Before Sunrise (12 page)

“
Um, Kennedy.”

“
Cool, but you’re too
pretty to be a Kennedy. I think I’m going to call you
Kay.”

If she were fair-skinned, she’d have turned
scarlet red. Instead, she grinned stupidly up at him, unable to
look away. He sipped from his cup and then winked at her.

“
You girls have fun,” he
said, then sauntered off.

“
Oh my GOD!” Kennedy
exhaled. She’d been reduced to a fit of giggles. Sierra chuckled
and shook her head.

“
I think he liked
you,
Kay
,” she
teased.

“
He is so cute. Look at his
butt.”

They both tried to, but he disappeared into
the pack of gyrating bodies dancing to the house music. “He’s going
to be my boyfriend.” Kennedy grinned.

“
Huh? He isn’t in high
school. He’s probably twenty-two or three, and I hear he’s got a
temper. Remember that kid Bryan? The one that goes to
Gaylor?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Heard he beat him up
pretty bad over something trifling. I can’t remember, but I think
it was over a pack of cigarettes.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah, remember our rule?
We sneak out to have fun, but we just look, never touch. Besides,
you can do better than that loser,” Sierra huffed.

Kennedy ignored her. The just-looking rule
seemed only to apply to Kennedy. Sierra touched anyone she wanted,
as many times as she wanted in a night. She was overly protective,
as most everyone in Kennedy’s life was. Besides, in Liam’s case,
Kennedy suspected Sierra had grown salty because he’d turned down
her flirt, especially since it was the first time anyone in this
crew did. Kennedy lifted on her toes to look for him. But he was
gone.

Kennedy smiled to herself. She’d see him
again soon. She’d find a way.

***

Angelina blocked Alexa’s entrance. “I asked
you a question.”

“
Right. I see.” Alexa
stepped back from the door and cleared her throat dramatically.
“Good evening Mrs. Vasquez.
I’m-so-sorry-to-bother-you-at-this-late-hour-I’m-here-on-official-business-with-the-major-is-he-available?”

Vasquez hustled to the door and rested his
hands on his wife’s shoulders. “Hi, Alex. What are you doing
here?”

Angelina, obviously annoyed with her
husband, shook off his touch.

“
Let me guess. You’re here
to see Liam,” Angelina snipped.

“
Sweetheart, please.”
Vasquez pulled her back inside.

Angelina whirled on her
husband. “I want her out of here. And unless you want the fight of
your life tonight, you’ll make it happen
quick
.” She stormed aside, hand to
her belly.

Alexa sneered. “I see your wife is as
charming as ever.”

“
It’s not a good time, Alex.
Liam already went upstairs.”

“
This isn’t a social call.
Can I please come in?”

Vasquez sighed, weighing his options.
Angelina paced the floor behind him. He stepped aside. She shot her
husband a withering glare when he allowed Alexa to walk inside,
then turned and marched off to the kitchen.

Alexa looked up to the stairs. “Can you get
him to come down?”

“
No. He’s wiped.”

“
So I take it the reunion
didn’t go well.”

Vasquez shook his head. “He hasn’t seen her
yet. Tomorrow, maybe.”

“
Well he needs to see her
soon. Senator Clayton is making a big stink over his release. You
know his concerns. Liam could be a security risk.”

“
Not possible. You and I
both know this, Alexa.”

She shrugged. “Maybe not. But there’s more.
Sarkhir knows he’s alive.”

“
How?” Vasquez
said.

“
We’ve gotten intelligence.
So far it points to an active a cell in West Virginia. It may not
mean anything. It may mean everything. Clayton thinks we needs to
contain Liam, and I think the vice president agrees.”

“
Fuck. My boy has been
through enough.” Vasquez rubbed the back of his head.

“
Exactly. We have to think
of the men and women out there now with their lives on the line.
Liam is too important. They want me to bring him back in. Weeks. A
few months, tops, and then he can go public.”

Vasquez stepped to Alexa and lowered his
voice. “Delay it.”

“
Huh? I can’t.”

“
You and I both know you
can. Use someone else. The man has lost five years of his life. He
hasn’t even met his daughter. You get the administration off his
back. I’ll keep him here. Trust me, between us, we can contain this
together.”

“
That’s not a good
idea.”

“
You owe him your life. We
both do. He’s in a lot of pain, Alex, and you can do something
about it. Delay it. Give him a chance to heal his family, for
fuck’s sake.”

She looked up at the stairs. Alexa sighed.
Vasquez hoped she would turn and walk out. Do something selfless,
act the way she had when they’d all first met.

“
He has two weeks. I can
give him until Christmas. Then he’s coming in. Sorry, Ant, but I
love him too, and I won’t let the senator or any desert rat-bastard
terrorist get a second chance at him.” She spun on her heel and
left.

Vasquez closed and locked the door. He could
feel his wife’s heated glare warm his back. He turned and found her
closer than he’d expected.

“
First thing tomorrow you
take him to see Kennedy. First thing, Anthony, or I will tell her
myself, so help me God.”

“
Okay.”

“
Okay what?”

“
You’re right. They need to
see each other. Tomorrow, first thing. Now damn, Angelina, I’ve
missed you, missed our kids. Can I get a little peace? It’s been
hell these past months keeping this to myself.“

She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. She
went to his arms and hugged him.

At the top of the stairs, Liam listened to
the entire exchange. And even though Alexa and his boy had spoken
in heated whispers, he heard enough to know that Sarkhir would use
his family against him if he had to. Liam would have to get to
Kennedy and protect them. So tomorrow was the day. After years of
dreaming the moment, it would be reality. He’d see her again.

Turning on his cane, he limped as quietly as
he could to the guest room.

Chapter Six

Liam lay flat on his back. His left arm was
pinned behind his head; the sheets were a tangled twist around his
waist. He still found it strange to sleep in a bed. So he didn’t
sleep at all. The room they offered him was next door to the
twins’. Liam had a chance to talk to the boys before they turned
in. They questioned him about who he was and why he’d made their
mommy cry. Before he knew it, Ant appeared beside him. He nodded
for Liam to tell. He confessed and told them that he was
Mackenzie’s father. He smirked to think that Sarkhir and his men
could learn a thing or two about interrogation from these
tykes.

The Vasquez boys’ response to his
resurrection was immediate. Mackenzie had always called him a hero
but they’d never believed it. They did now.

This revelation shocked and calmed his fears
in a way he couldn’t put into words. So his little girl had
mentioned him? Kennedy hadn’t erased him from their child’s life.
He should have known better than to think she would. But the relief
he carried was short-lived. It only pained him more to know he’d
missed so much of his little girl’s growth. How would he ever make
up for his absence?

Liam adjusted to the quiet of the Vasquez
house. He heard Angelina and his friend arguing. Vasquez’s voice
rose above hers and then there was quiet. Damn, he missed the days
when he and Kennedy would spar and then she’d let him think he won.
He’d give anything to fight with her now.

Then again, maybe not. Their reunion would
certainly be painful. Far too painful to look forward to.

Liam focused on the splotchy patterns in the
speckled ceiling until his vision blurred. The meal Angelina had
brought to his room—pot roast, potatoes, and creamed corn with
fresh rolls—remained on the dinner tray untouched, though he knew
she’d give him hell for it in the morning. He’d spent the remainder
of the night thinking, and the more thinking he did, the more
desperate and alone he felt. Desperation always dredged up memories
he hated. Every one of them got compared with the day he’d felt the
most desperate, the day his little sister had died.

He’d fled the hospital when the machines
were turned off. He had to escape the wails of agony from his
mother and the flat stare of his disinterested stepfather. He’d
driven aimlessly around the streets of Chicago in a daze. He’d gone
home, stumbled to her room, and spent the remainder of the day
lying in his kid sister’s bed, thinking of the hopelessness in a
world where a five-year-old girl could suffer the way she had. He
thought of all the things his baby sister would never do, see, be.
He thought of time, and how it seemed more a punishment than a
gift. Everything born would die. Why love or put your faith in
another, when fate was so random?

It was his earliest, most closely-held
truth, and it had become true again with his love for Kennedy. He
should have known that even their love could be fleeting. He should
have known that every mission was a chance he’d never see her
again. But he’d been too arrogant and pumped up on his cause to
treasure time.

Liam had made mistakes with Kennedy. From
the start, he’d fucked up. She had been a kid when she’d trailed
him around party to party in her silly attempts to get his
attention, constantly finding reasons to be in his space. Kennedy’s
mother was right when she said he wasn’t worthy, that he’d only
break her heart. But Kay was so certain they were destiny, and he
was so desperate for the kind of love she offered. Pure, as
unconditional as you could get. And even as he told himself they
were not going to happen, he’d become desperate to be worthy of
Kennedy’s love, just as he had been desperate to hold on to the
little sister he couldn’t keep from slipping away.

On the day of his sister’s death, before his
mother returned from the hospital with the abusive bastard she’d
married, Liam packed his meager belongings and took the keys to
their spare Toyota Corolla. He drove out of Chicago with two
hundred eleven dollars in his pocket, headed for New Jersey and his
cousin Heath. Running had been good, and his parents gave more of a
shit about the missing car than they had about him.

Now, who’d care if he walked away? Would
Kennedy? He wasn’t her hero anymore. He’d returned broken,
crippled, angry, desperate, and confused. Half a man at best. His
little girl would be disappointed to know that heroes didn’t
exist.

Fuck
running
. He was a lot of things, but he
wasn’t a fucking coward. Kennedy had been his anchor. She kept him
from drowning, gave him a purpose. He’d been a better man for
loving her. She’d given up, but that didn’t mean he should. How
could he, when she truly was his one and only love?

***

Kennedy awoke with a gasp.
She’d been dreaming of Liam again. More specifically, she’d been
dreaming of sex with Liam, which filled her with a sense of safety,
of warmth, as well as unyielding guilt. It wasn’t that she didn’t
want to think of him; she just didn’t want to do it while lying
next to Phil, and definitely not after they’d made love.
Screwed
.
Whatever
.

She peeled back the comforter and slipped
stealthily from the bed. Phil groaned but didn’t wake, which was
just as well. She didn’t feel like talking. Turning for the
bathroom, she caught a glimpse of Phil as he rolled to his back,
asleep with both his legs and his mouth wide open. Kennedy bit her
lip, then grabbed her robe and slippers and tiptoed out into the
hallway and down the stairs to the den. There, she curled into her
favorite chair. It was a plush recliner, the first item of real
furniture she and Liam had. They’d bought it together at Montgomery
Ward. She’d never loved the color, but it had been on sale, and
they’d spent many a night squeezed together in its depths while
they watched a late-night movie until they fell asleep. Kennedy had
sense enough not to tell Phil the chair’s origins, only that it
would always be her favorite piece of furniture. For that reason
alone, he tolerated it.

Kennedy tucked her feet underneath her and
pulled the lavender chenille throw up over her breasts. She leaned
back and let out a slow breath, remembering a stolen summer night
on the beach in Montauk, at the very eastern end of Long Island,
and closed her eyes.

***

August
9
^th
,
1994

“
So what do you plan to do?
Sit here and stare at him, or say something?”

“
Quiet. He might hear you.”
Kennedy elbowed her friend.

“
Ouch!” Sierra
squealed.

The flashing flames from a beach bonfire
separated her and Sierra from the others, particularly Liam. The
scene had been mostly kids too old for high school but too young
and rich to care about their futures. Notorious Big’s hit song Big
Poppa blasted from the sound system of a guy named Jeff’s supped up
Nissan 300 and several girls were dry humping their guys. Kennedy
had convinced her parents to allow her to take the last days of
summer break with the Schoensteins in the Hamptons. She neglected
to mention Mrs. Schoenstein had been so busy with the affairs of
the season, she barely noticed the girls. And that meant freedom
Kennedy was never afforded at home.