Page 61 of Outback Secrets

‘It was almost thirteen years ago,’ he said after a long moment’s silence. ‘My family—my parents—owned a couple of supermarkets. Gourmet grocery stores really. We sold a lot of organic stuff, local produce, baked goods from small businesses. Dad always wanted to make it feel like you’d stepped back in time when you entered one of the stores. We were all about old-fashioned service—you got your bags packed at the checkout and then someone would carry them out to your car for you.’

In the light of the moon, Liam saw a faint smile cross Henri’s face, but she still didn’t speak.

‘Anyway, one day … I got a call from Lacey, my little sister. I was at one of our stores and she was with my parents at the other. She was crying so hard I could barely make out what she was saying. Turns out there was a crazy person storming around the store.’

He took another deep breath and Henri gave him an encouraging nod.

‘I could hear shouting and screaming. I thought she said someone was threatening to shoot Mom and Dad. Even though I couldn’t believe it, I got in my car and drove over there as fast as I could. On a good day it’s a fifteen-minute drive. I made it in nine and a half. Lacey stayed on the line, and I heard gunshots. She screamed. She was hysterical.’ He’d never forget that piercing sound—it was almost worse than the sound of gunfire. ‘She didn’t have to tell me. I just knew.’

‘He killed your parents?’

Liam nodded. ‘I tried to go inside. The sheriff was there. But Silver Ridge … it’s a small town. He ordered me to wait for back-up, but I … I had to get to Lacey. I couldn’t leave her in there alone.’

That’s when he lost the battle with tears. He didn’t know if he could go on.

Henri reached out and squeezed his hand. Liam looked down at her hand wrapped around his and then back into her face. Her eyes were glistening too.

‘It was a war zone,’ he said. ‘Customers. Staff. Everyone was hiding under checkouts. Hiding wherever they could. There were kids squeezed into the tiny space under the shelves where their parents had shoved them, stock scattered all over the floor. Blood. Everywhere. So much blood … I saw Mom first, then Dad. Then Lacey.’

‘No,’ Henri gasped, and he nodded.

‘The bastard turned his gun on me. I honestly couldn’t have cared less if he killed me. But there were two more shots before he could.’

Although the night was still warm, Liam shivered, then tugged aside the collar of his shirt to reveal his scar. The reminder of what he’d lost, which he saw every day when he looked in the mirror.

Tears were now pouring down Henri’s cheeks as she gazed at it.

‘He shot me at the exact time the cops shot him. He was killed instantly. His aim wasn’t so great with me. It didn’t matter, he’d already taken almost everything I cared about.’

Not quite everything.

But Liam didn’t tell Henri about Kate. He couldn’t. It was hard to believe he’d managed to tell her what he had, but there was only so much his heart could take in one night.

‘Who was he?’ she asked.

‘Who was who?’

‘The killer?’

He sighed. ‘Some guy whose girlfriend had dumped him for a man who worked for us. Stupid thing was he got the wrong store. Nate worked with me at Monument. That bastard took five lives that day—two other employees as well as my family. And he got off lightly in the end. His punishment should have been so much more than death. He should be living out his years in some hellish prison, worrying someone might slice his throat while he sleeps.’

‘I can’t even, Liam … I don’t know what to say.’

‘There’s nothing you can say.’

They sat in silence a few minutes before Henri said, ‘What did you do … after?’

‘After all the mess was cleaned up and I’d buried my whole family?’

Her eyes widened. ‘You didn’t have anyone else? No aunts, uncles, grandparents?’

‘My dad was an only child. Mom was estranged from her family—I’ve never met any of them—and Dad’s mother died when he was nineteen. Bowel cancer. When … when the shooting happened, his father was in residential care with dementia. He went a few months later. I’m not sure how much he understood about the shooting. Maybe grief was what finished him off.’

‘Oh God,’ Henri breathed.

He knew what she was thinking. That he’d lost his immediate family and then his only living relative in a matter of months.

‘It was always the plan that I’d take over the running of the stores when Mom and Dad retired. I’d already started working on plans to expand across the state. But I could barely step foot in those two stores anymore, and after Pa’s funeral, well, there didn’t seem any point to anything.’