Chapter 10
TEN
Izan eased the car door closed. Through the window, Olivia gave him a look that very clearly said Save me, but there wasn’t much more he could do.
He rounded the front end of Nicola Tazwell’s car and got in the driver’s seat.
Because Olivia had insisted he be the one to drive them home rather than her mom.
Ainsley was going to pick him up and bring him back to his car, in the parking lot of the hospital, since her shift ended shortly.
He pulled out, which meant he needed to look over his shoulder. Which meant he could glance back at Olivia. “Doing okay?”
He’d asked that question about thirty times, and she’d answered the same way each time.
“Fine.”
Nicola reached forward and squeezed his shoulder. “She’ll be just fine once she gets home. You should come in…have a drink with us. I’m sure Olivia will want to rest, but we can grill some steaks and get to know each other.”
Izan didn’t reply right away. He needed to think so he didn’t insult her or make a promise he would regret. “I’m probably as tired as Olivia since I worked last night. With everything that happened today, I didn’t have a chance to rest myself.”
Olivia picked up right where he left off. “Sounds like we all need an early night. After all, I might be on medical leave for a couple of days, but there are dangerous men out there that need to be found. There has to be something I can do to help.”
“Sounds exciting,” Nicola said. “Maybe I’ll call the girls and we’ll go out searching. Find us a dangerous man.”
Olivia let out an exasperated sound. “Leave it to the police. You could get hurt.”
Izan pulled onto their street. The apartment complex was at the end, the same one where he’d nearly been blown up a few weeks ago.
Amelia had dragged him out, then gone back for Zoe.
Seemed like forever ago, but it wasn’t that long.
He’d had no idea at the time that it was where Olivia lived with her mother.
Olivia told him where to park, sounding exhausted but grateful.
He wanted to offer to carry her inside, but her mom would probably request the same treatment.
She’d been doing things like that since she’d shown up, but Izan tried to treat her like any civilian at a fire scene.
Respectful, polite, and aloof—because he had a job to do.
He came around and opened the door for Olivia, holding out his hand. She took his hand and straightened out of the car. He heard a whispered “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Having a second they could whisper to each other made him want to do it more. A lot more.
But her mother came over and broke the moment. “Izan!” She flung her arms around him, catching Olivia up in the hug as well. Pressing them both against him. “Hate to love you and leave you, but this one needs to get to bed.”
She wound her arm through Olivia’s and tugged her away, taking the car keys with her. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Yeah, not having her drive had been a good call.
He wondered if Olivia had ever called a unit to pull over her mom for a DUI.
Given how much it had taken for her to tell him about her mother, he figured she likely hadn’t.
Or she’d done it anonymously so no one knew it was Olivia who had called cops on her mom.
His sister pulled into the complex.
Izan slid into the passenger seat and, before he’d even buckled his seat belt, said, “Why does she still live with her?”
Ainsley twisted around to look at him. “Want to start at the beginning with that one?”
“Sorry.” He ran both hands down his face and gave her the abbreviated version of what Olivia had told him about growing up with Nicola as a mother. “She’s been neglected her whole life, always taking care of herself. Now she’s an adult. She’s a cop. Why does she still live with her mother?”
Ainsley pulled out of the complex. “Codependency?”
Izan didn’t want to think of it like that.
“Olivia figures her mom will be safe if she’s there to take care of her. Plus, she feels a little responsible for her.”
“So it’s about protecting her mom from herself and protecting everyone else from her?”
“Isn’t that what you do? Protect the town from fire. Save lives with your medical skills,” Ainsley said. “We all deal in our own way with where we’ve come from.”
“I said something similar to her,” Izan said. “But that was before I knew she still lives with her mother.”
“Is it a deal-breaker?”
He didn’t know the answer to that.
Ainsley said, “You’re tangled up with a cartel. Maybe that’s a deal-breaker for her.”
“I’m not tangled up—”
She cut him off. “I know that, but I’m making a point.
You have things you don’t want people to know about who you are and where you came from.
You’ve never brought anyone home to meet your family.
Maybe she’s just doing the exact same thing.
Keeping her personal life private because she doesn’t want to be judged.
Or she was judged so many times, she keeps it on the down-low these days. ”
“If she’d agreed to go out with me, we could’ve talked through all these things.”
“Would you have brought up the Sosas?”
Izan said, “Probably not. But is it wrong to want to be who you are now, not who you used to be?”
“So you’ve left that life behind?”
“I’m not sure it’s left me behind. But yeah. Diego is dead, and Alonzo was in jail. The empire had been torn down, and even if someone is taking up leadership of the cartel, trying to rebuild things, it doesn’t have anything to do with me. Until they decide it does.”
“Easier to keep people at arm’s length. It’s why I became a nurse.
So I could use what Mom and Dad taught us about always taking care of the little kids and making sure everyone was okay.
But at the end of the day, I get to go home.
They’re my patients. They aren’t part of my personal life and they shouldn’t be.
But I have to be careful I don’t protect myself so much that I end up alone. ”
Izan needed a change of subject. “How are they?”
“Ewan and Blair’s basketball team won the state championship. Archie just finished school for Christmas break, and he’s working at that chicken place again until he goes back to campus. Caitlin thinks her boyfriend is going to propose on New Year’s Eve.”
“Thanks.” At least one of them was keeping up with family business.
“They’re all going to be at the church tomorrow night, helping put up the decorations for Christmas. If you’re not working, you could come and help.”
He nodded but didn’t commit to anything.
“And Junior is coming to Sunday dinner this weekend.”
He whipped around to look at her. “What? You just met today!”
She grinned. “Not today. We’ve been dating for a month.”
“A month. Wow. It’s serious.”
She slapped his arm. “I’m bringing him dinner tonight.”
Izan wanted to laugh. “He’s got stitches in his shoulder, so at least there’s not much trouble you can get up to.” He didn’t even want to think about that. His sisters and romance? Not something he wanted to go near.
“You should bring Olivia with you on Sunday.”
He coughed. “Not sure either of us is ready for that.”
“Plus, there are criminals on the loose in your house.”
He heard the edge in her tone and said, “It worked out. Olivia was there.”
“He could’ve killed you.” Her tone flattened.
“I heard what happened when Olivia was telling those other cops. You nearly died.” She turned into the hospital parking lot, bumping up the curb before she came to a stop in a space not far from where he’d parked.
“Are you really going to stay at your house? He could come back.”
Izan had to admit he wasn’t looking forward to going back there. “I’ll get some things and go sleep at the firehouse.”
“Okay.” She relaxed a fraction, but not much. She was worried about him.
“I’ll be all right.”
“That man could come back.”
Izan tugged his sister over and gave her a side hug, kissing her forehead. “I promise I’ll be careful, and I’ll get somewhere safe.”
The cops would be watching his house now that Sosa had shown up there. But he figured that meant the escaped convict wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. Maybe never.
Fine by me.
“Invite her to Sunday dinner.”
He chuckled as he climbed out of the car, then drove home and packed a bag. True to his word, he locked up the house and went to Eastside, where the shift on duty were eating dinner. Someone had left a Bible open on the table to the pages in Luke that detailed the Savior’s birth.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
He had to remember that God wanted to influence his life. God wanted to bring peace and favor to the journey he was on. Not just at Christmas, but all the time. Izan had spent so long trying to save other people, he’d forgotten that he was the one who needed saving.
It wasn’t his job to save Olivia.
He knew what he wanted—and it wasn’t that.