Chapter 17
OLIVIA
E ver since I came to Ember Ridge, I’ve been feeling as if this might truly be a second chance at a good life for me. Every time Marcus’s name comes up, however, I’m reminded that it won’t be as easy as I’d hoped. But it’s not impossible either.
“You look so soft in this light,” Dax whispers.
I didn’t even realize he was watching me. We’ve been in my bed all morning, having left Leo and Beck next door to look after Luke last night.
“Soft?” I ask, smiling as I look over my shoulder to meet his gaze.
“Like sunshine through that window,” he replies.
“I think you’re the one who makes me soft.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Not at all. I like being soft. After a lifetime of being hard- shelled, I welcome the softness with arms wide open.” I giggle in his tightening embrace.
I have a special connection with each of them.
Leo’s got his dark side wrapped in the single dad charm that just works a hell of a number on me.
And Beck comes across as this total bad boy with his tattoos, but deep down, he’s all love and tenderness, and I adore the contrast. Dax, on the other hand… Dax is precisely what he shows.
He’s tall, dark, and handsome, sometimes brooding, sometimes the sweetest man I’ve ever met. But his strength, his inner strength… resonates with me on a deeper level, which is why I always find absolute safety and comfort in his presence.
“I just wish I’d hear something about Chloe,” I whisper, blinking back tears. “Not knowing what happened to her is killing me.”
“We’ll figure it out. One way or another, Olivia, the truth always comes out, especially when there are people looking for it,” he says gently, spooning me and breathing me in.
“I trust Carlos to get to the bottom of it. They were grooming him for a position in the Intelligence Division of the Chicago PD at one point.”
“Chicago?”
“They came to try and poach him out of Ember Ridge,” Dax explains. “Carlos isn’t your average deputy, Olivia. The man aced his training, top of his class. His service has been nothing but stellar over the years, and I dare say he’d give the sheriff a run for his money in the county election.”
“Why doesn’t he do that then? A sheriff’s badge could give him more reach, more power. ”
“Carlos has deep ties to the entire community. With his undercover work, he managed to take out a lot of bad folks from his side of town. Nobody knows this, but he infiltrated some cartels a couple of years back. It got bloody and brutal as hell, though he pulled through. He even managed to secure his undercover alias. If push comes to shove, he could always go right back in.”
I turn over to get a good look at my man, his broad shoulders and chiseled chest rising and dropping with every breath. The curls of black and silver hair tickle my fingertips as I caress his sculpted pecs.
“You make him sound like such a badass.”
“I appreciate the man. He’s fierce and he’s loyal. I respect him and the work he does.”
“I guess it takes one to know one,” I reply with a smile. “And I know you’re telling me all of this because you want me to trust him.”
He nods. “Despite the whole arrest issue, I vouch for his integrity. He’d never let anything bad happen to you.”
“It’s not Carlos I don’t trust, it’s everyone else around him with a badge,” I tell him. “And I’m sure you can understand why that is.”
“You don’t have to explain it again. I get it. But the time might come when you’re going to have to trust him, for your sake and ours, Olivia.”
“And when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll make the right choice.”
“Your stubbornness makes you even more enticing, did I ever tell you that? ”
His words make my skin sizzle all over. His voice is a low, delicious growl emanating from the back of his throat, causing a deep purr in my own throat as I melt against his hard body. Chances are, we’re not done devouring one another just yet, and I certainly don’t mind it. Not one bit.
Our lips are about to meet, and I know I’ll unravel quickly once he kisses me.
But before he gets the chance, there’s a loud knock on the door. It booms throughout the house, all the way up to my bedroom. It sounds urgent and desperate, loud and terrified. Without another word, Dax jumps out of bed and slips into his shorts, then rushes downstairs.
I need a moment to put on a robe and fasten it around my waist before I can join him. When I do, I realize that I was not prepared for the sight before me.
I freeze at the bottom of the stairs. All I can do is stare at her.
Standing in the open doorway, shaking like a leaf, and dressed in a pair of cargo pants and a khaki jacket, a matching ball cap covering her curly brown hair, is Chloe.
“Chloe?” I manage to choke out as Dax gives her, then me, a confused look.
“You’re joking,” he says.
“Oh, my God, it’s really you!” I cry and rush to hug my best friend.
She looks tired and terrified, but as soon as she hears my voice, as soon as I wrap my arms around her, Chloe exhales deeply and throws her arms around me. “Olivia, I thought I’d never see you again,” she says, just before she passes out .
“Damn.” Dax swoops in and catches her before she hits the floor.
A few minutes later, Leo and Beck join us in the living room. Chloe is awake and coming out of a heavy syncope, blinking slowly as she nurses a chamomile tea. I sit beside her while Dax paces the room, occasionally looking out the window.
“I wasn’t followed,” Chloe says.
My heart hurts whenever I look at her—her pain reverberating through every feature—but at the same time, I’m just relieved to see she’s alive.
“I made sure of it,” she adds, giving Dax a quick scowl before she softens her gaze on me. “You look amazing, by the way. Freedom really suits you, Olivia.”
“I just… I’m so happy to see you again,” I say. “What the hell happened, Chloe? I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. I heard about your parents. I’m so sorry.”
She tears up but immediately swallows it back and takes a deep, stoic breath. “It was horrific. We were in the car, trying to get out of town. Marcus kept coming around our house, dogging me into telling him where you’d gone.”
“Oh, Chloe.”
“It’s okay, I never told him,” she says, while my men listen closely.
“Then he started digging into my family. Stalking and threatening my parents. I knew he’d learned about Grandma’s place up here, and I was going to call you about it.
I just needed to get my folks out of Devon first. They didn’t believe how bad he was until someone tried to break in late one night.
Luckily, my dad keeps guns in the house and was able to scare the fuckers off.
The next day, we were packed and ready to roll. ”
“What happened?” Dax asks her.
She looks up, her brow furrowed. “They ran us off the road. It was a black pickup truck. They rammed into us until Dad lost control. We flipped over and crashed. When I came to, there was smoke everywhere. I could smell plastic burning and gasoline. And I heard them.”
“Who?” I ask.
“Marcus’s people. It had to be. They kept saying, ‘Make sure they’re all dead.
Shoot’ em if you have to,’ but they couldn’t get close enough.
My parents were already gone, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
My survival instincts kicked in. The flames were getting bigger.
It was only a matter of time, minutes maybe, before the gas tank exploded. I knew I had to get out of there.
“So I crawled. Every inch of my body hurt like hell, but at least we were on the lip of a ravine. With the car flipped over and burning, all that smoke and the shrubs along the stream, I managed to get away from them,” she says, her gaze darkening as she recalls the horrible ordeal.
I shake my head slowly, my hand gently rubbing her back. The physical touch seems to soothe her, so I continue, carefully watching her expression while Leo tops off her mug of tea.
“Thank you,” Chloe mumbles and takes another sip.
“I didn’t move for a while. Maybe a few minutes.
When the car blew up, it tore my soul apart because I knew my parents…
” She ch okes up then, and we give her the time she needs before she’s able to continue.
Meanwhile, I see Beck on his phone, texting someone.
My bet’s on Carlos. “I heard those fuckers shouting,” Chloe adds.
“Their car skidding away. The sirens in the distance. But I knew I couldn’t stick around.
Not with Marcus in charge of law enforcement in that fucking town. ”
“What did you do then?” I ask her.i
“I moved through the ravine. I must’ve been down there for at least a day in the dirt and the muck, in the shadows, in the darkness of night.
I froze my ass off at one point, but for some reason, God wanted me to live, so I kept moving until I got out a few miles down the road,” she says.
“I only moved at night. I had some cash in my back pocket, so I used that for a meal and some water. Gas station stuff only. No motels, nothing. Just enough to get as far away from that fucking place as possible. I made it to Pittsburgh, believe it or not.”
“Pittsburgh,” Beck says, genuinely impressed. “That’s pretty far.”
“You’d think so. But in my panic, without a phone, aware that Marcus must’ve figured out by then that I wasn’t in the car when it blew up, and knowing that they hadn’t found my body anywhere, I figured I should keep going,” she says.
“So I did the unholy thing. I used your card-copying algorithm, Olivia.”
“Oh,” I whisper, my cheeks burning red.
Dax gives me a curious look. “What’s that?”