Shades of Darkness (Redemption Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

asleep, curled against the center console.
    “That’ll be forty-nine dollars for the room,” the man said, pulling Liam’s attention back to him. “I just need your driver’s license and plate number.”
    Liam had no intention of giving him either and leaving a paper trail for the legion to follow. That’s why he’d picked this shithole of a motel in the first place. He pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and put it on the counter. The man paused only a second before snatching the crisp bill off the counter and stuffing it in his pocket. He turned around and pulled a key off the hook. “Room seven, ground floor,” the man grumbled, handing Liam the key.
    He curtly thanked the old man and turned abruptly, walking out of the office. Driving around the corner of the building, he parked in front of their room and carried Olivia’s bags inside. The motel room smelled of stale, musty air. Velvet textured paisley wallpaper, yellowed with age, hung curled and peeling from the corners of the walls. Liam crossed the worn avocado shag carpet and stepped into the bathroom, turning on the light. The ambient glow filled the main room.
    He pulled back the covers on the bed before walking outside to the car and gently opening the passenger door. Olivia’s wedding dress came spilling out at him as he slid his hand behind her back and one under her legs, lifting her out of the car. She moaned softly and turned in his arms, wrapping her delicate arm around his neck.
    Liam stiffened as a jolt of heat flooded his veins. The forbidden desire coiling in his gut was nothing short of pure torture. Forcing his body to move, he turned slowly, trying not to wake her, and purposefully placed one foot in front of the other, carrying her over the threshold of the skeezy motel room.
    Pure and simple, it was nothing but sick irony that he’d be carrying Olivia, in a wedding dress no less, over any threshold. If he’d had his way, he’d be carrying her into a house, one of those beauties straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting, as his wife, where they’d be starting a long and happy life together—not into some stank, low budget motel, with her wearing a wedding dress intended to be removed by another man. As his mind led him down the path he didn’t want to go, he thought perhaps right now, he could quite possibly be in Hell.
    Liam gently laid Olivia on the bed, anxious to get his hands off her so he could clear his mind and regain some semblance of control again. She’d always been a heavy sleeper, so he wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t woken up with all the movement. Reaching down, he brushed a lock of hair out of her face, slowly letting the black silky strands slide through his fingers. So incredibly soft…just as he remembered it.
    His body physically ached to be near her. The temptation to climb in beside her and take her into his arms nearly dropped him to his knees. It felt like forever since he’d held her. But she wasn’t his to touch. She belonged to another, and just the thought of it hit his veins with a possessive fury that scorched his soul. A snarled oath tore from his lips as he forced himself to turn and walk away.
    His mood grew foul, hovering on the verge of downright nasty, as he sat in the chair across the room, warring with himself to do the right thing and stay the hell away from her. It was times like this when he wished he could sleep. Something…anything…to buy him a few moments reprieve from this gnawing desire. Yeah…not gonna happen. So there he sat, alone with his thoughts, until the early glimpse of dawn finally began to break over the horizon.
     
    ***
     
    Mitch sat at his kitchen table with a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s. The tails of his crisp white shirt hung loosely around his waist, wrinkled and worn. His sleeves were shoved carelessly past his elbows, and the ends of his tie hung draped around his neck. The guy looked like shit.
    Tom had called Ashley a few hours ago.