Before Sunrise (56 page)

“
Love you too, babe. I’ll
cook us dinner, so don’t eat,” he warned.

“
You bet.”

Kennedy returned to the kitchen. She found
her mother fussing with her sister about how much vanilla she used
in the pie mix. She smiled, remembering the days when they were
little girls and her mother made them helpers in the kitchen. “You
two need to get along.”

The phone rang in her hand. Kennedy answered
again. “Hello?”

“
Hi, Kennedy, it’s
Sally.”

“
Oh, hi! How are
you?”

“
Great! How’s my
grandbaby?”

“
She’s anxious about her
party. You said you would be here for Christmas.”

“
I plan to be.”

“
Good.”

“
I got a surprise for Liam.
Is he there?”

“
No. Well, he has a house
for us now. So he’s there or on his way there. But I don’t know the
number there. Wait, he has my phone and you can call—”

“
No. Can I have the address
instead?”

“
What are you up to,
Sally?”

Kennedy listened to her mother in-law’s
surprise. She had totally forgotten what Sally had for Liam. She
knew he would be overjoyed. “That’s so perfect. Why don’t you wait
until Christmas morning to give it to him?”

“
I want to apologize to him.
When we saw each other last I said some things I shouldn’t
have.”

Kennedy slipped back out of the kitchen.
“You telling him about the adoption.”

“
I’m sorry, Kennedy. I
wanted to apologize to you about that. I just—I don’t know—I wanted
him with me. I felt like he wasn’t and I hurt you both and I’m
sorry. It’s why I left. I figured this would be the perfect peace
offering.”

“
He’s going to love it. Let
me tell you the address.”

***

He’d managed to accomplish a lot in a single
day. More importantly, he settled on the perfect Christmas gift for
Kennedy. Content, he drove with it securely tucked in his pocket.
His mind was filled with the possibilities of a life as just a
husband and father. From the moment he’d joined up, those things
had, of necessity, become secondary. Though Kennedy was always
front and center in his heart, his call of duty had changed
perspective on life and death. Then, despite his wandering
thoughts, he felt the prickle at the back of his neck. A car shot
through the red light behind him, keeping pace with him.

He hadn’t noticed it before.
It wasn’t a Chrysler. A black car, possibly a Taurus, definitely
shadowed him. When he eased up on the accelerator. it fell two cars
back. Liam turned off on the next road and waited for the car to
follow.
It did.
He
wasn’t imagining this, dammit, and he wasn’t paranoid. He had a
shadow. Alex’s reach, possibly. He knew that they kept a car on
Kennedy and Mac wherever they went. But his instincts said that
someone on Alex’s team would never be so clumsy. He’d done hundreds
of missions where he was never seen. These were
amateurs.

“
It’s time to end this
shit.” He smacked his hand over the steering wheel. He considered
calling Eric, then decided against it. Doubt seeped in as he made
the next turn and so did the Taurus. The doctor said his perception
of everything would be skewed. He’d see danger and threats behind
every unknown face or circumstance. Was this what PTSD meant? Did
it blend your nightmare into your reality? He wasn’t sure of
himself anymore.
Fuck this.

Liam slammed on the brake and the sedan
barely missed a collision, swerving into the left lane. Liam
immediately sped after the car and gave chase, dodging one car and
then the next, in and out of lanes. He blinked sweat from his eyes,
ignoring the pressure pounding at the back of his skull. His hands
felt clammy and slippery on the wheel. The car became a blur, then
his only focus, as everything around him began to fade out. He
passed on the right, but was unable to see the driver. The vehicle
sped by too fast. But he sensed there was more than one person in
the Taurus. He’d have to engage them both. Everything in his core
said these people weren’t military. These men were on him for other
reasons.

The light ahead turned yellow as the Taurus
shot through it. Liam floored it, weaving between cars on the
two-lane local street. In his haste, he crossed the intersection
too late and had to the cut the wheel hard left to avoid a T-bone
collision with a minivan.

The car was gone. He blinked
through his awareness and saw the terrified mother and cargo of
kids she was carrying.
Shit I could have
killed them all
. He sucked down deep
breaths and calmed himself. The van went through the light and he
steered the rental back onto the road. Drivers passed him, gawking
with curiosity at the idiot who’d barreled into an intersection
against the light. Liam tried to remember why he’d been speeding.
Everything around him started to flash as if the sun had become a
strobe light. He put his hands to his eyes and grunted, trying to
rein in control.

“
No! No! NO!”

Dropping his head back with his eyes
squeezed shut, tightly, he wheezed. His lungs felt weighted, empty,
as if his rebreathing unit had malfunctioned underwater.

“
Nooo,” he
moaned.

He glanced to the rearview mirror and
realized he was now the only one on the side street. “What
happened? What did I do?” After several minutes of talking himself
down, he felt control slowly slip back into his weary limbs.
However, the drive home barely stabilized his madly beating
heart.

PTSD my ass!
He was the best in his unit, and not from training
alone. It was instinct. They were toying with him and he was
playing right into their hands. The enemy wanted him to lose
control. Until he knew who
they
were, he’d be careful.

“
Damn it. I’m not crazy. I’m
not fucking crazy!” Liam said.

There could be no denying the fact he was
confused. That was the only hard truth he was able to accept. From
birth, he’d been a survivor. But he didn’t know how to live in a
world where he had to question his sanity.

As Liam coasted closer to his new
neighborhood he detected nothing out of the ordinary except the
dangerous glide of black ice coating the streets. The weather was
wreaking havoc on the roads. Even though the idea of her not being
in his arms made his chest tight, he would call Kennedy and tell
her not to travel back to their place. Until he knew what who the
hell he was dealing with, he wouldn’t risk her on the roads without
him.

But what if you’re wrong? What if the danger
is only in your head?

Liam grimaced. A night without her would be
a sleepless one. He needed her.

Liam decided on a warm shower once he
reached the house. He’d clear his head and think it all through. It
would rejuvenate him enough to prepare dinner for Kennedy. When he
turned down his street, his heart nearly went into arrest. He saw
his mom in the drive, grinning. She was in a heavy coat, standing
next to his pride and joy, a Fathom Blue 1967 Pontiac GTO with a
white racing stripe. It was fully restored by his hands; he and
Vasquez did the paint job themselves. He’d just assumed it had been
sold. Never imagined he’d see it again. Liam parked, grabbed his
cane, threw open the door and was out of the car in a flash.

“
Mom?”

“
I kept it. After they said
you were dead, Kennedy could barely get out of bed, and that Phil
man was always around. I took it back to Chicago and I kept it.
Your stepfather wasn’t ever allowed near it. I kept it for you,
Liam. Even now I don’t know why. I think I did it because it made
me feel close to you.”

Liam had never felt Sally cared enough to
protect him, his sister, or anything he cared about. To see his
car, the first one he’d bought and fixed with his own hands,
preserved this way rocked him to the core. Sally walked over to
him. She hooked her arm through his and pulled him forward. “Go on,
get inside. It’s real.”

It was real. But Liam couldn’t move. He
couldn’t speak. For the first time since his little girl touched
his face and called him daddy and Kennedy slept in his arms, he
really felt alive again. Maybe the doctor was right about being
whole again. Maybe it truly started and ended with him.

***

Kennedy entered a still house. She had
called Liam and told him she wouldn’t be able to have dinner with
him. She actually heard him and Sally joking with each other in the
background. He said he understood, and she hoped he did. More
importantly, she hoped he and Sally were connecting. The more their
family healed, the stronger she knew Liam would be. Then Liam
shocked her and said she didn’t need to come. When she pressed him
for reasons why, he said it was late and he didn’t want her on the
roads. Well, to hell with that. Now that she had her guy she
refused to spend a night without him right by her side.

It was close to midnight when the Freeman
house went down and she was able to slip away. Preparing for
Christmas Eve dinner was a tradition. Dealing with her mother and
sister filled up most of the night. Now she was tired, and smelled
of onions and thyme. She desperately needed a shower and some
snuggling.

Kennedy found her new home unnaturally dark
and the downstairs was downright chilly. She turned off the
Christmas tree and turned up the heat a notch to make it cozy once
more. When she climbed the stairs, she looked to Mac’s room first.
Sally lay on the air mattress under a blanket, snoring with her
mouth open. Kennedy closed the door. She crept into her room. Liam
was awake. He sat up against the headboard drinking a beer and
reading a pamphlet. She opened her mouth to speak and then saw
movement. Kennedy looked down at a cage with a cute brown puppy
inside. “Liam?”

“
Kay? I told you not to
drive here tonight. Hell, if anything you could have called and I
would have come and got you. Why didn’t you call—”

“
You bought a
puppy?”

Liam blinked out of his rant and just looked
at her. She shook her head. “I’m going to take a shower. We can
talk about it later. Right now I’m sleepy.”

“
How’s the
family?”

“
Asking to see you. That’s
how,” she snipped. She grabbed her bag and walked out. How could he
defy her wishes and buy a puppy after she’d asked him not too? Liam
continued to overrule her without thought. She wasn’t going to put
up with that. He would have to stop. She turned and cried out in
shock. He’d sneaked up behind her, silent as the night, and stood
there in the doorway staring at her.

“
You’re mad at
me.”

“
I asked you not to buy a
dog. Mackenzie is four.”

“
She’ll be five in another
day.”

“
She’s too young to take
care of a dog. I don’t have the energy to train a
puppy.”

“
Who says you have to?” he
asked.

Kennedy sighed.

“
Damn, Kay, what was I
supposed to do? I already told her I would and I wanted to give her
something special. Make up for all the birthdays I missed. Cut me
some slack.”

The request was the final straw. She’d been
cutting him slack since he’d stomped back into her life and
demanded everything return to the exact way it was. But she
couldn’t put up with his controlling ways, not like before. They
were different now, she was different now, and his dismissive ways
hurt. Kennedy turned and put her hands to her hips. “I want you to
show me some respect, Liam. From now on we’re a team, and if I
object to something, then so do you.”

“
That’s not how a team
works?” He frowned.

Kennedy thought on it for a moment. She
smiled. “Well then, just do as I say. It’s my turn to be in
charge.”

Liam came inside the bathroom, closing the
door. “Or what?”

She crossed her arms. “Or no touchie-kissy
for you.”

“
I can’t live without my
touchie-kissy. Choose another punishment.” The smoldering look in
his eyes made her weak. She wished he didn’t look at her that way
when she was trying, however jokingly, to get a point across. He
was so cute, though, and if he wanted to get a dog it was no big
deal.

“
I been waiting to touch you
all day,” he said, taking a step forward.

She laughed, shrugged her shoulders and
stared at him. She was going to tell him to back off so she could
shower. She felt icky, and she desperately needed breathing room.
Besides, she wanted to insert her diaphragm.

Liam stepped in closer. They were face to
face. “I’m really tired, Liam. Let me shower and join you in bed,
okay?”

He covered her mouth with a slow-moving kiss
while he cupped her left breast through her shirt. His thumb rolled
over her nipple, drawing tightness through the cup of her bra. The
sensation sent hot moisture between her thighs.

Kennedy turned her face. She shoved him
back. “Liam.”

Liam reached over and snatched back the
lemon yellow and blue butterfly shower curtain. He turned on the
water and it sprayed the bottom of the tub. When he cast his eyes
over to her, she knew there was no way to convince him that a
shower alone was what she needed. Kennedy smiled and drew up her
sweater, unhooked her bra, and started on the button to her jeans.
All the while Liam’s gaze went from her nipples to her tummy, then
to the removal of her thong panty.