The War of Love {Liam Payne}

Chapter 5

A/N: Be patient with this chapter, kay? Sidebar's Caleb...

“Primadonna girl, yeah. All I ever wanted was the world…”

Cassie’s cellphone blasted the lyrics to “Primadonna” by Marina and the Diamonds. Liam looked quizzically up from his laptop to see that she wasn’t there to pick it up.

“Liam!” she yelled from the other room. “Will you get that for me, please?”

“Got it!” he yelled back, walking over to the phone and looking at the caller ID. It read “Caleb.” On it. Liam picked up the iPhone and pressed it to his cheek. Before he could say anything, however, that Caleb, or whoever he was, had begun talking.

“You listen to me, Cassie,” he growled, and Liam’s eyes widened in shock. “You know how long I’ve been waiting for your father to let you be Mrs. Carter?”

Liam didn’t answer.

“Five years, you bitch,” Caleb growled, and Liam’s eyebrows went up as the man swore. “And yet, you decide to marry that idiot. Leo was it?”

“Liam?” Cassie yelled from the other room, walking to where her fiancé stood.

“Yeah, Liam. Whatever the hell that kid’s name is,” Caleb grumbled. “I’m going to get you for that wrong choice you made, Cassie Joslin. You will pay.”

The line went dead, and Liam stared at the white iPhone in shock. Cassie walked up to him, her eyebrows arched.

“Who was that?” she asked, reaching out to grab the phone from him. He shook his head, holding it away from her.

“It was… Niall. He’s gotten drunk and asked me to listen to him sing Yankee Doodle,” Liam lied. Cassie tried her best not laugh at him, but knew he was lying. “I’m telling the truth! He-“

Before Liam could continue, the lift doors opened and a man wearing a black shirt and a leather jacket walked in, a sly smirk on his face. Liam grabbed Cassie’s wrists and pushed her behind him, not once letting go of her.

“Who are you?” he asked, but the man only came closer. Liam backed away. “Who are you!? What are you doing here!?”

“I’m here for her,” he grumbled, pointing behind Liam. He heard Cassie gasp from behind him, and she quickly scrambled to get out from behind him.

“Caleb!? What are you doing here?” she asked, and the man came closer. He put his hand in his jacket and Liam sensed what was going on.

“Hey, mate, just relax… We’ll give you what you want, don’t-“ Liam was interrupted by Caleb removing a gun from his jacket, and pointing it directly at Cassie. “Whoa. Okay, stop! Let’s be reasonable…”

Liam edged his way over to Cassie, but a hand was thrown over his mouth and his arms were pulled back. Caleb pulled the trigger, and Liam watched Cassie fall to the floor. He screamed, his voice muffled by the hand around his mouth. The person that had restrained him threw him to the floor, and Caleb approached him, pressing the gun to his chest.

“Liam!” Caleb said, and Liam arched his eyebrows in confusion. It wasn’t Caleb’s voice, it was a girl’s voice. A soft, melodic voice that was all too familiar to him. “Liam, wake up!”

“Wake up!”

Liam closed his eyes, and found himself in darkness. When he opened them once more, he found himself on his bed, all four of his band mates holding him down. He observed Zayn in a white tank top and pinning his right arm to the bed, Louis with an old jumper on holding his left. Niall was wearing a grey shirt and holding his right leg, Harry shirtless and holding his left.

“Liam,” he heard someone say, and felt someone’s small fingertips tracing his hairline. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

He turned, and faced Cassie. She was alive and well.

Liam had had a nightmare.

The boys let go of Liam, and he sprung out from his original position, tackling his fiancé with a hug. He pressed his forehead to her neck as he cried, his emotions all jumbled up into a ball. One second she had been dead, the next alive and well in front of him.

“We’ll… Uh… Leave you two alone,” Harry said, as the rest of the boys followed him out the door of the bedroom. Cassie hesitantly wrapped her arms around Liam, rubbing circles into his back.

“It was just a nightmare,” Cassie assured him, as he pulled away.

“What were the lads doing here?” he asked, sinking to his knees on the bed and sniffling.

“You were kicking and punching,” she said, wiping a sweaty piece of hair from Liam’s forehead. “What was the dream about?”

“I… I don’t know,” Liam said, scratching the back of his head. His breathing became quick as he explained. “N-Niall, Yankee Doodle… C-Caleb-“

“Caleb?” she said, alarmed. “How do you know about Caleb?”

“That’s the thing,” Liam said, sighing. “I don’t. In my dream, he killed you, and then he was going to kill me, but I woke up.”

“Caleb would never do that…” Cassie said, pushing a lock of her brown hair behind her ear, but Liam could see her face paling.

“Who is he, exactly?”

“Caleb? He’s uh… He’s a friend of my brother’s. See, my dad wanted me to get out of Birmingham. He said that I was… bate, I guess.”

“Bate?”

“Yeah, my dad’s got a pretty high ranking in the army, so… I guess enemies and all think kidnapping me would be suitable,” Cassie said, running a hand through her hair. “I don’t get it, though. How is marriage supposed to protect me?”

“Well,” Liam said, biting his lip. “For a fact, I’ve got a bunch of security all over the place.”

“Yeah,” Cassie said, nodding. “I was supposed to marry Caleb, but my mum didn’t like him.”

“She didn’t?”

“No,” Cassie said. “She thought he was a bit… Aggressive. I’ve got to agree.”

Liam grunted, snuggling into the covers and pulling them up to his chin.

“I had to get married, or else I would have been enlisted,” he said quietly, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “Management tried to argue with them, but it was no use. So, here I am.”

“Well,” Cassie said, putting a hand over his. “For a fact, I’m glad I married you instead of Caleb.”

“Yeah, me too.”