High Stakes (15 page)

Liam leaned over his desk. “Look, Trey, I
get where you’re coming from. I have a daughter myself, and if she pulls a
stunt like this someday, I’ll probably hunt the guy down, too.”

Trey turned toward him and threw his hands
up in the air. “What the hell am I supposed to do about this? I know she’s a
grown woman, so I legally can’t stop her from marryin’ anyone she damn well
pleases, but y’all can’t expect me to stand by and do nothin’ while she marries
some guy she just met.” Trey sank down in one of the guest chairs on the
opposite side of the desk. “Look, you may be a good guy for all I know, I
haven’t heard anything to the contrary, but this is my baby girl we’re talkin’
about. My only child. I can’t just stand by and watch another guy do a number
on her.”

“I understand how you feel. I do. I’d wanna
kill any guy who hurt my daughter, but you gotta believe me when I tell you I’m
nothin’ like that dirtbag who cheated on her.”

Trey looked at him a long time before he
asked, “She told you about that, huh?”

“Yeah, she did.”

He heaved a sigh. “Damn near killed me to
see her goin’ through that and know I couldn’t do a thing to help her. I swore
I’d never let her get caught up in a mess like that again. I told my wife, from
now on, I wanna know everything there is to know about every guy she’s datin’.”
He frowned. “’Course you kinda robbed me of that chance, now, didn’t ya?”

“I’m sorry about that.” Liam opened his
hands. “I’m an open book. You can ask me anything you want to right now.
Whatever you need to know to put your mind at ease.”

“Where’d you go to school?”

“Yale, business major.”

Trey glanced around the luxuriously
furnished office. “Can’t say I’m surprised. I heard you’re stinkin’ rich. That
true?”

Liam laughed at his candor. “If you’re
asking if I’ll be able to take care of your daughter, the answer is yes. Very
nicely.”

“How do you feel about this business of
hers?”

“I think it’s great. It’s sounds as though
she’s very passionate about it.”

“She is.” Trey nodded. “She needed a distraction.
When I saw what she was doin’ to herself after she ended her engagement, I knew
I had to do somethin’ to help her. I didn’t wanna see her end up where I was
after her mama and I split years ago.”

“You and Alisa’s mother aren’t together
anymore?”

“We remarried a long time ago. Thank God
she forgave me for bein’ stupid enough to let her go.”

Liam knew he would feel the same way if he
let Alisa go. He leaned forward and laced his fingers on the desk. “What can
you tell me about this Nick character?”

Trey chuckled. “You mean aside from the
fact that I hate his guts?”

“Alisa tells me he’s trying to get her
back.”

“He was, but who knows, maybe he’ll back
off when he finds out she’s married.”

“He better.”

Trey and Liam exchanged a glance before
Trey finally smiled. “Alisa says she’s sure you’d never cheat on her. She right
about that?”

It gave Liam hope, knowing that Alisa had
told her father she thought he was trustworthy. “I’d have to be the stupidest
son of a bitch alive to cheat on her, now wouldn’t I?” He smiled. “Believe me, one
thing I’m not is stupid.”

Trey grinned. “No, I doubt anyone would think
to call you that.”

“Alisa was worried you were gonna pull the
funding for her business because she married me. You plan to do that?”

“No, I might threaten, but I’d never really
do it. I know how hard she’s worked to make this happen.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Liam sensed they
were developing a good rapport, so he decided to take a risk. “Your daughter
loves you; she just wants you to be proud of her. I hope marrying me won’t
tarnish your opinion of her.”

Trey tipped the cowboy hat back on his head
as he stared at Liam. “I was real disappointed when I found out what she’d
done, madder than hell. But now that I’ve met you, I gotta admit, I can sorta understand
what she sees in you.”

Liam smiled. “Thanks.”

“So, a good buddy of mine is the head of
security for Titan Records…”

“And?”

“He’s an expert at findin’ out things
people would rather keep hidden.”

Liam laughed. He knew Trey was testing him,
trying to make him buckle under the pressure. “I’m not perfect. I’ve done
things I’m not proud of, but I’ve never done anything I’m ashamed of, if that’s
what you’re asking.”

“You had a kid with a woman who bailed on
you.”

He held his hand up. No one, but no one,
was going to call his daughter a mistake. “I’m glad she’s out of my life, and I
wouldn’t trade one second of the past thirteen years with my daughter for a
billion dollars.”

Trey smiled and pointed at him. “I like
you, goddamn you. I didn’t want to. I wanted to hate you, in fact, but I can’t.
You’re a good man, and maybe, just maybe my daughter made a good call marryin’
you.” He leaned forward and offered his hand. “But that’s not to say I don’t
wish she’d dated you a couple years just to be sure.”

Liam took the hand Trey offered. “I can
respect that. But sometimes things just happen, when you least expect them to,
and you have to go with it, see where it might lead you. So, does this mean we
have your blessing?”

Trey chuckled as he got to his feet. “Let’s
not push it. We’ll just say I don’t wanna kill you anymore and leave it at that
for now.”

Liam laughed as he walked Trey to the door.
“Fair enough.”

Alisa needed to see her mother. Hopefully
she had some insight into how her father’s meeting with Liam had gone. Just
thinking about it made her want to succumb to the nausea she’d fought all day.

She walked into her parent’s house, the
house she’d grown up in, and nostalgia overcame her as she looked at the
portraits lining the walls and framed pictures crowding the table tops.
Pictures of the three of them, her as a baby and little girl, her parents
together, so happy and in love. She wondered if she would ever be lucky enough
to find what they had, a best friend, lover, and soul mate. Someone who had
your back, no matter what happened. Was it even possible to think about building
that kind of relationship with Liam when the obstacles separating them seemed
so insurmountable?

Sierra walked into the foyer and, without a
word, opened her arms.

Alisa gladly walked into them, finally
surrendering to the tears that had lurked beneath the surface of her
professional façade all day. “Oh God, Mom. What have I done?”

Sierra gripped her daughter’s shoulders,
holding her at arm’s length. “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me that. What
were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking.” That wasn’t entirely
true. She’d been thinking about how handsome and intelligent he was, the fact
that he was a gifted business man, loving father, considerate employer. He’d
been so attentive to her, and she got caught up in the mystique, the man behind
the multi-millionaire’s mask.

“Oh, baby,” Sierra said, stroking her face
as she wiped away her tears. “Everybody makes mistakes. It’s gonna be okay. We’ll
figure out a way to get you out of this.”

Alisa knew this was the moment of truth.
“That’s just it. I’m not so sure I’m ready to get out of this marriage.” She
could barely see the look of shock on her mother’s face through her watery
eyes, but the tightening grip on her arms was a telltale sign.

“Maybe we’d better sit down, so you can
fill me in on what happened yesterday.”

Sierra took her hand and led her into the
comfortable family room where she and her mom used to sit around the big-screen
TV, eating candy bars and chips as they talked and watched sappy Sunday night
movies when she was home from school and taking a much needed break from
modeling.

“I met him on the plane.” She heaved a sigh
as she sank down on the huge sectional and wrapped a throw around her
shoulders. “He sat down beside me, and we talked for a while.” Until she got
angry with him for making a snide remark about her modeling career. She smiled
at the memory. Liam wasn’t the kind of man to pull punches and she loved that
about him.

“You must have gotten to know each other
quite well in that short time.”

She thought about the things they’d shared
over dinner. He’d told her about his father; she told him about Nick cheating
on her. She learned how much he loved his daughter and that he was a devoted
son who was trying to be a better man than his father was. “He confided in me
about his family. I don’t think he’s comfortable confiding in a lot of people.”

“That begs the question, what made you so
special?” Sierra smiled as she tugged a lock of her daughter’s hair. “You know
your daddy and I think the sun sets with your gorgeous smile, but what made him
realize you were so special in a matter of hours?”

This was the first time Alisa had even
considered telling anyone the truth about what she felt for Liam. Her father
would condemn her for being so naïve, and Lena was so fixated on his power and
wealth, she wouldn’t be able to see past that. But she knew her mother was the
one person who would keep an open mind and try to appreciate the situation from
her perspective. “We had this incredible connection.”

Sierra reached for her hand. “Tell me about
it.”

“I don’t know if I can describe it. He
really listened, and he got me, ya know?”

“I think so. Your daddy and I had that
connection right from the beginning, too. Of course, we waited quite a while
before we got married.”

Alisa leaned her head against the back of
the sofa and closed her eyes. “I know it sounds crazy, but I felt something
with him that I’d never felt before. Not even with Nick.” She opened her eyes
to look at her mother. “Do you believe in love at first sight, Mom?”

“Of course I do. I fell in love with your
daddy the first time I laid eyes on him on that football field back in college.
I knew, without a doubt, that I was gonna marry him someday. I didn’t know how
or when, only that I would.”

“I wish I was as certain that I made the
right call marrying Liam.” She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip. “How did you
know for sure that Daddy was the one?”

“I don’t know that I really figured that
out until we were apart.” Sierra smiled. “Things weren’t always perfect when we
were together, Lord knows, but my worst times with him were still better than
my best times without him. I think that’s when I realized that I had to face
facts. We were meant to be together.”

“You guys are so lucky,” Alisa said,
sighing. “To have found each other, and to still be so happy and so much in
love after all these years.”

“I’m grateful every single day that fate
brought him into my life.”

“Is that what you think it was?” Alisa
asked, looking at her mother. “Fate?”

“I do.” Sierra brushed Alisa’s hair off her
tear-streaked face. “Is that what you think prompted Liam to sit down beside
you on that plane yesterday, fate?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Tell me about him.”

“You mean you haven’t Googled him?” Alisa
chuckled. “Come on, Mom. You can’t expect me to believe that.”

“He’s handsome, rich, successful, well
educated…” She ticked his attributes off on her fingers. “A devoted father, but
I want to know what you made him think he might be a man you could spend the
rest of your life with.”

Alisa sucked in a breath. Was he someone she
could spend the rest of her life with? “Well, it’s the little things the rest
of the world doesn’t know about him. He’s very protective of his mother. He
treats all of his employees with so much respect. He’s been hurt in the past,
badly, by a woman who couldn’t see past the dollar signs to the incredible man
he is on the inside.”

Sierra tucked her legs under her. “It
sounds like you got a glimpse of that man.”

“I can’t imagine how any woman could meet
him and not fall in love.” She covered her mouth when she realized what she’d
said. Had she really admitted to her mother that she was in love with this man?
Was she? Was that even possible?

Sierra laughed at her reaction. “Relax,
it’s just the two of us. You know you can say anything to me and I won’t judge
you. It’s not a question of whether or not I think this is right or wrong. It’s
about how you feel.”

“I don’t know how I feel yet, that’s just
it. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“Okay, then how does Liam feel?”

“He wants to try and make it work.”

“Why?”

That was one of the many reasons her mother
was one of her best friends; she wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions, even
when Alisa didn’t think she was ready to answer them. “He claims what he feels
for me is real. He wants to try and make this work.” She wrinkled her nose when
she thought of his proposition. The more she thought about it, the more
distasteful it seemed. “He offered me ten million dollars if I would give him a
year to try and make this marriage work.”