Page 35 of Heartbeat Girl

“I thought you said it was safe?” I asked Liam.

“For Ruth, yes.” Liam squeezed my hand. “Relax. I’ll find a way to get us there.”

“Why do you guys know where she is?” I inquired, pulling my hand away. I felt myself pouting. “I don’t.”

“Are you sulking?” Liam grabbed my chin. I didn’t dare look up because I might punch him if he was grinning.

I smacked his arm away. “No.”

“Yes.” There was amusement layered in Steve’s voice.

I glared in his direction. Any other given time, I wouldn’t want to be in Liam’s presence alone, but I was so tired of Steve and Pete listening to us all the damn time. At least Liam seemed to want my conversations without irritating me to death. I froze. When did I segment Liam from his bandmates?

“Steve,” Liam warned, and I looked up.

He always came to my defense. It was soothing, and I liked it. Oh, God. I liked it a lot. “I miss Ruth, and I guess I’m a little upset you guys know something I don’t.”

“Jayne.” Pete’s voice was so tender, but his gentle smile didn’t surprise me. “Ruth loved you. She gave you part of her life in that lawyer’s office, didn’t she? She could have given it all to her mother. Hell, she could have done whatever with the money! Instead, she gave a piece to you.”

My vision blurred.

“He’s right,” Steve added. “How about you trust that there’s a reason Ruth didn’t tell you something.”

Their words broke the dam I’d been holding in. Covering my face, I burst into tears. “I know.”

Liam wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close. “You’ve been holding that in a while, haven’t you?”

With my head resting against him, I gripped his shirt and let it all loose. The fear, the worry, the frustration, and the loneliness that swept in stronger than ever with Ruth gone. His long fingers twisted around the knot of hair tied atop my head. Before I knew it, the locks sprang free and tumbled down. Wiping my face quickly, I combed my fingers through my hair, hoping it didn’t look as awful as it felt when he snagged my wrist with his hand. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time. Don’t you get headaches?” He massaged my head, letting his nails move across my scalp.

Always,I wanted to reply but said nothing.

Slowly, my grip on his shirt loosened, and the tears dried, but I didn’t want to rush out of his soothing embrace. Spellbound by the comfort in his touch, I let it consume me further and dared dragging my head to the middle of his chest. The center of him. I closed my eyes, wanting to listen to his heartbeat. The slight raise of his chest rising and falling met my cheek.

Then I froze.

That can’t be right…

I paused, moving my ear slightly. His chest rose, then flattened. I frowned, eyes shooting open. While my heart rate spiked, I didn’t hear or sense Liam’s. I started counting seconds to see how long it went before I heard a beat.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…

“All right,” Steve blurted. “Let’s break it up.”

“Liam…” Pete whispered. Someone tapped the table.

Still nothing.Fear kept me counting anyway, rooted in place, unable to break free.

Until Liam pushed me away.

My stomach churned, blood rushing to my ears as I sat stiffly, body too full of fear to move. What was that? Did I actually hear…nothing? I breathed in and out. The heat in the room amplified and smothered me for a minute. That was how long my ear was against his chest. It was longer if I counted how long I was there before I started calculating. An adult averaged sixty to a hundred heartbeats per minute or something like that, didn’t they? And Liam had…

“You okay?” Liam’s hand lingered in my hair.

With a shaky arm, I exhaled and pushed his wrist away. “I need to return to the hotel… Think I might be sick.” I covered my mouth, not joking at all. My head spun and my mouth felt dry like I swallowed my tongue.

I simply needed to rest. Apparently, I couldn’t handle drinks. I was crazy to imagine hearing nothing—no heartbeat or beautiful thumps from a breathing person. To hear nothing would be like hugging a corpse.

No sound. No heartbeat. No beats. No thumps.

“I’ll walk you back,” Liam said as he got out of the booth to let me out.