4. Chapter 4 – Olivia
Chapter 4 – Olivia
“ Y ou can’t go.” Peyton huffed, sitting down on the end of the bed in the guest house, and pulling my things back out of my bag. “It’s not safe.”
I snorted and kept adding more things to the bag even as she kept pulling them out, “It’s not safe for me to stay here any longer. Lincoln has gone feral and only Dane remains.” My clothes and toiletries had randomly appeared inside of the guest house the morning after my rescue, but conveniently none of my computers or electronics came with them. Though Peyton assured me that someone had emptied my apartment and secured my things. They didn’t let me have them.
She waved me off, “He’s fine.”
“He’s hiding.” I deadpanned. “You deserve to enjoy your new married bliss without your little sister lurking in the guest house.”
“He’s fine.” She repeated. “He’s busy working, that’s all.”
“That’s what I should be doing! I’m not fine.” Forcing her to look at me, I stopped. “I hate being cooped up here. I have to go back to the city. Believe it or not, P, the fresh air makes my head throb. I need the pollution and the chaos, and I need my life back.”
“You can’t have your life back, you know that!” She ripped my toiletries bag from my hands and set it back on the bed. “It’s not safe. Not yet.”
“What does that mean?” I put my hands on my hips, careful to avoid the sore ribs on my right side that I tried to pretend didn’t still hurt like a bitch every single morning, and stared back at her. Dane and my sister were keeping things from me about the Hell Eaters, and I hated feeling like the little kid being told, we’ll tell you when you’re older .
It was my mess, not theirs, and I needed to see it cleaned up.
Even if the idea of coming face to face with Damon again made my heart seize up and nausea roll through my stomach.
“It just means that you have to stay here a little while longer.” She sighed, pleading with her eyes for me to just follow her directions.
“I can’t P.” I grabbed my bag and put it back in my luggage. “I refuse to be kept in the dark about my own mess.”
“Is that why you’re fighting me on this?” She huffed, “Because I’m trying to protect you?”
“I don’t need your protection!” I cried out in frustration. “I’m almost thirty years old, P. I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“I know that!” She stood up and put her hands on my shoulders, “But you have no idea what it did to me to hear you like that on the phone.” Her voice cut out, and she looked down at my chin instead of my eyes, “I thought I was going to lose you, and I can’t get that feeling out of my head.”
I closed my eyes as the same familiar feeling of grief washed over me. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t you dare apologize for calling me, that’s not what I’m saying.” She dropped her hands off my shoulders and pushed her hair behind her ear. “I just need you to understand why I’m neurotic about your safety right now.”
“I don’t know how to just sit here.” To reason with her, I tried explaining myself. “I’m not an idle person, P. I have a job and responsibilities and stuff I need to see to. And sitting here in the dark is killing me!”
She chewed on her lip and looked off toward the house. “What if I made Dane update you?” She asked, and I scrunched my eyebrows at her in speculation. My sister’s desperation to get me to stay was evident, but I wouldn’t be fooled. “I mean it, what if we went upstairs right now, and he told you what he knew? Maddox is here and they’re working on it, and if he tells you what he knows, will you stay?”
My brain misfired on the name I only heard once that night I was rescued, and I fought to keep my face devoid of anything as I mulled her offer over. Did I want to know exactly what Dane knew about my royal fuck up with the Hell Eaters? Yes. Did I want to know when I could go back to my old life, if ever? Also, yes.
But was the main reason I wanted to go up to his office simply to see the bear that rescued me that night in the daylight? Definitely.
“It’s a start.” I feigned indifference, but as she rolled her eyes and then left toward the main house, I followed her in a trance.
I couldn’t tell if I was more nervous to hear what they found out about me and what I did, or to see the bear again.
Fucking hormones.
I slid my hands in my hoodie pocket and followed Peyton up the stairs and to the ominous door into Dane’s office. My sister looked over at me and gave me a reassuring smile before putting her finger over the scanner and opening it up.
“Women present.” She called out like the men were going to be caught doing something indecent as we walked in.
At his desk, Dane sat and talked with the bear that stood behind him, its weight on his shoulder as they looked at the screen to discuss something shown there.
Maddox.
The enigma.
My gaze drifted across his immense physique as he leaned down towards Dane, and I struggled to remember even a fragment of his heroic rescue from the basement. But it was all blank.
For days, the same repetitive questions had played out, continuing relentlessly in a monotonous cycle.
Did he carry me?
Did he fight his way in? Or our way out?
Why did he get involved at all?
And why was he still involved?
“Puppet, how’s Liv?” Dane asked as he stared at his wall of screens. A part of me was massively jealous of the spread he had. The amount of work I could get done with that layout—whew.
“I’m fine, thank you.” I replied, and both of their heads snapped up from the video they were watching and looked over at me.
“Hi.” Dane said, pushing his chair back, but not before locking his screens with a kill button. “How are you?”
I shrugged and leaned against the wall to avoid staring at the burly man to my right. “I’m going home.”
Dane surprised me, he just leaned back in his chair and smirked. “You don’t have a home anymore.”
I squinted at him, “What does that mean exactly?”
“It means,” He stood up and leaned on the edge of his desk to face me head on, “That I ended your lease. So, you technically don’t have a home.”
I didn’t particularly like my apartment, but it had been mine. Gritting my teeth, I looked over at my sister where she sat on the couch, “You’re actually into this domineering stuff?”
She pursed her lips and cocked her head at me. “It’s for your own good.”
“I can’t stay here.” I huffed. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all of your help, but I’m suffocating here.”
Dane’s eyebrows dropped over his dark eyes and the bear crossed his arms behind him, finally tempting me to look up at him and the reaction was the same as the first time I saw him while I laid in his bed.
A bit of fear. A bit of wonder. And a whole lot of something else I wasn’t ready to admit to.
“What would you have us do, Olivia?” Dane asked, drawing my attention back to him. “If you go back to Boston, you’ll be in danger. Period.”
“So I’m supposed to do what?” I asked, weaker because I knew he was right. “Hide here for the rest of my life in a guest house I’m not even wanted in?”
“You’re wanted—,” Peyton cut in, but I held my hand up and silenced her.
I stared right at Dane and dared him to lie to me. “You hate me being here.” I settled, and I thought for one second a flash of regret moved across his face, but it was gone so quickly I couldn’t know for sure. “Almost as much as I hate being here.”
“It doesn’t matter what either of us wants, Liv.” Dane sighed, “The facts remain the same.” He got up and walked back around his desk, unlocking his screens and bringing up a page, motioning for me to come next to him to read it. “You’re wanted by the enemy. Enough for a hit to be put on your head.”
I knew it would happen, considering the accusations against me. But seeing the price printed in black ink still gave me whole-body shivers.
Fifty thousand dollars.
I didn’t know if I should be glad or upset that my life was valued so highly. Either way, seeing it in person made my stomach churn, and I placed my palm over my stomach in my hoodie pocket.
“See why you can’t go back?” Dane reasoned gently.
“I can handle it.” I stared at the screen to avoid the painful sympathy in his eyes. “They’ve already charged, tried, and sentenced me. I’ll clean up my own mess.”
“What did you do, exactly?” The bear finally spoke, my eyes flicking over to him. “Because we can’t find any trace of you inside of the Hell Eaters’ operations.” His brows furrowed deeper into his black eyes. “And believe me, we’ve dug deep.”
I tried but failed to hide the smug smile that pulled at my lips as I looked back at Dane. “I didn’t know it was possible to freeze out The Ghost .”
“Damnit, this isn’t funny, Livy!” Peyton snapped from the couch, and I looked over at her as embarrassment burned in my chest. “This is serious! So serious that Dane and Maddox have been working around the clock for a week straight, trying to find out a way to stop this whole thing from claiming your life!”
“I never said it was funny.” I replied with a calm venom I perfected during my time with the Hell Eaters’ inner circle. “Excuse me for smiling for the first time in months.” I swallowed down the emotion that burned in my gut as my sister blushed with guilt. “It won’t happen again.”
“Liv—” Peyton sighed, and I hated how that sound made me feel like an insolent child. Again.
“I have to go.” Once more, I tried to make it clear to anyone who might fucking listen. “I can’t stay here, or it’ll destroy my already shit relationship with my sister. You’ll have to physically restrain me if you want to stop me.” I shrugged dejectedly. “But I can’t stay here.”
I walked out of the office, ignoring Peyton’s call for me as Dane told her to let me go. It wasn’t as if I had a plan exactly, but I had to keep moving. If I stopped, I’d crumble.
It was the same thing I repeated nonstop for the last few months when I realized I was in so deep with a crew worse than death itself, with no way out.
I guess when you stare death in the face long enough, it doesn’t hold the same power over you anymore. Or at least it shouldn’t have until the life growing inside of me was a factor.