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Liam North
As a general rule, Liam wasn't a guy who second-guessed himself. He was even less likely to regret the things he did. The thing with Felicity, though, it was under his skin, and it wasn't going anywhere. He'd hardly seen her for almost a week, thanks to the enormous size of his house, and every day he was getting more antsy about it. He wasn't sleeping well, and his employees were all suffering the consequences of his bad moods. He felt like a tiger in a cage two sizes too small; a cage still steadily shrinking. It was the powerlessness that really did it. It was the feeling of uselessness that really got to him. By the end of the week, it was driving him so crazy that he couldn't take it anymore, or at least not lying down. It was really just Matty's dumb luck, or lack thereof, that brought Liam into the house's security headquarters.
“Yo, boss,” Matty said, his voice as friendly as ever, “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Liam sighed, sitting back in one of the slightly worn out club chairs, “nothing at all.”
"Really? Because if you don't mind me saying, you kind of look like shit," Matt answered, frowning a little. He was going out on a limb, talking to his boss like that, and both of them knew it. There were probably plenty of bosses who would have been pissed off by the presumptuousness of the comment, but Liam wasn't one of them. Even if he was, he currently lacked the energy. He smiled ruefully at Matt and ran a hand over his eyes.
“I look like shit, huh? Good to know,” he said ruefully.
“What’s going on? Anything I can do to help?”
"I don't know. No, not really. We could go through the Felicity situation since I'm here."
“You’re calling her the situation now. Interesting plan,” Matt said, smiling without looking all that amused. Liam sat up straighter in his chair and leaned forward, resting his chin on his steepled fingers.
“Is there a problem?” he asked, his hackles raising. The smart move would be to leave; just head out of the room and talk to Matt when he wasn’t in such a shitty mood. Except that now he was interested. He wanted to know what Matt was getting at because there was clearly something. Matt looked at him wearily, then shook his head.
“No, nothing. She seemed a little off this week, though. Except for when her friend came to see her.”
"What?" Liam asked slowly. Matt looked at him quickly, and there was a look in his eyes that Liam didn't like. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it looked a hell of a lot like reproach, and that was the last thing in the world he was in the mood for today.
“Yeah, a couple of days ago. Felicity didn’t mention it?”
“I haven’t spoken to her much. Want to tell me why you let a visitor in without fully vetting her first?” Liam asked sharply. Christ, he sounded like an idiot, even to himself, but he couldn’t figure out how to put the brakes on. Matt’s expression didn’t do a lot to help the situation, either.
“Come on, Liam, are you serious?” he asked incredulously.
“Of course, I’m serious. This isn’t a joke. I thought you understood what we were doing here.”
"I understand. The whole thing is totally unorthodox, but I get what you're trying to do."
“Do you?” Liam asked, the blood rushing in his ears.
“I do. Do you?” Matt shot back, looking good and pissed off now.
“I think you better think about your place in this scenario. You’re hired to keep her safe.”
“I am. That’s true.”
“So?”
"So, trust me to be able to tell the difference between a threat and something benign. Lena has been Felicity's friend since they were kids. That girl would probably be faster to take a bullet for Felicity than me or any of my boys. On top of which it was the only time Felicity looked even halfway happy this week. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that she's been fucking miserable?"
Liam wanted to punch his lights out. The worst part about it was that Matt was right. Felicity hadn't looked too thrilled, and that had to be at least in part due to him acting like such a jackass. Instead of punching Matt, he punched his fist into his palm, and when he looked up, Matt didn't look so much like he wanted to kill him.
“Well?” he asked, pushing him further.
“Sure, okay, fine. She hasn’t seemed thrilled. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“If you don’t see it, we’ve got a bigger problem than I thought,” Matt said, smiling wryly.
“Feel like enlightening me?” Liam asked, working hard to keep his temper in check.
“You bet. Why don’t you try this on for size? She’s not some kind of frail, helpless princess in a story. She doesn’t need to be locked away in an ivory tower, you know?”
“Okay,” Liam said slowly, making himself shut up and listen for once.
“You gotta think about it from her perspective, right? She had a life before she got involved in this shit.”
“I know that. She wasn’t thrilled with the way things were going, but-”
“Don’t do that,” Matt interrupted, fully up on his soapbox now, “it may be true but don’t do it. Chicks hate it when you act like you know their lives better than they do.”
"Sure, I can see that," Liam allowed. It was crazy but made sense. Not only that but it was calming him down some. It was back to the control thing. Like it or not, Matt was giving some of that back to him.
“All I’m saying is that her life got turned the fuck around and seeing a friend isn’t the worst thing in the world. She seemed like a cool chick, too, for what it’s worth.”
“Did she now?” Liam asked, finally smiling. Matt turned bright red and coughed into his hand. “What’s the matter, Matty, did I touch a nerve?”
“Not at all. Anything else?” Matt asked, clearing his throat compulsively.
“Nothing. I think we’re going out tonight though,” Liam said spur of the moment.
“Who’s we?”
“Me and Felicity, if she’ll go. I think you’re right. I think I screwed up and she deserves an apology.”
“Right on,” Matt grinned, nodding his head in satisfaction, “now you’re talking. But Boss, you’ve gotta be careful, right? You know she’s not safe.”
“You think I forgot?” Liam asked, clearly irritated. It wasn’t Matt he was pissed at, either. It was those damn thieves. There hadn’t been so much as a whisper of them since that first night. What if they had caught wind of what Liam was trying to do? What if they had sussed out another, more interesting catch? The not knowing was driving him insane and Matt’s comments weren’t helping matters any.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
LIAM HAD BEEN NERVOUS about asking Felicity to go to dinner with him. She lived in his house, he had seen her naked, and yet he had been nervous as hell. When she had opened the door to her bedroom, she had looked skeptical at best, at worst downright pissed off. The truth of it was probably somewhere in between, but it had taken some convincing to get her to come out with him. Once she'd said yes, he'd spent the rest of the afternoon trying not to think about it and changing his shirt three different times. He had picked her up at her door, knocking like he would have done if he was picking her up from her house. They didn't speak in the car, nor did they speak as he ushered her into the restaurant, placing one hand on the small of her back and trying to pretend that it wasn't shaking. Funny enough, it was the hostess that broke the tension for them. Liam could see Felicity smiling out of the corner of his eye as the girl led them to their seats, and by the time Liam pulled her chair out, she was struggling not to laugh.
“Alright, guys, here you are. I put you at my favorite table,” the hostess gushed, her eyes roaming unabashedly up and down the length of Liam’s body, “so you know, you’re welcome.”
“Is that so?” Felicity asked, her face a mask of total innocence even when the hostess favored her with an unconcealed look of contempt. “Why is this one your favorite?”
"Um, because you can see all of the action from here. It's the best place in the place to see and be seen. Maybe I'll be seeing you around." She winked at Liam, shot Felicity another dirty look, and then flounced back to her station. Liam watched her go disbelievingly and then looked at Felicity again. He was almost afraid to do that last part. In his experience, women weren't too keen on the sort of display they'd just witnessed, and he was already on shaky ground.
“Sorry about that,” he said, genuinely embarrassed by the display, “I don’t know what that was about.”
“Are you kidding?” Felicity laughed, a rich, pretty sound that made Liam’s skin prickle with goosebumps. “That was the highlight of my day. It might even be the highlight of my week.”
“Is that so? Well, I’m glad I could be of service, although I don’t really understand the reaction,” Liam said with a smile.
“You get that kind of reaction a lot, don’t you?” she said by way of answer, watching him intently as she sipped her water. Liam squirmed in his seat and signaled for the waiter instead of replying. It was a server Liam had had plenty of times before and he came armed with their nicest bottle of red wine. It was a great vintage and Liam was more than a little grateful to have something to take the edge off, maybe lubricate the conversation a little, for both of their sakes. When the waiter went to pour Felicity a taste, however, her brow furrowed, and she waved the bottle away.
“Come on, you can’t pass this one up. This is an excellent bottle of wine.”
“I’m okay, actually,” she said evasively, picking up a wayward cocktail napkin and starting to rip it systematically to shreds.
"I'm not joking, this is better than anything I've got in my cellar, and that's saying a lot. Are you sure you don't want to try some?"
“I’m really okay,” she answered without looking at him.
"I'm not trying to pressurize you; I hope you know that. Just think of it as a kind of peace offering, why don't you?"
“I said I don’t want any, Liam,” she answered sharply, sharp enough that he felt a little stung. “I really don’t, okay?”
"Okay," Liam said. “Maybe some seltzer water or something, then."
“Sure, that would be good,” she answered, both her tone and her shoulders relaxing slightly, “and I don’t want you to feel like you need to give me any kind of peace offering. I’m sorry if I made you feel that way. If I’ve been acting badly, I mean.”
“No way. I’m the one who owes an apology here. I don’t know what got into me. It’s been a lot, I guess, at work and with this whole heist thing.”
“I can only imagine,” she said sympathetically, surprising them both by reaching out and taking one of his hands in her own.
"I shouldn't have acted the way I did, though. I don't know why I've been such a dick lately."
“You said it,” she smiled, “not me.”
"We've got ourselves into a pretty bizarre situation now, haven’t we?" he asked, taking a sip of the wine she still refused to taste. She didn't answer that one, but the expression on her face looked far away and, he thought, a little bit sad. Something was going on with her, and he'd been too wrapped up in his own shit to notice. Now that he was paying attention, he wasn't sure he could get her to talk to him. He'd proved himself unreliable at the very best and at the worst, maybe untrustworthy. Looking at her now, so beautiful and seemingly unaware of that beauty, his conversation with Matt kept playing through his head over and over again. She'd had a life before meeting him. It was a struggle, but it had been hers, and he had been presumptuous enough to walk in and change it all without considering that it might be difficult for her. When he thought about things like that, it was no wonder she was acting weird. She didn't owe him anything more than she was already giving and probably a hell of a lot less. Now that he really thought about it, he was lucky she'd agreed to come out to dinner with him at all.
“What is it?” Felicity asked, breaking into his rather self-deprecating thoughts. “What’s troubling you?”
“I don’t know. Nothing. I just feel like-”
He wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He wasn’t sure what he felt like, which was a large part of the problem. In the end, it didn’t matter. Before he could finish his sentence, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He should probably have ignored it but answering a call meant he didn't have to try and sort through why he had wanted to take Felicity out in the first place.
"Boss, we've got a situation," Matt barked into the phone, none of the usual friendliness in his voice now. He could feel Felicity looking at him, but it was a look he couldn't return. He couldn't afford the distraction.
“What is it, Matt? What’s going on?”
"We think your safety has been compromised. There's been some suspicious activity around the restaurant, and we think you need to go."
“Are you serious? I can take care of myself.”
“Look, do you want to keep Felicity safe or not?” Matt barked into the phone, the lines of boss and employee temporarily forgotten.
“Of course I do,” Liam growled.
“Then stop it with the macho man bullshit and get her out of there. We’ll decide if the whole thing was overblown later on, once the two of you are safely back at home.”
Matt hung up the phone without waiting for Liam to answer. He shoved his own phone back into his pocket and finally looked at Felicity. Her face was frozen into a look of intense concentration like she already knew what he was going to say.
“We need to get out of here,” he said firmly, taking a last sip of wine as he stood.
“How come? What’s happened?” she asked, following Liam’s lead and slipping her hand unconsciously into his.
"I don't know yet. My guess is nothing but that was Matt on the phone, and he wants us to get back to the house."
"Well then, we should go, of course," she said decisively. Still holding his hand, she walked towards the door, past the flirtatious hostess, and out the front door. Liam followed her like a puppy dog, fighting to keep his grip on her hand normal and his face from betraying his feelings. Because in all honesty, he was terrified. The idea that somebody could get to Felicity and hurt her, was terrifying. The scariest thing of all, was how much he was bothered by the idea that he might lose her.
