Once Upon a Friendship

“We’ll get that back. As long as we don’t do something irrevocable in the meantime.”

She was right. His mind knew she was, whether his heart was capable of believing or not.

So he’d cooperate. Talk to Gwen Menard and anyone else who wanted to hear what he had to say. He’d keep his hands off Gabrielle.

But he wasn’t going to kid himself. He was in deep trouble with this Connelly business. It would be his word against George’s, who represented his father. Who’d covered for Liam in the Schlotsky deal. They had proof. He didn’t. When Walter wanted them to, they’d find the correlation between every single one of the Grayson fraud deals and Liam as a communication liaison/delivery boy.

He drove to the FBI office. Gabi tried to keep up conversation. He hung on every word.

And when they were outside the glass door that would lead him to only God knew what, he couldn’t ignore the tug of Gabrielle’s hand on his. He stopped. Looked down at her looking up at him. She squeezed his hand.

“What are my chances of sleeping at home tonight?”

“Your chances are fine, Liam. They just want to talk to you.”

Unfortunately, Liam didn’t trust Menard to have been straight with Gabrielle.

Still, her words comforted him.

SITTING NEXT TO Liam at a brown Formica-topped table in the interview room, facing Gwen Menard and another agent, a computer expert named Jason Higley, Gabrielle focused on every word that was said, listening for double entendre, for entrapment, for anything that violated Liam’s rights in any way. It was up to her to object to any and all of that kind of behavior. Though they continued to come up with questions, there was no new material on the table as far as Liam and Gabrielle were concerned. Nothing was exposed that they didn’t already know.

Liam explained about his part in the Schlotsky dealings. Gabrielle already knew that Donaldson’s story would have corroborated his. Not from Gwen, of course, but from her own interview with Donaldson. Whether or not Gwen knew about that interview remained to be seen. And could prejudice Gwen’s faith in Liam’s testimony.

She could have called Gwen, per their agreement, after speaking with Donaldson. She hadn’t been certain that the call wouldn’t also implicate Liam in some fashion due to the varying stories regarding those forged figures on the first documents.

They’d been there an hour and already she was exhausted.

But energized, too. Fifteen minutes into the interview Liam’s leg was touching hers. He was seeking comfort, she guessed.

And giving her comfort, too.

This thing between them...it might leave as soon as all of this was over. But in the meantime, it seemed to help.

And they needed all the help they could get.

* * *

IF THE FBI AGENT thought she was leading him into a place of relaxation—to then go in for the kill—she was mistaken. Liam answered her questions honestly because he had nothing to hide.

But everything to fear.

“Do you have any feeling as to my father’s grand jury proceedings?” he asked when it seemed as though the agent had finally run out of steam. They’d been at it almost two hours.

“We have reason to believe an indictment will be forthcoming.”

Which told him nothing. Political gobbledygook. They’d had reason to believe there’d be an indictment from the beginning or they wouldn’t have taken the case to the grand jury to begin with.

“I have one last question,” Menard said, both arms on the table as she leaned toward Liam.

Setting the stage, he thought. Getting intimate and friendly with him so he’d trust her. Funny, as attractive as she was, she didn’t do a thing for him. For days he’d been checking himself, to see if other women attracted him.

There’d been some beauties walking below his window. One or two in the coffee shop. And...nothing. Not even the urge to say hello.

“Mr. Connelly?”

“Yes?”

“I said I have one more question.”