Whatever the Cost (30 page)

The motel room’s door is slightly ajar. The sound of voices lilts out onto the balcony as Liam gets to the room and pushes his way inside.

Yasha is eyeing the small mountain of boxes and Valery is looking at a road map of the area. They both glance up when Liam enters. Hiding as much of his expression as he’s able to behind dark sunglasses, Liam tries also to shrink into his leather jacket, setting the bag and coffee on the table nearby.

“Hey,” Liam smiles. “Thanks for helping with the move. How’ve you guys been?”

“Fine. Just fine,” Valery grins, coming over to give him a one-armed hug.

Yasha seems to zero in on the way Liam is avoiding eye contact and his hunched posture. For a second Liam wrongly suspects that the wariness and hints of sadness he detects in Yasha are caused by this and not something else.

“Good,” Liam nods, extending a hand to Yasha before he can try to hug Liam too.

Shaking with him, Yasha anticipates Liam’s question before he can ask and says, “Jacen’s in the bathroom.”

“Oh,” Liam grunts lamely. To have something to do, he unpacks the food bag. “There’re bagels and donuts for everyone. And coffee, obviously. Clay’s going to meet us over there a little later. So, how’s L.A.? Any news?”

“Same as it always is,” Yasha answers a little too quickly. “Thanks for the coffee. After that drive, I could use it.”

“Is everything okay?” Liam asks, concerned.

“Yeah,” Yasha assures him. “It’s just been one of those weeks, you know?”

Looking to Valery for visual confirmation of this, at the very least, Liam gets a warm smile from her and relaxes slightly.

The bathroom door opens and Liam instantly stiffens.

“Hey! You’re back,” Jacen beams. He makes his way over, wearing nothing but a pair of old, grungy jeans. He presses up close to Liam’s back and catches his mouth in a fervent but soft kiss over Liam’s shoulder. Liam responds and kisses back but can’t meet Yasha or Valery’s gaze once Jacen breaks away. Eyes downcast, Liam takes a donut and a coffee cup, partaking of some refreshment before it’s time to begin the manual labor.

“So, how’s married life treating you?” Yasha quips.

“Awesome,” Jacen says happily.

Liam, somehow, manages to blush
more
and takes a big bite of donut. Jacen reaches over and takes the sunglasses from off of Liam’s face and when their eyes meet, Liam smiles despite himself, his face lighting up.

“You two seem different,” Valery observes.

Jacen squints, “Different?”

“Different good,” she assures him. “Guess you made the right call, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jacen nods in agreement, sipping from one of the unclaimed coffee cups and pressing a quick kiss to Liam’s temple before going in search of a shirt. “I think we can get this done in one go. That furniture we bought is stacked in boxes on that wall. We should load that first and then stack the rest in after.”

“Okay,” Yasha nods thoughtfully, still distracted. “We’ll get started on those while you guys have some breakfast. We grabbed some on the way up.”

“You don’t have to,” Jacen says. “It’ll just be another minute.”

“No problem. That’s what we’re here for, right?”

Valery and Yasha lift a long, flat box from either end. Slowly they make their way out of the motel room and down toward the stairs to the parking lot. Wiggling into a t-shirt, Jacen tugs it loosely down and circles Liam in his arms from behind.

“Mm. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Liam hums, sighing.

“I was worried when you took off like that. Even if it was for a valid reason. If I’m ever out of line or....”

“Jace, really. We’re cool,” Liam says softly, pulling away, turning around to face him.

Jacen gazes down at him, wondering if it’s true, trying to judge from subtle cues whether it’s Liam trying to make him feel better and put off a “talk” or if it’s genuine.

“I know what you’re doing,” Liam tells him.

“And what’s that?” Jacen asks, playing coy.

They lock eyes and Liam palms the back of Jacen’s head, bringing him in. Their lips touch, brushing together. Liam’s mouth parts slightly. He closes his full lips around Jacen’s, sucking a gentle kiss to them. Moaning, Jacen presses in, seeking more contact. Liam’s tongue slips into his mouth, tasting like coffee.

They don’t hear Yasha and Valery re-enter until they chuckle, speaking quietly and deciding what to take next.

Liam breaks the kiss and Jacen straightens. Running a hand back through his tousled hair, Jacen goes to help with the boxes.

“Please, don’t stop on our account,” Yasha says. “In fact I’m offended by the lack of groping and dry-humping going on here.”

Jacen throws him a look and Valery puts a hand on Jacen’s arm. “Eat,” she instructs. And after a moment’s pause in which Yasha opens his mouth to add something to that directive, Valery clarifies, “Eat
breakfast
.”

“Buzz kill,” Yasha tsks.

The morning passes without incident. They crank up the radio and quickly get the trucks loaded with all of their belongings. After checking over the room one last time, Liam checks them out of the motel and pays the bill with cash. Then the four of them all drive over to the recently purchased apartment building.

Yasha drives the rental truck. Valery drives the motorcycle, and Jacen and Liam take their truck.

On the drive, Liam asks hesitantly, “Um, they don’t seem weird to you today, do they? Yasha and Val?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Quiet, or thoughtful, or like they’re hiding something?”

Jacen considers this.

“Maybe I’m just being paranoid,” Liam says, thinking,
or maybe it’s because I feel like they know what we did last night just by looking at us and I don’t like it.

“Mm,” Jacen grunts. “I guess Yasha did seem a little reserved. We’re almost there; we can just ask them what’s going on.”

“Yeah,” Liam hums.

Clay is there waiting when their caravan pulls up. Clasping hands with Liam and drawing him in for a sound clap on the back, Clay laughs brightly and says, “How’s it goin’, man? The place is lookin’ nice, I’ve gotta say. And perfect weather for a move.”

The sun shines down on them, a cool breeze ruffling their hair. Yasha and Valery head over to join the other three standing around on the sidewalk. Liam handles the introductions.

“Yasha, Val, this is Dice... er, Officer Clay Martinez. Sorry, force of habit,” Liam apologizes.

“Nice to meet you both. Liam and Jacen have told me how cool you’ve been, supporting them and all.”

“You know, you two don’t look like brothers,” Yasha says dryly, observing Clay’s huge, stocky build and mocha skin tone in contrast to Liam’s lean frame and paler countenance.

“Brothers from another mother,” Clay chuckles, shaking Yasha’s hand, then Valery’s.

“It’s definitely a load off our minds, knowing they have you looking out for them,” Valery tells Clay sincerely.

Clay slaps a hand down onto Jacen’s shoulder in greeting, eyeing the trucks. “We ready to get started? It’s gonna be a haul getting everything up three flights of steps. Guess we should open the place up, make sure it’s all ready to go and that there aren’t any surprises.”

“Yeah, but before we get to that,” Jacen starts, pausing to collect his thoughts. He turns to Yasha and Valery. “Is there anything going on that you guys haven’t told us? Because it just seems....”

Yasha sighs, giving Valery a sidelong glance.

“Tell them,” she urges. “Go on.”

“Okay. It’s probably nothing,” he says up front. “But Ryan didn’t check in with his roommate after his job on Thursday night, and he hasn’t been home since. There was—” He stops, looking around at the tense, focused expressions on everyone’s faces. “There was a rumor that he was going to try to take off, like you guys did, to get out of his contract. I heard it through a friend of Ryan’s, and just the fact that it got back to me doesn’t speak well for Ryan’s conscientiousness for his own well-being.”

“You think they got to him, don’t you?” Jacen says severely, his expression clouded and dark. Circling Liam’s shoulders with an arm, Jacen holds on to him like it will keep him safer. “The Company?”

“To be plain, yes,” Yasha nods. “I do. I think they’d want to make an example of him to scare the rest of their employees into toeing the line.”

“
Fuck
,” Jacen curses, pain etched in his face.

“What can we do?” Liam asks quietly, sounding fearful but determined.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Yasha says. “You need to be concerned about your own well-being. You need to keep yourselves safe at this point. Whatever happened to Ryan, which could be nothing, is out of your hands. His roommate and friends are talking about filing a missing person’s report but it could get Ryan in even more trouble with prostitution charges and the like.”

“But it does mean The Company is angry, for whatever reason Ryan disappeared,” Valery inputs. “If it
was
them behind it then that’s even more reason for you and Liam to keep a low profile and stay hidden. We still haven’t heard a peep about you from anyone in L.A. Yasha and I do think they gave you up for lost, but it’s important to be careful.”

Liam turns to Clay and meets his gaze. “They’re right,” Clay says sadly. “There’s nothing you can do for him without overly endangering yourselves. I’d encourage his friends to file the report and even have Ryan talk with the police if he turns up. Maybe they could cut him a deal for information on The Company.”

Grunting, seething with frustration, Liam rakes his fingers back through his hair. Jacen grips his shoulder and urges, “Come on. No use dwelling on it right now. Let’s get the place unlocked.”

Letting Jacen take his hand, lacing their fingers together, Liam follows him to the building’s entrance, keys in hand.

Though he may try to convince himself otherwise, Liam knows right away after hearing about Ryan what he wants to do about the situation. So he does everything in his power to bury his churning thoughts, at least when Jacen is around to possibly notice. Liam knows that if he’s going to do what he knows needs to be done, Jacen can’t know or suspect.

The apartment is on the top floor, so the whole gang is kept busy taking boxes and belongings up to it. It’s easy for Liam to avoid always being within sight of Jacen. He bides his time, looking for the right opening, knowing Jacen wouldn’t approve of what he’s planning, but intent on going through with it anyway. Liam knows that some of the reason behind why he wants to do something that will make Jacen angry is that part of him wants payback for the helplessness and emotional uproar Liam has been experiencing. For weeks he’s been forced to endure huge changes and take part in things that Jacen has helped coax Liam to be okay with. Sure, maybe Liam should have tried to stand up for himself more along the way, and maybe being okay with scaring Jacen is a very wrong path to take, but Liam doesn’t see a lot of options.

Toward the middle of the day, when Jacen is having a coffee break and talking to Valery in the new apartment, Liam heads downstairs to the trucks. Clay is down there, checking through the remaining couple of things in the back of the moving truck.

Liam waves to him and holds up his phone, “Making a quick call, okay?” He thumbs back at the alley along the right side of the building; it’s secluded but still rather brightly lit and deserted.