“Take? What? Take who?” Liam stares at her in confusion.
Her slim throat jumps as she swallows heavily. “Take Frank. Run. Keep him safe. No one knows we know each other. I’ll go to Carlo, tell him I lost the baby. You take Frank and get as far away from Carlo as you can.”
Liam snatches her around to face him, the flat quality of her voice alarming him. “That’s not going to happen, Willow.”
“Please,” she begs quietly, “take him away, keep him safe. Give him a normal life, Liam.”
“Mommy.” A little voice pipes up from across the room. Frank is in the doorway, his little fists rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Liam bounds over and sweeps Frank up, swinging him around in a circle. “Morning, bug.” Frank giggles and wiggles out of his arms. Willow has moved to the kitchen and bustling around, pouring cereal and juice for Frank, freshening Liam’s coffee. The look on her face pleasant and bland as she listens to Frank’s chatter. When the boy is eating, and pushing a small car in circles around his bowl, Liam takes her arm and pulls her aside.
“Look at him, Willow,” he says quietly into her ear, “can you really leave him?”
Her glare is steel. “If it means saving him from Carlo? Yes.”
“Let’s talk to Detective Peters first. Just to see what he says.”
Willow glances back over her shoulder, her eyes lingering on the tiny boy popping rainbow colored bits into his mouth one by one, milk dripping over his fingers. Her sigh is an acquiescence.
“Okay, we’ll talk to your detective.”
Liam gathers her to him, pulling her into his chest, dropping kisses over her golden head. “Thank you, thank you. It will be okay, everything’s going to be all right, I promise. I’m going to keep both you and Frank safe.”
Willow lets him smooth his hands over her back and make his promises of safety but he can see in her eyes she thinks it’s hopeless. After he calls Detective Peters and sets up a time to meet, he comes back into the living room where she and Frank are playing some made up game on the carpet. He drops down onto the sofa, his elbows resting on his splayed knees as he watches them play for a bit. When Frank finally toddles to away, bunny dragging behind him, Willow settles onto the sofa beside Liam. She reaches over and laces her fingers through his.
“Listen,” she finally says, “I don’t really trust your detective but I’m willing to trust you. We we’ll go, we’ll listen to him but if I think anything is off, I’m gone. I’ll go on the run again. And you’re right. I can’t leave Frank. So, with or without you, I’ll be gone.”
Liam nods, “I understand that and in a way I think that it’s for the best after all we’re related.”
“By marriage only and we never knew.”
He shrugs, “Maybe?”
“Or are you still thinking of my mom?”
“You mean Harriet?”
He wonders if she’s using the word ‘mom’ to make him feel guilty about what he’s planning to do to her.
“No, this is about you and Frank. You two are the only ones that I care about.”
“Liam if you don’t chose to come with us, then you have to promise to never look for us. Ever.”
Liam just stares at her. He’s not sure he can do what she’s asking, but he’ll tell her whatever it takes to make her feel better about going to see Detective Peters. So he looks her in the eye and lies. “Okay, if you leave without me, I’ll never look for you.”
She slaps her hands together and stands up. “Okay, then. Let’s go see your detective.”
Chapter Twenty
Liam
After confirming the time and place for their meeting with Detective Peters, Liam, Willow, and Frank spend the rest of the day at Liam’s apartment. Frank plays and watches cartoons, Willow raids the cabinets and refrigerator until she finds the ingredients for a pasta dish Liam had never heard of. Their dinner is delicious but mostly silent, Frank making the only noises as he chases noodles around his plate with his fork. Liam notices that Willow hardly touches her meal even though she’s barely eaten all day. He guesses that he can hardly blame her for not having an appetite. Knowing that someone is out to take your child and possibly kill you will do that to a person.
Liam helps clear and clean up after the meal and then they sit, looking at th
e TV but not really watching it until the sun goes down. Willow looks at him with a nod and he gets up and helps Frank into his shoes and jacket. Willow puts on her own and stands near the door, tension pouring off her in waves. She puts on a smile for Frank though, and tells him they’re going for a walk and that maybe they’ll get ice cream later.
Liam goes down the stairs first, stopping the flip off the lights in the building entryway before stepping outside into the night air and peering around carefully. When he doesn’t see anything suspicious he pulls the doors open and waves Willow and Frank down the stairs. The slip out behind him and the three of them cut across the sidewalk and into the darkness of the building parking lot.