by Nic Roberts
Olivia gave him a small smack on his shoulder for that comment, feigning offence.
“I’ll have you know, this only burnt because you came over,” she laughed at him as he sat waiting on the phone. “And I’m not about to call Dr James! I’ve met the man once, for crying out loud, however pleasant he was.”
DI Lawrence nodded at her.
“Well,” he whispered, just as his call was answered. “Sometimes that’s how the best of them start.”
Olivia carried his words with her as she busied herself collecting the leaflets from the table. He was right. That was often how the best relationships started. The ones where you spent the next several days, weeks, months afterwards joined at the hip, hazy weekends doing nothing but staying in bed, wrapped up in your own bubble... in each other.
But she knew all too well that just as quickly as they turned into magic, they could fall, and that drop was the most devastating of all. That drop was why she couldn’t let Dr Elliot James—or any other desirable man that piqued her interest—close enough to see the scars she worked tirelessly to suppress.
“Do you honestly think that Ella’s going to be alright?” Olivia pondered. The pair had finished off their takeaway ten minutes previously and were now haphazardly splayed across the couch, willing their stomachs to digest quickly.
“Ella? Oh yeah,” Lawrence replied, taking another sip of the rosé. “She’s a smart young woman. She’ll bounce back, most definitely. And she’ll be seeing a therapist soon. Her mother was adamant about that.”
Olivia nodded in agreement, staring at her glass.
Marjorie Hebden had collapsed in tears at the news her daughter had been found alive, and even though the young woman had been left injured and traumatised, the outcome had surprised many of the Peterly locals who knew the family well.
A fair number of them had given up hope and assumed it was a body that would turn up, but it warmed Olivia’s soul to know that she had a hand in proving them wrong and bringing a girl back to the parents that adored her.
That’s why she loved her job, and that was why she knew that after everything she’d been through, she couldn’t turn her back on it.
“I suppose you’re right,” she contemplated, shifting a little in her seat. Fears and insecurities about her own past swirled to the top of her consciousness. “I’m just glad that Sam’s going to rot in jail for a bit.” She sighed. The one benefit of their tense standoff was that assault of a police officer was pretty damning. There was no way he was escaping prison time for the horrors he had put Ella Hebden through.
“Still, that can’t be easy.” Lawrence sighed and Olivia shot him a look. She had expected him to be fishing around from that comment, but the ease on his face made it clear it was truly just Ella Hebden he was thinking about in the moment.
“Dean, you should know...” Olivia started, surprising herself at the words that flew from her lips. She locked eyes briefly with DI Lawrence before letting them dart back to her glass of wine, which she set down on her coffee table. “You should know that I lost my partner the day of the Oxford Street attacks.”
She knew she was going to say more than she’d ever planned on telling anyone at Newquay, but the sincerity in Dean’s eyes told her she could trust him, and if they were going to be working closely with one another, it was important he knew exactly what made her the way she was.
He shifted forward, letting a gentle palm rest on Olivia’s knee.
“I’m so sorry, Liv,” he responded gently.
In the past, any sort of consolation around the incident made Olivia want to push everything further away. She hated the feeling of being pitied. Dean’s words, though, somehow made her feel safe. Ready.
“His name was Rhys. And uh, we were together,” Olivia confessed, blinking away the all too familiar sting. Or was that just the rosé talking? “Together, together. A couple. An item. More than a team.”
DI Lawrence squeezed her knee.
“You don’t have to tell me this If you—”
“I want to,” she urged. “I should.”
There was a brief silence between them, and Olivia observed the frown of concern that crept across Dean’s face before she started again.
“We’d just finished interviewing a witness, and we were going to head back to our station,” she sighed. “Then, we heard all this screaming and commotion and people with blood were running, and Rhys being Rhys, he had to help. That was in his nature.”
If she closed her eyes, she could almost hear it again. Feel the fear on the wind. The look of realisation he’d given her when he knew how serious things were and the mounting pool of dread she got as the first injured woman stumbled into her arms.
“We were one of the first on scene,” she continued. “No uniform. No protection. But we did everything we could. He did everything, and then we... we got separated. I should never have left him.” Olivia’s voice broke as she recounted the last part of the worst day of her life, her head bowing towards her lap. Saying those words out loud to someone else for the first time since she told them to her therapist hurt with a whole new magnitude. Embarrassment crept up over her skin as she felt Dean’s eyes on her.
“Hey,” he muttered, scooping her toward him into an embrace. “It’s not your fault.” Those words soothed her more than he knew, holding her tightly. “I read the news, Liv. I read what happened that day. Fuck, the whole world did. We all saw it. The number of people that died. The carnage. The devastation... There wasn’t anything you could have done. Unarmed? Rhys was a hero. You both were.”
Olivia nodded slowly, the hint of a sad smile at the corner of her mouth. He was right. When many would have turned and run, Rhys had pushed forward. For his life lost, he’d saved many. Still, it tore at her insides to know that at his last moment she hadn’t been there.
“It may sound a little weird, but I’m glad you got separated,” Lawrence confessed. Olivia looked up at him. “If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have such a great partner here today. You saved Ella Hebden’s life, Olivia. You’ve done great things since that day. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
“Thank you,” she sighed, attempting more of a smile. She squeezed his hand. “I mean that.”
They sat in the silence for what felt like an age, just letting Olivia’s confession have its space.
“You’re a great partner, Liv,” Lawrence spoke, breaking their comfortable quiet.
“You’re not so bad yourself, Dean.” She sniffed.
That earned her a gentle shove.
“Thank you for trusting me enough to share that with me.” DI Lawrence’s voice was quiet, warm. Olivia met his stare with her own.
“Thank you for treating it with care,” she responded. “Being able to say it out to someone just means so much. It frees me a little.”
Dean nodded.
“Absolutely, Liv.” He smiled. “What else are partners for?”
The giddy feeling of a blooming friendship rose to Olivia’s chest. Of course, she’d been wary to let anyone from the Newquay station in, and she still wasn’t sure what it meant long-term to let DI Lawrence see the more difficult parts of her past. But she couldn’t deny that having a friend in Dean felt good. It had been so long since she’d allowed herself to feel anything positive for more than a fleeting moment. And while the potential for devastation lurked at the edge of her mind, like a thunderstorm just offshore, Olivia continued to find herself smiling.
What have I gotten myself into?
The End - (Get Book Two, The Dead Fall)
Ready to jump into Book Two? Here it is!
The Dead Fall - DI Austin Book Two
Still want more?
Kiss and Hell - DI Austin Book Three
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About the Author
I’ve always had a passion for writing stories and loved being able to create a world and have my characters live inside it. Being able to do this has been a dream come true and I’m so grateful that you could join me on this journey .
I live in the United Kingdom with my Husband and four young children who keep me busy and who I wouldn’t ever be without.
I hope you enjoy reading my books and please feel free to join me on social media where I love to interact with my readers!
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