Forgiven: a bully romance (An Academy Twin Rivalry Series Book 3)

by Taylor Blaine

  “Staci!” Her mother shot a sharp glance toward her daughter and shook her head with a strong warning in her features.

  Staci stood, ignoring her mother as she sauntered to stand just behind the older woman. She folded her arms across her busty chest and jutted a hip to the side. “There’s nothing to hide here, Mother. Jonathan doesn’t deserve our loyalty any more than this woman deserves a second chance to claim back her company.” Staci arched an eyebrow and glanced at me before turning her gaze back on Mom. “He didn’t have to be married to you for that proxy to be legal. You gave him power of attorney. That’s all he needed. Everything we’ve done has been legal.”

  My jaw slackened. Was she kidding? The things she’d done with Braddox alone could put her in jail for five years. I didn’t even want to think about the things I didn’t know.

  Without skipping a beat, Mom swiped at her phone screen and another paper slid into view on the wall. Keeping her voice calm and unconfrontational, Mom split her gaze between the mother and daughter duo. “Actually, I never gave power of attorney to Jonathan Stabler. In Ramirez International, power was never given to the men of the family because my great-grandmother never trusted her husband. And I’m sure with due reason. My power of attorney is currently in place with my female cousin in New Mexico.”

  “Then why did you think your husband had sold the company?” Staci’s mother stood, bracing her own hands on the table as she faced my mother.

  “Because New Mexico is a spousal state, meaning that everything is equally owned by the husband and wife. I incorrectly assumed that Oregon was the same way. It isn’t. Since the business was based originally in New Mexico, I assumed the laws carried over. They don’t. Even if we’d been legally married, he wouldn’t have had rights to the company. I didn’t know that. And having that information come to you from your CEO makes it hard to think there’s anything incorrect. I didn’t question anything. After further researching, I discovered nothing he did was legal.” Mom turned and motioned for me to come off the door. “Olivia, it’s okay, can you let the gentlemen outside in, please?”

  I jerked back from the door, pivoting back to look out the glass doors to find men in suits with FBI badges brandished in front of them.

  Mrs. Stabler/Vigil jerked to the side, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the agents moving into place. The older woman’s beauty twisted into a mask of hatred and fury.

  Staci laughed, throwing her head back. She lowered her gaze back to my mom and shook her head. “No one screws over a Vigil.”

  I arched an eyebrow and huffed, waiting for Staci to look toward me. I arched an eyebrow and replied, “Or everyone does.”

  There was a haunted look behind the glare she gave me.

  As if reminded of my presence and the immediate danger we were now in, Mom inclined her head at me and then jutted her chin toward the hallway. Without saying a word, I knew exactly what she needed from me. I needed to leave. I wouldn’t go far because I wasn’t safe out in Shores alone.

  Staci watched me, her expression dark and twisted. I nodded at Mom and stepped into the hallway.

  Mom’s voice trailed after me as the door closed slowly. “Since you’re a part of this, Elkin, it’s only fair that you get the same treatment as everyone else. I’m going to get this business back on track.” Elkin’s spluttering was cut short by the door.

  I moved to sit in a chair in a well-appointed waiting area just two rooms down from the conference room. Things were going to be okay. They had to be. I crossed my legs, waiting for the moment when the FBI agents walked Elkin and Staci’s mom from the room.

  Instead, yelling reached me, the sound growing louder and louder and then two pops and three. Glass shattered, the tinkling as it hit the ground shot through me. I jumped from my seat, rushing to the door and staring down the hallway toward the conference room.

  Everything was easy to see because of the glass walls.

  Trenton grabbed Mom’s arm, leaping for the doors. Three FBI agents held guns on two of the men in the room who also had guns out. The other people had fallen face down to the ground and covered their heads with their arms.

  A fallen Elkin sat half-slumped against the back of his chair, blood dripping down the side of his neck. Trenton opened the door, letting out some of the frantic yelling going on between the agents and the two men. Staci’s mother had moved back, positioning herself behind her daughter.

  Staci didn’t flinch as she held her stance, watching the men with a calculated glare.

  Mom and Trenton slipped from the room, running toward me. Mom ducked into the room with me and Trenton turned back at the doorway. I couldn’t see what happened. I couldn’t see anything as he blocked my view and my mom wrapped her arms around me.

  Ten, fifteen, and then twenty seconds passed. Over my mom’s shoulder, I watched as Trenton’s eyes grew wide and he turned, throwing himself on top of us.

  We crashed to the ground and seconds later an explosion ripped through the side of the building, sending a resultant crash to echo through the brick foundation.

  My head slammed into the ground and Trenton’s elbow dug into my stomach just below my ribs.

  Mom cried out, but I couldn’t breathe enough to do even that. Trenton had landed on both of us, knocking the wind from my chest.

  I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next but I doubted Staci and her mother were going to be giving us any trouble now.

  Or anyone else for that matter.

  Chapter 17

  Staci

  I cocked my head to the side as the agents moved into place. They wouldn’t touch me because I was underage, but they would definitely take my mom. She had enough dirt on her to last a few trials. But I wasn’t worried about that.

  While everyone else was focused on the two men with guns, I moved closer to Elkin and his fallen body. I didn’t care if he was dead or not, that wasn’t important. The man was a sleaze and he liked watching people inflict pain. When I’d been entertaining him one night, he’d bragged about always carrying a grenade with him because it gave him more power than other people realized. He said he could just flash it to people and they would suddenly not have any more problems with him. The confession hadn’t surprised me. Elkin was the kind of man who would demand a blow job from his grandmother just to show he was in power.

  Mom moved alongside me. I wasn’t sure if she had any idea what I was doing, but she seemed to need me for a human shield. Wasn’t that how she’d treated me all my life? I was expendable. I got it. I didn’t blame her. But one day, our positions would change and she’d be protecting me.

  When I reached Elkin in his seat, I put my hands behind my head and dropped into a crouch and then slid my hands through the holes in the seat to feel Elkin’s sides and chest. A bulge in the back told me I found what I was looking for.

  We wouldn’t be in a position to throw anything right then, but I could use the grenade to get us out of there.

  I stood, the small pinned sphere in my hands out in front of me. I arched my eyebrows as Mom moved with me. “Everyone see me? Can you see me?”

  FBI agents turned hyper focused attention from the two men with guns toward me. At first, short flicks at me and then back to the gunmen, but then they had to accept the fact that I was a more imminent threat. Who did you watch? The men with guns or the girl with a grenade?

  As per usual, I wasn’t given as much credit as I should have been. Seventeen or not, I was smarter than most of those douchebags and even more cunning because they didn’t suspect it. They thought they were better than a dumb blonde. How dumb was I looking right then?

  “Okay, why don’t you give that to me? I’ll take care of it. There’s no need to be worried. We can handle this.” The lead detective moved toward me, his hand outstretched as he glanced between me and Tom, the closest guy on our side with the gun.

  I sidled away from the agent, dragging my mother along the periphery of the room toward the door. “No. You’re not going to move
. You’re going to stay there. All of you won’t move or I’m popping this pin. Got it?”

  As if hearing the promise in my voice, the group seemed to hold their breath, watching to see what I would do. All eyes were on me, even Elkin’s dead ones. I was so glad he was dead. He deserved to die, just like my father. Slime. The worst of the earth. And there was nothing I could do about it.

  Everyone moved around us like satellites held in place by our gravitational pull. They gave us a wide circle of space as we moved toward the door.

  “You won’t be able to get out. We have more agents downstairs, waiting for your group of security agents to arrive. We have more information on you and your mother, than you know.” Another agent spoke up, as if the lead were tongue tied. “You’re not getting out of here alive.”

  “I’m fine with that.” I moved toward the door, holding the grenade in front of me like a forcefield. Mom ducked out behind me, holding the door open for me which was more than I expected. I backed out, but stopped before going completely into the hallway. “It didn’t have to end like this.” I pulled the pin and flipped the grenade into the room, onto the table.

  Mom shrieked and yanked my arm as we sprinted as far and as fast as we could from the room. In the short five seconds until the bomb blew, we got almost to the elevators. The blast was enough to push us off our feet. I slammed against the old brick walls, scraping my cheek and hitting my shoulder against the wall. Something burned on my legs and the smell of something melting assailed me.

  I think I passed out, I’m not sure. As if in a dream, I think I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling with dust settling to the floor around us. With a bright aura around her, Mom sat up, pushing with her arms on the floor. She glanced at me, noting my open eyes. She shook her head, standing. “Come on. We need to get out of here.”

  For once, I didn’t argue with her. I just wanted to get out of there, too. I had vengeance to plan.

  But I couldn’t move. I opened my mouth to agree and a scream ripped from my lips. Everything went black.

  Chapter 18

  Olivia

  Shaken, we extricated ourselves from the mass of limbs we’d become when Trenton shoved us to the floor. My ears rang and I coughed as I slowly got my breath back. My lungs burned. Damn, I was getting one helluva headache.

  An explosion. There’d been an explosion in the building.

  Trenton reached down, pulling my mom up and then me, dusting himself off as he looked around. “This building is too old to be able to withstand a blast like that without far-stretching consequences. We need to get out before it collapses or the roof caves in or something.” His voice was hoarse, proof that he wasn’t a superhero and could be injured. Although, apparently, not much could hurt him.

  I tried swallowing, my throat scratchy and sore. Even though it was mere minutes since the explosion, I felt like every second that passed had taken on its own time frame. My heart pounded in my chest and my ears hurt. Even my breathing felt like it was in surround sound.

  Screams came from as if afar off. Smoke billowed down the hall, creeping into the room we’d holed up in.

  Trenton’s voice came like it was through a metal tube, echoing but also focused. I blinked as he said my name twice. “Olivia, Olivia, are you okay?”

  I nodded slowly as my mom looked at me in alarm. “No, I’m good. I’m fine. Are you guys okay?” I could see they were at least functional. Trenton had said something about getting out of there. I blinked as if that would somehow help the ringing in my ears. “Did you say we should leave?”

  He nodded, motioning for us to follow him. “Come on. This way.” He led us down the hall, away from the elevators and conference room.

  More screams and shouts came from the boardroom. I glanced back, trying to see who had survived a blast like that. Had Staci? As much as she’d done to me and my friends and family, I couldn’t help thinking she was still my half-sister. I was messed up. I had to be. Why would I care? A small piece of me couldn’t help thinking she might be okay once I got to know her.

  If she died, though, I wouldn’t get that chance. I wouldn’t have any opportunities to find out what her life was like with Dad. Had she lived the same way I had?

  But I knew she hadn’t. Her mother had raised her to be a whore. That in itself lent a small shadow of understanding to how Staci was raised. It was appalling, but that’s all I knew about her. My half-sister. Odd how that’s what I focused on as we tried escaping the burning building.

  I stumbled along behind my mom and Trenton. We got to the stairs, holding our hands over our mouths and coughing. Trenton opened the door and motioned toward the steps. “Come on. We can do this.” He shut the door behind us and we made our way down them, haltingly.

  Breathing was difficult as I stopped a third time, leaning against the painted brick wall and gasping for air. I closed my eyes for a second and then instinctively followed the fresh air coming from the lower level as the loud yelling of firefighters carried up the stairs.

  One man decked out in firefighter garb grabbed me by the shoulders and guided me down, taking a lot of weight off me as I tried to keep up. It was easier knowing someone else was there, someone who would help us get away.

  At the bottom, I swallowed and glanced at the older man. He was younger than Trenton but older than Jaxon by about ten years. His kind eyes were all I could see behind his oxygen mask. When he spoke it came out hollow and muffled. “You’ll be fine. If you go to the truck, they’ll check you out.” He nodded and disappeared back up the stairs behind the other firefighters who’d come with him.

  I turned to Mom, taking her arm and walking beside her and Trenton toward the parking lot. The sky darkened as smoke filled the air below the blanket of clouds.

  “What just happened?” Mom questioned Trenton as she peeked up at him. Her carefully put together outfit was mussed and dirty. Her hair had fallen from the professional style she’d coifed it in that morning.

  I didn’t even want to know what mine looked like.

  “Staci pulled a grenade from somewhere on Elkin. She used it to get out of the room and then pulled the pin and tossed it inside. I have no idea who made it out or not, but she did some serious damage to the people in that room.” He glanced at Mom and shook his head. “You’re going to need a whole new board.”

  “I figured. I’m not even sure where to go from here.” Mom shook her head and placed her hand on my back between my shoulder blades. “I don’t even know what to think or what to do. How are you holding up?” Mom studied me like I might know something or feel some way that would make everything she was thinking or feeling suddenly fall into some practical semblance of normalcy.

  Normal wasn’t something we got to enjoy.

  I shrugged. “I’m fine, I guess?” But I honestly had no idea what was going on or what I was thinking either. Staci had done that. She’d possibly killed who knew how many people in that room. There was shooting and a grenade. What kind of life was Staci raised in and why was I involved? Why couldn’t my father have left us out of his messed-up world? I had more questions than answers and that just added to the confusion of my ringing ears and the pounding of my headache.

  A black Nova roared into the parking lot, pulling up beside the SUV Trenton had driven us in. I didn’t want to see Braddox or acknowledge him, but I had to with Mom and Trenton there in front of me. They had no idea what he’d done. No idea what I’d endured or what I’d done to him in retaliation. They didn’t know what I’d lost because of him.

  Or more importantly, what he’d done to his family.

  “I’ll be right back, just a second.” Trenton walked around the hood of Braddox’s car and leaned close to the window, speaking to Braddox out of earshot. I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the engine and the distance, but I could see Braddox’s expression go from partial concern to blatantly pissed off. He nodded tightly, saying something to his father and motioning toward his car.

  Trenton nodded and came
back around to where my mom and I stood. “Maria, if it’s okay with you, I think Olivia should get a ride home from Braddox. You and I need to go to the police station. We also need to talk to our lawyer.” Trenton looked at me as he spoke. “Is that okay with you, Olivia?”

  I was stuck and Braddox knew it. Jaxon had asked specifically that we not tell his father what we knew about Braddox. I couldn’t tell Mom and Trenton that I wasn’t going to get in the car with my rapist without telling them why. I was a terrible liar and I knew it. I swallowed and nodded without saying anything.

  Crossing to the car, I ignored my mom calling to me. I climbed into the car and set my jaw. “I swear, if you touch me, I’ll kill you.” I didn’t look at him as I stared out my window. My mom stared at me and I stared hard into her eyes as Braddox revved the motor and drove off.

  She had no idea who I was leaving with or what I’d gone through at Braddox’s hands. What if I didn’t survive the drive? I was safer back there in that burning boardroom. I clenched my hands around my cell, more than prepared to call Jaxon and scream for help.

  “Relax. I just need to talk to you. It helps that you needed a ride.” His voice was loud enough in the car to reach me but I didn’t care.

  I flinched. Shaking my head, I refused to look at him. “I didn’t need a ride. I could have walked back. I could have called Jaxon. You just happened to pull up at the right time. You’re the wrong guy, remember?” Hopefully my words stung. I didn’t look at him to see if they’d made an impact.

  “Where is Jaxon?” Braddox pulled to the side of the road, somewhere in the roughed-up area of East Shores.

  Shadows from the buildings hid things I couldn’t pinpoint. I pressed my fingers to my temples and pressed, trying to relieve some of the pressure inside my head. As if my body were tied into my head, my body throbbed with each heartbeat.

  I turned, pressing my side against the armrest of the car door as I narrowed my eyes at Braddox. “Why did we stop? You can’t drive and talk at the same time?” I didn’t trust him and that had to be more than apparent. I was having a hard time focusing on the conversation. “Wait, what do you mean where’s Jaxon? That’s none of your business.” Plus, I had no idea.