Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 34 - CONSPIRACY

That easily, I was forgotten. Unlike his brothers, Mason didn't have a temper. He didn't see red. He saw people who weren't doing what he wanted them to do, and he acted to remedy that situation. No more, no less. I wasn't sure if that made him better than Felix and Micah ... or much, much worse.

I hated him.

"Where does it hurt?" Mason asked his daughter. When she only cried louder, he sighed and picked her up. It was jarring - the sight of him walking back and forth with the kid, behaving like an actual parent all of a sudden. "Hey, you're okay. Shh, baby."

I wanted out. This was all too much all at once, and so I took hold of the hoover and started dragging it towards the bedroom. Lin caught my wrist before I could get very far.

"I was talking about Alex," she said. "Who the hell is Liam?"

I froze. Everything stopped - my attempt to wriggle free, my breathing ... and even my heart. Because surely I hadn't been that stupid. Surely I hadn't screwed up and not even realised it. Or had I...?

I couldn't remember what I'd said. It had all happened so fast, and I'd been so terrified that she knew we were rogues, and I'd just ... I'd panicked. Shit. Now what?

"Oh," I blurted. "Oh, um, Liam's just a friend from back home. Slip of the tongue, I guess. I meant to say Alex."

She looked at me long and hard before nodding. The knot in my chest didn't go away, because I was still terrified. That plan might have worked better had we not been standing in these particular rooms. Had we not been in the company of Liam's brother.

Lin had lived here her entire life. There was no way she hadn't known who Liam was, and there was no way she didn't make that tentative connection on the spot. It didn't matter if she had dismissed it straight off - it was there now. It wasn't going away. We would have to be very, very careful.

"So I'm right?" Lin demanded. "You admit it?"

Heaven's sake. I looked pointedly in Mason's direction and then tapped the side of my head. We should have switched to the mind-link a long time ago. It was almost too late now, but if she wanted to rekindle the argument ... well, I wasn't going to stop her.

"I'm sorry, Lin," I said through the link. My irritation was making the connection splutter and fizz. "But it's not true. None of it is true."

Lin cocked an eyebrow. "I'm going to pretend like I believe you."

"I literally don't give a shit what you believe," I sighed. And with that, I shook her off and went into the bedroom. It didn't matter that I didn't know how to use the hoover because I'd had seventeen years to perfect the art of pretending to work.

In the corner of my eye, I could see Mason. He'd managed to distract his kid with an iPad and a bowl of crisps, so he was back on the laptop. Every now and then he'd look up and I'd start 'working' even harder.

The little girl's laughter pealed out loudly and often, and it was making me homesick. She was the same age as Poppy. I wanted to be back in camp. I wanted it so badly that I felt like crying there and then.

Lilah wasn't even here. All I'd managed to achieve today was getting Mason's attention for all the wrong reasons and then falling out with the only friend I'd made. On the other hand, the story she'd concocted was amusing and I was definitely going to relay it all to Liam when he got home later. If I was really lucky, it might even cheer him up.

***

Liam and I met outside our dorm room. Since we couldn't go to lunch, we were living off cold baked beans and cereal bars. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than putting him in the same room as Mason.

I had been waiting anxiously, picking at my nails and shuffling from foot to foot. I'd thought it might all go away when I saw him, but instead I found myself choking on a sob. And then another sob. And another. Liam's grin fell away in a heartbeat,

He came and wrapped me in a fierce hug. And suddenly I was warm and safe, and I could hear the steady thud of his heartbeat.

It was a lot, I knew. This was the pinnacle of physical contact, and I smelt like Mason, and it couldn't have been easy for him. In fact, I could feel exactly how tense he was. It only made me feel worse - he was trying so hard, and I'd nearly got him killed today.

"I screwed up," I mumbled. "I really screwed up."

He pulled me even closer, his hand rubbing circles on my back. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

I hid my face in his shirt and made a pitiful whimpering sound as I tried to get the tears under control. "It is, actually. Lin thinks you're in love with Hayden, and I don't know how to use a mop, and ... what about me screams prostitute, exactly?"

"Okay," Liam said slowly. "I have questions, but that all sounds ... okay."

"No, you don't understand. I said your name, Liam, and Mason was right there. I don't think he heard me, but what if-"

He released me. The muscles in his jaw rippled, and he looked up and down the corridor carefully. "You saw Mason?"

Maybe he hadn't noticed the scent after all. Whoops.

"Well, yeah," I said. "My job is cleaning up after him."

Liam's eyes were wide and worried. "Then you need a different job, Eva."

"It's kinda useful, though. They don't see me as a person, so I hear all kinds of things," I told him, stuffing my hands into my pockets. "And that reminds me. What do you know about a quarry?"

"A quarry? You don't mean Llechi, do you?"

"No."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Then ... I don't know. I'm sorry. And if there's a quarry here, I've never seen it."

Shit. I'd really thought he might know something. His brothers had certainly thought so. They must have been mistaken, because the alternative was that Liam was lying to me, and ... well, he wouldn't do that.

"Look," Liam said once I'd gone quiet. "It was an honest mistake, the name thing, and it sounds like we got away with it. Don't beat yourself up, okay?"

I chewed on my lip. Of course I was going to beat myself up, but I didn't really want to talk about it anymore. Liam was being nice to me, as usual, and I couldn't handle nice. "Okay. We should probably get started on lunch."

"I'll just puke first, if you don't mind."

I winced on his behalf. It wouldn't be the first time today, and I doubted it would be the last. "No, go right ahead."

He didn't make it to the bathroom. He did, however, manage to get the majority of it into our rubbish bin. That was a blessing, because it meant that the cream carpet was saved, but it did mean that the bin needed a good scrub. One of the many problems of living indoors - the wind couldn't wash the less pleasant smells away.

Liam seemed to realise that before I did. "Shit, Eva. I'm sorry, I'll-"

"You'll sit down," I told him. "I've got this."

I began the process of dragging the bin towards the bathtub. Liam went to get himself a drink to wash the taste of acid away. I was starting to wonder how much longer he could keep this up. He needed to gain weight, not lose it.

Someone cleared their throat, and I heard a series of tentative knocks. We'd left the door open in our hurry. I set the bin down and turned sharply, expecting to see Lin with more accusations.

Instead, there was a man standing in the doorway. He was fairly tall, dark-haired and chubby, and I didn't recognise him. A pair of wire-rimmed glasses rested on his nose. He didn't look like a fighter.

"Is everything alright in here?" he asked hesitantly. "I thought I heard-"

He fell silent. That silence stretched to breaking point as he stared at us and we stared back at him.

"Holy shit," the man breathed. "Liam?"