Chapter 11
BECK
M orning finds us gathered in the kitchen, coffee brewing, filling the space with its rich, inviting aroma. Olivia is wrapped in a pink satin robe, her hair a honey-blonde mess as she comes in, barely awake.
“Hey,” she mumbles. “I think the smell of coffee woke me up.”
“You have the day off, don’t you?” Dax asks, then proceeds to pour her a cup while I add milk to mine and get settled at the table.
She gives each of us a long, lazy kiss before taking a chair by the window, wistfully gazing outside. “Yes. I welcome the respite.”
“You could sleep some more,” I suggest.
“No. I don’t want to miss a single moment of being with you,” Olivia says, then gives Dax a thankful nod for the coffee.
Leo pops in a moment later. “Morning, beautiful. I just dropped Luke at a friend’s house for the day. ”
“You’re such a good dad,” she tells him, and he smiles.
“He’s a great kid. He makes it easy. You okay today?”
She nods and smiles softly. “I’m just so glad you are all here and whole. Yesterday was torture.”
“We’ve survived worse than what happened at that warehouse.
Fire is simple, even when it’s set by man,” Dax explains, caressing her shoulder.
“It consumes until you put it out. It follows the same pattern in every space. It’s actually predictable, most of the time.
We know when to go in and when to pull back. ”
“But you still got hurt,” she says.
“It’s minor.”
“I promise you, Olivia, we will always come back to you,” Leo tells her.
I lean in and kiss that delicate spot on her neck, just between the earlobe and the line of her hair. “And I will do my damnedest to make sure we all come back to you in one piece.”
“I believe you,” she sighs, then rests her head on my shoulder for a moment. “And I trust you.”
“You’d better.” I pause and give her a curious look. “You were coming out to look for us last night, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” she says after a long pause. “I was worried out of my mind.”
“You care,” I chuckle softly.
She gives me an intense look. It’s as if her blue eyes cut straight into my soul, demanding the kind of vulnerability we swore we’d never give to another woman again .
“Yes. Is that so wrong?”
“No, not at all,” I reply and kiss her again.
“Caring also means sharing,” Leo quips.
Well, at least I’m not the only one thinking it.
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“You know more about us than we know about you,” I say.
Olivia pauses, her gaze bouncing between us until it settles on Dax, who responds with a subtle nod.
“They’re right, Olivia,” he replies. “We don’t know much about you.
You’re from Devon, New York. You’re best friends with Chloe Jackson, whom we only saw sparingly over the summer months in past years.
You’re good with computers, yet you work as a waitress in a diner. You’re smarter than you let on?—”
“How’d you guess that?” she laughs lightly.
“Luke,” Leo says, never taking his eyes off her. “Don’t underestimate the kid, Olivia. He’s smart as a whip and incredibly observant. You speak his language. He picked right up on that.”
“I had a rough year,” she finally concedes. “I needed a fresh start.”
“Is that why you’re so hell-bent on keeping a low profile?” I ask her.
I feel her tensing up, and I can almost hear her self-preservation instinct screaming at her. I know what it’s like, because I was once in her shoes. We all have skeletons in our closets, things we’d rather keep buried.
“I was a medic in the Marines,” I tell her. “That’s why being a paramedic at the fire house suits me better. I’m trained for firefighting, too, mind you. I went through the whole program; I’m certified for Squad and Engine, but I stayed on Ambulance. Did I ever tell you why?”
She shakes her head slowly while Dax and Leo watch our exchange. They know the story. They were there. I’m pretty sure they remember the pain and anguish I fought through during our deployment. I can still feel it burrowed deep within my soul.
“You didn’t,” Olivia says.
“I was working on a young Marine on the battlefield, trying to patch him up enough for us to get him on a gurney and back to the chopper,” I say, recounting that horrible day.
“We were in over our heads. The intel was off by too many factors. Dax and Leo were providing cover fire to the best of their abilities. And then I saw her… this kid, she couldn’t have been more than thirteen.
“She came running out from between the houses. Shit was blowing up all around us. The insurgents were firing heavily, bullets were flying, grenades were dropping. And there I was, wrapping this guy up with entire yards of gauze, hoping I could stabilize him until we got him to a hospital. And there’s this girl, crying and screaming, covered in blood. I had a split-second decision to make.”
“Save her or your Marine?” Olivia can see where I’m going with this already.
“The guy was hanging on by a thread. I didn’t think he’d make it, truth be told.
But as long as he was breathing, I was determined to give him a chance.
Until the girl came out. So I had to decide.
There were insurgents everywhere, several hiding inside civilian homes where we couldn’t see them.
I figured the kid had her whole life ahead of her.
She’s standing on her own two feet. We could at least take her away from that hellhole and drop her off at a refugee camp on the way back.
“I ran to the girl. Dax was shouting at me, telling me to stand back. But I had to do something. I didn’t want to watch those bullets tear through an innocent girl.
It wasn’t until I got close enough to see that the girl was screaming and crying for an entirely different reason.
She had an IED strapped to her back. She was begging for us to help her. ”
Leo exhales sharply. “We got it off of her just before the thing blew up.”
“Oh, no,” Olivia says, tearing up.
“I lost our guy and nearly my own arm,” I say and smile bitterly. “But at least the little girl was safe.”
“You’ve saved a lot of lives, Beck,” Dax kindly reminds me.
“Thing is, we had to bury the whole incident,” he tells Olivia.
“Our commanding officers didn’t take kindly to us rescuing civilians from that particular region because they were all supporting the insurgents.
Our mission there was to extract an abducted engineer.
We never mentioned the girl or Beck’s decision.
Our mate died in the line of fire, and that was it. ”
“It would’ve been that bad?” Olivia asks, sighing deeply.
Leo nods grimly. “Yes, it would’ve been that bad, given that our commanders had their heads so far up their asses that they couldn’t be reasoned with.
They were looking for any reason to punish anybody who didn’t follow every goddamn order to the letter.
” He looks at me. “You did the right thing, Beck. I still believe that.”
“Sure. But that decision, that day? That’s my cross to bear, my guilt to live with for as long as I draw a breath,” I say, then look at Olivia. “So, there you go. A secret of mine, out in the open, something I’ve never told anyone outside our group.”
Suddenly, all eyes are on her, and she doesn’t know what to do with that. “I’m sorry you had to live through that, and I’m sure you have plenty more horror stories to tell, but?—”
Dax cuts her off. “We need to know more about you, and you’re being evasive, Olivia. Why? Don’t you trust us?”
“Of course, I trust you?—”
“Why’d you come to Ember Ridge?” I ask, the ghosts of my past still lingering in the back of my head. “Don’t say for a fresh start, please. We need more than that.”
She thinks about it for a moment, and I can almost see the struggle in her eyes.
It’s not coming from a bad place; I’m guessing she’s simply trying to protect herself.
But if we’re going to build something together here, Olivia has to learn to open up more, to let us protect her, if she needs protection.
“I was in a bad relationship,” she concedes. “It didn’t start out like that, though. For a long time, it was good. He saved me. He got me off the streets, took care of me.”
“Who’s he?” Dax asks.
She shakes her head. “It’s better if you don’t know?—”
He cuts her off and leans in. “Olivia, you’re not alone anymore. Whatever you’re carrying on your shoulders, you don’t have to do it alone.”
“Dax, he’s dangerous. You don’t want anything to do with that man. Honestly, I’m still working through everything—” She stops herself, shaking her head and the memories away. “What matters is that it’s over, that I got out. ”
“Did you?” I ask. “Get out, that is, or did you just run away?”
“Isn’t it the same thing?” she replies, looking somewhat confused.
Leo takes a long sip of his coffee. “The past has an ugly way of catching up to you if you don’t resolve it. Running away from someone or from a bad situation doesn’t imply a resolution.”
“He doesn’t know where I am,” Olivia insists.
And it’s there, in that handful of words, that I find a clearer picture.
It makes me angry because I know I’ll find more beneath the surface.
I didn’t want to believe it, but I see it now.
Omission of the truth isn’t exactly lying, but it’s not too far from it either.
Olivia has been keeping dark secrets, and she’s been living in fear.
“I knew there was something off about you,” Leo says. He sounds downright disappointed.
“Hold on,” I tell him. “I’m sure she had her reasons.”
“See, this is why it’s best to leave the past alone.” Olivia gets up, anxiety shadowing her features. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
There’s a knock at the door. Needing to diffuse some of the tension, I get up to answer it, surprised at who’s standing on the other side.
“Carlos? What are you doing here?” I ask the police officer. He’s also our close friend, but the uniform tells me he’s on duty, and the paper he’s holding in his hand looks official.
“What are you doing here?” he replies with a furrowed brow.
“Having coffee with the guys and Olivia. ”
“Olivia Fairchild, right?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?” Dax joins me at the door.
Leo and Olivia follow, but the look on her face tells me she’s got a better clue about it than any of us.
“Olivia?” I question, but she can’t speak.
“Olivia Fairchild, this is a warrant for your arrest issued by the Devon Police Department,” Carlos announces as he takes out his cuffs and comes into the house.
“Whoa, whoa, hold on there, buddy.” I try to stop him, but he shoves the warrant in my face and moves past me.
“I’m sorry, fellas. The law’s the law.”
“Carlos, give us a moment,” Dax says, trying to intervene. “What is going on here?”
“We got a tip that we had a fugitive in our midst,” Carlos says as he slaps the cuffs on Olivia’s trembling wrists.
“Olivia here is wanted by the sheriff and the Devon PD for fraud and embezzlement, among other things. Charges were filed earlier last month in her absence. An arrest warrant was issued, a BOLO sent out, and here we are.”
“Damn it, man, you can’t just walk into her house like this.”
Leo is quiet, watching everything unfold with a stern expression.
“Let’s talk about this,” Dax says. “Carlos, come on, we’re friends. Give us that courtesy.”
He ignores us and begins to read Olivia her rights, which she listens to with a look of resignation. “Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?” Carlos asks her.
She nods slowly. “Yes.”
“Carlos,” I plead in exasperation.
“Sorry, fellas. I really am. She’ll be at the station. I need to let Devon PD know that we have her.”
All we can do is watch helplessly as Carlos escorts Olivia out of the house and down to his squad car, its presence drawing some of the more curious neighbors to their windows and doors to see what is happening.
My stomach contracts into a hard lead ball as I try to process the situation, wondering if the Olivia we know is even real.
Fraud. Embezzlement. It just doesn’t make sense.