Free Liberty Begins (The Liberty Series) by Leigh James Page A

still barely breathing.
    “Come here,” John said, and pulled me into the seat next to him. His eyes were pleading.
    “I would never think of you like that. I would never treat you like that, ever,” he said, and he pulled me to his chest. I stiffly let him hold me for a moment, then I pulled away.
    “You have to understand,” he said. “You’re a special case. I wasn’t just in Las Vegas for Cruz’s job.”
    I looked at him blankly. “I don’t understand,” I said, and despite the coffee, I felt tired. I wished I could go back to last night, when I hadn’t peeled back this next layer of madness. I wanted to go back to holding John’s hand before I knew he was a bounty hunter and God knew what else.
    “It’s complicated,” John said. “I told you that everything happens for a reason, and it’s true. It was no coincidence that I was in your club. In addition to Cruz, I was in Las Vegas for another client.”
    I shook my head, still not understanding.
    “Liberty,” John said, “I was sent for you .”

 
     
    I froze in fear. If John was sent for me, that meant ... that meant I was an asset. An asset to be acquired and repurposed. That meant that I would probably be finding myself with duct tape over my mouth soon, being seat-mates with Darius.
    I looked around for help, an exit, anything. The pit in my stomach was fear, but there was a boulder in there, too. A big boulder of disappointment. I thought I’d meant something to John; deep down, that’s why I thought he’d rescued me and brought me here. Not because Cruz was paying him. And never in my dreams would I have thought that someone had paid him to capture me.
    “I thought you liked me,” I whispered, ashamed. To my absolute horror, I felt hot tears spill down my cheeks. I was an idiot beyond belief. A stripper, just one step up from a whore, believing in stupid dreams.
    John sighed and rolled his eyes back into his head. “You know, I am royally fucking this up,” he said. He pulled me onto his lap. Ridiculously, my body lit up like it was on fire.
    He stroked my hair. “I do like you, Liberty, very much. That’s how I know that this was no coincidence,” he said. He reached up and wiped away my tears with one of his hands. Even though his skin was rough, rugged, he touched me so carefully that it felt gentle.
    I wanted to bury my face in his neck, to let him hold me. But I had to know.
    I slid off his lap and the warmth I had felt evaporated. I saw his face fall at my distance. He put his arms loosely around my waist and turned me towards him, so we were facing each other. Oh, I could kiss those lips now. Pink, full, slightly chapped. I felt like I was pulled to him without a choice, like I was a magnet and he was a suit of armor. Even though I was worried he was about to duct tape me, I wanted him.
    “Who hired you to take me?” I whispered.
    “I can’t tell you,” he said, and brushed the curls out of my eyes. “It’s confidential, for now. But you do need to know something: there is an asset in your case, but it isn’t you. I need your help. We’re going to work on this together.”
    I looked at him doubtfully. He either had the wrong stripper or maybe he was lying. This didn’t make sense. I had a limited skill set, and I couldn’t picture myself being any help to John. I certainly didn’t know anyone who had enough money to hire a crew of suited-up vigilantes.
    “Who is the asset?” I asked, skeptically. If I racked my brain, I could certainly think of some people I’d known who’d broken the law and gotten away with it. And one person in particular who had done very bad things, who had a black soul. But no one cared about Ray. Not the police, not my landlord, not even my mother, eventually, even though a lot of what he did wrong involved her directly.
    “I think maybe you grabbed the wrong girl,” I said. He must have. Surely one of the other girls had rich relatives and an exciting, dark past.
    “I know I have