CHAPTER TWENTY
Olive stretched and felt the ache in every part of her body. Beside her, Iggy moaned a deep throaty moan that instantly sent heat to all her extremities.
“Good morning,” she smiled, kissing him gently. Gently isn’t what he wanted. He gripped her naked body and rolled her over so that she was lying beneath him. The rumble of his throaty growl made her smile.
“We need to get up,” she said whispering against her lips. Iggy looked at the small clock on the bedside table and frowned.
“I guess we do,” he said standing, pulling her with him. He wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing her neck. “We shower and kill two birds with one stone.”
In spite of her tenderness, her swollen body parts, she wanted it as much as he did. He was sweet and loving, gentle with her body as he made love to her again, gently washing her body as he did.
By the time they left, Olive realized she was going to need a couple of ibuprofen to get through the day.
Walking down the wet path, they were grateful for the rain holding off, at least for now.
When a familiar face stepped out, Olive smiled at Luca and actually kissed his cheek.
He was a young-looking man for his age. Salt and pepper streaks in his dark hair.
His tanned skin showed fine lines around his eyes, a deep crease across his forehead.
“Thank you for that,” smiled Luca. “I just hoped we could talk a bit this morning.”
“Walk with us,” smiled Iggy. “I have something I need to ask you as well.” Luca nodded, smiling at the younger man.
“Olive, I want you to know that I always wanted to find you, to make sure you were safe. When I was offered the job here, I had no idea that you’d been taken from Ida and Milford. I thought they’d moved on when I went back to get you.”
“Wait. You went back to get me?” she frowned.
“I did. When you would have been about ten. I felt like Neela had given up trying to find me. I think she realized that I’d left you somewhere. Although she didn’t know anything about my family, it wouldn’t have been hard. Ida and Milford weren’t close to our family but she could have found them.
“When I arrived at the house it was boarded up. A neighbor said they’d died and that the little girl living there had left years ago. I was able to find out through Bunny that you weren’t with the club, so I knew you were still out there. I never dreamed you’d be here.”
“I understand,” she nodded. “I can see why it would all be so confusing. After leaving Ida and Milford, I had a good life. My time here was unimaginably good. I had plenty of food, clean clothes, people who cared about me and friends. It was a good thing that I’d come here.”
“I know that now but as you can imagine as your father the thoughts in my head weren’t good. I didn’t know about Neela’s husband leaving everything in your name. I swear I didn’t know that. I’m not sure if she lied to him and said that you were his daughter or if he did it to teach her a lesson.”
“Either way, I’m now stuck with the fact that it all belongs to me and that’s why she really wanted me. She never wanted her daughter safely with her. She was going to force me to sign everything over so that she could run with the money,” she said shaking her head.
“What do you want to do about that?’ asked Iggy.
“I have an idea.”
Olive discussed her idea with Ham, Rush, and the others over breakfast. They stopped her several times, asking her questions to be sure she’d thought it all through. When she finally assured them that she knew what she was doing, they all nodded.
“It’s bold as fuck, Olive,” said Ham. “You’ll be safe. We’ll make sure of that but things could still go wrong.”
“First, we have to make sure that they’ll allow this to happen. I need to meet with Jean, Rose, and the others to ensure that this is done legally, or as legal as we can make it.” The others chuckled nodding at her as she stood and left the cafeteria.
“We’ll have to get Neela away from the others,” said Ham. “I’m not sure how we do that.”
“I know how to do that,” said Luca.
The men stared at him and then Iggy shook his head.
“No. She just got you. I won’t allow you to risk your life and risk being killed. Do you understand how painful that would be for Olive?” said Iggy.
“I know,” said Luca. “But if I tell her that I’m desperate, that I need money and I’ll tell her where Olive is, this might work.”
“Fuck I hate that he’s right,” said Rush. He looked around and saw Tanner standing with a few other men. He waved him over. “She would come alone because she doesn’t want the others to know what she has. Tanner? Find a number for Neela. We need to talk.”