Chapter 124: Why Am I Here? [FIXED!][18/08!]
Liam had given reception a heads-up before drifting off — a guest named Darren might be stopping by, let him up, no issues. He hadn’t expected it to matter this fast. The second he shared his location and closed his eyes, sleep took him under completely, the kind of dead-weight sleep that came after a night that had drained him in every sense of the word.
He didn’t hear the knock. He didn’t hear the door or rather. He couldn’t hear anything in that moment as Mrs. Harriet had shown him something that no one had shown him since his short life on earth.
–
Darren pulled up outside Azure Heights and sat in his car for a second, staring at the building through the windshield with genuine confusion. This wasn’t a location he associated with anything resembling an emergency. Emergencies didn’t usually happen in five-star hotels with valet service and a fountain out front.
He walked in anyway, approached the front desk, and gave his name.
The receptionist smiled like she’d been expecting him. “Mr. Darren?”
“…Yeah?” Darren was more surprised that they were able to narrow him down and wondered what kind of description Liam had given her.
“I take it you’re here for Mister. Liam. Here’s your key.”
Darren took the card slowly, glancing around like there might be cameras somewhere waiting to catch his reaction. This had to be some elaborate setup. Liam had a habit of overengineering his jokes, and this had all the hallmarks of one — the mysterious location share, the total silence, the fact that nothing about the message had actually screamed danger.
Still. If it was a trap, Darren figured he could handle himself. He’d handled worse than whatever Liam was cooking up.
He rode the elevator up, found the door, and let himself in.
The scent hit him before anything else did — sweet, expensive, unmistakably familiar. He’d caught a version of it once already, briefly, the night Liam had taken him to act as a witness.
“No way,” Darren muttered under his breath.
There was no way Mrs. Harriet had actually spent the night here. That was insane. That was — actually, thinking about it further, that tracked exactly with everything he already suspected, which somehow made it worse.
He scanned the room, checking corners, half-expecting someone to jump out and yell “gotcha.” Instead he found Liam, sprawled across the bed, dead asleep, breathing slow and even like a man with absolutely zero concerns in the world.
Darren confirmed there was no ambush waiting. Clear.
Which meant there was only one appropriate response.
He took a running start and launched himself onto the bed like he was diving through the ropes at a pay-per-view event.
“AAAAGH—” Liam jolted awake with a full-body flinch, pain shooting through him in at least three places he didn’t know existed until that exact second. “What the FUCK, Darren!”
“Surprise!” Darren shouted between laughs.
“Get off me!” Liam barked at him.
Darren rolled off, laughing, thoroughly pleased with himself. “You shared your location, man. I thought you were in trouble!”
“And your solution was to body slam me into a coma!?” Liam barked.
“I was assessing the situation.”
“By throwing your entire body weight onto my ribs?”
“Efficient assessment, what if that is what your body needed to wake up?”
Liam groaned, pressing a hand to his side. “If I was actually in danger, what exactly was your plan? Flying elbow the kidnapper?”
Darren opened his mouth, paused, and actually seemed to consider it. “…Good point.”
“Thank you.”
“But to be fair,” Darren added, “I did fight off an armed robber at a diner not that long ago. I’m not completely useless in a crisis. I mean, I’m a trained fighter.”
“That robber was untrained and startled. I’m talking about an actual threat.”
“Semantics.”
Liam shoved him off the bed entirely, and Darren hit the floor with a dramatic groan of his own, clearly exaggerating for effect.
“How’s Mateo?” Liam asked, sitting up slowly, testing his ribs with a wince.
“Dropped him off around nine last night.” Darren climbed back up, dusting himself off. “Figured since you weren’t home, I’d just crash at your place. Made myself at home for a bit.”
Liam squinted at him. “Define ’made yourself at home.’”
“Relax. I didn’t bring anyone over.” Darren reassured him.
“You’d better not have.” Liam barked at him.
“I didn’t! Swear.” Darren held both hands up. “Your fridge, on the other hand, took some damage.”
Liam pressed his ribs again and hissed. “I think you actually broke something.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“I am not being dramatic, Darren, you jumped on me like I owed you money.”
“You’re fine.” Darren waved him off, then tilted his head, studying him properly for the first time since barreling into the room. “Alright, real talk. What exactly is your plan with all these women?”
Liam raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not trying to be in your business. But this—” Darren gestured vaguely around the suite, “—doesn’t feel like you. Rachel, Sophia, now apparently Mrs. Harriet is seeing you to five-star hotels. This isn’t the Liam I know.”
Liam sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. There was no version of this conversation where he could actually explain the rebate system, the multiplier, the beginner bonus ticking down day by day. That wasn’t information he could hand over, not yet, maybe not ever.
So he gave Darren the version that was true without being the whole truth.
“I’m building something,” Liam said. “The firm. That’s the actual plan. Everything else is just — happening alongside it.”
Darren studied him for a second longer, then smirked. “So you’re sleeping your way to the top.”
“#Meninwomendominatedfield apparently. I’m just adapting to my environment.”
“Sure you are.”
“Adapt or die, Darren.”
“Uh-huh.” Darren dropped into the chair by the window, stretching out like he owned the place. “Speaking of adapting — you’re coming with me to the tattoo shop later.”
Liam blinked. “That’s random.”
“Is it a yes or a no?”
“…Sure, why not.”
“Good man.”
Liam leaned back against the headboard, wincing again as his ribs protested.
“We’ve got this place to ourselves for another day, by the way. Extra night, some booking promotion. We should grab Mateo, make it a whole thing. Little luxury day.”
Darren’s expression shifted, something apologetic creeping in. “Yeah, about that — not gonna happen today.”
“Why not?” Liam asked with a raised brow.
“Sophia wasn’t exactly thrilled I brought him back past nine. She had words for me on the way out.”
Liam exhaled slowly. “Great. I’ll have to smooth that over eventually.”
“Probably sooner than later. She was pissed…” Darren’s face changed as he said this.
“Noted.” Liam rubbed his temple. “So it’s just us today, then.”
“Just us.” Darren leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Which brings me to my actual question — why didn’t you just call one of your women to keep you company today instead of me?”
Liam gave him a flat look. “Are you serious right now?”
“What? It seems kind of sus man, just saying…”
“Look at me, Darren.”
Darren actually leaned in this time, properly looking, and his eyes tracked slowly down the visible bruising along Liam’s collarbone, the marks scattered across his shoulder and neck that hadn’t been there yesterday.
“…Damn.” Darren sat back, genuinely impressed. “She did not hold back.”
“No,” Liam said dryly, “she did not.”
“Respect.”
“I can barely lift my arm above my head, Darren. That’s why it’s a boys’ day. I need recovery time, not round two and if anyone of them saw me like this, they might take it the wrong way.”
Darren burst out laughing, shaking his head as he stood and made his way toward the room service menu sitting on the desk.
“Alright, alright. Say no more.”
He flipped it open, scanning the options with the enthusiasm of a man who had zero intention of paying for any of it.
“They’ve got a seafood tower on here,” Darren announced. “And a steak that costs more than my rent.”
“Order whatever you want. I don’t care.”
Darren grinned, already reaching for the room phone. “Say less.”
He placed the order with theatrical confidence, listing off items like he’d been coming to places like this his entire life, then hung up and dropped back into the chair, rubbing his hands together.
“Let’s eat,” Darren said.
–
Arthur sat in his car across the street from Azure Heights, phone in hand, staring at the location pin he’d pulled off the tracking app installed on the firm’s vehicle months ago — a precaution, he’d told himself then, nothing more. Now it felt like something else entirely.
Her car hadn’t moved since the night before.
He knew what that meant. Or thought he did.
Richard was back in the country. Flew in two days ago, a detail Arthur had confirmed himself through a contact at the airfield his brother used. Which meant this was the window — narrow, closing fast, the kind of opportunity that didn’t repeat itself once a husband was back on domestic soil.
Arthur had no real understanding of what actually existed between Richard and Mrs. Harriet behind closed doors. Whatever arrangement, whatever silence, whatever things they’d stopped saying to each other years ago — none of it was visible to him. He only saw the surface. A marriage. A car parked overnight somewhere it shouldn’t be.
He gripped the phone tighter, thumb hovering over a contact.