Page 37 of Over the Line

Liam chuckled, backing out of the garage. “Me too. I couldn’t tell you anything about how they work or which engine is superior. I just knew I wanted to get something badass and sporty.” He paused to turn around in his driveway. “And of course something reliable for when the weather gets nasty.”

“Makes sense.” We were quiet as he drove down his long driveway and pulled onto the road. As he continued through the hills, I asked, “So what about the other two bays in your garage?” I watched him in the darkness. “Any plans to fill them with something?”

His expression turned oddly thoughtful. And maybe… melancholy? “Not… not all of them.”

I was intensely curious about why that was, but I didn’t want to pry.

Turned out, I didn’t need to.

Liam adjusted his grasp on the wheel, gaze fixed on the dark, winding road in front of us as the wipers swiped a steady rhythm through sheets of rainfall. “I had a Porsche until two years ago. I still can’t believe we managed to keep the press from finding out, but it was totaled.”

“Oh, shit. What happ—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t⁠—”

“No, no, it’s fine.” He waved a hand, then rested it on his leg. “It was a teenager who’d just gotten his license. He was out with his girlfriend, trying to show off, and the roads out here in Sewickley Heights are… well…” He gestured ahead of us at the same time he took a sharp hairpin. “Kind of irresistible for a kid who wants to show off?”

“I can see that. So… he overshot a curve and hit you?”

Liam nodded. “It was relatively low speed, fortunately, and it was during the off season, so it didn’t keep me off the ice. But it was still fast enough to wreck the car.”

“Holy shit. Was everyone okay? You said it didn’t keep you off the ice, but…”

“I was sore for a few days. My neck still acts up sometimes in ways it didn’t before that. And I had a few cuts from the glass, a bruise from the seat belt… it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t fun either.”

“I bet.”

“The kids were both banged up too, but everybody walked away. They were just freaking out. She was shaken up from the crash. So was he, and then he realized what kind of car he’d hit, and he almost passed out.”

“Because it was so expensive?”

Liam nodded. “Licensed driver for two weeks, and he just totaled his mom’s Corolla. Then he realizes the car he hit was a Porsche, and he legitimately started hyperventilating.”

“I’m sure he did. Did he recognize you?”

At that, Liam chuckled softly. “Kind of? I was trying to get him to breathe and calm down, and when he looked up at me, he thought he was hallucinating.”

“Oh! Wow, yeah, I could see that.” I laughed. “If I was on the brink of a panic attack and suddenly a celebrity started trying to calm me down… yeah, I might wonder if I was seeing things.”

“Right? Anyway, then he calmed down a bit. Which is when he realized he hadn’t been hallucinating, and then he freaked out all over again. By the time his parents got there, he was pretty much inconsolable.” Liam grimaced. “I felt awful for the kid. He genuinely thought his life was over.”

“I think any kid does after their first accident. My oldest totaled my car when he was seventeen, and he was terrified of how his mom and I would react.”

Liam glanced at me. “Kind of a natural reaction, isn’t it?”

“It is. So what happened after that? What did the cops do?”

“They didn’t come. The cops around here, they’re…” He made a disgruntled sound and waved a hand. “Anyway, they basically told us that as long as there’s no serious injuries, just get someone to tow the cars and then file police reports for our insurance.”

“Nice,” I muttered.

“Right? And like, I knew if it got out, we wouldn’t be able to keep this kid’s name off it. Someone was going to realize he was the one who’d wrecked Liam St. Clair’s car, and there was a good chance some batshit fans would target him for potentially injuring me.” He sighed. “A woman rear-ended Craws last season, and he had to miss I think three or four games as a result. Her name got out, and she started getting literal death threats.”

“Shit, seriously?”

Wincing, he nodded. “I love our fans, don’t get me wrong. But there are some who can take things too far. I didn’t want this kid catching any smoke, so I paid the tow truck drivers for their silence, and I just ate the loss on the car.”

I blinked. “You didn’t get your insurance involved?”

“Nah. It hurt—that was a $300,000 car—but I can afford it, you know? I can definitely afford it more than a family who could barely afford to even own and insure two cars. I mean, can you imagine what that would do to their insurance rates if their sixteen-year-old totaled a car like that?”