Page 82 of Desperate Measures

I explained how I’d always had a crush on Liam O’Doyle. How marrying him had been the secret fulfillment of a teenaged fantasy. How I actually wound up falling in love for real after just a few weeks of pretending.

I told them about our work at ODI. How it was everything I ever wanted. I explained about Clint and how that jerk got exactly what he had coming to him.

Anger, sadness, and remorse filled me as I spoke. Mingled with that were sparks of hope and love. Little shots of joy when I recalled how happy he made me and how much I actually liked the man I married.

Last, I confessed to all my cousins, aunts, my sister, and my mother how, after I told Liam that I loved him, he’d basically walked out on me.

“He hasn’t come home since then?” Clem whispered her question.

“How long has it been, Micky?” Mom asked.

“I haven’t seen him anywhere but work in over a week. And when I do, he’s just been passing by,” I murmured weakly.

“I’ll kill him,” a familiar voice growls from the doorway,

“Dad?” I squeak, jumping up from my mother’s arms.

“For hurting you? He dies,” my father said, turning around abruptly.

“You can’t! Daddy, I love him!” I yelled and my cousins snickered.

I closed my eyes, hearing it a moment too late.

“Oh my God! She sounds like Ariel,” snorted Lucy.

“Makes sense since Liam looks like hot Prince Eric,” Leanna, my sister, agrees.

“Really?” I ask, wiping my face.

“Adrik! You better wait for me at the end of the hall! Okay,” my mother yelled, clapping her hands to catch everyone’s attention. “This is what’s going to happen. All you younger ladies are going to get ready for the party and meet us downstairs in twenty minutes. I am going to talk Adrik down before he does something crazy, like murders your husband with his bare hands, and then we are all going to have a calm discussion about how to proceed. Understood?”

Everyone nodded, not daring to go against Sofia Volkov in a mood. And my mother was definitely in a mood.

I wiped my face and nodded along with the rest of them.

“Good. You have nineteen minutes. Now, go. Get moving!”

Chapter 30-Liam

The second I read her text I left the office and tried to catch her, but I was too late. Jersey traffic always sucked, but in December it was ten times worse.

I wanted to push everyone in front of me off the fucking road, but I was driving the yellow Ferrari, not the suped up pickup I owned with the bully bar in front.

What? I had a thing for cars.

I floored it, darting around holiday revelers. It seemed tourists came to visit New York during the entire month of December. I knew this was a holiday party, but Christmas was still two weeks away, for fuck’s sake.

Luckily, I had a tux at the office and changed before heading out. I was thirty minutes away and my palms were sweating.

I’d been a total jerk. An asshole of a husband.

Of course, I planned to make it all up to Michaela, starting the second I saw her. But first, I imagined I had some groveling to do.

And I would. I’d beg, steal, kill—hell, I’d do anything for her. And it was about time I told her so.

“Sixteen minutes, Sweetheart. Ready or not. Here I come.”

Chapter 31-Michaela