Page 30 of Sweet Surrender
“What?” I cried, sure I’d misheard him.
Nash shifted on the couch, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward,his broad frame making the large couch look small. “Before I tell you, there are some other things you need to know.”
“Like?” I replied hesitantly. I wasn’t sure I could take any moreshocks, not in this lifetime anyway.
“Sit down, and I’ll show you,” he replied, nodding to the spacenext to him.
His tone left no room for arguing, and despite a huge part of me notwanting to hear what he had to say, I couldn’t stop my feet from crossing the floor, before sitting my ass down next to him.
“Take your coat off,” he ordered, glowering at my coat as if it waspersonally offending him.
“Why? I’m not planning on staying,” I retorted, somewhat taken abackby his demand given the seriousness of the conversation.
“I told you, we have a lot to discuss and I want you to becomfortable.”
I held back a snort. If he wanted me to be comfortable, then why thehell did he drop a bombshell on me like the one he just did?
When he carried on scowling at me, his eyes narrowing, and daringme to defy him, I huffed before shimmying out of the coat. If he knew whereLiam was,Iwanted to know where Liam was, and if taking my damn coat off got me answers, then so be it.
“Happy now? Where’s Liam?” I said, doing my best to replicate hisauthoritative tone, but failing miserably.
“Much happier, thank you,” he chuckled, earning a scowl from me. Heschooled his features, turning serious. “Do you know why Liam needed the money?”
“No. I didn’t even know Liam was taking the money,” I sighed,remembering the moment I opened the door to the bailiffs and my world came crashing down.
Nash slid the brown envelope across the table, keeping his fingers onit as his gaze held mine. “I’m a big believer in knowing all the facts before coming to a decision.”
My brows furrowed at his words, but he didn’t make any attempt toexplain what he meant about coming to a decision. He removed his hand from holding the envelope, and my eyes fell to it. In an instant, I knew there was something in there that was going to shatter my heart more than it already was.
Nausea churned in my stomach, and a part of me wanted to get upand run away, leave Nash to deal with Liam as he saw fit. Yet, as I stared at the envelope, I knew the bigger part of me was desperate to know the full extent of the chaos Liam had caused. Maybe if I knew everything, I’d understand why Liam had done this to us.
Why he had ruined everything.
Before I could change my mind, I reached out and took the envelope.Holding my breath, I pulled out the contents. Regret, anger, betrayal, and pain coursed through me as I took in the first photo, my blood turning to ice. Now I knew how Trent’s wife must have felt when she received the photos of Trent.
Tears stabbed in my eyes as the image seared into my brain. Thephoto was of Liam, his head thrown back, and ecstasy written all over his face as a woman, dressed in skimpy underwear, had her face buried in his lap. Liam’s hand gripped her hair, holding her in place, and although I couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, it was more than obvious she was sucking his cock.
The worst part? The photo was taken five months ago, or morespecifically, my birthday.
Liam had promised to take me out for dinner to celebrate because I’dbeen upset. It was my first birthday without my mom, and Liam wanted to cheer me up. I’d arrived home from college ready to get dolled up, only to receive a call from him saying he’d had to work late, and he’d make it up to me. I’d spent the night on my own, eating noodles and crying as I poured over old photos of me and my mom.
Bile rose, burning my throat as I swallowed it down. I didn’t want tolook at whatever else was in the envelope, but my hands were acting on their own accord. Putting the photo of Liam and the woman on the table next to Nash’s contract, I took in the next photo.
Liam was sitting at a table, two white lines of powder spread outbefore him. He was hunched over holding a rolled-up bank note to a nostril, the other end positioned next to the powder, ready for him to snort it.
Never in my life had I known Liam to take drugs. Hell, we’d oncebeen offered marijuana by our friends when we were in our early teens, but both Liam and I had declined. Neither of us had wanted to touch the stuff.
But looking at the photo, memories flashed through my mind of thelast few months Liam and I had shared before he went missing.
There were days when he seemed on edge, jittery. Other times, hewas manic, like he couldn’t sit still. I’d always assumed it was the pressure ofhis job, he often commented on how stressful it was, but had I missed the signs that Liam had started taking drugs?
Figuring I had nothing to lose by looking at the final picture in myhand, I placed the one of Liam snorting what I could only imagine was cocaine on top of the other photo and stared at the last one.
Liam was sitting at a roulette table, his head in his hands, his facecontorted into a look of despair. In front of him was a stack of chips, and whoever had taken the photo, had captured it right at the moment the croupier was about to take the pile away from Liam.
I laid the photo down with the other offending ones and closed myeyes, but it didn’t stop the images from dancing around my head. How did I not know Liam was spiraling out of control? Was I so wrapped up in my grief of losing my mom, and trying to focus on building my career that I missed the signs? What sort of girlfriend did that make me?
“You really had no idea about his addictions?” Nash said, breakingme out of the stupor I’d fallen into. I’d almost forgotten he was sitting next to me.
