Push

36. She Saw the Mother

GWEN

The anger knotting my stomach had everything to do with Toby, but that didn't stop me from charging down the white corridors of Cumberland Investments with Liam in my crosshairs.

A memory stripped from Toby's statement shot through me. I jolted to a stop.

I was getting changed... She started taking her clothes off.

Toby would've been half-naked in the cramped locker room with Kayleigh ogling everything he had to show. The image burned. It was too much. I spread my hand on the wall, steadied myself, and sucked in breath after breath. I hated that she knew what he looked like under his neatly pressed shirts and crisp white dental coat. He was mine. Just for me to look at. Not her. Never her.

I shook off the painful thoughts still battering my mind. I stood tall, squared my shoulders, and charged down the corridor. My palm landed flat on Liam's door, and I pushed through unchallenged. He had no assistant. Elias begged him. He refused. Good. There was no one to stop me barging in and saying what I needed to.

Liam lounged in the oversized chair behind his desk, looking far too comfortable in a three-piece suit with his ankle on his knee, yellow socks showing. He clicked his pen absently, and his eyes were narrowed on the monitors in front of him. There was no acknowledgment of my presence. No sign that he knew I was there at all.

I stood there. Waiting. I tapped my foot. Still nothing.

I cleared my throat.

Liam's cold eyes slid to me. "If anyone else walked in my office uninvited, I'd have their neck." He smiled. "But as you so rarely grace me with your presence, your pretty neck survives another day."

Arrogant, piece of... "You agreed that I could work anywhere I want and whatever hours I want." 

"And you agreed that Tuesdays were mine."

"Yours?" I scoffed. "Who do you think you are?"

"Your boss."

I barked a laugh. I didn't need Liam's crap today—or any day. "That's a problem that's easy enough to solve." I spun on my heel.

My threat had him shooting straight out of his chair. "Gwen." He didn't raise his voice, but the bite to it was enough to stop me in my tracks. Was there anyone in the world who kept walking when he demanded them to stop? A chill zipped down my spine. Did they keep walking for long if they did?

I turned slowly. "Yes?" I smiled innocently. "You didn't expect me to call your bluff, oh illustrious one?"

Liam's eyes narrowed, but a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "I do love how you spar with me." He sank to his chair and propped his ankle back on his knee. "What can I do for you this fine Tuesday afternoon?"

I ignored the dig. I needed him onside now if I wasn't storming out. "I'd like to talk to you about Arland Turner."

His eyes zeroed in on me. "Now why would we talk about him?" 

"You tell me."

"No." His voice chilled. "You tell me."

"He's being investigated."

"Is he? How delightful. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person."

"Did you have something to do with it?"

"Moi?" Liam leaned back in his chair and tilted his head, watching me through narrowed eyes. "Why would I interfere in the dull world of prosecutors?"