Southern Comfort

by Madison, Natasha

  “This has nothing to do with you,” one of them says, and I laugh.

  “This has everything to do with me.” I stare at them. “Dominic put me in this fight when he sent people to my motherfucking house and had one point a gun at me. He put me in the middle of this when he tried to blow up my fucking farm.”

  “You aren’t trained,” one of them starts to say, and I laugh.

  “I trained with the SEALS for six months for fun,” I tell them. “I’m going in.” They don’t say anything when Derek comes barging into the room.

  “Holy fuck, you guys,” he says, his eyes big and wide. “I think I found what he’s looking for.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Olivia

  I watch the screen with all the green numbers, and I wonder what the hell just made Derek jump out of his chair and run out to get Casey. When I walked into the room, and he opened the computer, I tried not to groan when he made fun of my screensaver. Then he showed me what looked like a little icon on another page that I didn’t even know how to get to. When he clicked on it, all these numbers poured onto the screen.

  The door opens, and Casey comes running in first, followed by Derek and the agents behind them. He walks over to the screen and sees the numbers. “They are routing codes.”

  “That is what I’m thinking also,” Derek says, sitting down and typing other things.

  “This looks like the number of an account,” Casey says, and I’m in awe at how he just looked at it and knew what it was. Making me ask myself why he hides this side of him. “This is a Cayman account number.”

  “On it.” Derek types it in, and then I hear him say, “Oh my God.”

  “What?” I ask him now, my heart pumping. I don’t know how much more I can handle today.

  “Did you ever go to the Cayman Islands?” he asks, and I shake my head. “Are you sure?”

  “I think I know where I visited and when,” I say and look at Casey. I point at the computers in front of him. “You have something on there that can track my passport. You can check.”

  “Well, according to the documents,” Derek says, “you own twenty offshore accounts.”

  Yup, that is the straw that broke the camel’s back for Casey, and he roars out. “I don’t give a shit that you are Special Forces. I don’t give a fuck that what I say can bite me in the ass. If I find this guy, he isn’t coming out alive.” I gasp, walking over to him. Now it’s me taking his face in my hands and having him look at me.

  “You cannot let him win,” I say, then I look over at the agents. “He’s from the country. He gets riled up easily.”

  Derek laughs. “Yeah, let’s blame the country for him.” He shakes his head. “According to this, you also”—he types more—“have accounts in the Bahamas, Switzerland, and Belize.”

  “I have to sit down,” I say to Casey. He brings me to the chair, sits down, and then pulls me onto his lap.

  “I’m not letting you go,” he says, and if we didn’t have a room full of people, I’d show him how much I’m not letting him go either.

  “How much money are in those accounts?” one of the agents asks, and Casey speaks up.

  “You’ll find that out after my lawyer drafts certain documents saying that this doesn’t touch Olivia, and that anything you find is not on her.”

  “It’s not on me because I didn’t do it,” I tell the room. “Can you check the signatures?”

  “Those can be doctored,” Derek says. “What can’t be doctored is the video surveillance.”

  “Those are only kept for ninety days,” one of the agent says. “Some keep them for seven years, but the majority of them don’t.”

  “There has to be some way,” I start to say, and I don’t miss the look that everyone gives each other. “What?”

  “The only way for that to happen is for you to confront Dominic face-to-face,” Special Agent Duchene says.

  “Oh, I would love to do that,” I tell them. “But he’s in jail.”

  “We can get you in,” an agent says. “You’d be between the glass, and the chances that he will even admit to anything is slim to none.”

  “Not if she tells him that she is going to spend it all,” Derek says, leaning in his chair. “Hear me out. He owes the mob a fuck ton. My guess is that he was banking on getting the money from the offshore accounts in order to get them off his back. What if she goes in there and says that she spent it all? I don’t know about you, but that would make me crazy as fuck.”

  “She’s not going in,” Casey says, and I look at him.

  “It’s the only way,” I say. “It’s the only way I can be free of him.”

  “There has to be another way,” he says.

  “Yeah, there is, and that is with me dead.” I try to joke. “Which is not the option I choose.” I look over at the agents. “Let’s do it.”

  “We will work on it right away,” one agent says and walks out of the room to talk on his phone.

  “What about the guy who is waiting to take me out?” I ask the rest of them.

  “Right now.” One of the agents laughs. “He’s being arrested for breaking into your hotel room.”

  Then he looks at Casey. “Thanks for the tip.”

  “How did you know?” I ask him, and he looks at me.

  “When he called Dominic, Derek kind of put a bug on his line, and we tracked the towers,” he says, and I look at him with my mouth hanging open.

  I lean in and whisper, “You sound so sexy right now.” The agent comes back into the room.

  “We have a plane ready in fifteen. We should be in LA in five hours, which will be three p.m. LA time,” the agent says.

  “Perfect,” Casey says, and I get up. “She doesn’t go in that place until the document is signed.” He looks over at Derek.

  “Should be in your email in an hour tops,” Derek says, and then he smiles at me. “I’ll be watching the whole time.”

  “How?” one of the agents ask.

  “That’s not really your concern,” Casey tells him, and then we turn to walk out of the room. Casey holds my hand in the elevator, and when we get down to the parking garage, you would think that the president is in town with the black trucks waiting.

  I get into one of the trucks with Casey right behind me, and two agents get into the front. “Are you okay?” He leans over and whispers to me, and I look at him, and I answer him honestly.

  “I’m not sure.” I look at him and then to the front where the agents are sitting. “I only hope for one thing.” Turning to look at Casey, I say, “That after tonight, it will all be over.”

  “It will be,” he says, putting his arm over me and pulling me to him. I feel his warmth run through me as I look out the window at the passing scenery. We arrive at the same airport that we arrived at, but this time, the plane is just a touch bigger. I sit in one of the chairs with Casey right next to me, and the four special agents sit together in front of us. I look out the window as we take off down the runway. I close my eyes, hoping like fuck that this is it. That this is going to be the end of this nightmare, and I can finally get on with my life.

  “Excuse me, Ms. Young.” I open my eyes and see Special Agent Duchene. “I was wondering if we can ask you a couple of questions and also explain to you how this is going to work.”

  “She’s not answering anything without a lawyer here,” Casey says from beside me, and I look over. He sits there in his chair, his fingers flying over his laptop that he must have taken out when we took off. “But lucky for you guys, I have my lawyer on standby.” He puts his laptop on the table in front of us and the screen shows a lawyer. “Olivia, meet your lawyer, David Stern.”

  He watches me, and he nods at me. “Pleasure to meet you, Olivia.”

  “I guess it’s a pleasure to meet you also,” I say, and then I look at Casey, who smiles at me. It’s funny how I never had someone actually take care of me. I would have to take care of myself. Make sure I was okay all the time, make sure that I got to pl
aces on time. The only time my mother really cared was when it was a red carpet event.

  “So we are going to ask you just a couple of questions,” the other agent asks. “When did you know that he was stealing money?”

  “Gentlemen,” David says, laughing. “She’s not answering that question.”

  I lean over and whisper to Casey. “But I have nothing to hide.” He looks at me and makes sure that the agents can’t read his lips when he whispers back to me.

  “They are trying to trap you,” he says. “Trust me, you don’t answer anything that David tells you not to.”

  “Okay,” I say to him, and he kisses me. I turn to look at the agents. “I guess I’m not answering that question.”

  “Did you know anyone with the name Sorrento?” the agent asks, and I just wait for the rest of the question, but instead, he opens a folder and takes out a picture and hands it to me. I grab it and look down at it.

  “No.” I hand it back to him.

  “Are you sure?” he asks, and I laugh.

  “Do you think I want to protect Dominic?” I ask him, and then look at all of the agents. “Do you think after everything he’s done to me, I want to lie for him?” I laugh now bitterly. “This man did nothing for me, nothing. Instead, he threw me into a cage with wolves ready to pounce on me. So to answer any of your questions, and just so we're clear. I don’t know who that man is.”

  The agents share a look, and then one leans forward. “We are going to want you to wear a wire when you go see him.”

  “Everything will be recorded anyway through the phone, but just in case, we want to make sure.”

  “Fine,” I say to them, and then I ask them. “Will I be face-to-face with him?” My heart starts to speed up just a touch at the thought of seeing him after everything.

  “No,” Casey says from beside me. “It’s through a bulletproof glass with guards on his side.” He looks at the agents. “That’s not even up for a debate, or there is no fucking way she goes in there.”

  “We wouldn’t put her in danger,” Special Agent Duchene says. “We land in an hour and a half.”

  “Thank you, gentlemen. I have sent over the document for you to sign on behalf of my client. She doesn’t walk in there unless the terms are agreed on,” David says and then hangs up.

  I look over at Casey. “Can we go straight home after this?” I ask him, and I’m about to kick myself when I say home. “I mean, can we can go back to the farm after this?”

  He looks at me. “We’ll go home after this.”

  I look out the window, and for the rest of the flight, I try to calm myself down. But when I step foot in Los Angeles, my feet itch to run back on the plane and leave. I look down the whole time, hoping no one sees the tears in my eyes. It’s then I finally realize I can never come back here. I don’t have time to overthink it because when I finally sit in the car, Casey takes my hand in his and brings it to his lips. “The plane is on standby whenever we are ready.” I don’t answer him. I can’t, there is so much going through me right now I have no idea what I would say. So instead, I just nod.

  When the car comes to a stop, my stomach lurches, and my hands get clammy. When I step foot out of the car, the sun’s heat doesn’t help the coldness that now runs through me. I walk with my hand in Casey’s as we walk toward a gate that opens when the six of us stand there. The clinking of chain links makes me look up to see the tower with guards in it, and then my eyes find the barbed wire on the top of it. We walk in, and each of us sign in. We walk through the metal detector. Everything around me happens with a blur. We walk into an office, and a female officer is there, and she hooks me up to a wire that is taped under my shirt.

  “He’s ready for you,” the agent says, and I try not to vomit all over the place. The nerves are real. “We need him to say that he put that money there.” He goes on to say other things, but the beating of my heart blocks out his voice.

  Casey looks like he’s going to jump out of his skin. “If at any time you want out, I want you to get up and walk out,” he says, his eyes clouded over. “Do you hear me, darlin’?”

  I nod at him and turn to walk out of the room. I don’t say anything as we walk down the concrete hallway, and the door at the end opens, and I walk into the dimly lit room. Eight chairs in a row face the glass separator with a wall on each side to give you some semblance of privacy.

  “Number two,” the guard says to me, and I walk down and sit on the metal chair and wait. The seconds feel like hours. The minutes like years and then I hear the click of the metal door on the other side, and it opens. I see Dominic before he sees me. His hands and feet are shackled together, the guard pointing down. He smirks at him and walks down, and the minute he sees me, his face goes white. “What’s the matter, Dominic? Wasn’t expecting me?” I ask him, hoping that he is just as nervous as I am to see me.

  “Olivia.” He says my name, sitting down in the chair in front of me. “Baby face.” I loathe his voice, and the nickname makes my skin crawl. “I’m so happy you came to see me.”

  “Are you?” I ask him and laugh now. “Isn’t that funny? I somehow got another message.” He looks at me, and I see the change in him when he knows that I’m fucking with him.

  “You look good for someone who has a concussion.” He sneers. “Too good.”

  “I have to say,” I say, shaking my head. “I spent the whole month going over everything in my head.” I tap my fingers on the table in front of me. “Trying to think what is it that they wanted from me.”

  “Trust me,” he starts to say, “there is nothing that you have that I want. I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. Obviously, as you saw, you didn’t really do it for me.”

  “Really?” I say, now pissed. “There is nothing that you want from me?” I lean back and fold my hands, and then I think of the wire and uncross my arms. “I would imagine that you would definitely want me to get some of the money out.” If he wasn’t white before, he is now. Whatever color he had left is now gone from his face. “Oh, you see.” I lean in. “I know about the money.”

  “I don’t know what you're talking about,” he says and looks around. “No idea what you are talking about.”

  “Well, then it’s a good thing because I spent some of it.” He glares at me, and I see that his body’s starting to shake. “Okay, fine, you got me. I spent a lot of it. I always wanted to have a house in the Bahamas. Then I got a beautiful house on the beach in Belize.” I look up at the ceiling. “I then spent …”

  He slams his hand on the table in front of him. “Enough, you fucking bitch. ” He leans in, and if I was in front of him without the mirror, I would assume he would lunge for me, but I also have to know that I would have fought back.

  “NO!” I shout out now. “It’s not enough. It will never be enough. What you did was something that a spineless coward would do, and let’s be honest. I shouldn’t have expected anything else.” I start to stand. “Goodbye, Dominic, I’ll think of you every single time I spend a penny of that money.”

  “What?” he says nervously. “Olivia, wait.” I turn around. “Please,” he begs now. “You don’t understand. If you don’t give me the money, they are going to …” He stops talking when I turn back around.

  “Funny, I thought you had no idea what I was talking about? Now all of a sudden, you know.” I shake my head. “You worthless piece of shit. You put those fucking accounts in my name without me even knowing.”

  “Listen to me, Olivia. I didn’t mean to get you involved in all of this. But,” he says, looking at me, “I had no choice.”

  “We all have choices,” I say and walk back to him “Don’t we, Dominic?” I put my hands on the table in front of me. “Just like the choice you made to put a bounty on my head.” I refuse to show him how scared I am. I refuse to show him one more tear.

  “I’m sorry,” he now says. “But I need you to get me that money,” he starts to say. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

  I shake my head. �
��The only thing you are sorry for is that you didn’t win.”

  “I need that money!” He starts to yell. “Give me back my money!”

  I look at him one last time, and I don’t even say goodbye to him. I walk away, and then I hear him banging on the glass. “I’ll fucking kill you myself, you fucking bitch!” he shouts. “I will fucking end you.” I put my hand to my stomach, and I see it’s shaking. The guard opens the door, and once I’m out of the room, I bend over and vomit in the trash bin that is in the corner.

  Chapter Thirty

  Casey

  The minute she turns and walks away from him, I’m out that fucking door, making sure I’m there for her. I find her right before she throws up in the trash can in the corner.

  I waited for her the whole time, pacing the small fucking room. The whole time, listening to the conversation. She sits there with all the grace in the world, showing him that he isn’t in charge of her. Showing him that he doesn’t have anything on her. Showing him that she is a motherfucking boss, exactly as I knew she would. She didn’t waver, she didn’t shake, she didn’t shed a tear. She did none of that and I was so proud of her. But now seeing her throw up and shaking I want to bust into that room and end his life myself. “Darlin’.”

  I rub her back and then hold out a handkerchief for her. She puts it to her mouth and then looks up at me. Tears well in her eyes. “I hope it was okay.”

  “It was perfect.” I take her face in mine. “You were perfect.” I take her in my arms, and she wraps her arms around my waist.

  “Olivia.” I hear Agent Duchene call her name. “You got it.” He smiled at her.

  “Get the wire off her,” I say. “My car is waiting and so is my plane.” He nods, and they take her into the room, and the lady comes over and unclips all the wires from her.

  When we walk out of the room the detectives are there. “If we need anything, where can we reach you?”