Deliver (42 page)

Carolyn pressed her fingers to her lips, her eyes watery. “Well.” She smoothed her skirt and gave a shaky smile. “That explains Livana’s beautiful voice.”

Liv felt taller, stronger. She’d passed on something of herself, something that was considered beautiful. And she’d done it without meeting her or touching her. Her heart froze then pounded with overwhelming wonderment.

A dozen Katy Perry songs later, Livana said goodbye with her arms wrapped around Liv’s neck.

“Would you like to see Liv and Josh again?” Carolyn asked.

Liv’s heartbeat thrummed heavily, sluggishly. Ripping Livana from the only mother she’d ever known would be so damned selfish. As badly as Liv wanted to demand custody, no one would benefit but herself.

A tingling sensation fluttered in her belly. She wasn’t a self-serving monster. Not anymore.

Livana grinned, looking up at Carolyn with love and trust. “I’ll bring the music.”

Carolyn clasped her hand. “I bet they’ll come see you whenever you want.”

“Thank you,” Liv mouthed to Carolyn.

Two hours later—and after a stop behind a deserted building where she thanked Josh passionately for coming with her—they walked into his parents’ house. Actually, she danced. She wiggled her hips, bumping into his as he walked. Her heartbeat drummed in her chest. A light-hearted feeling dispersed through her body, loosening her muscles. She was high on laughter, and his beautiful smile and playful shoves spurred her elation as she spun around him, rejuvenated by the best day of her life.

As they flitted around one another through the sitting room, his hands tackled her ribs, wrenching a laughing scream from her lungs. She pivoted away from him and collided with the hard, narrowed stare of Mr. Carter.

He stood in the kitchen doorway, his distaste evident in the pressed line of his lips. “This was in the mailbox.” He handed her a confidential envelope, addressed to Liv Reed in typed font. No postage stamp. No return address. Her stomach tumbled.

Josh led her to his room and closed the door. His hard jawline sawed side-to-side. “I don’t think I can handle any more surprises.” He paced the small room, pivoting between the spartan furnishings. A twin bed with a handmade quilt. A dresser with a bottle of aftershave. Shelves lined the walls displaying years of football trophies. He stopped in front of her, crossed his arms, and waited.

Adrenaline flared through her veins, firing her brain to act. She sat on the bed, tore the seal, and slid out a single letter. The name, address, and phone number of an international bank in the Cayman Islands printed across the top. The body of the letter included three lines.

Liv Reed

Account number 00145481720

Balance $6,000,000

A flush of dizziness swam through Liv’s head.

The mattress shifted. Josh sat beside her, his hand curling around her wrist, angling the paper. “Am I reading this right?”

“Hand me the phone.” Her voice trembled.

She called the toll-free number, confirmed the account, and disconnected.

He rose from the bed and resumed pacing. “Why would Mr. E put his money in your name?”

She stared at the letter, the words blurry. He’d put the house and everything else in her fake name. He and Van had been ghosts in the slave business. She was the face and the name connected to the entire operation. “So I could take the fall?” Her chest pinched. “But someone personally delivered this to your parents’ mailbox.”

His mouth slackened, voicing her assumption. “Van.”

Van
. He’d spent seven years trying to break her, and it had only taken him a few minutes of near-death honesty to make amends. She’d forgiven him then. She didn’t need the money to mend things between them. “There were seven transactions, at least a million each. He probably kept a portion.” She sucked in a breath. “Regardless, I can’t accept it.”

He stared down at her, his fists on his hips. “Why the hell not?”

“Eight lives, including yours—” she ground her teeth, her voice rising “—were torn apart for this money.”

He crouched between her legs, tugged the letter from her fist, and set it on the bed. “Nine people, Liv. You’re one of us. And you
know
our lives are better for it.” He placed his palm beneath her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek. “
My
life is so much more damned meaningful. Because of you.”

Her head ached and her chest squeezed. She rubbed the middle of her forehead. What were her options? She couldn’t send the money back. She could donate it to charity. Or… “I can divide it among the eight of you.”

He searched her eyes, his hand lowering to tap his fingers on her thigh. “You’ll divide it between the nine of us, and I’ll give my portion to my parents.”

She smoothed a wayward lock of hair from his forehead, mesmerized by the iridescent glow of his eyes. He wouldn’t need his own money if she kept a portion of the account. Neither of them knew what the future held for them, but one thing was certain. They would be together. She wrinkled her nose to thwart the sudden burn of emotion. She had a future to look forward to. With him.

“Joshua?” Emily’s voice muffled through the walls. The door opened, and her gray eyes darted between them. “Son, I’m not comfortable with the door shut when there’s a girl in your room.”

Liv bit her lip. Good God, they treated him like a child.

He flattened his hands on her thighs and drew a deep breath. “Sorry to hear that, Mom. And the
girl
has a name.”

Emily raised her chin. “Yes, of course. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Anything else?” He squinted at her over his shoulder.

Her chest hitched. “Can I see you in the kitchen?”

“No. If you have something to say—”

The door hit the wall behind it with the force of her shove. She turned on her heels, her strides fading down the hall.

He bowed his head in her lap. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

Her fingers combed through his hair, massaging his scalp. “There’s going to be churchventions all over McLennan County praying for your soul tonight, Joshua Carter.” She touched his rock-hard jaw and raised his head. “Go talk to her.” She gave him her coldest Mistress glare.

A laugh barked from the back of his throat. He held up his hands. “All right.” He rose, smiling. “What’s a churchvention?”

She shrugged and batted her eyes. “Interventions for churchy people?”

Shaking his head, he scratched his jaw and lingered in the doorway. “You’re splitting that money between the nine of us.”

She picked up the letter, hugged it to her chest, and fell back on the mattress, biting back her smile. “Fine.”

Early the next morning, he caught her waist with a determined arm as she tried to sneak from his bed. “Not this time.”

Twilight bled a faint glow beneath the window shade. She swatted at the hand creeping between her legs. “Your parents will be up soon.”

He rolled to his back, shifting her over him, chest-to-chest, and gripped the sides of her head. “Then muffle your moans.” He pulled her mouth to his and used his tongue to awaken her from the inside out.

Ten minutes later, she faced his feet, straddling his thighs and riding his cock. His body trembled beneath her. Each rock of her hips made his toes curl. She wanted to bite them.

His hands skimmed her back, spreading tingles of sensations over her skin. His pelvis lifted to meet the grinding slide of her ass, the motion bouncing her breasts and tightening her nipples. The fullness of his girth dragged along her inner muscles, her body flooding with warmth.

She stroked his balls between their spread legs, and the sight of him gliding in and out coiled her release to a teetering edge. “Josh, I’m close,” she whispered.

His fingers dug into her hips as he slowed his thrusts. In the next heartbeat, they came together, their sighs floating through the room.

A fist knocked on the door. “Joshua,” Emily hollered. “That girl didn’t sleep on the couch last night. I think she’s gone missing.”

Her hands flew between their legs where they were joined as he shouted, “Be out in a—”

The door opened, and a laundry basket tumbled to the floor. Emily covered her horrified gasp with a trembling hand and slammed the door, her screams penetrating through the wall. “Daniel! Oh dear Lord, Daniel!”

Liv slumped over his legs, her heart hammering in her throat. “I miss my keypad.”

His body jerked beneath her, vibrating through his hitched breaths. Oh God, was he crying? She rose off his cock and twisted around.

His forearms crossed over his face, his chest heaving. She crawled toward him, yanked his arms down, and found his mouth curved and his eyebrows crawling up his forehead. He was laughing?

She smacked his chest. He laughed harder. She smacked him again. “Shame on you. Your poor mother is probably out there rallying an exorcism.”

He regarded her with a dimple in his cheek and light in his eyes. Why was he so nonchalant? Then it dawned on her. “You wanted her to walk in on that?”

A sigh rippled from his gorgeous lips. “I want them to see
me
, not who they want me to be.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “A really pretty girl told me once that shock has a way of rousing attention.”

She caressed his jaw, her fingers lingering on his mouth. “She’s a stupid girl.”

His eyes hardened. “Bull.” He scooted to the edge of the bed and perused her body over his shoulder. “As much as I love you without clothes on, you should probably get dressed for the family meeting.”

In the kitchen, Emily sat stiffly at the table, holding a tissue to her nose. “You just haven’t been right since the kidnapping. You need to talk to a minister.” She nodded. “You need the influence of
good
people.”

Liv hovered in the corner. Fuck, she didn’t want to be there, but when she had emerged from the bathroom in her jeans and t-shirt, he dragged her along behind him, saying, “This needs to be done.”

He leaned against the fridge, arms crossed over his bare chest, his legs clad in low-hung jeans. Despite his casual pose, there was a fire burning in his eyes. “Liv is good people.”

She and Josh had discussed their options the night before. With their financial issues resolved, they could go anywhere, and they would. He wanted to ease his parents into his impending departure.

Her insides quivered with anxiety. This was ripping off the band-aid before they’d healed from his last departure.

Daniel sat beside his wife, his green eyes narrowed on Liv. “We have rules in this house, and we expect you to follow them.”

Josh’s nostrils flared. “Don’t you dare blame her.”

“She’s as loose as ashes in the wind,” Emily whispered, as if only Josh could hear her.

Liv caught her sigh before it billowed out and dropped her head on the wall behind her. His parents were hurting. They’d lost their son, and he’d come back with his own view on life, one that had veered from their belief system.

“Be careful, Mom.” He straightened and stormed toward the table, the muscles in his back flexing and hardening. He raised an arm and, for a fearful moment, Liv thought he might sweep all the dishes to the floor. He snagged the gaudy ceramic rooster centerpiece. “Apologize to her or the rooster’s gonna get it.”

Liv bit back her smile and tried to imagine how her mom would’ve reacted to catching her in bed with him. She honestly didn’t know and that realization tugged at her chest. She was a seventeen-year-old virgin when Van took her. Her relationship with Mom had never reached this kind of trial, and it never would.

Emily fanned her fingers over her breastbone and flicked her eyes to Liv. “I’m sorry. It’s just…my boy’s going to be a minister. He has schooling and farm work. He doesn’t have time for—”

“That was an embarrassing apology, Mom.” He set the rooster on the table and strode toward Liv with wide steps, his eyes roaming her face. Placing his hands on the wall on either side of her head, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

Her heart wobbled. “Love you, too.”

“Let me remind you that you’re
not
married.” Daniel rested his forearms on the table. “Tell me this was the only time you…shared a bed.”

Liv sagged against the wall. Their son was kidnapped and trained as a sex slave. Jesus, they were in serious fucking denial about his captivity.

Josh turned and hooked a thumb in his belt loop. “I love her, Dad.” He pointed at her. “And I’m
sharing a bed
with her every which way to Sunday. Because I. Love. Her.”

Daniel paled, and Emily gasped, her face crumpling. “You need to go to church. And you need to finish your religious studies.”

He let out a booming laugh. “No amount of church is going to keep me from sleeping with her.”

Liv pressed a fist to her lips, her chest swelling. She wanted to kiss him for standing up to his parents, but her stomach sank as she considered what it might do to his relationship with them.

“You’ve changed.” Emily straightened her spine and pursed her lips. “That man who took you put something bad in you. You need help, Joshua.”