Chapter 12
OLIVIA
I ’ve no doubt this is all Marcus’s doing.
I don’t know why I’ve been lying to myself over the past month, making myself believe that I could actually be free of him, that I wouldn’t have to pay for all the things I did while I was under his grip, his influence.
But Leo is right. The past always has a way of catching up with you, doesn’t it?
“I’m trying to understand what made you do all those things,” Carlos calmly says, sitting across from me, a metal interview table between us.
He’s going over my file, at least half of it filled with lies, but who’s going to believe me?
Carlos put the cuffs on first and asked questions later.
“Your actions hurt a lot of people, Miss Fairchild.”
“You don’t understand what’s happening,” I reply. “None of this is real.”
“I’m real. I’m sitting right here, aren’t I?” he says. “This is your file, isn’t it, with charges pending, details of your criminal activity, witness testimony? Looks pretty real to me. ”
“Then why are we even talking? Why isn’t Devon PD taking over? I’m sure they’re dying to get to me,” I snap.
He leans forward, a hard look drawing deep shadows across his handsome, clean-shaven face.
“Because Dax, Beck, and Leo are my close friends, and I can tell that they’re into you, Miss Fairchild, really into you, more than they’ve ever been with anyone else before you, more than they ever were with Jocelyn. ”
He pauses then, and I catch a tinge of regret in his voice. There’s untold history there. On any other day, I would’ve pressed him on the issue, but I’m in no position to ask such questions. Not now, not here.
“You’ve been bamboozling them, haven’t you?”
I shake my head vehemently. “Never. We’re close. I care about them. They made me feel safe. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“What did happen exactly? I mean, how’d you end up here in the first place? You were running away from Devon, obviously.”
“I didn’t run far enough, apparently,” I mumble, looking away from him.
“What did you do back there, Miss Fairchild?”
“I fell in love with the wrong man, that’s what I did, and now he’s pulling the strings, eager to get me back so he can do a hell of a lot worse than anything he did before!” I cry out, tears filling my eyes. “You’re not going to believe me anyway, so what’s the point?”
Carlos takes a deep breath and goes over my file once more. “The point is that I’m not stupid; I can read. ”
“What do you mean?”
“A few things here don’t make sense. You had a clean record,” he says. “No criminal activities whatsoever despite your upbringing. You were practically raised by the streets, weren’t you? Bounced around from one foster home to another.”
“No need to remind me,” I mutter.
Because the streets are where Marcus plucked me from.
I thought I’d been granted salvation. Little did I know at the time that it was merely the beginning of a different kind of nightmare.
Maybe I could tell Carlos about it. He doesn’t seem as much in a hurry to ship me back to Devon. Not yet, anyway.
“But I swear to you,” I add, hoping to impress this one truth upon him, “I never meant to hurt Dax, Beck, or Leo in any way. I care about all of them, and I really thought we could make it work.”
Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick. The queasiness unfurls in the back of my throat with an unpleasant, bitter taste. The room starts spinning, and I break into a cold sweat. I’ve never experienced anything like this before, and the way my body responds to the stress scares the crap out of me.
“Miss Fairchild, I don’t want to doubt your intentions here,” Carlos says. “I’m just trying to bridge the gap between the clean kid I see in the beginning of this file and the criminal mastermind that’s being described at the end of it.”
Maybe Carlos can be trusted after all. Ember Ridge is so far away from Devon.
What are the odds that Marcus’s influence made it all the way out here?
I look at him, observing his calm features.
His tanned skin and soft brown eyes evoke tranquility and gentleness.
His jawline and stacked shoulders speak of strength and security.
No wonder he’s friends with Dax, Leo, and Beck. They must be made of the same cloth.
It might be worth the gamble.
“I’m not sure you’ll believe me,” I tell Carlos. “No one back home believed me.”
“Give it a try,” he replies. “You and I, Miss Fairchild, we haven’t crossed paths much outside the diner since you’ve been here, but even so, I can see you mean well. So when this arrest warrant came through, I thought twice before serving it.”
“If it came through to Ember Ridge, it means it was issued nationwide, right?”
“Right.”
“And you haven’t notified the authorities in Devon about me yet, have you?”
“Not yet.”
I take a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know about that place. It’s not what it seems. It’s… the arrest warrant itself, the charges, they’re bogus. I didn’t?—”
“You didn’t embezzle funds?”
“Short answer is yes, I did, but it wasn’t?—”
“You’re not helping yourself here, Miss Fairchild,” he shakes his head, almost disappointed.
“I didn’t want to do any of it, okay? I didn’t have a choice!”
The door swings open and Beck enters, a hard look on his face. I don’t know whether it’s dread or relief that I’m feeling. Carlos seems surprised.
“What are you doing here?” he asks Beck.
“She needs a lawyer.”
“Damn it, Beck, you should’ve let me finish the interview at least.”
“She’s not saying another word before she gets a lawyer,” Beck shoots back.
I don’t know what to make of any of this. He’s angry, that much is clear. He’s probably angry with me because he and the guys got slapped in the face with a whole chunk of my past that they didn’t even see coming because I kept it from them.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Listen. I could lose my badge for this, but I’m going to release you into Beck’s custody. Do yourself a favor and don’t leave Ember Ridge,” Carlos replies.
“Can you maybe not notify Devon?”
“Give us this one thing, Carlos. For old times’ sake. We’ll talk to Olivia. We’ll get the whole truth out of her, I promise. And if it tracks with what the Devon PD is saying, we’ll personally help you deliver her to them.”
I’m not sure what scares me more at this point: the prospect of getting sent back to Devon or having to tell my men the whole truth. My men . They deserve the whole truth. I put it off for as long as I could. What other choice have I got?
“I can’t give you much time,” Carlos tells Beck .
“I won’t need it,” Beck shoots back with a wry grin, then gives me a long, indecipherable look. “It seems we have a lot to talk about, don’t we, Olivia?”
The sound of fast approaching heels clicking in the hallway sends my pulse into overdrive. I hear her voice before I see her, and instantly, the fear and anxiety return with a vengeance.
“Where are they?” Jocelyn barks at one of the deputies on guard duty.
The blood drains from Beck’s face. “Fuck,” he mutters. “I wasn’t fast enough.”
“What? Why?” I ask him.
As soon as Jocelyn comes in, Carlos’s expression shifts from concern and curiosity to aggravation with a hint of anger.
The way he looks at her speaks of a personal history, and that makes me look toward Beck for answers.
I doubt this is the right time to explore the skeletons in their closet, seeing as mine came with an arrest warrant.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jocelyn asks Beck, then looks at Carlos.
Darkness shadows Beck’s face. To me, he’s soft underneath those hard features, the beard, and the tattoos. To Jocelyn, however, Beck looks like he’s close to tearing her head off.
“She’s innocent,” he declares.
“How stupid can you be? This fat bitch was going to swindle you all!” Jocelyn retorts.
“Keep taking those cheap shots at her, and I will give Carlos a reason to arrest me ,” he tells Jocelyn, and he means every damn word .
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve gone too far, Jocelyn. What the fuck is this about? Because it’s not about you doing your job. You can’t hold her here, she’s not in your jurisdiction,” Beck replies. “She’s committed no crime in Ember Ridge.”
“You’re questioning the way I do my job? That’s rich!”
“No, I’m questioning your motives and your behavior, and if I hear one more jab about Olivia’s figure, I will forget that I am a gentleman and you’ll regret ever walking into this building.”
It’s a promise, not a threat. The air shifts in the entire room, and even Jocelyn can feel it. This mean girl shtick has finally met a wall, and that wall is as big and as fierce as Beck. Carlos sits quietly on the edge of the interview table, watching the exchange.
“I’d appreciate it if you focused more on those arson investigations. We lost our fucking captain yesterday.”
Jocelyn lowers her gaze, speechless and ashamed.
I’m guessing she imagined a different scene unfolding.
She came in, guns blazing, likely thinking that I had no support, that I was here on my own.
But for some reason, Beck came through for me, and I have to wonder… will Dax and Leo come through as well?
Carlos scoffs lightly. “Even now, you’re still trying to win them over, huh?”
“Stay out of it,” Jocelyn warns him.
“Would if I could, but I’m the one you cheated with.” Carlos laughs with sheer bitterness, then gives Beck a slight nod. “Tell you what, brother, take Olivia home and make sure she stays in town, alright? I’ll be by as soon as you’re all ready to talk to me.”
“We could’ve done things this way from the get-go,” Beck sighs.
“I had to do my job, first and foremost,” Carlos reminds him.
Jocelyn remains quiet, shame burning in her eyes. She averts her gaze when I try to look at her. I can’t say I take pleasure in her discomfort, but I already know more about her relationship with my guys than I did five minutes ago, and her motives seem less and less pure.
“We’ll be going now,” Beck tells Jocelyn, “unless you really want me to follow through on everything I just said.”
I look up at him, wondering if the hope I feel blossoming in my chest is real or just another mirage.