by T. K. Leigh
Something had certainly changed in Alexander over the past few weeks that they had been apart. Olivia had never heard him mention wanting kids before. She was excited about the prospect of starting a family with him, but there were still some unresolved issues between them…issues that she had no desire to address at the moment. “How about both?”
“That’s my girl.”
Alexander watched Olivia walk away from the building and into the SUV, his heart racing as her hips swayed in that way that always turned him on. Then he climbed into the backseat of the second SUV.
A few minutes later, he entered the vacant reception area of his company’s headquarters, making his way down the corridor and into his office. Once he was sure the door was locked behind him, he returned to the bathroom and was soon down in the large safe room once more.
He began digging through the boxes again, knowing that he would eventually have to give Olivia some information about her past. He was also secretly hoping that he would find the infamous evidence box. He knew it was a long shot, but maybe it was there and his father never found it.
As he sorted through box after box, he came across items from Olivia’s childhood…and his own. Family photos. Stuffed animals. Toys. Some boxes were full of documents…deeds to various property holdings, bank statements. As he dug through everything, he stumbled upon his father’s handwriting on a piece of paper amongst years’ worth of financial records. Numbers and letters were scratched on several sheets of legal paper. It was obvious that he was onto something, but what was it?
Alexander grabbed the box and brought it to a desk to sort through, on a mission to determine what it was that his father had figured out. None of the records made any sense. All the numbers seemed to run together. He recalled his mother saying that his father had grown rather paranoid during the last few months of his life. Maybe this was just a result of that paranoia. Still, he needed some advice and he knew there was only one person he could turn to.
“Hey, sis. It’s me,” he said into his cell phone. “Are you working today?”
“No. I’m off. I was about to go to the hospital to see how Kiera was doing. Why? What’s up?”
“Think you could swing by my office on the way? There’s something I need to show you.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING about, Simon?!” Donovan shouted into the phone, unable to even believe what he was saying. “You better not be having second thoughts. This whole plan rests on you following through!”
“I just didn’t think anyone would get seriously hurt,” Simon explained. “That bastard raped her. It was horrific.”
“Hey. Buck the fuck up. I hope you’re not getting soft on me now. You wanted to pull the trigger anyway. We’re giving you your goddamn wish. Need I remind you that if you fail, we’ll kill both you and the girl? Either way, the girl will die. It’s just a matter of whether you go down the same path.”
Simon began to shake with apprehension. What else could he do? He was in too deep and the only way to save his own life was to throw Olivia to the proverbial wolves. “I got it. I won’t let you down. I promise.”
Fuming, Donovan slammed his phone,
“Trouble in paradise?” a voice called out, walking into his office.
Donovan looked up. He recognized that voice, but had never actually met the man before. All of their business was conducted solely over the phone. After looking into the man’s cold hard stare, Donovan finally answered, rather confused, “Nothing I can’t handle, sir. This is why you pay me.”
“I understand that, but it seems like your golden boy, Simon, has grown a bit of a heart. Are you sure he’ll follow through when the time comes? Can you be sure the girl will even lead him to those documents?”
“It’s a risk we all have to take. That’s the reason we left that note at her friend’s house…to draw her out, hoping that she’ll come forward in order to prevent further harm to anybody else she’s close to. That is, unless you have a better plan.”
“I pay you to come up with the plan. Now, the second you know where the box is, you better fucking call me.”
“Yes, sir.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“LIVVY, I’M SO GLAD that you’re here,” Mo said when he saw her walk through the sliding glass doors of the hospital and into the waiting area, Carter close behind her.
She made her way over to him and gave him a hug. “Of course. How’s she doing today?”
“Good, actually,” he responded with a hopeful look on his face. “The doctors say the swelling in her brain is going down and if she stays on track, they may be able to bring her out of the coma tomorrow.”
“That’s fantastic news, Mo! Thank god.” Olivia looked around the empty waiting room. “Is anyone else here?”
“Her parents are sitting with her right now.”
“Good.”
“Can I ask you a question?” His eyes narrowed and suddenly became rather serious.
She had a feeling what that question would be, and she wasn’t sure how she should answer it. “Sure, Mo. Anything,” she replied nervously.
Carter took a few steps back, giving the two friends a bit of privacy.
Mo took Olivia’s hand and walked her over to a lounge chair, never releasing his hold on her as they both sat down. “I need to know, Livvy. No one is telling me anything and that leads me to suspect something more than just a physical attack occurred yesterday.”
Olivia stared at him, swallowing hard at what she knew was about to come.
“What did you see when you got to her house yesterday?” he asked with a shaky voice.
She looked down at her hand as Mo ran his fingers over it.
“Please, Livvy. I need to know,” he pleaded with her. “Was she…?”
His voice trailed off and Olivia’s eyes met his. All she could see was Kiera’s lifeless body covered in blood, her skirt hiked up around her waist with more blood trailing down her thighs. She briefly closed her eyes, trying to muster the strength to say the words. He seemed so much stronger than he had been the day before, and telling him may send him back to the dark place he had just returned from.
But if she withheld all that from him, she would be no better than Alexander keeping all those secrets from her, and she knew how badly that hurt. She couldn’t do that to her friend, as well. Making her decision, Olivia slowly opened her eyes, meeting Mo’s gaze.
“Was she?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes. From what I could gather about everything, she was. And when I spoke with Carol yesterday, she had inferred that there was evidence that she was…”
Mo let out a small cry and bowed his head, unable to process what Olivia had just confirmed for him. “No one would be straight with me here because she’s unconscious…” He took several deep breaths. “I’m going to kill that motherfucker.”
“Mo, please. I ran into a friend while I was trying to escape, and it sounded like he did a number on the guy. I’m pretty sure the police have him in custody.”
“No, Livvy,” he said urgently. “They don’t. They never found anyone in the house.”
Olivia’s mind started to race. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Who is this friend?” He eyed her suspiciously.
She looked down at her lap, unsure of whether to tell him about her run-in with Simon.
“Livvy, damn it! Who was it?!” he shouted, standing up and hovering over her as he glared down at her.
Glimpsing to where Carter stood, she hoped that he couldn’t overhear their conversation. “Simon,” she replied quietly, avoiding his gaze.
Mo’s eyes went wide. “Are you fucking crazy, Olivia? After all the shit he did to you?!” He began to pace back and forth, unable to comprehend how a woman as intelligent as Olivia could even think about speaking to Simon again.
“Calm down, Mo,” she pleaded, trying to get him to lower his voice. “He’s one of the good guys. He had me stand outside while he went back into
the house to see if the guy who attacked Kiera was still there. I heard the fight. Then I heard someone fall down the basement stairs. I guess he must not have been as unconscious as Simon originally thought. There is that back door in the basement. He could have escaped that way.”
“Livvy, don’t you think it’s a little strange that you just so happened to run into the same guy who attacked you?”
“No, Mo. I don’t,” Olivia replied loudly, becoming irritated with his questions. Did he not realize that if Simon wasn't there, Kiera may not be alive at all? “He let me use his phone to call the police and he went into that house, when he didn’t have to, in order to make sure it was safe. To make sure I wasn’t attacked again. To help Kiera. He’s one of the good guys. I promise. I’ve spoken to him a few times since he got out of prison and he’s really changed, Mo. He’s turned his life around. I’m not about to jump back into bed with him or anything, but he’s proven to be someone I can count on, especially yesterday. If it wasn’t for him, Kiera may be dead right now.”
Mo’s eyes searched Olivia’s for a clue as to how he should react to what she just told him. He exhaled loudly. “I trust you, Livvy, and if you trust him, then I guess that’s going to have to be good enough for me.”
“I do trust him, Mo. He has yet to lie to me. That’s more than I can say for Alexander.”
“Speaking of which, I saw you leave with him yesterday…” He raised his eyebrows at her. “Are you guys back together?”
Olivia sighed. “I guess so. He wants to talk about everything, but I’m torn. I’m scared to find out how much he’s been keeping from me, but we eventually need to address the elephant in the room, ya’ know?”
He nodded, sitting back down next to her, and wrapped his arms around her.
“But right now, I’m enjoying the hell out of getting laid again.”
Mo laughed, bringing a smile to Olivia’s face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
GUILT
“WHAT IS THIS PLACE, Alex?” Carol asked after being led to an enormous room in Alexander’s office building that she had never seen before.
“It’s a safe room Dad had built years ago for security reasons, I guess.”
“But what is all this stuff?” She gazed around at the piles and piles of boxes stacked on metal racks placed against the walls. It reminded her of the evidence storage locker at work.
“Files, photos, stuff like that.” Alexander shrugged.
“About what?” Carol asked, interested in what her father hid from them during his lifetime.
“Olivia,” he replied, gauging his sister's reaction.
Carol surveyed the room, astonished. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah. I found out about it after I read Dad’s letter. Then I found this today.” He handed her the legal sheet with numbers and letters scratched on it, almost as if written in his own unique code.
She read it, trying to figure out what it could mean. “I don’t understand, Alex.”
“Neither do I. I was hoping that you might be able to shed some light on it.”
“I wish I could help. I really do, but this doesn’t mean anything to me.” She handed the notepad back. “Maybe the answer is somewhere in here.” She motioned to the hundreds upon hundreds of boxes filled with potential clues.
His eyes grew wide at the prospect of having to dig through each box, looking for a needle in the haystack.
Carol noticed his apprehension at the enormity of the project. “Well, I guess we better start digging then.” She grabbed a box off one of the shelves and brought it over to a desk.
He looked at her, disbelief written on his face. “You’re going to help?”
“Of course I am. I’m probably the only person you can actually trust with this shit.”
Alexander shook his head. “You’re right about that.”
“Well, get your ass to work then.” Carol began to sort through the box, wondering if Olivia had mentioned anything about the letter the techs had found at the crime scene.
~~~~~~~~~~
OLIVIA WALKED THROUGH THE bustling hospital corridors before stopping outside of Kiera’s room, taking a deep breath and entering. As she sat by her friend’s side throughout the afternoon, she thought about Alexander and how silly she felt for staying angry at him for so long when he was only trying to protect her. There were people out there who wanted to harm her. Yes, it was painful to know that he kept her identity from her for so long, even when he watched her struggle with her past, but Carol was right. He only ever had her best interests at heart.
She clutched Kiera’s cold hand and stared at her lifeless body, trying to find the words to tell her that everything would be okay, even though she couldn’t hear her. Her eyes welled with tears every time she looked at her swollen head, bandaged from where they had to extract the bullet. “I’m so sorry, Care Bear,” she cried softly. “I never meant for this to happen to you.”
She stayed by her side for what seemed like hours, her thoughts consumed with revenge. As the sky streaked with lightening, a summer thunderstorm rolling in and drenching the city, her cell phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but answered anyway.
“Hey, Olivia. It’s Simon. I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing after everything that happened yesterday.”
“Oh…hi, Simon. I’m glad you called.” She released Kiera’s hand and stood up, walking toward the windows.
“Really?” he asked, noticeably surprised by her response.
“Of course. We’re friends after all, aren’t we?”
He was silent, unsure about how to respond. His guilt started to overwhelm him. At first he wanted Olivia to pay for having him arrested, but things had begun to spin out of control. In the end, he wasn’t so sure he could follow through with what he was supposed to do. “You really want to be friends with me? Even after everything that’s happened?”
“I do, Simon. You’re one of the few people I know who has never lied to me. I could really use someone like that in my life right now.”
He cringed at her words. “How’s Kiera?” he asked after several long, silent moments.
“As good as can be expected.” She turned and walked back to stand next to her friend’s still body. “She was shot in her head, chest, and leg…”
“Bastard…” Simon muttered under his breath.
“I know. They had to induce a coma in order to remove the bullet from her head. Surgery went well and they were able to remove all the bullets and stop the excess bleeding. The swelling in her brain has gone down and they say that they may be able to bring her back from the coma within the next few days, if not sooner.”
“That’s a relief. She’s going to make it then?”
“It appears so.”
“That’s great news.”
Olivia heard her phone beep, indicating she had another call coming in. She ignored it and continued speaking with Simon. “I just want to thank you for everything you did for me yesterday. If you weren’t out for a run when and where you were, I don’t know what would have happened. You saved Kiera’s life. I don’t think I can ever repay you. She was lucky that none of the bullets hit any vital organs.”
“I don’t know if I’d call what happened to her lucky,” he said.
“I know.” She brushed her friend’s forehead. “But she was totally helpless. All that guy needed to do was put one more bullet in her and she’d be dead,” she said with a quiver in her voice just as she heard her phone beep again. She continued to ignore the incoming call.
“Well, I’m glad I was able to help.” He felt incredibly guilty for deceiving her. What was happening to him? Just a few months ago, he was itching to get his revenge. But there was something so different about Olivia. It was as if she was a completely new person than the girl he dated the previous summer. This new Olivia was kind, caring, compassionate…a huge change from the cold-hearted bitch he knew all those months ago. He hated what he had agreed to do to her.
�
��I just wish they were able to catch the guy. Apparently, he got out of the house before the police were able to detain him.”
Simon lowered his voice. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. I’m sure I’ll have to go and give a description of him, especially once Kiera wakes up.”
“Listen, Olivia, talk to Alexander. Make sure he assigns a couple of guys to watch Kiera’s hospital room.”
She scrunched her eyebrows, curious as to why Simon was suddenly more concerned. “Why? She’s in a hospital. I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to try anything here.”
“Libby, I doubt this guy, whoever he is, intended to leave her as a witness. In fact, both of us should probably be careful. We’ve seen his face.” He didn’t know what else Grant and Donovan had planned. The least he could do was warn her. “You remember what I told you a few months ago about those guys who were after you for some reason, don’t you?”
“I know. I already can’t go anywhere without my protection detail. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have one of Alexander’s security people keeping an eye on me. I know he’s just trying to keep me safe and I appreciate it, but sometimes I feel like I have no privacy.”
“Alexander cares about you, that’s all. I’d do the same if you were mine…” His voice became quiet, trailing off.
“Simon, I’m sorry. I wasn’t into the whole relationship thing when I met you.”
“Listen, I should get going,” he said, remorse overwhelming him. He couldn't listen to her voice anymore without breaking down and telling her exactly what was going to happen. And he couldn't do that or he’d end up dead, too.
“Good-bye, Simon, and thank you for everything.”
He hung up, not wanting to feel any more guilt than he already did.
~~~~~~~~~~
“DO YOU THINK SHE’LL be okay?” Alexander asked later that afternoon, breaking the silence that had permeated the storage room. Neither one had been able to figure out their father’s code, nor how it related to the financial statements the papers were found with. “I mean, after walking in on Kiera and seeing…” He trailed off before composing himself. “Will it be enough to know that they were able to catch the guy?”
