Liam sat at the end of the long table. They were all there, everyone except Harmony since there was no one else to take care of Chloe on this short of notice. It was like waiting in the principal’s office.
“You didn’t get any pictures?” Henry asked.
“I didn’t even have a camera,” Liam confessed.
Henry nodded.
“Miriam Roberts,” Liam said. “What was all that about?”
Henry said, “I’m sure Chief Osborne will get to the bottom of that.”
“You sure you didn’t recognize the dude?” Dane asked.
Liam shook his head. “No, but he sure looked a lot like the same build as the man in the rain gear who took my laptop.”
“Do you think Matt has cameras or bugs in here?” Raine asked.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Liam said. “He knew we were out there somehow.”
Dane asked, “Are you sure it wasn’t the same treasure as in Seth’s pictures?”
Liam took a deep breath and nodded. “Positive.” He so understood the drug that was treasure hunting now. “Same kind of netting. Same kind of treasure, for that matter, but much, much more of it.”
“And, it’s all being hauled up by not Clearwaters,” Willow said.
“But, Clearwaters are the ones who found it. Or at least a Corbin, a Clearwater, and a Morrison,” Dane said. “And, a Martinez in the boat. No one can change that.” He slid his hand over and laced fingers with Zoe on the table.
“Hey,” Raine said. “We were the distraction, albeit a bad one. We didn’t even fool the cop.”
“Yeah, and how did he know—” Zoe began as Matt barged through the door.
“Because he’s not stupid,” he said and shut the door behind him. “You left a trail a mile wide.”
He sat with them instead of at the head of the table or the dry erase board. Liam knew this tactic. Make the kids comfortably uncomfortable.
“Are you charging us with something?” Raine asked. “’Cause I really need a shower and have an island to check on.”
Matt opened his mouth and shut it again. His brows lowered and he shook his head. “I’ll need statements from each of you, even the distraction,” he said, using quotations around the last word.
Maybe he did have hidden cameras.
“Dane?”
“Here.” Dane raised his hand and smiled.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Very sure.”
“I’d like you to get checked out anyway, and why are you smiling?”
“Miriam’s okay?”
“She’ll live.”
“Then, I’m smiling because, ya know, treasure. We discovered where Seth Clearwater— Should we be writing this down? Where Seth Clearwater hid Luciana Bezan’s legendary dowry. How is the excavation?”
Matt nodded. “They’ve got more boats and people and historians and appraisers, journalists and museum admins out there than I knew existed.”
Dane rubbed his hands together. “This means—” He looked around and dropped his shoulders. “That we should finish up here as quickly as possible.”
“Get comfortable, Mr. Corbin.” Matt stood at that. Liam understood this tactic as well and did as he was told, got comfortable. “Your little stunt may have been deceptive, stupid, and frankly, rude, but it wasn’t illegal. You were, however, a victim of an attempt on your life, the life of your fiancée and employee, as well as the person who sank a knife into both perpetrators.”
Dane held up a finger. “Miriam was not me, I swear. That had to be the dude.”
“We’ll get through all of that, which is why you need to get comfortable. For now, I need each of you to know this.” He stood tall at the end of the table. “You have a reception area full of people who want to interview and take your pictures. So, get your combs out.”
Willow mouthed the word, ‘Combs,’ to Zoe.
Zoe shrugged.
“The doctor wants Miriam to rest for twenty-four hours before I question her. I told him he could have six to get her stitched up and settled. I’m—with an emphasis on the I’m—going to find out where this partner is, how steeped in all of this she is, and although my time here may be short, who killed your brother.” He looked to Henry. “And son.”
“And friend,” Dane added.
“And friend,” Liam agreed.
“What if she doesn’t talk?” Raine asked. “What if—?”
“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good, because this is good. We caught her red-handed. I have guys searching her apartment as we speak.”
Liam hadn’t thought of that. Smart.
“Congratulations on the treasure. I’ve arranged for you to be there for the viewing or cleaning or acknowledgements or whatever that’s all about.”
Dane lifted a finger. “That’d be—”
Liam gave him a swift elbow to the ribs.
“Oww,” Dane whined but lowered his finger.
“Mr. Clearwater—” Matt began to say.
“Henry,” Henry corrected.
“Mr. Clearwater,” Matt said louder. “Raine and Willow,” he continued. “You are free to go deal with the mess in reception. I want you in here tomorrow at ten for your statements. Dane and Zoe, your statements are now.”
“Each of you,” he said and pointed a finger around the room. “Be warned—”
Raine yawned. Loudly.
Matt dropped his eyelids to half open and inhaled deeply. “I am in charge of this investigation. Interfere again and I’ll have you arrested.”
His face softened considerably before he said, “Now, go. You have a lot to celebrate. I’ll have Dane and Zoe to you when I can.”
Liam unlocked the front door for her. It was 4 a.m., almost time for the call from her section beach walker and she was just getting home.
Dragging her feet over the threshold, she grumbled, “We had double the number I had planned for. And, I planned for double what I thought.”
“I’m not sure I followed all of that, but you definitely had a lot.”
His long fingers rested on her lower back, making her forget what they were talking about.
“Finding Luciana’s dowry the week before the grand opening to Luciana’s probably helped those numbers,” he said.
Oh right. Her pub. “Whether it’s Luciana’s dowry is still under investigation.” That was what the Smithsonian people said anyway.
“A formality,” he said, traveling his long fingers around her waist and holding her up. What were they talking about again?
“Chloe is gone for the night.”
She knew he knew this. It was her grand opening night, so her parents had kept her for a sleepover. His feet stopped in their tracks regardless.
“Oh.” His voice cracked at the single word.
She rotated around to face him fully. “We celebrated finding the treasure.” She lifted on her toes to kiss him.
His eyes searched the room like he might find what to do out there.
Slipping her fingers inside the waist of his jeans, she said, “We haven’t celebrated us.”
“Because Chloe, but of course she’s not, are you sure? I thought maybe—”
She ripped the Velcro from her sling.
“Oh. Wait. Should you—?”
His honesty was insanely sexy. She simply couldn’t take it anymore. “I should,” she said and lifted her shirt over her head. “We should.”
His eyes dropped to her lips. His expression morphed into something she’d never seen in him before.
“Uh-oh—” she began to say, but he covered her mouth with his. His was needy and assertive. He took her face in his hands, tilted her head and pulled her in.
Their lips and tongues moved in a desperate dance as their feet turned and tripped on the way to the bedroom. Her bedroom. Their bedroom.
Her skin bubbled with anticipation like a turtle nest exploding after a hot summer. They stood next to the bed, and his lips moved from her mouth down her jaw and over her neck. “Will you say it?”
He pulled back and smiled at her. “My Willow,” he said and lowered her to the bed. “My life.”
He was careful, yet uninhibited; gentle, yet sexy. His long fingers seemed like they were everywhere, exploring, learning.
Her painfully honest and cautious Liam flipped hooks and buttons with ease, maneuvered clothing without ever risking her shoulder or head. When he reached for his own, she put a hand over his.
His brown eyes lifted to hers. She bit her bottom lip and said, “Let me.”
His long arm drew lines from the back of her neck, down her spine, and over her backside before grabbing hold of her thigh. Just as he found her, she dug her fingertips into his shoulders.
This was her love, her forever. She was safe and adored. Her head spun over the first peak. Her body trembled, and she pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “Don’t stop,” she whispered as she fell down the other side of the mountain and time slowed.
With her good arm, she tugged his arm to crawl under him.
He shook his head and covered her mouth with his, burying her with everything that was him and taking her places she never thought she could go.
He seemed to sense when she was spent to the point of desperate and crawled into her. Her heart exploded with the rest of her as they joined. Two people joined in time who knew what their future held and that it was together.
The last push sent her over with him, their bodies draped in love and promises.
He fell back on the pillow as his chest heaved in and out. “I might have been,” he said between gasps, “pent up.”
She lifted her elbow to get a better look at his face. He seemed lighter, freer somehow. “I like pent up you.”
Lifting a single brow, he turned his eyes to her.
“Not!” she said louder than she meant to. “That I am hoping you will be pent up again anytime soon.” She kissed his shoulder, then rested her chin on his chest. “Or, ever.”
Taking one last, deep breath, he blew it out as he ran his thumb over her scar. She could see the familiar war that went on in his head.
“You’re here,” she whispered.
The weight lifted, and he smiled her favorite smile. “Always.”