Page 89 of Peyton's Price

Liam passed a hand over his face. “To be fair, we have no idea if this Omer knows anything. And now that Peyton has come clean, we can take steps to protect her.”

“I was going to tell you. Despite my precautions, I knew there was still a risk. I don’t know much about Omer or his resources—I didn’t find much, but Priya is still looking.”

“Priya knows?” Liam asked.

“Yes, and please don’t fire her,” she said, peeking at Matthias from under her lashes.

“Priya did not compromise her security. Her job is not in jeopardy.”

Despite Matthias’ clipped tone, Peyton visibly relaxed. “Thank you. I know you wouldn’t have wanted me to do this—”

“I never said that,” Matthias interrupted. “But you should have read me in from the start. That way, we could have planned and made it safe for you.”

She frowned. “You mean cut me out of it entirely.”

Matthias was close to sneering. “Isn’t this the part where you tell me Liam would have never turned his back on a woman in distress?”

“I would never say that,” she shouted. “After all you’ve done to help people, how can you even think that?”

This was getting out of hand. “And we have to turn our back on people in trouble all the time,” he said with a sigh.

Peyton flinched, a question in her eyes as she studied him. Even Matthias looked confused.

Liam let himself fall back against the cushions. “Stuff happens behind closed doors. And when you’re in the hotel business, that’s hundreds of doors.”

“Liam, you help women every day. The gold star rooms—” she began, referring to the program they had set up to help women on the run from abusive partners.

“Those do help,” he acknowledged. “But those are clear-cut cases. You, of all people, understand we run into a lot of situations that aren’t clear. People are good at hiding things they don’t want others to see.”

He addressed Matthias next, who was still leaning against the wall. “You don’t know how frustrating it is, knowing in your gut that someone is in trouble, but you can’t do anything about it because there is nothing—no sign or evidence that anything is wrong.”

Liam broke off to get up and pour himself a drink. He tossed half back before resuming. “I get the impulse to leap into the fray. It’s an admirable trait—one you share. It’s one of the reasons I love the two of you. This won’t be the last time something like this comes up. But in the future, we can do it together. We just have to agree on how to go about it from now on.”

“That’s what I want,” Peyton whispered, her heart in her eyes as she silently pleaded with Matthias.

“Agreed,” he said, still terse, but Liam could tell he had softened.

Thank God.“Good. Do you think we can get past this now?”

“No.”

Liam shifted to Peyton, his breath catching as he recognized the signs of another bomb about to drop.

“No, we can’t,” she continued, her face creased. “Because there’s more.”

This time, Liam did groan.

“What is it?” Matthias’ voice was flat, devoid of any trace of emotion.

She flattened her hands, straightening her skirt out. “I have the Interpol file on the Belarus disaster.”

“Since when?” Matthias was aghast.

“How did you get it?” Liam demanded, even though he was fairly sure he knew.

Peyton took a fortifying breath. “I asked Ethan Thomas to put me in touch with his friend Mason. Mason has been at Interpol for a while, but he didn’t know the details of what happened. Needless to say, he was upset when he investigated it and decided to look into it further. He—he also sent some confidential internal communiques.”

“Why?” he and Matthias said at the same time.

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