Chapter Four #3
Livvy wiped her nose with her sleeve. “I’ve been so careful, but when I was down there, I wasn’t even paying attention. I… It’s too late. We can’t fix this.”
“She’s right,” Liis said. “We’ve been compromised.”
I nodded. “Then it’s settled. We move to mitigation and execute our exit strategy, because we know what’s next, especially after the governor’s press conference. They’ll come in hard and fast.”
“Wait wait wait,” Bodhi said, holding up his hands, palms out. “Exit strategy? You’re leaving?”
“So we… can we tell him?” Livvy asked.
“Tell who what?” Bodhi asked.
Livvy glanced back at him, eyes brimming with new tears. “The truth. About me.”
Bodhi’s brows pulled in.
“Livvy isn’t our nanny,” I said. “Well, she is, technically, but that’s not why she came here.”
By Bodhi’s expression, he was waiting for an admission that we were joking, or for the other shoe to drop.
Livvy took a breath that sounded like it scraped her ribs on the way in. “My name isn’t Livvy,” she said. “It’s Olive. Olive Ollivier. I’m not from Utah, I’m from Illinois, and two and a half years ago, I died.”
Bodhi stared at her. “W-what? What do you mean you died?”
Olive nodded.
Bodhi sat back like someone had pushed him. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s not a joke,” she said.
Liis leaned forward, sliding her hand across the table to point at Bodhi’s phone. “These videos are going to spread.”
Olive continued, guilt dripping from the edges of her voice, “And eventually my family—our family back home—is going to hear about the videos, and they’re going to recognize me.”
“Your family thinks you died?” Bodhi asked, unable to hide his disgust.
“It’s… complicated.” I leaned forward, clasping my hands.
“You know Liis and I are agents with the Bureau. One of the cases we’ve been working for years is an investigation regarding the Carlisis, an organized crime family out of Las Vegas.
My family is heavily involved with them.
My little brother worked for the Carlisis.
Because he already had an in via his wife, who’s from Vegas, he was actually working undercover for the FBI.
He killed their kingpin, Benny Carlisi. Not long after, their family came after mine.
Livvy… Olive… lived next door to my father in Illinois.
She was adopted by a couple named Shane and Liza Ollivier, but she was born in Colorado to Falyn Fairchild, the daughter of Governor William Fairchild. ”
“Wait,” Bodhi said, his mind spinning. “Wasn’t he the guy in the news the other day?”
Liis nodded. “He publicized corruption involving the Carlisis and their associates that cost them millions of dollars. The day of Olive’s death, we thought the Carlisis were coming after us because Benny was murdered.
And… that was part of it, but they saw an opportunity.
The other day wasn’t the first time the governor—Olive’s grandfather—had interrupted their business dealings in Colorado.
We’d all just learned of Olive’s biological family that year.
What we didn’t know until the day of the drive-by was that from a leak from within the Bureau, the Carlisis knew about Olive too.
We thought Olive was struck by a stray bullet, but she was targeted.
They killed one of the Maddoxes to avenge Benny Carlisi, and they killed Olive to send a warning to Governor Fairchild. ”
“You’re Governor Fairchild’s granddaughter?” Bodhi asked Olive. “So, this is… what? Protective custody?”
She nodded, sad. “I’ve never met him, which is why targeting me was just a warning. The real way to hurt the governor was to hurt his daughter, Falyn… my biological mother.”
“Your biological mother?” Bodhi asked.
“She gave me up for adoption when I was a baby. I was raised by Shane and Liza, who live next door to Trenton Maddox, Thomas’s little brother,” she reiterated.
“Whoa,” Bodhi said, dazed. “So… why isn’t she here? Or Shane and Liza? Hiding with you?”
Liis crossed her arms. “It all comes down to funding, really. Bringing Shane and Liza along meant the financial burden of a safe house as opposed to just Olive moving in with us. We barely got the green light to bring her here. Falyn is, as of now, married to Thomas’s other brother, Taylor.
They have two children. The logistics while also having an entire family with young children keep it all quiet was…
complicated to organize in the limited time we had.
Olive had already been shot, and she died at the scene.
It took them nearly fifteen minutes, but they got her heart beating again.
They brought her back, but we had to make a quick decision and get approval from the top. ”
I continued. “It made more sense to put an undercover agent on Falyn to protect her, and to let everyone believe Olive had died and to bring her back to Virginia with us. We bought a bigger house here in Falls Church, changed her name, and after she’d had some time to adjust, enrolled her into Marymount. ”
Bohdi processed it all, and after a full minute, he finally spoke again. “So, you’re telling me your biological family, adopted family, and Thomas’s family think you’re dead, and they’re about to find out you’re not?”
“And we have to leave,” Olive said, her bottom lip trembling.
“Liv… Olive…” Bodhi said, quickly correcting himself. “You… what… w-when?” He was scrambling. Everything was changing too fast, and he was desperately trying to keep up.
“Tonight,” Liis said, her voice uncharacteristically regretful.
Olive grabbed Bodhi and hugged him tight. “I’m sorry.”
He squeezed her for a moment, then held her at arm’s length.
“You… you guys are fucking with me, right? You’re FBI, one of your brothers had an in with the people you were investigating, your other brother is married to a woman who gave…
Olive… up for adoption and whose father also was involved with the Carlisis? You’ve gotta be fucking with me.”
“Like I said, it’s complicated,” I muttered.
“Complicated? The odds of all of that are zero to none.”
A heavy and unforgiving silence followed, and Olive sunk back into herself.
Bodhi stared at Olive, waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he prompted her, this time gentler. “So… it’s true. And you’re… you’re saying you were shot?
Olive nodded. “That scar you’ve asked about isn’t from a car accident.”
I winced. I didn’t need to hear he’d seen her scar.
“You died,” Bodhi said, more of a statement than a question.
“For forty-five minutes,” she answered.
“And they don’t know you survived. All this time you’ve kept it a secret,” he said.
She nodded, sheepish.
His gaze flicked to me, then to Liis. “Her family is going to hate you for this. Your family is going to hate you for this.”
“We know,” I said.
“So, everything I know about you…”
“Is made up,” Olive whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“The details of her past are the only things about her that are false, Bodhi,” Liis said. “Everything you love about her is true.”
Olive stared at Bodhi with desperate eyes, begging for forgiveness, but he didn’t speak.
I offered an explanation he could understand. “If anyone found out, if even one mistake was made, they would’ve come after her. We did this to keep her alive.”
Bodhi swallowed. “You mean the Carlisis.”
I nodded.
“And now they’ll see the basement videos,” he said, voice thin. “Everyone will.”
“Yes,” I said simply.
“The Maddoxes,” he whispered. “The Olliviers. Falyn. You’re leaving, tonight… to go back to them?”
“I’m… not sure yet,” Olive said, looking to me.
“We’re going to move her to an undisclosed location,” Liis said.
“Somewhere in Virginia?” Bodhi asked.
“Undisclosed,” Liis echoed.
I shook my head no.