Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
I sat there in my car, watching the door and checking the area around me. If Liam was going to stay here, someone needed to be watching him. We had cameras on the place, but they weren’t monitored around the clock like the ones at our more sensitive locations.
It wouldn’t take a lot of skill to get past the alarms and get in. I knew how quickly someone could be taken or killed. No one would respond in time if they weren’t already on the premises.
It was possible Liam’s stalker had just been after the thrill of overpowering and fucking a man he was horny for, but until I’d investigated him, I wasn’t going to count on it. I hadn’t been subtle about my desire for Liam, and I had plenty of enemies. We tried to keep them out of the club, but I couldn’t identify everyone who hated me and all their associates. Even Dom couldn’t do that.
We had a good relationship with the Irish, but if he was still working for them, did that mean the John O’Keefe Liam’s father had worked for was the John O’Keefe currently doing time for racketeering? I needed to find out.
As the hours passed, I considered what I could do without risking my father taking Pound from me permanently or sending someone else to handle Liam’s debt.
I stayed by his unit until the sun was up. I was due to check in at the office where we conducted our lending business in a few hours. I knew if I knocked on the roll-down door of Liam’s unit, it would scare the shit out of him, so I called him instead.
He didn’t answer my first call, but I called again, and this time he gave me a sleepy “hello.”
“Open the door.”
“What?” My dick reacted to the thought of him all mussed from sleep, looking drowsy and confused.
“I’m standing outside your unit. Open the door and let me in.”
“I don’t…You’re here?”
“Yes.”
Seconds passed, then the door began to roll up.
I bent to step under it and was hit with a wall of heat. How the hell had he slept in here? I saw that he had a fan, but it wasn’t running.
“Fuck, Liam. You’re going to suffocate in here. Go get in my car.”
“I’m not dressed.”
He as only wearing briefs, so I grabbed one of the designer T-shirts I’d bought him and a pair of shorts from a nearby laundry basket. He put them on and followed me, closing the door behind him.
I started my car and turned the AC on full blast. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“How did you know where I was?”
I ignored the question. “How can you sleep in that heat?”
“Exhaustion. I guess.”
I studied him as he ran a hand through his hair trying to tame it. I didn’t like how little color he had. “I’m getting you something to eat.”
“No, that’s not necessary.”
“Yes. It is.” I put the car in reverse, but Liam popped open his door. “I have to lock the unit.”
“Hurry. And get some shoes. You’re going to burn your feet on the fucking pavement.”
He came back wearing slides and holding keys and a wallet in his hands. “Tell me you’re not keeping the cash you make each night here.”
“I can’t get to the bank every fucking day.”
“Then put it in the safe at Pound.”
“Should I learn safecracking so I can get in?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You really aren’t scared of me, are you?”
“Should I be?” His voice was quieter now, less sure.
“Yes. Anyone with good sense would be.”
He shrugged. “My life sucks. Are you really going to make it worse?”
I sighed as I shook my head. “No, I’m going to make it better. I’m getting you breakfast, then we’re picking up a generator for you to use until I can line up a new apartment for you.”
“I can’t afford a fucking apartment, and you said you weren’t paying my debt. If I want to live in a storage unit so all my money goes to pay off my loan, that’s what I’ll do.”
“You have a second job, right?”
He sighed. “I do, but it doesn’t pay enough for me to make rent. I was already going to be evicted before you ever showed up at my door.”
“You’re telling me that shit hole was too expensive?”
“Yes. Do you even have any idea how much rent is these days or how impossible it is to make it on minimum wage? Even if I’d been making enough, I can’t take as many hours now that I’m working at the club most nights.”
He hadn’t mentioned any other debts. “Why did you borrow money from my family?”
“I’m not going to tell you that.”
I turned and wrapped a hand around his neck. “Try that again.”
“Please. It’s my secret. Let me keep it.”