I set my now empty coffee cup down, reached over, and took his hand. To my surprise, he didn’t pull away. I was shocked by what Liam had told me about himself, impressed by it. His life made mine seem underwhelming. Sure, I had controlling parents, but I at least had them, and they cared if I lived or died. They were just older and didn’t understand my desire to sing. That’s just not what their generation did. Liam’s parents were of a different world.

“This house is beautiful,” I said, feeling the urgent need to change the subject. “Whose is it?”

He was silent so long I didn’t think he was going to respond. Then he seemed to come to terms with something, and he let out a long sigh. “It’s mine.”

My head whipped around to look at him. He suddenly had my full attention, and the blue green hummingbird was forgotten.

“Your house?” This gorgeous glass and steel cabin so beautiful it looks as if it’s part of the mountain is his???

He chose his words carefully. “I… uh… built it for someone. It didn’t work out.” His face flashed with pain, and he tried to pull his hand back, but I wouldn’t let go.

“Liam?”

He pulled harder, and I released him. “I…” His words trailed off, and he stood and walked over to the railing. Leaning on the wood with both hands, his unfocused eyes looked out across the lake. “I was engaged.” I could see his jaw clench. The muscles in his face and shoulders bunched as he struggled with what to say.

“When I came back from Afghanistan, the things I did… the things I saw… I wasn’t the same. I was injured. I was angry. She couldn’t take it.” He turned to look at me briefly before focusing back on the peaceful water. “She left.”

The blanket fell from my shoulders as I stood and walked to his side. I laid my good hand on his shoulder. “She didn’t deserve you then.”

“I wasn’t the man she fell in love with.” His shoulders sagged.

“Liam, everyone changes. War changes you. Life changes you. If she was the right woman, she would have changed with you.”

“She didn’t sign up for this.” He gestured at himself and I saw how lost he was. Like the people I sing about, he was hurt, he needed to be loved to find his true self.

“No one deserves what she did to you, Liam, no one. You are a good man.”

Liam noticed my shivering and turned to help me back to my chair. “You’re cold. Here.” He wrapped the blanket back around me, and my skin tingled where his fingers accidentally brushed across it. “You shouldn’t be up.”

“I can’t sleep anymore. I’ll take a nap later.”

“I need to go in and do some research. I set up the computers last night.”

“Can I come?”

He shrugged, “If you want to.”

“I really want to help you catch the bastard.”

“Okay, but if you get too tired or you start to hurt again, tell me. I don’t want you to overdo it.”

“Fine.” I just wanted to learn more about the enigma standing beside me. He’d gone from the silent, unreadable G-man who hid behind dark sunglasses to a human being capable of emotional pain. That wasn’t what I expected in the middle of all this chaos.

He held open the door for me and settled me into an overstuffed armchair next to his computer setup. He even pulled up an ottoman for my feet. He sat in a straight backed chair and pulled it in close. He flipped a switch, firing up the computer, and all three monitors came alive.

Bells rang as the system beeped, and words and images flashed across the screens so fast I couldn’t identify them. “They are making progress,” he announced.

“What do you mean?”

“Look,” he pointed to one of the monitors, “here is a message from Ben. They got a fingerprint off that last note. He’s getting sloppy. We never had a fingerprint before.” I watched his eyes flit back and forth as he read. “He sent it off to one of my guys at the Pentagon. If it’s in the system, we should hear back by tonight.”

Ding!

“What’s that?” I watched as another box popped up at the bottom of the screen, and text started scrolling through.

“That’s Leo. He’s working with your crew to interview everyone, do background checks, and confirm alibis. Nothing so far.”

“Why are you wasting your time with my crew? Everybody has been with me since the beginning.”

He turned and gave me a look. “Maggie, you have to trust me. This is what I do, remember? And I’m good at it.”

I flopped back, forgetting I needed to baby my shoulder, and yelped at the pain. “You’re right, you're right.” I held up one hand in supplication. “I’m sorry. I forget sometimes. This is all still so unreal.”

He turned and took my hand again, moving the ottoman out of the way so he could scoot close. My knees fit perfectly between his. “I know this is hard for you, but you have to trust me. All it takes is us finding one note, identifying one fingerprint, discovering one fact this psycho doesn’t want us to see, and the whole house of cards will come tumbling down. This is what we do. We will find him, and you will get back to your life.”