Chapter 185: Be At Peace, I'm Here! [FIXED!][11/10!]

“Pack it up,” Liam said, already on his feet. “We’re taking the rest to go.”

Mateo looked up, half a burger still in his hand. “What? Why?”

“Because your sister called me three times.”

Mateo’s face went pale. “Oh no.”

“Yeah. Oh no.” Liam muttered under his breath as Mateo knew what this meant.

Owen didn’t say anything, but he started folding his fries into their paper wrapper with the speed of someone who had also been on the wrong end of a parent’s missed calls before.

Liam flagged down the cashier and asked for to-go boxes and a few bags. Then, before they left, he went back up to the counter and ordered one more meal: a double cheeseburger, a side of onion

rings, and a chocolate shake.

“For Sophia?” Mateo asked.

“For Sophia.”

“You think food’s gonna save you?”

“Good food fixes most things,” Liam said, taking the bag. “Most things.”

He knew this wasn’t really about lunch, though. Sophia hadn’t called three times because she was annoyed. She’d called because she’d spent the whole day watching the street through her blinds, and then her little brother didn’t come home when he was supposed to. A burger wasn’t going to undo that. But hearing his voice and seeing their faces might.

Back in the car, Liam set the bags on the floor in the back, clipped his phone into the dashboard mount, and stayed parked. He pressed Sophia’s name and hit video call.

She picked up on the second ring.

Her face filled the screen, tight and pale, eyes sharp. She opened her mouth, clearly ready to unload every terrified, furious thought she’d had in the last hour.

“Hey,” Liam said quickly. “Before you say anything, Mateo’s friend Owen is here with us. Say hi, Owen.”

Sophia’s mouth snapped shut.

Liam watched her recalibrate in real time. Her eyebrows came down. Her shoulders lowered. The furious older sister vanished and a composed, polite adult took her place, because she was not about to scream at her brother in front of his friend.

Liam had been counting on exactly that.

[“Hi, Owen,”] Sophia said, her voice tight but controlled.

Owen leaned forward into frame from the back seat. “Hi, Miss Sophia.”

[“Nice to meet you.”]

“You too.” He sat back again, clearly relieved to be done.

Sophia’s eyes moved to Liam.

[“Where are you?”]

“Leaving a burger place. My fault. I should’ve texted you before I took them anywhere. I’m sorry.”

[“You should have.”] Her voice was gentler now, but stern underneath.

[“I called you three times, Liam.”]

“I know. I saw. I’m sorry.”

Mateo leaned into the frame from the passenger seat. “Sophia, it’s not his fault. He picked us up and asked if we were hungry and I said yes, so technically it’s my fault.”

[“Oh, it’s definitely partly your fault,”] Sophia said.

“Rude.” Mateo muttered under his breath.

“He bought us food,” Mateo went on. “Like, real food. I already ate, so you don’t have to cook tonight.”

Sophia paused.

Liam saw it land. All day she’d been running on fear and adrenaline, and somewhere underneath that was the thought she’d been dreading: that she’d still have to stand in the kitchen tonight and make dinner like everything was normal. And now she didn’t have to.

“He got you some too,” Mateo added. “Burger and onion rings. And a shake.”

“Chocolate,” Liam said.

Sophia looked down for a second. When she looked back up, the tightness around her eyes had loosened.

[“You got me food?”]

“Figured you hadn’t eaten,” Liam said. “You were too busy keeping watch.”

For a moment she didn’t say anything. Then she let out a long breath, and some of the weight she’d been carrying all day seemed to go with it.

[“Thank you,” she said quietly. “Really. For picking him up, and for… all of it.”]

Liam heard it in her tone. Whatever she’d been ready to yell about when she answered, she’d let it go. She’d seen the whole picture: her brother safe, fed, laughing with a friend, someone else carrying the load for once.

“We’ll drop Owen off and come straight home,” Liam said.

[“Okay.”] She smiled a little, tired but real. “Drive safe.”

“Always.”

The call ended. Mateo slumped back in his seat with a huge sigh.

“We survived,” he whispered.

From the back seat, Owen said, “Your sister’s kind of scary.”

“You have no idea,” Mateo said.

–

Sophia had been sitting by the front window for twenty minutes, and she’d stopped pretending she wasn’t.

Things with Liam were good. Better than good, honestly, and that was the problem. He’d walked into her life and quietly started carrying things she’d been carrying alone for years: Mateo’s school runs, his confidence, his secrets, and now even her fear. And he did it without making her feel like she owed him anything for it.

She wasn’t used to that. Not from anyone. Not even from the men she’d dated before, the ones who’d said they’d be there and then made her feel like a burden whenever she actually needed them.

With Liam, she felt safe. And feeling safe was dangerous, because it made her want to lean on him, and leaning on someone meant one day she might fall when they stepped away.

*Don’t fall for him,* she told herself for the hundredth time. *It’ll get messy.*

Then she thought about the way he’d looked at her that morning, hands on her shoulders, telling her nothing would touch her or Mateo, and the warning lost all its force.

Headlights swept across the street. Liam’s car pulled up out front.

Sophia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

Mateo climbed out of the passenger side, and Liam came around holding a paper bag with grease already soaking through the bottom. Even from the window she could tell it was still hot, and something in her chest unknotted immediately.

Then Liam crouched down in front of Mateo on the sidewalk, one hand on his shoulder, talking low and serious. Mateo nodded along like he was being briefed for a mission.

“Aw,” Sophia thought. “That’s sweet.”

Then Liam pointed at the house. Then at Mateo. Then mimed something with his hands, like a little shrug, and Mateo copied it. Liam nodded and did it again, more slowly this time.

Sophia’s eyes narrowed.

He was coaching him. He was literally coaching her little brother on what to say when he walked through the door.

“That mother—” She kissed her teeth. “He’s teaching him how to lie!”

But even as she said it, she could feel the corners of her mouth pulling up, and the anger fizzled out before it ever really caught fire.

By the time Liam reached the porch and raised his fist to knock, she’d already opened the door.

He blinked, fist still in the air. “Oh. Hi.”

“Don’t ‘oh, hi’ me.” She folded her arms. “I watched that whole thing from the window.”

“What whole thing?”

“Your little rehearsal.”

Mateo, standing just behind Liam, did the exact shrug he’d been practicing. “Sophia, it’s not his fault, I’m the one who—”

“Inside,” Sophia said, pointing. “Now.”

Mateo slipped past her and vanished down the hall.

Liam held up the bag. “Peace offering. Still hot.”

She tried to keep her face stern. She really did. But he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, and she lasted about two seconds before she gave up and leaned into him.

“I’m still mad at you,” she mumbled into his chest.

“I know.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are but I have ways of making it up to you.”

She wasn’t.

–

The security team arrived an hour later.

Liam heard the vehicles before he saw them: a black SUV pulling up out front and a dark sedan parking a little further down the street, engine still running. Two men climbed out of the SUV and walked toward the house.

Liam opened the door, looked up, and kept looking up.

They were enormous. Not just broad, though they were broad, shoulders so wide they’d have to turn sideways in most doorways. They were tall. The first man had to dip his head under the porch light.

“Mr. Hartley?” the first one said. His voice was deep and calm. “I’m Tobias Grange. This is Dele Okafor. We’re your day and night team for this residence.”

“Liam’s fine,” Liam said, shaking his hand and trying not to wince at the grip. “Wow. You guys are… big.”

Dele’s mouth twitched. “We get that a lot.”

“Yeah, this’ll do,” Liam said to himself. “This will absolutely do.”

Tobias nodded toward the sedan. “Third man’s in that car. Reggie Walsh. He’ll keep eyes on the street while we walk the property.”

Sophia appeared behind Liam in the doorway, arms crossed, studying the two men like she was trying to decide whether they were real.

“Ma’am,” Tobias said, dipping his head.

“Hi,” she said slowly. “So… how does this work, exactly? Are you here all the time?”

“Around the clock, in shifts,” Dele said. “Someone will always be watching the house. You won’t always see us, but we’ll be there.”

“And my brother? He takes the bus to school.”

“One of us will follow the bus and keep watch outside the school until he’s picked up,” Tobias said. “Discreetly. He won’t be embarrassed in front of his friends.”

Sophia’s shoulders eased a little. “What if someone actually shows up?”

“Then they meet us first,” Dele said simply.

She looked between the two of them for a long moment, then let out a slow breath.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “Okay. Thank you.”

“That’s what we’re here for, ma’am.”

As they headed off to walk the perimeter, Sophia leaned against Liam’s arm without seeming to notice she was doing it.

“They’re huge,” she whispered.

“I know,” Liam whispered back. “I’m a little scared of them, honestly.”

She laughed, really laughed, all the tension slipping through.