Over the next few weeks following the burning of the trucks, Liam threw himself into his work with newfound vigour and determination, spurred on by his unyielding guilt and grief over losing three of his drivers.
When he wasn't hounding the detectives about the lack of progress on the case, he was permanently on the second floor with the security team, monitoring all their freight trucks all over the country in real-time over a satellite feed.
Ellie, the head of the area, was happy to have him on board for the first week but nicely asked him not to return the following week. Her guys worked far better when they were at ease. They couldn't relax with him constantly hovering over their shoulders, barking and growling instructions.
With too many fires to put out, Liam didn't want to waste energy arguing with her. There were many ways to skin a cat. He demanded the technology team set up a live feed on his laptop where he could tap in at any time from the comfort
Like Liam had expected, the board—Clarke included—was firmly on Julian's side, and for two hours, he had to sit and take the tongue lashing from all the senior board members when they nicely asked him to stop his reckless shopping spree! "Why the hell can't you all see this is a good thing for us? All these small towns are light years behind us, relying on postal services for their goods. If we have shipping depots—" "That was not part of our expansion plan, Son," Clarke said, his voice barely above a whisper. He was still frail and should not even be sitting in such lengthy meetings. But as the chairman, his presence was required. "Plans are meant to be altered!" Liam pushed back, refusing to give up on his vision. "You can't make up for the loss of life by snapping up all these struggling companies!" His mom tried to reason with him. "I'm giving them a new lease on life, creating jobs, restarting economies! What's the issue?" Liam asked. He
Eden stared at her phone, unable to believe the last five minutes. "What the hell?" She fumed as she dumped it on the table and picked up her glass of water. "Is everything okay?" Cassandra asked. They were at Heat, an Asian fusion eatery in downtown Rock Castle, celebrating Sienna's 26th birthday. To say Liam's call was unexpected was an understatement. "Three weeks without a word from him, and when he finally calls, he has the nerve to make demands on me!" Eden fumed and seethed and fussed as she replayed her phone conversation to her friends. They all listened and sipped their saké and nibbled on their sushi. "Can you believe him?" She asked for the millionth time as she picked up her chopsticks, twirled them in her fingers and dumped them on the table again. "What did he want?" Sienna asked. "To go with him to see his—" She stopped herself before she could let the cat out of the bag. Her friends still didn't
Eden stayed a little while with James, demanding answers, an explanation or a hint of the alert level of the shit storm she was in. But Liam's head of security was not at liberty to reveal anything. Dissatisfied with his lack of cooperation, Eden stormed off, almost bursting into tears of relief when she walked into her living room and found her friends crowded around the couch, gawking at a passed-out Liam snoring peacefully. She glared at his sleeping form, properly pissed off with him for making himself so comfortable on her new couch. But the traitor in her, the one driven by her heart and not her head, wanted to reach down and brush his tousled hair away from his face. Brenda rushed up to her from her bedroom, a worried expression on her face as she twisted and unclasped her hands in front of her. "I'm sorry, Eden, he just came in before I could even stop him. He kept saying something about being home at last before he passed out on the couch. He's drunk
Eden snatched her phone from the kitchen counter and called Clara. "What's going on?" Liam's assistant sounded sleepy and confused, not surprising since most people usually are at this time of the night. Eden fumed anew. She should be sleepy and confused as well instead of trying to get Liam home. "Mr Anderson is passed out on my couch. What do I do?" "What do you mean the Dragon is passed out on your couch?" "Exactly that, Clara," Eden snapped, well aware she was a little unreasonable at the moment, and it wasn't her friend's fault. "Now, what's the company protocol in such situations? Do you come over to pick him up?" "Why me?" "You are his assistant," Eden sighed and glared at her friends still keeping vigil beside Liam, like he was some saint or a deity, and just by being in his presence, they could all absorb his powers. "Wait, let me call Gibby. Maybe she'll know what to do." "She doesn't work for Anderson
For the second time that night, Eden stormed her way to her house, beyond furious with Liam, determined to shove him off her couch and make him sleep on the floor. But when she saw him, still sleeping peacefully, a slight flush on his cheeks and ears, she didn't have the heart to follow through with her nefarious plans. She grabbed the only photo of her and Aiden in the room from the TV stand and took it to her bedroom in case Liam woke up during the night. She wanted no mistakes. Eden was exhausted, but she took a quick shower anyway, changed into an old sleep shirt, and went to bed. But after tossing and turning for two hours, she kicked off the covers and rifled through her linen cupboards for a pillow and a light blanket. As much as she wasn't thrilled to have Liam over, she hadn't forgotten her manners. After all, he's Aiden's father, and she had to make him comfortable, she reasoned as she headed back to the living room. Making h
Like clockwork and still mildly inebriated, Liam's brain nudged him awake sometime after 3:00 AM. But unlike all the other times in the past, when he'd jolt out of sleep, ready to tackle his day, today he woke up parched and convinced he had been dead for more than a century. Every part of his body ached, plus he had a banger of a headache. He groaned as he opened his eyes and saw luscious brown hair fanned out over his arm. Eden. His hell. His paradise. Why was she in his house, again? Did he drunk call her? And did she come to him? Left the lawyer for him? He remembered chatting to her on the phone and her giving him sass, but after that? "You're awake," Eden stirred and turned to him, squinting up at him. Christ, even in the dark, she was beautiful. And her eyes were all the more mesmerising when they were not hidden behind her glasses. "Are you hungover?" She mumbled sleepily and nestled clos
Liam was locked away in back-to-back meetings for a large part of his day, so he didn't get a chance to see Eden. But, he sent her countless reminders about their dinner with Vic Randolph, the founder and CEO of Lusso. By the time he left Anderson Logistics, after his last meeting with an out of town client had gone on longer than he had wanted, the building was already half empty. Eden, too, was long gone, even though he'd expressly asked her to stay behind so he could brief her on Randolph's wife. As he made his way to the car waiting for him at the entrance, Liam asked Clara to contact Eden and make sure she was at the venue at the very least. His assistant tried a few times, but Eden's phone went unanswered. "I can't reach her, Sir." Clara wore a frightened expression on her face as she turned to him, her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I figured as much," Liam drawled and firmly glued his eyes on her, refusing to let her off. He pai
The five of them crowded around the window and stared at the line of dark luxury cars parked on the curb. Eden counted four, including Liam's. She couldn't understand why he had to make a dramatic appearance again today and bring his security detail. She was already the talk of the neighbourhood because of his stunt last night. Curious neighbours had stopped by during the day to ask Brenda if they'd had a celebrity guest. "Does he always travel with so much security?" Lydia asked. "Well, if you were a billionaire, I don't think you'd want to fly solo. Not when there's a very real chance you could get nabbed at any time and be held for ransom," Cassandra said, saving Eden the trouble of having to explain that her baby's father wasn't a very nice guy and had pissed off a lot of people, including the Ivanov twins and Rock Castle's underworld. "Do you think he'll come back? He sounded mad as fuck!" Sienna nudged her shoulder and chewed on her thumb, her e