Love, Lies, and Other Ties

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Liam's POV:

I woke to the sound of beeping and the smell of disinfectant. I know that means that I'm either in our infirmary or in the hospital. If I am at the house then I hope Carter didn't see me when I came in. She hates the sight of glass and blood. I try to open my eyes but they feel like lead and I finally give up after a couple of minutes to give myself more time to fully wake. I was about to try again when I heard the door open and heard two set of feet walk into my room.

"Oh, Li. How did you get in this situation? It was supposed to be an easy mission," I hear Carter say and then feel a faint brush of her fingertips against my forehead. "Bash, how was Liam the only one hurt this bad?"

"Well, he was the only one hurt badly. We lost a few guys that were on the upper level. Liam somehow found out there was a bomb and came over the radio to say there was a bomb. Everyone who could, found the exit and left the house. Liam was thrown from a first story window and hit the ground at an alarming rate of speed. The bomb must have been small because it only really damaged that house and not the others that were fifty yards away except for cosmetically," Bash explained.

"I wasn't thrown you asshole. I jumped from that window at the same time the bomb went off," I said as I finally pried my eyes open and looked at where Bash's voice was coming from.

"Liam! You're awake!" She reached over me and cupped my face in her hands and gave me a passionate kiss which turned into a groan when she leaned on my broken ribs. At least, I assume they're broken and my shoulder is killing me. "Oh, God! I'm so sorry! How are you feeling?" she asked me after apologizing for hurting me.

"Like I've been fucking run over by a truck or thrown from a house," I said sarcastically to Bash to remind him that I was heroic and jumped and not a pussy who was thrown.

"Fucker," Bash replied with a smirk.

"Okay, Okay, you two. I'm just glad you're okay. You all are okay," Carter emphasized.

I explained about how I found the note in the basement and what it said to help me figure out there was a bomb in the house. The doctor also came in and gave me some more pain meds, which I tried to refuse but Carter wouldn't let me because I kept wincing anytime I moved. I kept taking glances at Carter but could tell she wasn't completely present with us and was thinking about something really hard. I reached over and grabbed her hand to get her attention but I don't think she noticed anything until I spoke.

"Baby? What's wrong?" I asked her with a worried expression on my face.

"Oh, I'm just thinking about the whole thing. I mean, we knew that Trevor was in that house as of yesterday and then magically he disappeared? Also, how did he know that you would show up? Did someone tell him about the plan?" She had a point.

"Huh, now that I think about it, you're right. How did he know we were coming?" I thought out loud at her question.

"Which means Eric isn't the only traitor we have in our mafia," Bash said. The next ten minutes were filled with silence as the three of us sat in thought.

"Well, I'm going to go get you a change of close so when the doc discharges you back to work, you will be ready to leave. But I swear to God, Liam, if you go back to work and hurt yourself, you will be on bedrest for the foreseeable future. I'm not going to tell you to not go back to work because this is important but I will if you test my patience," Carter said while standing from her chair.

"Yes, ma'am. Could you also get my laptop so I can work on some things and maybe look at the surveillance footage to see if it shows anybody coming or going when they shouldn't?" she nodded her head and gave me a chaste kiss before leaving the room. Bash looked at me with a huge smirk on his face once she was gone and I knew he was about to say something about me being whipped.

"Ya know, for someone that is so whipped by someone, at least you got a good one to be whipped by," he said while laughing.

"Isn't this the part that you threaten my for being with your sister and that you will castrate me if I ever hurt her and blah, blah, blah?" I asked him with a matching smirk. His amused face fell slightly and he looked at the floor briefly before looking back up at me.

"I don't have the right. I have been such an asshole to her for our entire lives and she might not remember everything from when we were younger but I do and I was horrible man. Besides, you've been together since we were kids and I couldn't ask for someone better than you to look after my baby sister," he said.

"First of all, thank you for that, Bash. It means a lot to me having your blessing and all that. You might have been a mean fucker before but I think she can see how much you're trying now. I mean, you're some of the only family she has left and you know that she has already forgiven you," I explained.

"Yeah, especially since I kept her from bashing her head on the ground yesterday when she fainted," he chuckled.

"She fainted? Why did you all let her see me before I was treated!? You know how much she hates blood and shattered glass injuries," I raised my voice slightly at him.

"Look, I called her on the way home so she could make sure things were getting ready for our arrival and when we got here, she was standing in the foyer with the doctors and we were moving you so fast, we didn't have time to stop. Luckily, I remembered her little episodes and went to catch her before she hit the ground and brought her to a room to be quickly evaluated. She slept for 6 hours and said it was because she couldn't sleep with you gone," he explained to me.

"Okay, well before she comes back, I need the details of what we know about what happened at that fucking house. Who did we lose? Who was hurt? What type of bomb was it and were there any bystanders in the other houses hurt?" I started shooting off questions at Bash. He rubbed his head like he was in pain before he started answering my questions.

"Like I told Carter, you were the only one that was hurt than just a few scrapes and bruises. Unfortunately, we lost Dirk and Joseph because they were still on the top level. Carl is missing at this moment but we suspect he was blown away from the house and is somewhere in the debris. His body is being looked for as we speak so he can have a proper burial.

"The bomb was a small homemade pipe bomb that was only strong enough to bring down that specific house because the homes that were just about 50 yards away were only barely damaged cosmetically. We currently have no leads as to where Trevor are and we are now looking into who a possible traitor could be from the inner circle," he explained in a very professional and put together way. That's why he is my second in command.

As I was thinking, I realized that Carter had been gone for a long time. I was about to get up and go look for her when my door opened and a smiley but concerned Max walked through the door holding a duffle bag and a basket. I was confused as to why he had these things.

"Hey, Liam. Glad your doing okay but I was wondering if you knew where Carter is? I'm assuming that she made the spaghetti for everyone on the stove and I found your monogrammed duffle bag and this basket on the floor in the kitchen along with her cell phone. It's almost like she was raptured!" he exclaims.

I was so confused and told the boys that we were going to search the cameras. We watched the footage of her in the kitchen making dinner for everyone and she seemed in good spirits. Just when she turned around to put some things in the basket, the cameras went dark. I checked all other cameras and noticed that all of them had gone down for about 10 minutes and came back on. By that time, Carter was gone and our stuff laid on the kitchen floor.

The cameras going out and the fact that our stuff is on the floor when they came back on drove home the point that Carter, had indeed been kidnapped and I won't rest until I find her.