Chapter 26
LOGAN
Olivia
Hey. I’m assuming you’re not going to see this until after the game. Call me when you can.
Logan
Just got your message and tried to call, but it went to voicemail. What’s going on?
Olivia . . . Didn’t we just have this conversation?
Answer your damn phone.
—Olivia’s text to Logan
“Hey, man, you good?” Rafe asks as he grabs his bag, already showered and dressed after the win. “Bus is leaving in ten.”
I stare at the phone in my hand, willing her to fucking answer. “I don’t think I am,” I finally tell my brother. “Liv left me a weird message, and now I can’t get hold of her.”
“When did she leave the message?”
I look up at him for the first time and shake my head. “Sorry. What?”
“When did she text? She might have fallen asleep. She probably just wanted to fill you in on how Monica’s visit with Maggie went. Let you know everything was okay.”
“Yeah . . . I don’t know, brother. I feel like it’s something else,” I admit and pull on my suit. Olivia is never cryptic. My girl is about as direct as a woman can be.
“Then call Jasper or Waves. If something is going on, they’ll tell you. Now finish getting fucking dressed, and let’s go. The bus isn’t gonna wait for us, and I want to go home.”
“Yeah . . . Sounds good.” I throw on my shirt and suit coat, grab my bag, and take my phone outside where it’s a little quieter, then dial Jasper. “Hey, man. I can’t get Liv to answer her phone. Everything okay at the ranch?”
“Shit. She’s probably sleeping.” He hesitates, and my fists clench. “Have you talked to her at all?”
“No. Her phone’s going straight to voicemail. What the hell is going on?”
“Listen.” He lowers his voice, and I clench my teeth. “I need you not to freak the fuck out.”
“Wrong answer, Jasper.” I drop my voice, making sure no one is around to hear me. “Where’s my wife? Where’s Maggie?” Then I ask the question that’s burning in my veins, knowing there’s no way I’m going to like the fucking answer. “What happened?”
“Breathe, brother. They’re fine. They’re asleep upstairs. It’s been a rough day. But they’re both going to be okay. Maggie got hurt at the playground. She broke her arm. I took Liv to the hospital, and we brought Mags home. Like I said, she’s okay.”
A fucking siren blares in my head as my blood pumps and fury explodes.
“One fucking afternoon,” I seethe. “Monica couldn’t keep her safe for two goddamned hours?”
“There’s more to it, man. Come home and let Liv fill you in on everything. Pretty sure your lawyer is coming over tomorrow morning.”
Rafe smacks my shoulder and motions toward the bus. “You good?”
Am I good? Fuck no. I’m not going to be good until I lay eyes on Magnolia and Liv.
This better be the fastest flight of my life.
My heart’s in my throat when I finally walk into our bedroom later that night and find Olivia and Maggie in our bed together.
The two most important people in my life, sleeping and wrapped around each other.
Maggie’s tucked against Liv, her casted arm sticking out above the blanket, and my blood boils with a rage like I’ve never fucking known in all my life.
Two hours.
She couldn’t keep her safe for two goddamned hours.
How am I supposed to trust her with her mother if the woman can’t even keep her safe for an afternoon?
“Logan,” Olivia murmurs, and I drop my bag and sit on the edge of the bed, my racing fucking heart finally falling back into rhythm. “What time is it?” She looks around the room, frantic. “Why didn’t you call?”
“Shh, Liv . . . It’s late. I just got home.” I press my lips against hers and just breathe her in until my fury subsides. “I did call, but your phone went straight to voicemail, so I called Jasper. He filled me in.”
“Oh.” She rubs the sleep from her eyes and sits up, careful not to jostle Maggie. “I’m so sorry, Logan. I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. I didn’t know—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Olivia. Jasper said you were amazing today. I’m the one sorry I wasn’t here.
Sorry I let this happen. I should have been here.
” The anger I’ve been battling since before we boarded our flight rises again.
I’ll spend every fucking penny I’ve ever made to keep my daughter safe.
“Never again, Liv. I’ll never let her take her again. ”
“I spoke to Nina. She’s going to dig a little deeper into Monica.
There’s more going on. I’m not sure what.
But nothing about today felt right.” She looks down at Maggie and wipes her eyes as the first tears fall.
“I’m sorry. I know you like her to sleep in her own bed, but I just couldn’t put her down tonight. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
I pull Liv against my chest and rest my chin on her head. “I wouldn’t have been able to either.”
“I was so scared, Logan. When she didn’t show up and then called from the hospital, it was awful.” This woman who constantly keeps everything together for everyone else cries against my chest until there’re no tears left to fall.
And once she’s done, I lay her back down and climb in behind her, wrapping my girls in my arms where I can keep them safe.
Liv and I are outside with Maggie and Posey when Nina comes by the next day, looking as out of sorts as we all feel. She drops her bag to the table and presses both palms on either side of it. “She dropped the case.”
“What?” Liv pops up from where she was sitting on the grass, then steadies herself against my arm. “What do you mean dropped the case? Like dropped it, dropped it? Like surrendering her rights, dropped it?” She moves to Nina faster than I’ve ever seen my girl move before. “Explain.”
“I would if you’d give me a second to breathe, Livvy.
Outside? Really? Have you tried to walk through this grass in heels?
” Nina shakes her head as she cleans her glasses and sits down, mumbling something that sounds an awful lot like, “Of course you have. It’s like I’ve forgotten who I’m talking to. ”
“Nina.” Liv mirrors the stance Nina had moments ago, and any peace she’d found this morning vanishes from her face. “What happened?”
Rita follows a few steps behind Nina, and I drop a hand to Maggie’s curls before asking Rita to take her inside. Maggie doesn’t need to be out here when I plan to destroy her mother.
I join the two women squaring off at the table and fight to keep my anger in check.
No use directing it at our attorney.
Olivia steps into my side and tucks her arm against my chest. “Nina . . .”
“Monica’s attorney called me this morning. The case has been dropped, and she’s decided to surrender her rights.” This sounds like it should be good news, but the tight lines on Nina’s face say otherwise.
“That’s good, isn’t it? Surrendering her rights means she’ll never be able to fight us for custody again, doesn’t it?”
“In theory,” Liv answers. “But she could always come for it later. But that’s not what has you worried, Nina. What is it?”
Nina grabs a folder from her bag and slaps it to the table.
“We checked out Monica’s fiancé at the start of this case, and everything checked out.
Nothing out of the ordinary.” She opens the file and turns it toward us, and there, paper clipped to one side, is a face I know but can’t place.
“But after your call last night, Liv, my guy dug a little deeper . . .”
“Why the hell didn’t he dig deeper two fucking months ago?” I snap, and Nina barely lifts a brow.
“Because he checked out, Logan,” she clips back, her tone even but frigid.
Olivia leans forward, her body tense as she looks down at the file. “What did you find?”
“You were right, Liv. He has a history of domestic violence. Nothing documented with Monica, but charges were filed and dropped by a different woman five years ago.”
I slide the picture from the paperclip and study it. “What did you say his name was?”
“Do you want the one Monica gave us or his legal name?” Her lips tighten, and her body coils like a viper ready to strike, and I think I’ve just gotten a glimpse of the woman Olivia told me about. The assassin in the courtroom.
I push the picture her way. “I want the name of the man who worked at this ranch until he was fired earlier this year.”
“Damien Voss.”
Fuck. “That’s him. What the hell is he doing with Monica?”
“What?” Olivia snaps and grabs the photo. “This is the man from the hospital.”
“Yeah well, Pops fired him at the beginning of the year for dosing the horses with steroids.” I swallow when I realize just what the hell that means.
“Son of a bitch . . . He fired him because I told Pops what I’d seen.
I was looking for Jasper and caught Damien injecting the damn horses.
Triple Crown Ranch has trained some of the best horses in the world.
And we never had to resort to steroids to do it.
So Pops fired him on the spot. And now you’re telling me this son of a bitch is engaged to Monica and just happened to be there when my daughter got hurt? I don’t fucking think so.”
“Logan.” Liv pulls me back to her as I step away. “Stop. There’s more to all of this. I’m telling you, Monica was hysterical when I got there yesterday. She looked scared and heartbroken. Her face was bruised, and the hold he had on her wasn’t normal.”
“No matter how much you may want to, Logan, you can’t act out right now,” Nina tells me, eerily calm. “No matter how much you want to, it won’t do you or Magnolia any good.”
“He hurt my baby girl. What the fucking hell do you want me to do? Stand by and let it happen again?” I roar.
Olivia’s fingers lace through mine as she tilts her face up to me. “No. We make sure it never happens again. You let Nina and I do our jobs.”
“In the meantime, you don’t have to worry about him being anywhere near Magnolia. Not if Monica goes through with dropping the custody suit.”
I close my eyes and blow out a long breath, trying to get my shit together.
“Do you trust me, Logan?” Liv asks so calmly it’s as if she’s more comfortable in the chaos than she is in the calm. Her thumb runs over my temple until I open my eyes.
“With my life, Olivia.” It’s the truth, without question.
“Do you trust me with hers?” she pushes, that damn defiant look back in her eyes.
I wrap my hand around her wrist and press my lips to her palm. “Yeah, Liv, I do.”
“Good.” She pushes up on her toes and kisses my cheek. “Then trust me to do my job.”