My jaw drops and I stare at him. “You’re a crude one, aren’t you?”
“What?” He laughs. “Don’t act surprised now. You’ve heard rumors about me. Well, that’s what you said.”
“Well, thanks for putting some truth to those rumors.”
“Did they tell you I have a big dick?”
“Shut up!” I can’t help but laugh. “What’s the second thing you want? And just in case I don’t make it clear, I’m not smuggling alcohol for you in here.”
“No way, that’s not how this relationship is going to work.”
“You want to get me into trouble.”
“Mia, you are the definition of trouble all by your lonesome self.”
“Still—”
“Listen, if you need my help, you have to help me with my shit. Call it quid pro whore, if you will.”
The fuck?
“Liam, this is serious and if I’m right, it might save your skin.”
“I’m dead serious here too,” he says.
Fuck. In all the lessons my father taught me about the art of negotiation, I think I’m dealing with a jerk who already has his mind set on what he wants.
“What do you want in return?”
“Nah, I’ll tell you when the time comes.”
“That isn’t fair,” I huff.
“Really? This coming from you when I heard how you played John at the house when your little broken family moved in?”
“You heard about that?”
Liam raises a brow, like I’m asking dumb questions. I sigh, then glance out the window, gathering my courage because I know I’m going to need all the strength I can get.
“I want to talk about Saturday night and how the car blew up,” I start, keeping my voice low. “Specifically, about who wanted Julian dead.”
I extend the device to him and watch as Liam grows tense right before my eyes.
“Holy fuck!”
Yeah, I have the evidence in my hand that can throw my ass in disgusting jail for maybe the rest of my life.
21
JULIAN
“Mom, your son is fine,” I repeat for the hundredth time as my mother, the great Courtney Mason-Fitzgerald, blazes down the hospital hallway, a determined look on her face.
“Oh yeah, why wasn’t I called?” she demands, her voice tense with worry. “Why didn’t anyone tell me that my baby was involved in an accident?”
I groan, already feeling a headache coming on.
“I sent you a text—” But she cuts me off, her voice hardening.
“A text that said Liam was ‘in a bit of flux but he’s alright.’ You mean that text?” she shrieks. Fuck my life.
“Mom—”
“What the hell does that mean? He’s in the hospital, Julian!”
“I didn’t tell you about all of this because I knew you’d blow a gasket over nothing.”
That’s also the wrong thing to say. I should’ve just swallowed my damn tongue.
She stops, spins around in her heels right in front of Liam’s hospital door.
“Blow a gasket?” she demands, her purse dangling from her arm like the wealthy, divorcee she is. “I’m about to blow a gasket because nobody in this god-forsaken town saw it fit to call me, the one who gave birth to that boy, breastfed him and raised him?”
I groan again, rubbing my neck as I look at her.
“Mom, calm down.” I keep my voice low to pacify her. Ever since she separated with Dad, she’s been more attentive—yeah, that’s a fucking nice word—to her children than she ever was before. Which is highly annoying. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise why everyone, including Liam himself, agreed not to tell her exactly what happened. “I didn’t mean to say it like that.”
“What did you mean then?” she demands, folding her arms.
“I meant, Liam’s a big boy and he’s alright. Nothing bad happened, besides, you said you were about to travel abroad.”
“And what kind of mother would I be? Traveling when my son needs me?”
I don’t say anything to that. I can see she’s truly upset, but then again, acting like a mother now, I still don’t how to feel about this so called ‘new leaf’ thing. My mother’s as unpredictable as they come, too unstable to take anything seriously, let alone a personality change.
“It would mean that you’re a secure mother, who trusts that her sons will call her when they need you.”
She huffs, then turns to open Liam’s hospital door only to come face-to-face with Mia sitting on Liam’s bed, so close to him, she’s practically in his lap. They look like they’re whispering secrets in each other’s ear.
The fuck?
My blood freezes in my veins in a flash. I’m hit by a sense of déjà vu seeing them close to each other that.