Olivia
Chapter Eleven
Bodhi drops me at the cabin before going out to get whatever it is he is feeding me for dinner. Once I am inside, he drives off, and I go to the bedroom to change.
I gently sit down on the bed, so I don’t irritate the cyst. It’s getting bigger by the day, but I am too scared to find out what’s wrong.
I am hoping that maybe it drains on its own, but it hasn’t yet.
I try not to look at things online because I’ll end up assuming that I’m dying or have pussy cancer.
I just need to get through court on Monday, and I’ll go to the clinic. They cannot legally tell anyone, so I’ll just avoid the drive and stay in town.
I eventually get up and change into pajama pants and a big shirt before going out to my living room. I have my back to the front door, but I don’t turn when I hear it open. “That was fast,” I say.
“Well, well, well. Isn’t this the cutest little cabin?” I hear a man say from behind me. I spin around and find the man I only know as Miguel standing at the door. On the porch, two other men are blocking the entrance.
“Get out of my home!” I shout at him as I back away.
“Look at you, Olivia. You have a backbone when you are away from Jason,” he muses.
“Get the fuck out!” I scream at him.
I turn and sprint to my room, but before I can get the door shut, he kicks it. The door hits me in the head and sends me back on my ass. I try to scramble up, but he is on top of me so fast with a gun pressed against my forehead, between my eyes. “Please don’t kill me. Please,” I cry.
“Understand me when I say I will pull the fucking trigger,” he growls. “If you say my name to that fucking detective, I will blow your goddamn brains out and ship your severed head to your parents. Do you understand me, Olivia?”
“Yes,” I choke out through tears.
“You think Jason has connections?” he asks. “This is my fucking world, and I will be damned if I’m going to let some bitch take me down.”
“I won’t say anything. I swear to God, I won’t,” I cry. “Please…”
“I hear everything, bitch. Remember that,” he says.
I nod rapidly, and he starts to get up. He suddenly aims the gun and fires, and I scream so loudly that my voice breaks.
I quickly fall into a spiral of my sobs coming out like I’m in pain, but I’m numb.
My ears are ringing, so everything sounds distant.
I am curled up on the floor, panicking so hard that I cannot breathe. I start to flail and thrash when someone touches me, but they don’t disappear. I am scooped up, and warmth envelops me.
“Shhh. I’ve got you, Liv. Just breathe,” Bodhi whispers as he holds me.
We are lying on the bed, and he has me lying in front of him so I can bury my face in his chest. I am shaking so hard that I am nearly convulsing, so his grip on me never loosens.
After a while, I go silent, and he makes a call.
“Hey, can you come to the house right now… No, I went to get food from the bar for Liv and me. I got back, and you could hear her down the block screaming. The place is fucking trashed, and she was on her bedroom floor screaming… No, there's a goddamn bullet hole in the floor. It was right next to her head, Rhett… No, I grabbed her some clothes and brought her over to the house… We are lying in my bed. She’s shaking like a damn leaf, but she doesn’t seem to be hurt… ”
I hear Rhett say something about Jeramy, and I snap up to shake my head. “No,” I whisper. “No one.”
“No, just you first,” he says. “She is saying no, so I’m sure she has a reason… Alright, man… Bye.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologize,” he says softly. “What happened?”
I relay everything that was said and done. I trust Bodhi to keep quiet until this can be worked out. I know I can’t handle this alone, and I am not going to jail for Jason.
“He was probably looking for my old phone,” I say. “I… So… before I ran, I sent myself all of Jason’s files. He kept a record of everything he had me do. It’s client names, how they paid, what they paid for, how much Jason got, their feedback on me, and referrals…”
“Oh fuck, Liv,” he says. “But it's only on your phone?”
“No,” I say. “I have two backups.”
“Good. That’s good,” he says. “Do you think Jeramy is dirty? He seemed to know an awful lot about what was said, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Unless Rhett or Dan is in on it, it had to have been Jeramy.”
“Shit,” he sighs. “Okay… So, what now?”
“Now… I either risk Jeramy, risk jail, or run,” I say.
“Ah… I might have an option,” he says carefully.
“I’m listneing…”
“A woman I used to fuck semi-regularly works for the FBI…” he says slowly.
“Is she a good agent?” I ask.
“Yeah. She works for sex crimes, so she deals with trafficking,” he says. “If I call, she will automatically think I am wanting to hook up, so I don’t want you to be upset if she’s…”
“Have you seen your dick, Bodhi?” I ask. “Of course she’s hooked on you and your damn diaphragm buster over here.”
“Mhmm,” he laughs. “Are you okay with that, though?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Just a warning, I am about to call you my girlfriend because I want very clear boundaries with her,” he says. “She's not predatory, but I don’t want any room for assumptions.”
“Okay,” I laugh. He sighs and looks through his phone until he finds a contact named Marcy ‘Lover.’
“Hey, lover,” she says cheerfully. “It’s been a while, eh?”
“Hey, Marcy,” Bodhi says simply. “Look, are you in town?”
“I am. Wanna come to my hotel?” she asks, getting right to the point.
“I’m actually sitting here with my girlfriend. I needed to ask you for a favor, with you being with the FBI,” he says.
“Oh fuck. I’m so sorry, Bodhi. That was so slutty of me,” she says with a nervous laugh. “It’s been hectic. I could come to you. Or maybe I can talk to her if she wants. Or…”
“Slow down. You’re okay,” Bodhi says, laughing. “I’m going to give you some very weird instructions, but I need you to just humor me to avoid us getting followed.”
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s hear it,” she says.
“Go to Daisy’s and sit in the back left booth. We will come in and sit somewhere, but we are going to give Daisy a note with an address on it to give to you. Leave when you get it, and we will meet you there.”
“Okay,” she says. “Should I bring my boss?”
“Yes,” he says. “I am absolutely serious, Marcy. Don’t even look at me. There is a very real possibility that we could be followed. Okay?”
“I’ve got you,” she says. “Be careful.”
“You too,” he says before ending the call.
“What about Rhett?” I ask.
“We are going to go over to the cabin and talk about going out to get ice cream,” he says. “Get what you need to go, but try to act normally.”
“Do you think they put a camera in there?” I ask.
“There might have already been one,” he says. “How else would he know when to show up? It’s rare that you are over there and I am not at least here. Oh, and also, pretend that you told me someone broke in when you weren’t there, but nothing is missing.”
“That’s true,” I sigh. “Okay…”
We get dressed and go outside to walk around to the cabin. I casually walk inside and pay no attention to the mess. Right away, I know that my old phone is gone, and my new disposable is in a completely different spot. That tells me he fucked with it.
I find my shoes and put them on before I come out. “Ready to get ice cream?” Bodhi asks. “I think Rhett might come with.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I sigh.
“At least nothing is missing,” he says. “I can’t imagine it matters when they broke everything.”
“Yeah. It's not a big deal. Just annoying,” I say. “I’ll get the place cleaned up, and we can change the locks.”
“Yeah, that would be good,” he says as we walk out of the cabin. Rhett is getting out of his car, and Bodhi gives him a look that instantly relaxes Rhett. “Hey, man. Ready for some ice cream?”
“Let’s do it,” Rhett says with a smile.
“This is an ‘I’m sorry a crackhead broke into your home,’ ice cream,” he tells Rhett.
“Oh, but of course,” Rhett laughs.
We get into Bodhi’s truck, and we stay silent as we drive.
When we get a few miles from the cabin, I open my window and throw my disposable phone out.
“Are we good?” Rhett asks quietly. I put a finger up to tell him to hold on as I search my purse.
When I don’t find anything out of the ordinary, I drop it to the ground and sigh.
“Yeah,” I say.
“We are going to the diner to get a message to Marcy through Daisy,” Bodhi says.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” he says. “Wait… We don’t trust Jeramy?”
“No,” I say. Bodhi explains everything that I told him, and Rhett looks shaken.
“Jesus, Liv. This is serious.”
“Yeah,” I say. “So I need to do something… They’re hoping I just go to jail to avoid getting hurt, but I am not going to jail.”
“What about Dad?” Rhett asks.
“Honestly,” I say. “I love your dad, but for his safety, it might be best to just talk to Marcy first.”
“Yeah. I think he’d understand that, too. He’s got Jeramy breathing down his neck right now, so it would be risky.” Rhett says. “I don’t really like Jeramy. Not after how accusatory he was with you.”
“And he said the shit about deciding if my pride or safety was worth more to me,” I say. “I’ve never gotten a good vibe from him.”
I am mostly silent for the remainder of the drive and once we get seated at the diner. We order milkshakes as normal, but Daisy is looking at us like we are crazy for grabbing menus. “Anything else, guys?” she asks us.
“Nope. Thanks, Daisy,” Bodhi says, setting our menus on her tray.
She nods and just walks away to go behind the counter.
As she is sorting the menus back out, she stops for a second, but then continues what she is doing.
A few minutes later, she goes to the back right table and starts chatting with an absolutely gorgeous woman.
She is thin and just… not me. That is instantly like a gut punch, because why the fuck was he over there jerking off to me and not her?
Unless…
What if it’s Bodhi?