Chapter 38
LIAM
As soon as I walked out into the crowd lingering around the merch booth, I knew it was a mistake. Dozens of fans surrounded me, asking for autographs, trying to shake my hand. I pushed through them, my eyes scanning the crowd for Catherine, as a huge circle of people formed around me.
“Catherine!” I yelled, over and over again, ignoring the fans. She was nowhere in sight, and within seconds, I was surrounded by so many people I couldn’t get through them. Someone began pulling on my shirt, and I heard it rip as I tried to pull away. “Get off of me!” I yelled, barreling through them. They parted and then closed around me again.
“Please sign this, Liam!” Someone pushed an album in my face, and I pushed it away.
“I love you, Liam!” A woman threw her arms around my neck, and I pulled her off of me, trying to work my way through the crowd.
“Liam! Liam! Liam!” they chanted.
“Alright, that’s enough, everyone back the fuck up!” Big D’s large frame busted through the crowd, and he grabbed my arm, pulling me away. I looked up at him thankfully.
“Any sign of Catherine?” I yelled, as he pushed through the fans.
“Not yet,” he said.
“Did you hear from Matt yet?” I asked, hope clinging to my shaking voice.
“No, boss,” he said, as we finally cleared the last of the crowd. We walked behind the stage and back down the hallways that led to the dressing room.
“You’re fuckin’ crazy,” Ian said. “I told you not to go out there!”
“Fuck off! You’d have done the same thing if Rhone had gone missing!”
“Rhone? You’re comparing your fling to my marriage?”
“It’s not a bloody fling! I love her!” I yelled. There. I’d said it out loud. The words that had been churning in my head for days. I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. It was true, and that was that. The shock on Ian’s face said it all.
“What?” he asked. “Love?”
“Piss off!” I said, pushing past him.
I walked into my dressing room and pulled Catherine’s purse out of the closet. Her phone was still there, and I pulled up her voice mail and listened to the message from her agent. I knew I was invading her privacy, but I was becoming frantic with fear and dread, and I was hoping for some indication of where she was.
“Catherine,” the female voice said. “I checked the rest of the numbers for Liam’s charity and nothing is adding up. I reconfirmed the numbers by calling each charity again and everyone is saying the haven’t received this money. I’m not sure what to tell you…but call me, and let me know how you want me to proceed.”
What the fuck? I thought. What was she talking about? My charity? Catherine hadn’t mentioned anything to me about it, but none of this made any sense.
I walked back out to talk to Ian about it, and just as I stepped into the hallway, my phone rang.
Matt. Thank god, I thought, picking it up.
“Did you find her?” I answered.
“No, boss, but it looks like she left with someone. The video shows her going into the dressing room and someone followed her in and then a few minutes later, they left together.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Well, boss, I’m not sure, but I came in to look at the video myself, and I could swear it’s that guy that runs your charity. The nerdy, skinny guy?”
“Callum?” I asked.
“Yeah, that guy,” he said.
“Why would she go anywhere with Callum?” I wondered out loud. “Where did they go? Does the video show that?”
“Looks like she got in his car with him and they drove away. Headed South away from the venue. That’s all we’ve got.”
“Thanks,” I replied, hanging up the phone.
“What?” Ian asked.
“She left with Callum. Why the bloody hell would she go anywhere with him?”
“That’s fuckin’ odd,” Ian replied.
“Yeah, it is,” I replied. “Hey, did Catherine say anything to you about the charity?”
“No, why?”
“There was a message on her phone from her agent. Something about the donation numbers from our charity not matching. I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Let’s call Callum,” Ian said, pulling out his phone, just as mine rang in my hand. I looked down at the display.
“Wait!” I said, putting a hand on Ian’s arm. “Callum’s calling me now.”
“Callum?” I answered.
“Hello, Liam,” Callum said.
“Callum, have you seen Catherine?” I asked.
“Yes, she’s with me.”
“Why? Where are you?”
“We’re at your house. Waiting for you.”
“What the fuck? Why are you at my house?” His voice sounded robotic, far away, and it made me nervous.
“I’ll tell you when you get here,” he said, and then the line went dead.
My blood ran cold.
“Something’s wrong. Something’s terribly wrong,” I said, racing away as fast as I could.
“Liam wait!” Ian called from behind. “Goddammit, Liam!”
Chapter 39
CATHERINE
I fought against my restraints as I listened to Callum talk to Liam on the phone. Of all the shit I hadn’t expected to happen this week, this topped the list. I held out hope that Liam would be able to talk some sense into Callum when he got here, because there was no escaping these binds.
Callum paced around like a nervous rabbit, biting his nails, his eyes darting around the room as he muttered to himself. Yeah, I thought, as soon as Liam gets here, this will be all over. Liam might have been lanky, but he was tall and strong.
The only problem was that gun in Callum’s hand. And the insanity that was obviously wrestling around inside his head. A crazy with a gun could do a lot of harm, to anyone. Strength didn’t matter.
What mattered was luck.
And with any luck, we’d get out of this bullshit with nobody getting hurt. Callum seemed to have another idea, I thought, as I watched him begin to pull out all the knives from the kitchen drawers and lay them out on the counter. Then, with horror, I watched him put not just the gun he was holding, but pull out two more handguns from inside his jacket, and lay them next to the knives.
He looked over at me watching him, and he shook his head.
“You can’t understand. You think I’m a monster, but it’s not me. It’s him. He’s the monster,” he said, his voice rising. “Ally suffered. Night after night, crying herself to sleep. I tried to comfort. I tried to give her the love he’d deprived her of. She was never the same. He ruined her.”
He picked up one of the biggest knives and walked over to me. My eyes widened in fear as he brought the tip of the knife up to my chin, trailing it slowly up my cheek, stopping right under my eye. Slowly, he twisted it, poking into my flesh. I whimpered, pulling away before he could break the skin, as he laughed.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for years,” he said, spinning away from me.
“At first, I thought I’d only be able to take his money,” he said, “but then you came along!” He turned back to me, sliding the blade of the knife between his fingers, his eyes wild and frantic. “It’s so much better this way! He can always make more money. But after this, he’ll never fall in love again.”
My stomach sank with the realization that this was all my fault. If I wasn’t here, if I hadn’t slept with Liam, gotten close to him, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t poked around trying to find something good to include in the story, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t opened my mouth and told Callum what I’d discovered, then I wouldn’t be here tied up in this chair waiting for the man that I loved to come and save me.
Loved.
I loved Liam. There was no denying it.
If we got out of here alive, I intended to tell him just that. He’d made something come alive in me th
at hadn’t been there before. He made me feel alive just being in his presence.
It was magical.
And I’d gone and fucked it all up.
I looked at the door and then looked at Callum, pacing across the kitchen floor like a fighter waiting for the bell to ring, his weapons laid out at his fingertips, a hatred that had been brewing in him for years on the verge of exploding, and I couldn’t help but wonder.