Chapter 24
OLIVIA
I ’m in a motel room.
The view outside the window is of a mostly empty parking lot and the motel’s large, generic, neon sign meant to draw drivers in for the night.
I can’t leave. The door and the window are locked. Marcus took my phone.
I’m stuck here, pacing the room like a wounded lioness, eager to get out. Despite the pain throbbing in my jaw, everything else feels fine. I can only hope it means my babies are okay after being jostled on the road.
“I could break the window, but then where do I go?” I wonder aloud, staring at a chair that I know I could use to smash through the glass. But then what? I have no idea where I am or how many miles it is back to town.
As far as I remember, there are at least a dozen motels scattered around Ember Ridge, each one farther away from town than the last. Without a clue of my position on the map, I wouldn’t even know which way to go, and without my phone, I’m screwed.
A key turns in the lock.
The door opens and Marcus comes in.
He finds me frozen by the foot of the bed and smiles. “Good, you’re awake,” he says, then raises a takeout bag for me to see. “Brought you some snacks.”
“I wasn’t asleep, Marcus. I was passed out from terror and exhaustion,” I reply with a trembling voice, still trying to wrap my head around what’s happening. “How long have I been here?”
“A few hours. It’ll be morning soon. You should rest.”
He seems so calm, so matter-of-fact about assaulting and kidnapping me.
I’d almost forgotten that all of this is pretty much par for the course for him.
It’s how he handles everything in his life.
Intimidation, gaslighting, and violence.
These are his preferred weapons, even with the woman he claims to love more than anything.
I take a couple of steps back. “Marcus, what are you doing here? What do you want from me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he laughs, but I hear the tension in his voice. “I thought you’d have it all figured out, seeing as you always were the smart one. You loved emphasizing that more than once.”
“And you loved telling me that I’d never be as smart as you,” I mutter.
“Case in point, look at us now,” Marcus shoots back, then dumps the takeout bag on the table by the window. “You might as well eat and get comfortable. I still have some things to take care of.”
“What happened to Carlos?”
He gives me a confused look. “Who? Oh, you mean your cop buddy? Fuck if I know. I got you out of there, that’s it.”
“He could be seriously hurt or bleeding out.”
“Or dead. I don’t care, Olivia. I have you now; nothing else matters.”
“You started all those fires.”
Marcus takes a deep breath. I can tell that part of him wants to yell and hit me, but the more reasonable side is fighting for self-control.
Slowly, I inch further away from him. Frankly, I’d jump off the planet altogether if I could, if only to never have to be around this man again.
The thought that he was once the center of my world makes my stomach squirm with disgust.
“Circling back to how dumb you think I am,” he says.
“I never thought you were dumb?—”
Marcus cuts me off, the irony flying right past him. “Olivia, you know I hate it when you interrupt me.”
I need to keep him calm and nonaggressive, and I need to figure out how to get out of here. But first, Marcus has to believe that I’m compliant.
“I’m sorry.”
“So circling back, did you really think you could just run out on me? Honey, I tailed you all the way here to Ember Ridge. It didn’t take long to figure out that Chloe helped you. She’s such a terrible liar. God, I hope she’s dead in a ditch somewhere. ”
I’m tempted to tell him the truth, but it seems that, for all his stalking, he missed the part where Chloe found her way back to us. Breathing a deep sigh, I move farther back until I feel the corner of a nightstand poking the back of my leg.
The shadow of a smile dances across his stubbly face.
He loves it when I show him fear, perhaps more than when I show him obedience.
“I could’ve just rolled in and dragged you out of there, but you were already buddy-buddy with those firemen, those inconvenient pricks,” he says, anger bubbling in his tone.
“I’m still the sheriff, and I have a reputation to maintain, so I figured I’d have to keep those fuckers busy. ”
“One fire would’ve been enough,” I say. “All you had to do was come in while they were out on the job, fighting to save the people trapped in the fire.”
“Collateral damage, each and every one of them,” Marcus replies casually, brushing the accusation off with a flick of his hand.
The smell of greasy takeout fills my nostrils, making me feel nauseous.
“I saw you were getting comfortable, Olivia. It seemed like a good opportunity to make you pay for what you did to me.”
“What did I do to you, Marcus?”
“You left!” he snaps, blind fury burning in his eyes.
“You left me! You had to pay for that, so I gave you the illusion of safety, of comfort. I let you think that you could stay in Ember Ridge. I know how close you got to those firemen. All three, huh? My cock wasn’t enough?
You needed more? Was that the problem? ‘Cause I would’ve gladly called in a couple of my buddies from Vice back in Devon. We could’ve worked something out.”
Now I really want to puke. “It wasn’t like that, Marcus?— ”
“Bullshit! I watched you through the window. I saw what you let them do to you. You fucking whore. And now you’re pregnant? Do you even know who the father is?”
Tears fill my eyes. He’s trying to shame me, but I don’t feel ashamed. The only shame I feel is for believing him, for putting up with his abuse for far too long.
“Please, Marcus, you don’t have to do any of this. It’s not right.”
“What’s not right is for you to walk away from me, Olivia.
Furthermore, what’s not right is for you to walk away with evidence that could fucking bury me,” he says.
“I know you, though. I know you wouldn’t risk coming after me because you understand that I’m not an easy guy to take down.
But even so, I’d rather you didn’t try.”
“I didn’t?—”
“Now, now, what did I tell you about lying to me?”
I pause, giving him a confused look. “I don’t understand.”
“You think I didn’t hear about an IA crew coming together to look into my work for the sheriff’s office? You really do think I’m dumb.”
“Where is this going?” I say and exhale sharply.
He clearly knows more than I expected him to.
I no longer hold the edge I thought I had against him.
Now, I’m his prisoner. My life is in his hands.
I’m at his mercy. And this bastard is as merciless as they come.
I used to confuse that with strength and stoicism. God, I was such a fool, such a child.
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you yet. I do know you’re not going to have some fireman’s kid; that’s for sure.”
“Marcus, hold on.”
“The only children you’re ever going to have, if I allow it, are mine! And you’re coming back to Devon with me, whether you like it or not. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“Marcus, I don’t want to go back with you.”
He stills, giving me a most offended look. “Pardon me?”
“I left, remember? You hurt me, you threatened me, and I left. I don’t know what wasn’t clear about that. I am not coming back.”
“Pretty bold, considering the position you’re in right now,” he says with a dry chuckle.
“We’re going to be married, Olivia. We’re going to have babies of our own.
We’re going to build a family. And we’re going to be the king and queen of this fucking world.
Devon is just the beginning. I’m close to locking in new, bigger deals.
They might even consider me for a state senate run because I’m a former sheriff and so well respected within the community. Campaign funding won’t be a problem.
“Stick with me, honey, and we’re gonna rule the world. You’ll be by my side,” he adds with what I can only describe as a delusional man’s grin. “My wife, the mother of my children, my partner in crime. You’re already my partner in crime, remember?”
“I don’t care if I end up in jail for what I did to support you in the past. I’m never doing any of that again.”
“Let me put it in simpler terms that you can understand,” he replies.
“Eat, drink, get comfortable. I need to settle a few scores before I take you back home to Devon, where we both belong. You are mine, Olivia. You’ve had your fun, maybe a little too much of it, but you’ll spend the next few years paying for your transgressions, I assure you.
Now, it’s time to get back to business as usual. ”
“Marcus, please, what are you going to do?”
He scoffs and opens the door. “Get used to your new reality. It’s for your own good.”
As soon as he leaves and I hear the key turn in the lock, I collapse on the edge of the bed and burst into what seems like an endless stream of tears.
Understanding that he’s been playing the long game this whole time, that he deliberately let me believe that happiness was just within my reach, only makes Marcus an even bigger monster than I thought.
It also adds fuel to my inner fire, the kind of fuel I didn’t think I had. He’s hell-bent on destroying my life, ending my pregnancy. And if I keep fighting him on it, he will kill me.
Because if Marcus Bennett can’t have me, nobody can.
Thoughts of Dax, Leo, and Beck flash before my eyes: our greatest hits, the love, laughter, and pillow talks that went into the wee hours of the morning.
I think of our moments with Luke, with Melinda and the diner, with Carlos.
My heart breaks because there is a real possibility that I may never see them again.
Unless I fight like hell.