Know Me Well

Chapter 2-2

Liam’s fist connected with Judd’s chin. The impact sang all the way up his arm. He checked his instinct to immediately press the advantage, hesitating long enough for his friend to stumble back toward the ropes and shake off the blow. A friendly sparring match wasn’t the battlefield he’d lived on for more than a decade. This was all about exercise. And a little bit of payback for his t*****e about Riley.

From outside the ring, Reuben Blanchard shouted, “Keep your hands up, Hamilton! Montgomery’s a sneaky son of a b***h. You’ve gotta protect your head.”

Judd had barely reset his stance and lifted his gloved hands when Liam lunged forward, driving him back. Judd bounced off the ropes and ducked under Liam’s jab, but not before catching a second body shot to the ribs.

“Break!” Reuben shouted.

Liam tugged off a glove and spit out his mouth guard. “What is up with you, man? Your head is not in the ring.”

Judd slid down to a stool in the corner. “Lot on my mind. They finally opened the search for the new Chief of Police.”

“Yeah?” Liam tugged off his other glove. “Bet Chief Curry’s happy about that. Didn’t he announce he was ready to retire back in January?”

“Yep. I’m gonna throw my hat in.”

Reuben climbed through the ropes and handed both of them bottles of water. “You got much competition?”

“Locally, no. But they’re opening it up to a nationwide search. I don’t know how much of a shot I’ve got. They’ll probably go with somebody older, more experienced. But pulling somebody in from outside…no guarantee they’ll stay for the long haul. So that’s in my favor. We’ll see.”

Liam envied him. It might be a long shot, but at least Judd had a vision for his future, for what he wanted to do with his life. That was more than Liam himself had managed since he left the Marines.

“Good for you, man. I’ll be rooting for you.”

Judd offered his fist. “Hey, if I get it, that’ll leave a hole open in the department. You could always trade your desert camo for blue. You’d make a helluva cop.”

Reuben snorted. “SWAT maybe. Not local PD.”

Liam bumped the offered fist. “He’s right. I’d be bored out of my mind. Rematch soon?”

“You know it. And next time you won’t get in so many lucky shots.”

“Lucky my ass.”

Judd grinned. “See y’all at poker night.”

“We look forward to taking your money,” Reuben assured him.

As Judd disappeared into the locker room, Liam climbed out of the ring. He considered putting in some time on the speed bag to get his heart rate up.

“I’ll go a few rounds if you want,” Reuben offered. “Or listen. Either way, somethin’s gnawing at you.”

“Not sure either would actually help.”

“You sleepin’?”

“Mostly.” He hadn’t been afflicted by the night terrors and flashbacks that plagued many of his comrades. “Can’t shake the habit of rising at zero dark thirty.”

“That’s not what has you in here every morning. Or not all of it.”

Liam stuffed his gloves into his gym bag. “How long did it take you to settle in to civilian life when you got out?”

“Didn’t settle until I started up this place.” A former Navy SEAL, Reuben had returned to Wishful five years earlier and opened the boxing gym. “But I knew exactly what I wanted when I got out. Your situation’s a little different.”

“Yeah.”

Liam had enlisted in the Marines the summer after graduating high school and never looked back. If not for his father’s unexpected death, he would’ve been a lifer. But as the eldest, with both his brothers deployed and his baby sister moved off to New Orleans, Liam couldn’t see leaving his mother alone. So he’d come home.

Never mind the fact that Molly Montgomery could’ve given any Brigadier General a run for his money.

He’d been going slowly crazy ever since.

“You ran out of projects at your mama’s, didn’t you?” A knowing smile creased Reuben’s dark face.

“Cleaned out the garage, the attic, repainted the house, replaced the gutters, and wiped out her entire honey-do list going back to everything Dad had been meanin’ to get around to for the last five years.”

“Damn, son. We gotta find you a proper job.”

“Been lookin’ since I got back, but I haven’t found anything that would be more than just killin’ time. I just can’t figure out what I want to do. Meanwhile, Mom’s decided she wants to rent out that apartment above the pharmacy, so I’m digging in to start demolition on that this week.” He checked his watch. “I probably ought to get on myself. If I can get some of the noisy work done before start of business, Mom and Riley would probably appreciate it.”

The sun had just cleared the horizon when Liam caught sight of a familiar POS Honda parked on the shoulder, with an even more familiar set of full-figured curves peeking out from beneath the lifted hood. He pulled his Dad’s pristine ’69 Mustang onto the opposite side and stepped out, appreciating the view.

Her voice floated back to him from where she leaned over the engine. “Now Jo, I know you’re tired, girl, but this is not okay. I need you to pull yourself together.”

“Who you talkin’ to, Riley?”

She jolted, banging her head on the hood. “Son of a monkey!”

Liam wisely swallowed down his amusement as she swung around, eyes shooting daggers.

“Where do you get off sneaking up on people?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “What are you even doing here?”

“On my way home from the gym. As nice a scenic stretch as this is, I didn’t figure you’d be on the side of the road having a heart-to-heart with your car at this hour just for the hell of it.”

“How would you know? I might. Jo and I have had a long and meaningful friendship.”

Given his dad had been working on her car since she got it at sixteen, Liam knew this to be true. The bigger shock was that the thing still ran at all.

He ducked under the hood himself to take a look, aware of Riley edging back. “Did you check your gas gauge?”

“I didn’t run out of gas. It’s not my battery or my spark plug wires. Your daddy taught me that much.”

He ignored the affronted tone. “Doesn’t ever hurt to start with the basics. What was she doing?”

Riley said nothing.

Glancing over his shoulder, Liam found her glaring at him, arms crossed, every inch shouting irritated female. The fact that he found it attractive rather than off-putting either made him a perverse bastard or was evidence of the incredibly long dry spell he hadn’t broken since he came home.

“I didn’t ask for you to come rescue me.”

No, Riley Gower didn’t ask for help. Ever. Even when she needed it.

“Would you be this ornery at an offer of help from anybody, or is it me in particular you object to?”

She dropped her arms, face momentarily stricken. “I don’t object to you.”

He didn’t know what made him push rather than leaving it alone. “Really? Because your default attitude toward me since I got home has been dialed pretty much consistently to pissed off.”

Riley closed her eyes, and he had the distinct impression she was praying for patience. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. I’ve hardly even seen you since you got back. And when I have, it hasn’t been under the best of circumstances. It’s been…a stressful year.”

Liam wondered what that meant but decided not to press the issue.

Riley continued to babble. “And I was on my way into work to prepare the monthly reports because they’re late, and my accountant needs them so she can prepare the quarterly taxes on the pharmacy. Taxes. At 6:30 in the morning. And there’s no coffee.” She finished in a tone that suggested this was acceptable grounds for homicide, let alone a little bitchiness.

“You gave up coffee?”

“God no. I’d sooner give up sex.”

So if I brought you coffee, there’s a chance… Liam mentally slapped himself. Bad idea, buddy boy. She isn’t for you.

Why was he even thinking of her like this at all? For twenty years, she’d just been his little sister’s best friend. Sweet, tender-hearted Riley. A kid he had the urge to protect.

Except that was the thing, wasn’t it? Once that urge to protect had become necessity, it had changed things between them, added a dynamic they’d never discussed. Liam didn’t know how or even if he should bring it up now.

Either way, she definitely wasn’t a kid anymore. And his feelings toward her were decidedly not brotherly since he’d come home and found that she’d matured into a 1940s pin-up model. That combination of inherent sweetness and guileless, oblivious s*x appeal had fueled more than one fantasy and had him turning down offers for companionship any other man would’ve taken without hesitation. Damned if he understood why, since he knew he couldn’t act on this insanity. She had no business showing up in his dreams like some silver screen s*x goddess.

Liam realized he was staring and that Riley’s cheeks were flushed, her expression pinched with embarrassment.

“Christ. I don’t have a functional brain without coffee. No filter. Please, just go on about your day. I can take care of this.”

He turned back to the engine. “In the military, not asking for help when you need it is a good way to get yourself killed.”

“I’m not in the military. And this is hardly a life or death situation.”

“Given the age and shape of your car, I don’t know that your assessment is accurate. Go crank it.”

“Really, I’ve got this.”

Liam straightened, deliberately using his full six feet, two inches to loom over her. “Get in the car and crank it, Riley.”

For three long seconds, she stood toe-to-toe with him, chin lifted toward his in challenge. The stubborn cast of her lips had him wanting to back her against the car for a good long taste. Before he could give in to that lunacy, she broke eye contact and scurried around to the driver’s side.

Get a grip, Montgomery.

The Honda’s engine coughed and sputtered, something in the internal workings giving an ominous grind before it wheezed back to silence.

“Okay, stop,” he called.

Riley hopped back out as he closed the hood. “What is it?”

“Nothing I can fix on the side of the road. Get your stuff. I’m taking you in to work.”

“But—”

“And then I’m coming back with the truck and trailer to haul this home for a closer look.” Though Liam was positive she wasn’t going to like whatever he found.

“But I don’t—”

“Riley, don’t argue. You can’t fix this. You said yourself, you have things to do. I’m giving you a ride.”

Liam’s brain took a sharp left turn into fantasy territory that had him handling a whole different set of curves than the ones he preferred to hug in the Mustang. His body stirred. Since his basketball shorts would do nothing to hide his reaction, he didn’t wait for Riley’s acquiescence, just strode toward his car.

Safely blocked by the driver’s side door, Liam called back to her, “You comin’?”

With an exasperated look to the heavens, she grabbed her purse and a second bag out of the passenger seat, then stalked around to the front seat of the Mustang. “You’re bossy.”

He made a U-turn back toward town. “You’re welcome.”