He looked at me like I’d grown another head. “No, Mae! She doesn’t want to see you. Neither of us do.”
That cut me right to my core. Tori and I never fought. Not so much as a mild disagreement. She always had my back, just like I always had hers. It was the sort of friendship that didn’t come along often. I peered past him. Isaac had stopped crying, so I knew there was a good chance it was because Tori had picked him up to soothe him. That meant she could hear everything I was saying.
“Please, Tori,” I called. “Please…”
She didn’t come to the door.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes as I stared up at Will. His expression softened, and he let out a long sigh.
“We’re hurt and angry right now,” he said in a more controlled manner than when he’d first opened the door. “You need to give us some time. What happened in that courtroom? Our whole church community heard about it, Mae. I know that doesn’t mean much to you, but it’s important to us. You embarrassed us, and now we’re the center of stares and gossip. Tori’s parents rang her in tears, and our priest came out to offer marriage counselling. It’s mortifying.”
I didn’t think it was fair to blame that on me, when I couldn’t control the judgmental nature of their church community, but I didn’t say that. I didn’t want to make the strain between us worse. Instead, I just said, “I’m sorry. Please ask Tori to call me when she’s ready. I miss her and…”
Will stared at me. “You’ve changed.”
I knew he was right. I wasn’t the same woman I’d been before losing my sister. That Mae would have never even considered working at the prison, let alone busting someone out of one. The old Mae would have been too straight and vanilla to have two men inside her at once, but now that was on my mind regularly. I was different, and maybe some of the things I was doing went against their faith, but she was still my best friend. “I don’t want to lose her.”
He gave me a brief nod and then closed the door.
The lump in my throat grew while I trudged down their steps and back to the car. It was only a few minutes to Liam’s place, but by the time I got there, tears rolled down my face. It wasn’t just Tori and Will’s rejection. It was a culmination of shock and grief and the pure terror of what we’d done. Will’s words… You’ve changed. They played over and over again in my mind.
When had I become somebody who broke the law? I’d done it so many times lately, always justifying my reasons with the knowledge that Heath was innocent. But every time I did it, I felt a little of the old me slip away.
I couldn’t get her back.
Just like I couldn’t get Jayela back.
Or my father. My mother.
The tears blinded me. I took the elevator to Liam’s penthouse apartment, blindly stabbing at the buttons and hoping I hit the right ones.
The doors opened onto his floor, and I threw myself at his door. “Liam,” I yelled, voice cracking in the middle.
The door opened in an instant.
Shock punched through me at the sight of him. He was shirtless, gray sweatpants sitting low on his hips. His hair was a mess, as if he’d been in bed for days, but his eyes were red-rimmed with dark circles beneath them, telling me that even if he had been in bed, he hadn’t been sleeping. An expensive-looking glass tumbler was clutched in one hand, a deep-brown liquid sloshing in the bottom.
His gaze searched me frantically. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Is it Heath, or Rowe?”
I shook my head. Then shrugged because it was them. It was everything. Including him. “Tori won’t speak to me,” I told him.
He swallowed hard. “Because of what I did?”
I nodded.
“Fuck.” He held his arms out to me, and I flew into them. They enclosed around me, but I stiffened inside his embrace.
It didn’t feel right. He reeked of alcohol, so strong I was sure it seeped from his pores. “Are you drunk?”
He let go of me and turned away, padding barefoot to the kitchen island and putting his glass down heavily before refilling it from a half-empty decanter. “So?”
He was always happy, full of jokes and easygoing chill. This was like looking at an entirely different person.
His apartment was a mess. A stark difference to the last time I’d been here when it had been showroom clean and decluttered. Food packages and beer bottles littered the kitchen counter, and there were more on the coffee table in the living room. He took his drink there without offering me one. He sank onto one of the couches and stared at the huge screen that played a basketball game softly.
My stomach rolled as I followed him, sitting next to him carefully. “Liam.”
He stared at the TV and took a sip without acknowledging me.
I picked up the TV remote and turned it off. He didn’t even seem to notice. He just stared at it with unseeing eyes.
“Liam!”
“What?” he snapped.
I sat back. “You weren’t at work the last few days, were you?”
He didn’t say anything.
“You’ve just been sitting here getting drunk by yourself, for three days?”
He slammed his glass down hard on the wooden coffee table. “So what if I was? What does it matter?”
I fought to grab his hand, but he pulled away. “It matters because I’m worried about you!”
“Don’t be. I’m not worth wasting your worries on.”
I flew off the couch, kneeling on the floor in front of him. He sat back, trying to put space between us, but I pushed his knees wide, making a spot for myself between them. “Don’t talk like that! Talk to me. Why didn’t you come to us?”
He shook his head. “What is there to say? That I fucked up Heath’s trial and got an innocent man sent to death row? That I beat the shit out of my best friend, so bad he ended up in the hospital?”
I shook my head. “Rowe’s fine, he—”
“How about how I turned my back on every oath I’ve ever taken and broke numerous laws by agreeing to help Heath break out of jail?”
I sat back on my heels. “You regret it?”
He didn’t answer. “Your best friend won’t even speak to you because of something I did. And you know what? I can’t blame her! I’d be fucking mad at me, too.”