I rub my sweaty palm against my dress as I stare at Liam’s photo. How do I say this. Tell them he’s in my house. He’s the reason my lifestyle changed so quickly, the reason I can’t seem to stop thinking… so many reasons. I breathe out and smile. I reach for my phone in my bag, and with one brief glance, I placed the phone on recording. I look up at the officer who was watching me intently. I bet what I’m going to say is being recorded, I’d do the same too.
“Yeah sure officer, I do know him” I grin at him as I remember Liam’s face looking at me in concern, that brief kiss lingering in my memory giving me courage that all would be well. The officer spares a glance at the other cop before returning his hard gaze on my figure.
“Where do you know him miss Roberts?” I arch my brows and chuckle.
“Everywhere officer, in the newspapers magazines and news station, he’s taken a lot of space in thousands of girl’s mind… excluding me though I’ve got a lover” I grin at my forced attempt at humour. They didn’t smile, well I cared less. My heartbeat is returning back to normal. This won’t be bad afterall. He clears his lungs.
“Yeah I know about that miss Roberts… but I’m talking about personally, do you know him?” I shook my head almost immediately.
“Gawd no… I’ve never come across him once, you guys haven’t seen him for weeks coupled with how competent you are… then how do you expect I a random girl to know about him?” I prevent myself from smirking as his face clouds at the disguised insult.
“Well… Mrs Roberts, we are sure you’ve met this guy once…” it was my turn for my face to cloud… in fear which I tried to hide
“How do you mean officer?” My voice faltering a bit and my wild heartbeat resumed.
“Well… before we piece together the fact that you’ve seen him.. I want you to narrate that incident of theft weeks ago… you came into the station to state a case of theft, could you please narrate the incident” My mind reeled as I tried to remember. God!, I don’t even remember what I said that day!. How do I do this. I suck in my breath.
“The thief stole my shopping bag, it’s been weeks, I don’t remember the details” He narrows his eyes at me.
“Hmmm… it’s quite interesting that you could forget so easily… i could quickly refresh your memory” He smiled as the other cop passed him a notepad. He held it under his gaze, scrutinizing it. He looked up after a while and stared at me.
“You first stated that you’ve got to lodge a complaint. And you said you’ve seen the criminal” He paused and stare at me intently. My stomach churned.
“Yeah… I said I saw a criminal, I never meant Liam Paige. I meant the guy who stole my bag” I voice out, surprised my voice came out firm. He chuckles.
“You could have easily said a thief stole your bag miss Roberts, but instead you said a criminal, clearly you knew we were searching for a criminal” My palms are sweaty again and I rubbed them against my dress. I suddenly wished I was with liam nestled in his arms, where I always felt safe. I blink my eyes to focus.
“Officer… what has that got to do with me… are you insinuating something?” They exchange glances.
“We aren’t insinuating anything miss Roberts, unless you think so” He cocked his brows at me and I bit my lips. I really wanna get away from here
“We have a gut feeling you’ve seen the criminal miss Roberts. When you came to report the case of theft, you didn’t look like someone who’s in a haste, rather you looked scared” He paused and gave me a glance.
“You sounded hesitant. You didn’t really wanna state the case, till you were cajoled. When you started, you were talking about the criminal, then all of a sudden when you were asked to describe him, you gave the wrong description miss Roberts….”
i tuck my hair back. Who ever knew they’d count that stuff on me. I’ve run out of words jeez!.
“Officer… I think this is getting a bit too far, under no circumstances are you to accuse me without real evidence officer!. You can’t just pin it on me just from your gut feeling!, who the heck does that!” I raise my voice a bit and feign anger to mask my fear. They exchange looks again. The other cop walks to the table and stare at me across the table.
“We understand that we aren’t supposed to question your innocence based on guts feeling, but miss Roberts, have you by any chance seen him?, No one’s gonna hurt you, he wouldn’t hurt you too…” His voice was a bit friendlier than the other. I sigh and shake my head sideways.
“If I ever catch a glimpse of him, I wouldn’t hesitate to scurry down here and report it”The man stares at me for a while before moving back to the wall. The one sitted nods slowly and pushes a button on the recorder.
“Thanks for your time miss Roberts” He says and held out his hand. i shook it as relief washed over me. I stood up immediately.
“If you ever have any information on the criminal, don’t hesitate to call us…” He slides a card across me and I take it and force a smile.
“Sure officers, have a nice day” I say and walk out of the room. I prevent myself from squealing in happiness as I walked out of the station. I made sure I had walked a bit far from them before giggling. I bring out my phone and stop the recording. I think liam might want to hear this. good job Emilia!. I board a cab and get in. He drives out immediately. I sigh as I stare at the cars rolling past me.
This is really more complicated than I thought!. I breathe out loudly and rake my fingers at my hair.
The car pulls up minutes later at my apartment and I pay and get off. I walk into the gates and one of my neighbours was outside his apartment, he stared at me warily and I roll my eyes at him. I slip the key into the hole and turn it. I walk in and close the door behind me, locking it immediately. The couch was still placed over the trapdoor. I sigh and move it away. I open the trapdoor and walk down the steps. He was leaning against the walls and he get off hastily on seeing me. He came over and held my arms. He pull me into a hug and I lean against his chest immediately. Jeez, I wanted this. He kiss my hair and rub his hand down my back.
“You good?” He asks as he withdraw. I nod my head. He guides me to a chair and make me sit. He goes up the stairs and returns with a glass of water. I gratefully down the contents. He collects it and placed it on the table. He draws a stool and sit in front of me and hold my hands, he squeeze it softly.
“I’m sorry about that small ass, do you want to talk about it?” I bit my lip, feeling a wave of emotions at his concerned gaze. I nod and smile.
“Yeah liam, I actually have the recordings. He arched his brows before a smile tug at his lips.
“You’re more smarter than I thought small ass” He smirk and I grin as I bring out my phone. I play the recording and he listened carefully. He didn’t say a word except to curse under his breath and grit his teeth. His face was taut with anger when he was done listening.
“They have crossed the lines by making you feel so nervous and scared, the next time I come across them I won’t spare them”
“You don’t have to do that liam!” I blurt out.
“The fuck I will!. They are crossing the lines already” He stands up and goes up the stairs. I trail behind him and we walk into the living room.
“You just got shot remember!?” He scoffs.
“It just grazed me small ass stop acting like its a big deal!” I run my fingers through my hair. Jeez I regret ever putting the conversation on record.
“Liam…”
“… you’re hungry right?… I’d dish out your food” He says and walk into the kitchen. I sigh and sit on the couch. This ain’t going well!.
•••••
I brush my teeth as I stare at myself in the mirror. Liam as been awfully quiet since our little argument and I find it hard to believe he’s still pissed at what the cops had done. I sigh and rinse my mouth. I drop the brush back in it’s holder and splash water on my face. i blew out a breath as I remember I have to call sandy and tell them not to come over… sounds fucked up. I move out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Its almost time for them to come over. I badly need them to come over, but I can’t deny the fact that Liam meant what he said. I sit on the bed and fold my legs as I pick up my phone. I dial Sandy’s line and pressed it against my ear. It didn’t go through. I sigh and try it once more, same thing.
I try Becky’s line and she pick up on the first ring.
“Hey girlie!” She squealed and I shut my eyes, I can’t believe I won’t be seeing them in a while.
“Hey Becky… where are you?” She giggles.
“We were about taking selfies when you called, what’s up?” I rake my fingers through my hair.
“Could you put the phone on speaker… i wanna tell you guys something” There was a pause.
“Okay emmy, it’s on speaker now spill it out” I could almost picture them leaning towards the phone, with the phone in between them.
“I.. I’m sorry guys but I think you should stop visiting for a while” I bit my lip and puff out a breath.
“Huh!” Sandy raise her voice.
“What do you mean by that emmy!…. are you okay!” Becky says at once. I nod slowly.
“Yeah… I’m fine, it’s just that liam thinks some guys are tailing me, and they know we’re friends… so they might trail you guys down here” I get off the bed and lean against the wall my face downward.
“Emmy!, is everything okay you don’t sound too good…” Sandy voice out.
“I’m good guys… I’m just so sad about what’s happening, its telling on me already” I palm myself as I hear them sigh.
“So you mean we aren’t gonna be seeing each other in a while!… and you don’t even know how long!?” Becky was already sounding hurt. I get it, anyone would be. Telling your best friends to stay away from you really ain’t dope, not when you’ve known them for years.
“Its also hard for me Becky try to understand”
“Emmy… don’t worry its no biggie, we can always text you and have face time always okay” Sandy says. I sigh.
“Okay guys, I miss you already, I hope everything is gonna be fine” I mutter sadly. There was a pause at the other end.
“Okay girlfriend, stay good, everything is gonna be fine, I’m sure liam won’t let anything happen to you, he owes you that” I smoothen down my hair.
“Alright guys love you”
“Love you too emmy” They mutter.
“Bye…”
“Bye girlie” Sandy says and hung up. I drop the phone on the bed as I feel tears burn my eyes. Why am I giving up everything for a stranger I barely know!. I hope he doesn’t ask anymore from me. I’m not gonna give in. This I’ve done is enough. I get off the bed and walk out of the room. Liam hasn’t come up yet. I bet he’s busy, and worried sick. I’d just go make him coffee to ease his worries.
I move around the kitchen as I fix coffee, everything seems to be going from bad to worse!. its past five weeks already, and liam hasn’t made any move to leave. His he gonna stay here forever?, do I really want him to leave?. I sigh as I pour coffee into two cups. I place them on a tray alongside crackers and take them into the living room and down the stairs. I walk down to the last stairs and I look around, the emptiness greeting me. I arch my brows as I walk in. I drop the cups of coffee on the table as my eye stops on the note placed on the table.
*I’m not gonna be home till very late at night, don’t wait up for me, liam*
I chew on my lip and it felt as though he had written this in anger. I ran a agitated hand through my hair as I suddenly lost appetite for the coffee and crackers. God of heavens, this won’t go well, he had hardly recovered from the bullet wound he sustained and now he’s run of to God knows where. I carry the cups back into the kitchen and rinsed it out in the sink, suddenly feeling lonely. I place the crackers back and walk back to my room, closing the door softly I walk to the bathroom and step out of my clothes. I turn on the shower as the cold water hit me. I run my fingers through my hair as it gets wet. I stayed under the shower for a while as I sponged my body. I step out after some time and wrap a towel around my figure. I step into the room and dry off my body, changing Into my p. j.
I take out the guitar and sit on the bed. I sigh as I run my fingers on the strings. I would be sleeping alone today, it feels kinda different. I’ve been used to having him pressed closed to me all the time, breathing in his manly scent and having that feeling that I was safe. I sigh and begin to play one of the tunes he taught me.
Liam’s pov
I sit on a stool as I watch the bartender fix my drink. with my hair in a beanie, and a fake moustache attached to my chin, I’m disguised a bit. He slides the drink across me and I grab it and chug down the contents. It burned the back of my throat and I slam the cup back on the counter.
“One more shot” I say and he nods and turn to fix the drink. He returns with it and i hold it loosely, swirling the drink. I look around the club at the dancing bodies and the music hitting my ears. I watch a girl dance her way towards me and she sits on the stool beside me, smirking at me seductively. I curse under my breath as she calls the bartender. She tell him whatever and he goes to fix it. She turns slightly to face me, waiting for me to make the first move. Fucked up pussy. She grins.
“Hey handsome…”She purrs like the bitch she is and run a finger down my abs. I sigh and held her hand as she trail her hand lower. She grins and smacked her lips.
“You stink of cum bitch… go check the next guy”I cuss and her face clouds.
“Asshole!… how dare you!” She yells over the loud music. I tighten my grip on the glass.
“You’re such a dickhead!” She fumes and get off the stool without taking her drink. I scoff and down my drink. I pull out some dollar bills and slide it across the counter.
“Keep change” I get off the stool and make my way through the dancing bodies and out of the loud music. I step out and stuck my hand in my pocket. I didn’t even come with a Ryan or a car. I sigh and stride across the streets where it was darker as I waited for a cab. I wanted an alone time, the reason i didn’t call Ryan to bring a car. I’m such a dick fuck!. Asking a lot from her is totally too much. I owe her a lot, She gave up her comfort, lifestyle and now her friends, its damn too much… now falling for her wasn’t in the plan. But her cute little eyes and face, her petite body whenever we cuddle and the way she react to my touch could make any sane guy fall in love with her. Falling in love wasn’t in my plan, but now I’m stuck with one. I sigh as I look around the street.
A car screech to a halt and I step back, drawing out my gun immediately. Three cops step out and the a flashlight stops on my face. I cuss and cocked the gun. Assholes!. They cock their guns at me.
“Drop your goddamn gun Paige… you don’t have to do this!” I scoffed knowing they won’t pull the trigger. I didn’t want to do this, but after those fucked up snoops confronted her, I teach I’d teach them a lesson, not to fuck with me. I suck in my breath and shield my eyes from the light as I begin to pull the trigger.