by Parker, Ali
Will vouched for me and told him that I was okay. I’d always thought that in those few hours beside that pond, Will had seen and recognized things in me that people who had known me for years—since and after—had never seen.
Rayce had given me a once-over, then he’d simply nodded and declared that I could stay. After that, the three of us had stuck together for years. We fought together, we celebrated together, and during a particularly dark time in our later teenage years, we even fucked together—not one another, but together.
Rayce and Will had been my ride-or-die friends. They were guys I could count on for anything and I knew they felt the same way about me.
Nothing could break that bond between us then, and now I had found out that not even time itself had been able to sever the ties we had formed as children. Walking away from my previous life when I got into school hadn’t been that hard, but walking away from Will and Rayce had been almost as painful as the flaying my heart was currently taking.
When I found out they had graduated from petty thievery and pickpocketing, I hadn’t been surprised. They had always done whatever it took to get by, and Rayce especially had always been determined to rise above his circumstances.
Once or twice over the years, I had reached out to him. I tried to convince him to get out of the game. Will and I had even spoken about what he would do when he got out of the game a few times, but then life had happened, and we lost touch.
It started slowly. It went from not seeing them every day to only calling once a month. Eventually, we weren’t talking at all anymore unless it was someone’s birthday or a holiday. After a year or two of that, even those calls had ended.
I had noticed the gradual decline in our contact, but I hadn’t made an effort to keep in touch more. Everyone’s lives were moving on and they were moving in vastly different directions. I had gotten my degree and started work, Will and Rayce graduated to armed bank robbery.
Slowly but surely, they had become a part of a past that I was ashamed of. Their names became synonymous with my misspent youth and a crew I used to run with but didn’t want to remember anymore.
Fuck. I dropped my hands and stared at Rayce’s name on that piece of paper. How the hell did we get here?
I sat in my office for a couple more minutes, quietly remembering a friend who had also been a protector and a brother to so many, myself included. When I finally got my head back in the present, I gathered my things and switched off my office lights, more than ready to go home.
Walking out of the hospital gave me a more melancholy feeling today than it ordinarily did, even more so when I spotted Will standing beside a cherry red truck. He was wearing sunglasses, even though it wasn’t that bright out anymore.
I nodded at him and he did the same, but we didn’t acknowledge the other in any additional way. It was necessary, and it really wasn’t fucking safe.
Chapter 36
Olive
“Are my eyes deceiving me or are my two best friends really standing there waiting for me?” I planted my hand on my hip and smiled at Valerie and Heidi. I could hardly believe it, but they were standing right there next to my car.
Without waiting for an answer, I gave up on the sassy act and launched myself at them.
Valerie’s arm came around my one side while Heidi’s came around the other. With my arms around their necks, we embraced one another in a group hug that ended in giggles and even a few tears.
The tears were mine, streaming silently down my cheeks as I clung to my friends and thanked whatever it was that had prompted them to come to me. When they released me, they spoke excitedly over each other until Heidi noticed the tears.
“It hasn’t been that long since we last saw you, what’s with the waterworks?” A concerned frown furrowed her brow and her hands came up to wipe the tears from my cheeks. “Olive, honey, what’s wrong?”
Valerie slipped her hand into mine. “Whose ass are we kicking?”
She looked up and down the parking lot outside my office as if she were expecting the perpetrator to be standing there, just waiting for her to kick their ass. I shook my head, smiling through the remaining tears that were making my eyes blur.
“You’re not kicking anyone’s ass. Honestly, nothing is wrong. I’m just so happy to see you guys.”
“We’re happy to see you too.” Heidi took my other hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re done for the day, right? You don’t have to go back inside?”
“No, I’m done. What are you guys doing here?” My voice cracked and another tear escaped.
It had been a long, crappy day. After my lunch with Shane, I’d gone home and taken the rest of Thursday and Friday off as he’d told me to. By the time Monday rolled around, I was more than ready to get back to work.
Taking the time off hadn’t been very good for me. I obsessed over everything that he had said about Rylen and wondered if I’d made a mistake; if maybe I had overreacted after all. My instincts told me that I hadn’t, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I should have given him a chance.
Trusting him for a couple of days or weeks might not have been the end of the world, but then I’d remember how it was a vicious cycle to trust someone who was keeping secrets. I’d come full circle to decide that I had made the right decision. It was exhausting to keep going round and round, especially now that I knew I couldn’t fall back on the rule against getting involved with clients anymore. With that out of the equation, our break-up came down to my own beliefs and moral convictions.
Being back at work and out of my head on Monday had been a blessing. I’d thrown myself into my work and gotten caught up on everything I had missed by early that morning.
Unfortunately, that meant that the renewed vigor to focus only on my job faded and it was only Tuesday. Without all that stuff I had to do to get caught up weighing on my mind, I found it once more constantly returning to thoughts of Rylen.
The crying had finally let up a few days ago, but seeing my friends had brought it back in all of its ugly-cry glory. I hadn’t even told them what had happened yet, but I was finding it difficult to control the tears. So freaking annoying.
“We’re here to take you to dinner,” Heidi said. “Valerie and Fulton flew in this morning. We decided it was about time for a good girls’ night out. I even got to shower for long enough to shave my legs.”
I sniffed and blinked back the tears. I’d done enough crying over Rylen. Plus, I was determined not to let it ruin my night. Who knew when I was going to get the chance to have a girls’ night out with these two again. If Heidi had splurged to shave her legs, I could damn well suck it up and try to have some fun. “Where’s Adam?”
“With the boys.” Valerie grinned. “They’re having guys’ night in while we do girls’ night out.”
“I’m not sure I’m up for a night out.” As much as I wanted to spend time with them, I didn’t think I’d be able to muster the energy for dancing, karaoke, and whatever else they had planned. “Instead, could we do a night in?”
Heidi smiled and gave my hand a final squeeze before releasing it. “Well, girls’ night out won’t be as exciting as it used to be. We thought we could just go to dinner and then follow it up with drinks at your place.”
“I got us a reservation at this new restaurant you’re going to love,” Valerie said. “I also bought stuff for us to mix all the great cocktails when we get back home. Sound good?”
I nodded, feeling a smile creeping onto my lips despite my current mental state. “We just can’t stay up too late, okay? It’s a school night.”
“Every night is a school night for me.” Heidi sighed, but she couldn’t hide the way her eyes softened. “Adam doesn’t care if it’s Saturday or Monday. He still wakes up for his feedings all the same and is ready to play by six in the morning.”
“The joys of motherhood,” Valerie teased, but I heard the longing in her words. For a girl who’d always insisted that she would never have children, she was broody as hell. “As for it b
eing a school night, I have work tomorrow too. We can all feel sorry for ourselves together if we don’t get enough sleep.”
“Deal.” Heidi grinned and tilted her head in the direction of her car. “Let’s go. I’m starving.”
Heidi drove to a restaurant at a beach I hadn’t yet been to, chatting to Valerie about day-to-day life with a baby on the way there. Both of them were giving me space before the inevitable inquisition started, and I was grateful for it.
Instead of fretting about what I would say and how I would answer their questions, I took the time on the drive to take a good look at my friends. I had always felt like it was my responsibility to make sure they were okay, and since I hadn’t seen them for a few weeks, I needed to reassure myself of their well-being before I focused on my own issues. Old habits die hard.
Heidi was still glowing. I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to wear off. She and Will had hit a rough patch just after she found out she was pregnant, but after they made up, the glow had settled in for the long haul.
She was dressed casually in jeans and a black tank top, her green eyes sparkling every time I saw her glance at me in rearview mirror. The pregnancy bump had subsided, and I figured she would be hated in any new-mommy circles, because she looked just the same as she had before she had fallen pregnant. I even remembered those jeans, they weren’t new.
The only outward difference between the girl in the car with me now and who she used to be was the serenity in her eyes and the engagement ring on her left hand. Everything about her seemed less poised-to-take-off and more settled and at peace. It was in every move that she made and every word that she spoke.
The same thing could be said for Valerie. She was still herself in every way that counted, but she’d found her purpose in life and it showed. She was just more … put together.
Her clothes were sleeker and more sophisticated, her hair and eyes shone like the stars. There was a quiet confidence about her that was different to the brash, borderline arrogant confidence that she used to have.
When we arrived at the restaurant, I had concluded my assessment and satisfied myself that both of my friends really were okay. They were better than okay, actually. They were better than they’d ever been before—since I could remember, anyway.
The beach that the restaurant bordered on was rockier than the others I’d been to since arriving in Florida, but with the gentle ripple of the waves, the white sand, and the setting sun, I couldn’t think of a more beautiful setting.
We were seated at a table beside a wall made entirely of glass and set near the back corner of the dining area. Privacy was offered by potted plants and low jazz music, but I knew it was more the illusion of privacy than actual privacy.
The restaurant wasn’t overly fancy. It wasn’t the kind of place that had a dress code or anything, but it was nice and the smells coming out of the kitchen were delicious. It was clearly a popular place, too, considering how fast the room was filling up.
When we had ordered our drinks and food, the inquisition I had been expecting finally began. Heidi and Valerie both turned to face me as if they had predetermined the exact time they were going to do it.
“Okay, Olive. We’ve given you time to worry about us and go through all your processes, now spill. What’s going on?”
I toyed with the napkin on my lap, my eyes fluttering closed to brace against the pain I knew would be coming with my admission. “Rylen and I broke up. He was hiding something from me, and you know how I feel about that.”
Opening my eyes just in time to see them exchange a glance, I frowned. “What?”
Valerie cleared her throat and inched forward in her seat. “Okay, so it is truth time then. We suspected as much.”
“What?” I knew I had already asked that question, but I was just so damn confused.
Heidi sighed, her gaze flickering out of the window before it met mine. There was a burning intensity in their emerald depths that I couldn’t remember having seen from her before.
“We guessed that something had happened between you two,” she said. “Will saw Rylen at the hospital yesterday and he said the guy looked like shit. I thought you were just busy at work and that’s why I hadn’t heard from you, but then I checked with Val, and she said she hadn’t spoken to you either.”
“We’ve both tried calling,” Valerie said. “You never called either of us back.”
I hadn’t really thought about it before, but they were right. Heaps of missed calls had gone unanswered since it happened. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a little preoccupied lately. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”
“We always worry about you,” Heidi said, smiling softly. “You don’t have the market cornered on worrying about your friends. Anyway, after Valerie and I talked, she decided it was time to come out for a visit.”
“Fulton had some stuff to get done in Florida too,” Valerie added, but there was a sudden vagueness in her tone that struck me as strange.
But that wasn’t the only thing that had struck me as strange since this conversation had started. “Wait, did you say Will saw Rylen at the hospital?”
Heidi nodded. “That’s why we said that it’s truth time now, because we’re going to tell you everything tonight. If you want to hear it.”
I frowned, still not really understanding what they were talking about. “Okay?”
“Rylen and Will were friends growing up,” Heidi started. Valerie reached for my hand under the table and laced her fingers through mine in a silent show of support, but she didn’t interrupt Heidi. “Like, real good friends. From the sounds of it, they were even closer than we were as kids.”
“I doubt that.” Valerie chuckled, but then nodded at Heidi to continue.
She took a deep breath, and then spun the last tale I ever thought I would hear outside of a book or movie. It was so bizarre, but I knew that it was true because of who it was coming from.
“You already know that there’s some dark stuff in Will’s past, but what you don’t know is that there was a time that Rylen used to run with Will’s crew too. He got out before things got really hairy, but he’s loyal to them and he still loves them.”
She told me about how Will and Rylen had grown up with a third boy, Rayce Phillips. Rayce was older than them and had always taken on the role as their big brother. He was not only fiercely protective of them, but he also felt like it was his responsibility to take care of them.
In a way, hearing about him made me think a lot about myself and how I felt about my friends. When Heidi got to the part about Will and Rayce having been responsible for the slew of bank robberies that had rocked the city last year, I full-on gaped. Thinking back to those days, though, a lot of things I hadn’t understood about Heidi and Will started to make sense.
“Anyway, Rayce was arrested for the robberies and took the fall for himself and for Will,” Heidi said. “His guilt was tearing him up inside, so one day he came up with a plan to get Rayce out of prison.”
My jaw loosened again and my eyes grew so wide it felt like they were about to fall out of my head. “Will broke his friend out of prison?”
“Wouldn’t you have done the same for us?” Valerie asked. The question wasn’t phrased in a way that presupposed an answer, but it did make me realize that I would have. I would have gone to the ends of the earth and then to the moon and back if it meant helping one of those two.
“Yeah, I would have.”
Heidi nodded, her shoulders lifting in a shrug. “That was my answer, too, when Will told me about the plan. He couldn’t let Rayce rot in prison.”
I nodded slowly, pain threading into my very soul at the thought of it being Valerie or Heidi sitting in a cell—no matter what they had done to be put in there. “I get that, but what does any of this have to do with Rylen?”
Valerie answered my question. “They needed a doctor to help them fake Rayce’s death. That’s where Rylen came in.”
Both of them were quiet for a few minutes after
that, allowing me to put all the pieces together in my brain. “Oh my God. That’s why he went to see the lawyer. This is what he was hiding from me.”
They nodded in unison while my body went numb. Holy crap. Of course he would have to hide something like this from me. He really had been protecting me—in a big way. And at the same time, he was protecting his childhood friends, too, could I really blame him for that?
Chapter 37
Rylen
My fists clenched at my sides and my teeth clamped together when I heard the knock at my front door. Being defensive wasn’t going to help me if it was the police outside, but it was an instinctive response to the possible threat.
Breathing in deep a few times to get control over it, I headed to the door and yanked it open. For a fraction of a second, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
Relief flooded my veins when I realized it wasn’t the police here to arrest me, but Olive standing on my doorstep. Her lips curled into a tentative smile when she saw me, her hand raised as if she had been about to knock again.
“Olive? What are you doing here?” My fingers uncurled from my palms, but now I had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her—even if only to make sure that I wasn’t imagining things. I didn’t think poking her would go down well, though, so I refrained.
Her hand dropped and she took a small step forward. “I came by to talk, if you’ve got time. If you don’t, I can come back.”
I blinked, still not entirely sure that I wasn’t dreaming. Thankfully, my feet shuffled themselves away from the door and I found myself motioning her in despite my disbelief.
“No, I’ve got time. Please, come on in.”
She followed me inside, shifting her weight on her feet as I closed the door behind her. Autopilot mode cut out, causing shock to root me to the spot. “This is a surprise. I was pretty damn sure I’d never see you in my house again.”
“I hope it’s okay that I came here.” The smile slowly slid from her face and was replaced with a nervous frown. “If you don’t want me here, I can go. I have no business showing up at your house after everything.”
