now a drunk, bloody, and broken man, he slouched to the ground, covered his face, and cried for the first time in years.

“Please be alive, Teeg. I don’t know how, but I will find you, Sunshine. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find you.” He threaded his hands through his hair and looked up into the sky, sending a prayer to the heavens to keep her safe, because right now they were desperate.

***

Teegan

“Liam?”

It was so dark wherever this was.

Teegan tried to get up and groaned, feeling groggy. She was cold, sore all over, and her head hurt.
Where the hell am I?
She could have sworn she’d just heard Liam call out to her.

She tried feeling around and whimpered, “Oh my God.” The confined space seemed to close in on her, and panic set in as what had happened came back to her in a flash. Kissing Liam, picking out and buying pizza ingredients, the grocery store, Dylan and LJ, the truck, and Oliver.

The ceiling was low, she could barely see, and she didn’t have much space to move around. “No,” she whispered and began to cry. Her throat was dry, and she licked her cracked lips.
How long has it been?
She shifted her body so she could try to squirm toward a small crack of light to her right. It turned out to be the bottom of a door.

She was weak and had to try a couple times before she gained enough strength to sit up and feel around for a knob, but she came up empty-handed. Whatever kind of door this was, it was sturdy and unable to be opened from the inside. There wasn’t enough room to stand, so she sat on her knees and pushed her shoulder against the door. Her hope dwindled as the thing refused to budge. With a cry of desperation, she ignored her sore muscles and tried spinning around to kick the door in instead, but it stayed shut. She was stuck.
Dear God, why?

Whatever Oliver’s plans, she’d probably have a better chance of trying to escape once she was out of her confined prison cell in God only knows where than she would while being stuck here. Maybe if she could see where they were, a plan would come to mind. If pissing off Oliver again would get her out, then so be it. She’d endure her punishment but would be damned if she allowed him to break her. There had to be a way to get out of this alive, a way that would bring her home to the people she loved. So she decided to get loud.