Page 5 of Hired By the Enemy
It was a never-ending arms race between us, with all the kids in our neighborhood divided into Team Matthew or Team Liam.
Memories race through my mind. Liam filling my shoes with worms. Me retaliating by programming a robot that I stashed under his bed that would scuttle out in the middle of the night, beep loudly, and then scuttle back under again. It took him months to figure out what was causing him to wake up every night.
The battle in sixth grade over our class parrot. I’m sure our teacher, Ms. Beauton, thought it was a great idea to bring Harold to school because she’d taught him to recite the spelling rules and times tables. However, during the year, his vocabulary expanded to include the phrases “Matthew is a nerd” and “Liam is a dick.”
In high school, things weren’t much better. We both were distracted by our extracurricular activities—football and baseball for Liam, chess and technology club for me—but we’d stillfound time to torment each other. I’d programmed his alarm clock to go off in the middle of the night before the state football game in high school. He’d retaliated by paying the tech guy so the microphone gave me voice breaks when I gave my valedictorian speech.
It was a ten-year relentless battle between us.
I remember going to college and celebrating the fact I would never be forced to interact with Liam again.
My celebrations now feel a tad premature.
My mind starts immediately racing through the solutions to the problem I now face.
What are my choices? Send him back and ask for Elite to fly someone else out?
That would be a good option if only I hadn’t made a big deal of pretending earlier to receive a message from my boyfriend when he’d got onto the plane. I’d already spun a story about him missing our private charter flight due to having to help out a friend in need. I pride myself on being smart, but right now, I can’t think of an easy way to explain my boyfriend’s mysterious disappearance somewhere over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
There’s only one solution.
I take a deep breath. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to come back to the resort with me, and I’m going to introduce you to everyone, and you’ll pretend to be a charming and devoted boyfriend without interacting with me much, and then tomorrow, we’ll manufacture some family emergency that means you’ve got to fly home.”
A weird look passes over Liam’s face, but it quickly fades.
“Fine by me,” he says.
My chest tightens at the thought of Liam meeting Paul. My lifelong nemesis interacting with the guy who currently seems engaged in a subtle campaign of undermining me.
There is no planet in the universe where this would be considered a good idea.
My anxiety comes boiling out of me in a hard, tense voice. “I’m serious. If you mess this up for me, I will file a complaint with the agency.”
He glares at me, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I’m not going to mess it up,” he says stiffly.
Shit. Do I trust him? About as far as I could throw his six-foot-three, muscular, tight, fit body.
But what would be the point of him being petty? What does he have to gain from one-upping me now? He’s obviously living in San Francisco, but it’s not like we move in the same circles and ever run into each other.
I’m going to have to believe that the twenty-five-year-old version of Liam Jamieson is a more advanced life form than the eighteen-year-old version I knew and loathed.
“You have to be the most amazing boyfriend ever for a few hours, okay? Do you think you can pull that off?” I ask.
“I can pull off anything, baby.” He gives me a wink.
I swallow hard. “Great. We can plan more in the car.”
Chapter Three
Liam
Matthew’s rental car, a Maserati MC20, sits gleaming in the airport parking lot.
I try to hide how impressed I am.
I mean, I knew Matthew was uber-successful, but now it’s right in my face with the twenty-inch alloy wheels and prime leather-faux suede upholstery.
But of course, Matthew was going to make it big time. He’d been set for success since birth, blessed with smarts and a supportive family who would do anything to help him achieve his dreams. And the nerd-king has never appreciated how lucky he is.
