Chapter 24 Karl
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Karl
What is going on?
Why is Olivia sobbing?
Now isn’t the time to ask. I just need to get her home.
I get the door for her and guide her inside, wondering when the right moment will come along for me to find out the truth.
“Sit,” I tell her, pointing at the couch.
And she doesn’t argue. Just drops down, curls in on herself, trying to disappear.
I grab the softest blanket I can find and wrap it around her. She sinks into it, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear she sighed in relief.
“You want tea? Water?” I ask.
She shakes her head, eyes glued to the floor.
I crouch in front of her because standing over her feels wrong. She looks up at me for half a second, and damn, there’s something in her eyes that twists me up. Gratitude. Fear. Maybe both.
“Okay,” I say softly, making a promise. “You don’t have to talk. Just… sit. Rest. I’ve got you.”
She’s still shaking, but not from the cold. I can tell. The fire’s crackling, the blanket’s warm, and yet she’s wound so tight she might snap in half.
I hate seeing her like this. Olivia’s the kind of woman who walks into a room and makes it hers without even trying. Always in control, always five steps ahead. But right now? She looks breakable. And I don’t like it.
I sink onto the floor in front of the couch, close enough that if she needs me, I’m right there. Not touching her yet. Just waiting.
Her eyes flick to mine, then away. Her fingers twist in the edge of the blanket as if it’s the only thing tethering her to the ground. For a long minute, the only sound is the fire popping and the clock ticking on the wall.
Then, soft, hoarse, “It’s Richard.”
I freeze. Richard. Of course, it’s Richard. The name hits as a sucker punch, and I don’t even know why. I’ve always thought he was bad news, but hearing his name come out of her like that… like it physically hurts her? That’s a whole different level.
“What about him?”
Her throat works as she swallows. “He contacted me again. Asked me to come back, made me feel like shit…”
I feel something hot burn through me, fast and sharp. Rage, yeah, but under that? Something else, more, I’ve been pretending wasn’t there.
I want to tell her he’s an idiot. That nobody owns her. That if he so much as breathes wrong near her again, I’ll put him in the damn ground. But I keep it together. Barely.
Instead, I reach up, real slow, and brush the tears from her cheek with my thumb. Her breath hitches, and for a second, it’s just us. The world outside, Richard, all of it… gone.
“Olivia,” I say, low and rough. “You’re here. You have your coffee truck now. You have a life.”
Her eyes meet mine then, and damn. I’ve seen a lot in these eyes over the last few days—fire, sarcasm, steel. But never this. Vulnerability. Fear. And something else flickering under the surface. Maybe she wants to believe me.
“I don’t feel like me anymore,” she whispers. “Every time he texts me, I feel… small. Like I’m right back there. And I hate it. I hate that he still has that power over me.”
I don’t think. I just moved up onto the couch, right next to her. My arm slides around her shoulders, pulling her in. She doesn’t resist. If anything, she melts into me.
“You’re not small,” I tell her, fierce now, because if I don’t get this out, I’ll explode. “You’re the strongest damn person I know. Richard’s nothing. Less than nothing. He can’t touch you. Not while I’m here.”
She lets out a shaky laugh against my chest, and it does something to me. Something I don’t want to name, because once I do, I can’t take it back.
But the truth is already here, whether I admit it or not. I care about her. More than I should. More than I ever planned to.
And when she tilts her head, looks up at me with those tear-streaked cheeks and eyes so full of pain and trust, it damn near undoes me, I know. I’m in trouble.
Because no matter what I said before, no matter how many times I told myself to keep it light, keep it fun… I like her. Hell, I think I like her more than anyone else ever has before.
And that scares the crap out of me.
Her breathing evens out after a while, soft and steady against my chest. I don’t even realize how tightly I’ve been holding her until the tension in my arms finally eases. She’s out. Exhausted.
I should move. Let her lie down properly, maybe grab a pillow, make myself scarce. That’d be the smart thing. The decent thing.
But I don’t.
Instead, I sit there, watching the firelight flicker across her face, and for the first time in a long time, I feel… still. No need to move, no need to talk. Just this. Her, warm against me, safe.
She looks different in this way. Softer. All that sharpness, that armor she wears so well… it’s gone.
Before I can stop myself, my fingers lift, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. And then… I don’t stop. I let my hand trail gently through her hair in careful strokes. I’m afraid she’ll wake up and catch me.
I’m so caught up in her, this quiet, impossible moment, that I don’t even hear the door until it clicks shut behind me.
“What the hell?”
Leo’s voice slices through the silence, and I jerk my head up so fast it makes my neck snap. He’s standing there in the doorway, snow still clinging to his boots, two takeout cups in hand, steam curling up from both.
My stomach drops.
“Leo,” I say, carefully standing up, as if I can block his view of her. Not that it matters. He’s already seen.
His eyes cut from me to Olivia, curled up in my blanket on the couch, then back to me. There’s something hard there, something I don’t like.
“What is happening here?” He places his coffee on the counter. “With…”
He nods toward Liv, which makes my blood boil. “She is still staying here now, Leo. I know you don’t like that, but you can’t change it.”
He rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”
I curl my hands into fists. “She’s having a hard time at the moment…”
“With her boss, I know.”
That makes me pause, mid-breath. “How the hell do you know that?”
Leo’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t look away. “She told me.”
“She told you?” I repeat, slow, making sure I heard right. “Since when do you two talk about anything?”
His laugh is sharp, humorless. “Since about an hour ago, apparently.”
The way he says it, too quick, too defensive, sets every alarm bell in my head screaming. I take a step toward him, lowering my voice so it doesn’t wake her.
“What happened, Leo?”
“Nothing,” he snaps back, but his eyes flicker, just for a second, and it’s all I need.
I push closer, fury burning through my veins. “Don’t you lie to me.”
He exhales hard through his nose, trying to keep control, but then he mutters, almost like he can’t stop the words from spilling out, “You wouldn’t get it, Karl. You don’t—”
“Don’t what?” I demand.
His eyes cut toward Olivia, then back to me. And then he says it.
“We spent some time together today. When she finished work, she—” He swallows, scrubbing a hand over his face as if that might erase the words. “It just… happened.”
For a second, the world tilts on its damn axis. I stare at him, and all I hear is the crackle of the fire and my own pulse pounding in my ears.
It?
“You’re telling me…” I’m shaking with fury. “You slept with her. Today.”
He flinches, and that’s all the confirmation I need.
Something inside me detonates.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I roar, the sound so sharp that Olivia stirs a little on the couch. I freeze until she settles again, then round on him, low but lethal. “You knew about me and her–”
“But you told me you didn’t care.” He throws his hands in the air in frustration. “That it was just a one-time thing, one date. That you were just trying to help.”
Fuck.
I did say that.
But that doesn’t make it right.
“You knew that was bullshit,” I grind out. “You knew, Leo.”
His jaw ticks. “I knew what you told me. Nothing more. Right now, I know you’re playing the hero, like you always do. Swooping in to save the day, making her think you’re some saint.”
I take a step closer, chest heaving, and for the first time in my life, I want to put my cousin through a wall. “Say that again.”
He doesn’t back down. “You think you’re better than me? You think you’re the guy who gets to fix her, Karl? Newsflash, you’re not. You’re not her knight in shining armor. You’re just… convenient.”
The words hit hard, but I don’t show it. Can’t. “Convenient? Is that what you call what you did? Crawling into her bed when she’s broken?”
His face darkens. “Don’t you dare make this about that. You don’t know what she wanted. You weren’t there.”
I lunge before I can stop myself. My fist bunches in the front of his jacket, slamming him against the wall so hard the coffee cups rattle on the counter. His breath whooshes out, but I don’t care. All I see is red.
“She’s not a game, Leo. Not a notch on your belt. You don’t get to screw with her life because you’re bored.”
He glares at me, eyes burning, and then he does the one thing that makes me lose it completely. “You didn’t want her. I do.”
I don’t even think. My fist connects with his jaw so hard it echoes in the damn room. He stumbles, grabs the edge of the counter to keep from falling, blood already slicking his lip.
“Jeez, Karl….” He spits red onto the floor and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “You really want to do this? Over her?”
“Over her?” I’m shaking, hands curling into fists again. “Don’t you ever say it like that. Not about Olivia.”
There’s a slight sound behind us. Soft. Barely there. But it freezes me in place.
I turn.
Olivia’s awake.
She’s sitting up on the couch, blanket sliding off her shoulders, eyes wide and glassy. She looks between us, at me, at Leo, and the confusion on her face is a knife to the gut.
“What… what’s going on?”
Her voice slices through me, quiet but loaded, and suddenly I wish I’d kept my damn mouth shut ten minutes ago. Leo straightens, wiping the blood from his lip, but I see the flicker of something in his eyes. Guilt. Or maybe pride. I can’t tell, and it makes me want to hit him again.
“Liv,” I start, moving toward her, but she flinches back as if I’ve just grown fangs. That hurts worse than the punch I just threw.
“You…” Her gaze ricochets between us, trying to piece it together. The bruised jaw. The look on my face. “You were fighting. Because of me?”
Neither of us answers. That’s an answer enough.
Her face crumples.
“Oh damn, my life here is chaos,” she whispers.
Then she’s up, blanket hitting the floor in a heap, her socked feet silent on the hardwood as she storms down the hall.
“Olivia…”
I take a step, but the slam of her bedroom door cuts me off so hard it’s a gunshot.
The silence after is deafening. Just the fire popping, the clock ticking, and my heart pounding loud as a war drum in my chest.
I turn back to Leo, every muscle in my body screaming for round two, but he’s already grabbing his jacket, his movements clipped and jerky.
“You should thank me,” he mutters, dripping with something I can’t even name. “At least now you know what you are to her.”
My jaw locks so tight it’s a miracle my teeth don’t crack. “Fuck off, Leo.”
He hesitates, but then he just shakes his head, scoffs under his breath, and heads for the door.
The lock clicks behind him, and I’m left standing in a living room that suddenly feels too small, too quiet, too full of everything I don’t want to admit.
I drag a hand over my face and sink on the couch where she sat minutes ago, the blanket still warm from her. I stare at the hallway as if, if I do it long enough, she’ll come back out.
She doesn’t.
And that leaves me scared that my cousin and I might have contributed to her desire to leave Coyote Glen. To return to the job and the boss who had completely crushed her spirit.