Page 55 of More than a Memory
On a hunch, Darcy rushed back to the bar and cashed out, leaving a generous tip for Rick before racing out the door to follow Josiah. As she stepped out, everything seemed to happen at once.
She noticed a large SUV cruise into the parking lot, simultaneously observing Josiah talking to a man, who looked suspiciously like Liam. Suddenly, the hairs rose on the back of her neck. She just knew that something was off. Reaching for her gun, she screamed to Liam and Josiah, “GET DOWN!” as the SUV accelerated, heading straight towards the two men. Liam froze for a moment, as she crouched down and aimed, successfully hitting her first mark, the back tire. This caused the car to veer sharply to the left and away from the men. Her quick reaction gave them the advantage they needed to dive for cover. She took aim again, hitting a front tire, and she rose and ran towards Liam and Josiah, hustling them to her car.
“Get in! Hurry!” she ordered.
They dove into her rental and Darcy peeled out of the parking lot before the people in the SUV could return fire.
“Well, I hope you’re happy that you led them straight to Liam,” Josiah said angrily.
“How do you know that?” Darcy returned. “They could have already been on his tail. Maybe they followed him to the bar, jeez, can’t a girl get a break around here?”
“We haven’t even had a hint of trouble until you showed up, and now we were ambushed and almost victims of a hit and run,” Josiah continued his rant.
“You’re welcome for the save, by the way,” Darcy replied sarcastically.
“Stop it, you two!” Liam said, exasperated with their bickering. “We could have been killed back there. It doesn’t matter how they found me at this point, but my cover is definitely blown. Now what?” he asked despondently.
“Is there a safe place on base where we can talk this out?” Darcy inquired.
“We’ll be safe at my place,” Josiah answered. “They would have to get past the security gates, and I’ll put out an alert,” he said, naturally taking charge. “Turn left up ahead,” he instructed her. “I hope you have your ID with you.”
“Yes, it’s in my backpack. which is in the trunk,” she assured him.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting in Josiah’s living room, hashing things out.
“Liam, first I have to say I’m relieved to see that you are alive and well. Gina has been a wreck, and Mitch has been blaming himself since you disappeared. You should have called to let Gina know that you are OK. I know Mitch told you to take a hike, but still….”
“Yeah, I know I fucked up,” Liam said sheepishly.
“Secondly,” Darcy continued, “things are just not adding up. It’s a real stretch for me to believe that an extramarital affair would bring on this much backlash. They basically just tried to kill you and Josiah, and they ran Mitch off the road last week. I can see them trying to warn you off your relationship with Gina, but attempted murder?” she said incredulously.
“Do you have something more that you would like to share with me? I need to know everything that happened. Your version from the beginning. You have to trust me on this,” she said, urging him to talk.
Liam started out haltingly, then as his story poured out, it was if a dam had burst inside of him. He didn’t abandon Gina and he didn’t leave because of what Mitch had said to him, he explained. He continued with his story and it matched with Gina’s up until the moment he disappeared, then it became his story.
“You see why I had to run? I thought I might have just killed a guy…albeit one who was trying to kill me but… I didn’t know what to do.”
“So, you’re telling me that two men broke into your home, and you managed to escape? There was blood everywhere, according to Gina, and the place was destroyed. She was sure with that amount of blood that you had to either be dead or severely wounded,” she commented.
“But that’s just it, you see, it wasn’t my blood. It was the guy that came at me, his blood. I guess my special forces training saved my life, only this time as a civilian,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to kill the dude, I was trying to save my own ass. The only good thing to come out of this day is that I think the guy driving the vehicle trying to hit us tonight was the guy I left for dead. So, I guess I can cross murderer off my resume,” he shrugged.
“And who cleaned up your place?” Darcy asked.
“That I can’t answer. I have no idea. I only know it wasn’t me because I was long gone. I’m thinking that whoever sicced their goons on me, that is, Conrad Cohen, must have cleaned up the place to get rid of any evidence,” he said.
“But why go to such extremes?” Darcy pounced on his story.
“Um…well, he is such a control freak, I figured he found out about me and Gina. For a guy like that, it would be enough of an excuse,” he said, not meeting her eyes.
“You’re not a good liar, Liam,” Darcy said. “Spill it.”
“I just did! What more do you want from me?”
“I want the whole uncensored version. My antennae are twitching. I get a strong feeling that you are holding back on me. There is more to this story, I just don’t know what it is yet… but I’m a bloodhound and I intend to get to the bottom of it, so you may as well level with me right now,” she said reasonably.
Darcy continued, “It’s understandable that you would have freaked out after the encounter in your own home, but things have only amplified, and you are in way over your head now.”