Protecting Olivia

by Riley Edwards

  I hated that my mom lied to me. I hated that I had a dad all these years and I never got to know him. I knew I needed to hear my mom out, I’m sure she did what she did because she thought she was doing the right thing. It didn’t make her lies any less painful, but I knew my mom would never set out to hurt me. Only, I couldn’t do it now, I was still too mad at her. I felt like I was going to snap at any moment.

  My outburst was met with more silence. He didn’t want to talk, fine. I leaned my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes.

  ***

  “Olivia, you need to wake up.” I felt someone shaking me. I waited for the kick to come. It always came right after my name was called.

  Olivia…kick to the stomach…Olivia wake up…kick.

  “Olivia, wake up.” More shaking.

  “Please, don’t.”

  “Tesorino, you’re safe. Wake up.”

  I cracked my eyes open a sliver and saw Leo sitting next to me. He looked way madder than he did when I fell asleep. I couldn’t catch a break with this guy.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I apologized.

  “It’s fine. You needed to sleep.” His voice was still harsh, but his face had gentled.

  “Where are we?” I asked, noticing we were no longer moving.

  “Ohio.”

  “Ohio? How long have I been asleep? I didn’t drink!”

  I frantically looked for the orange drink. The doctor said I had to drink every hour or I’d need another IV.

  “Settle, Olivia. It’s fine. I called Westinghouse. He said you needed to rest and to let you sleep. Try and drink a little more now.”

  I couldn’t believe we’d driven all the way to Ohio. That had to be six-ish hours.

  “We’re at a rest stop. I need to stretch my legs for a minute and hit the head. We have fifteen minutes before the cameras come back online so let’s make this quick.”

  “Where are the others?” I asked.

  “Around. Do you not think I can protect you on my own?”

  “Sheesh, grumpy, I was just asking. Am I allowed to walk?”

  “Yes, but if you start to get dizzy tell me right away.”

  I didn’t wait for him to bark more orders. I opened the door and jumped out of the truck. Wow. It was a little higher than I thought it was. And I hadn’t walked on my own for a while. My head started to spin, and I reached for the side of the truck to find something to grab onto. My vision was starting to blur, and I hadn’t found anything.

  “I got you. Hold on to me and get your balance.” Leo was at my side before I could hit the ground.

  Well, damn. Now I had to thank him again for saving me.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. I’m sure I sounded ungrateful and bitchy. I really was thankful he didn’t let me take a header, I just didn’t want to have to talk to him.

  “Next time please wait for me to come around and help you.”

  “Fine,” I huffed.

  He ushered me to the restroom and much to my chagrin he entered the small room with me. Once he opened all the stall doors and locked the door, he turned to me.

  “Go ahead and go. Don’t lock the stall door. I’m not fond of having to climb over the partition to get to you if you need me.”

  Need him? What the hell would I need him for? Did he think I’d need him to wipe my va-jay-jay?

  Not that I would complain if he…

  “Olivia?” he called to me.

  “Sorry. I’m fine. You can leave now and go to the men’s room.

  “I’m not leaving,” he informed me.

  “You’re not staying in here while I go to the bathroom.”

  “I sure as hell am. There is not a chance I’m leaving you unprotected. We have eight minutes and forty seconds until the cameras are up and functional. Hurry up.”

  “Fine.” I gritted my teeth and made my way to the stall.

  At least the toilet was clean. Silver lining. After I covered the seat with the thin paper liner, I stared at the seat. Why do we cover public toilet seats with paper? It’s pointless, they don’t actually do anything. Not that I want my ass on a seat that a stranger used. I prefer the hover rather than cover method of public urination etiquette. But my legs were too weak for that.

  “Hurry,” Leo told me.

  “I am.” Sheesh, I couldn’t pee on demand.

  “No, you’re not, or I’d hear you peeing.”

  Holy Shit.

  “You’re listening to me pee?”

  “Swear to Christ woman. Just pee.”

  “Fine.”

  I sat my ass on the useless paper liner and did my business. I hated Peter Newton, whatever he had done to make these men mad enough to threaten my life he’d better fix. While I was mentally making a list of all the reasons I was angry at Peter and my mom I could vaguely hear Leo peeing beside me. There was something almost intimate urinating next to him. I shook the crazy thoughts out of my head and went back to tallying my mom’s lies. That was a much safer topic than thinking about Leo.

  I finished up, washed my hands, went to the door to wait for Leo, then I used what energy I had left, and stomped all the way to the truck.

  Leo beeped the locks, helped me in, rounded the front and started the engine.

  “You done with your snit?” he asked with a smile.

  Dick!

  “No.”

  ***

  “Olivia time to wake up.”

  I cracked my eyes open and looked out the window. We were stopped again, and it was dark outside.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  Leo had woken me a few times and told me to drink, but after a few gulps, I was back asleep.

  “Arkansas,” he told me.

  He’d driven another ten hours, at least. There was a small tinge of guilt that he was doing all the driving while I slept. Then I remembered that he was a jerk and I shouldn’t care.

  There was a tap on Leo’s driver side window. He rolled the window down halfway.

  “Room 828,” Zane said and passed a key card through the window.

  Leo took the card without answering, not that Zane waited for a reply. He’d already turned and was walking toward the hotel.

  “Wait for me to come to your side of the truck before you get out. You walk on my left, keep your head down and do not speak to anyone should we pass someone in the hall,” Leo instructed.

  “Why on your left?”

  I’m not sure why I asked, it’s not that I cared. I just didn’t like him bossing me around.

  “You're always on my left. My gun is on my right.”

  Leo got out of the truck, grabbed two backpacks from the back seat, and came to my door.

  “Head down,” he reminded me as we made our way to the room.

  Jerk! Did he think I was so stupid I’d forget?

  He keyed the lock to the hotel door, instead of him allowing me to enter first he very awkwardly walked us through the doorway together. He was huge, and it was a miracle we both fit.

  The door clicked shut behind us, and he held up his left hand giving me some gesture I assumed meant to halt. He slowly pulled his gun out of the holster, his shirt pulling up the tiniest sliver, giving me a quick glance at his tanned stomach. If I wasn’t so pissed at him, I would’ve enjoyed the peek. He left me standing at the door while he checked the room.

  “Clear,” he called out.

  Was that supposed to mean something to me?

  “You can come in now, Olivia.”

  Jerk.

  Why didn’t he just say that to begin with? When I rounded the corner, the backpack that Jasmin had left for me was on one of the beds. Leo was standing by the other bed with his backpack open.

  “We’re sharing a room?” I stupidly asked.

  Leo stopped rummaging through his bag and turned his full attention to me.

  “Yes. You’re not to be out of my sight, ever. I’m sorry this is uncomfortable for you, but I’m not taking any chances with your safety.”


  Leo must’ve caught the look on my face and realized I still didn’t understand what was going on. He took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “Here’s what’s happening. Some bad guys took you to prove they could. Then, after they got their point across, they basically told us where you were so we could find you. Now that they have our attention, they’ve made their demands.”

  “What do you mean demands?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “Why would bad guys want to prove they could take me?”

  “I can’t tell you that either.”

  “What can you tell me?” I asked.

  “No more than I already have.”

  “Are they going to kill me?” I whispered.

  “No.”

  “Didn’t they say they were going to? Isn’t that why you are trying to hide me?”

  “Yes, that is what they threatened,” Leo confirmed.

  You hear about things like this on the news, read about it in the newspaper, threats being made on people’s lives, stalkers, women who need to run from abusive husbands. But you never really think about what that means, or what it feels like to be the one running. How terrifying it is to know there is someone out there that is hunting you.

  “So, I’m as good as dead.”

  “No. I won’t let that happen.”

  I suddenly felt bone tired even though I had slept most the day. I had nothing left. I wanted my mom until I remembered how mad I was at her. Without changing out of my clothes, I crawled into the bed and buried my face in the pillow.

  ***

  The smell of dried blood and puke filled the room. I was going to die in here. The men were yelling at each other again. I strained to hear something that would tell me who took me and why. I couldn’t understand a word they spoke.

  The door opened, and a man stepped in. He was filthy and smelled like liquor and cigarettes, his nasty yellow teeth and bad breath made me gag when he got close.

  “Good, the princess is awake. Maybe today I fuck you before I give you breakfast. You like that princess? You like me to fuck you?” His thick accent and broken English made it difficult for me to understand him.

  “Don’t touch me,” I screamed.

  The man reached down and grabbed my shoulders shaking me so hard my neck snapped.

  “Wake up!” The man’s voice had changed. He was speaking English, and his tone had even softened.

  “Please, don’t touch me.” The man covered my mouth with one of his hands, his fresh, clean smell cutting through the stench of the room. “You need to wake up. Come back to me, tesorino.”

  I struggled to push the man away.

  “Olivia!”

  I opened my eyes and shot up in bed. Leo was kneeling next to me looking at me but allowing me to get my bearings.

  It was a dream, just a dream. Leo’s here. I waited for the panic attack to come. My breathing was getting tight. Before it could get any worse Leo took my hand and placed it on his chest, he took a deep breath and I didn’t need instructions this time. I started to breathe with him. My chest loosened and my vision cleared. I focused on my hand on Leo’s bare chest. There were at least a dozen small scars that looked like he had a bad case of chicken pox. The more my eyes explored and took in all the scars I began to understand.

  I pulled my gaze from his scars to his face; he wasn’t trying to hide the look of concern that marred his handsome face. I wasn’t sure if it was because I saw his scars or if it was because I had a nightmare.

  “Lie back down,” he whispered.

  “I don’t want to go back to sleep,” I admitted.

  In some magic maneuver, Leo pushed me on my back, rolled us both, and tucked me into his side.

  “Well I do, and I can't do that if you’re screaming the hotel down,” he huffed, but his annoyance fell flat as he pulled my hand over his tight stomach and rested it on his chest. My breath was caught in my throat, and I was frozen in place when he didn’t let go of my hand holding it against his bare skin. “Relax. We only have a few more hours here.”

  His tone was gruff and his words were harsh, but his touch was soft and soothing. One hand covered mine on his chest, careful not to put pressure on my wounds. The other hand was on my hip, his thumb gently rubbing the bare skin above the waistband of my sweatpants.

  I was safe.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leo

  I waited for Olivia’s breathing to even out before I closed my eyes. This was the second time she had awoken screaming from a nightmare. Each time she did it burned my gut and made me wish I could go back and kill the fuckers who hurt Olivia all over again.

  I’d been trying to distance myself from her over the last sixteen plus hours. Reminding myself over and over again not to get close. She needed my full attention to be on the op – keeping her safe. If you allow emotions to dictate your decisions, you fail. And if I failed, people got hurt. Olivia deserved better than that. She was scared and confused. I wouldn’t take advantage of her vulnerability. I wasn’t that man. Even if it killed me to do so. I had to keep her at arm’s length. I was being a dick, but there was no other way but to push her away. She was cute as hell when she got annoyed with my one-word answers, which wasn’t helping my cause, but I had continued trying my hardest not to engage in conversation.

  I must’ve been a closet masochist wrapping Olivia in my arms to sleep. I didn’t need to pull her so close, and I certainly didn’t need to breathe in her scent. Funny, she hadn’t put on any sort of perfume after our shower, but her hair still smelled sweet, like berries. I told myself I was holding her so she wouldn’t have another nightmare and I could get a few more winks of sleep. But that was total bullshit; I wanted to know what it felt like to have her in my arms. And now that I knew, I was fucked, completely and totally FUBAR.

  I willed myself to sleep. The sooner this was over, the faster Olivia could go back to her life, and I could forget what beauty felt like.

  ***

  “Yeah,” I answered my phone on the steering wheel, allowing the call to connect through the truck’s stereo.

  We’d been on the road nearly seven hours and were almost out of Oklahoma approaching the Texas border. I made sure to be out of Olivia’s bed and dressed before she woke up. Neither of us spoke about her nightmare, or about me holding her all night. She whispered a thank you after I cleaned her wrist and rewrapped it but other than that, radio silence.

  It had to be this way.

  “Arabella has been calling your personal cell and is on hold on the office line,” Rena informed me. “She said it was an emergency.”

  Emergency to my sister could mean anything from her losing her keys to someone being dead.

  “Put her through.”

  A second later my sister’s voice boomed through the speakers causing Olivia to wake up. “Where have you been?”

  “What’s the emergency, Arabella?” I cut to the chase.

  “I couldn’t find you,” she lowered her voice.

  “You couldn’t find me? That’s the emergency? Jesus Christ.”

  “I texted and called. You didn’t answer. It had been twenty-four hours. I got scared. The last time…the last time that happened…” Thankfully she didn’t finish her thought. Olivia was now wide awake listening to our conversation, and I didn’t want her to know what Bella was referring to.

  “I’m fine, Bella,” I answered.

  “Where are you?” she asked.

  “Bella! I’m busy, I’ll call you later this week.”

  “Be safe. I love you,” she whispered.

  As much as I wanted to strangle her most of the time, there were times like these when I could hear the care and concern in her tone that I was reminded how much I loved my sister.

  “Ditto.”

  Without giving her a chance to ask any more questions, I hung up.

  “Do you need me to stop?” I asked Olivia.

  “No, thank you,” she replied and continued to stare out the passenger wi
ndow.

  I didn’t like hearing the sadness in her voice, but there was no other way.

  She drifted back to sleep, and I called Zane. I pulled my secured cell out of the center console and dialed his number.

  “Anything?” I asked.

  “The groundwork has been laid. Hopefully, Gomez will take the bait.”

  “Copy that. I want it on record, I don’t like this shit one bit.”

  “Noted. It is the fastest way to neutralize Gomez. Tex already sent one of his tracking devices to Wolf. He’s expecting you and Hash tomorrow.”

  Tex had designed a device for his friends to use to track their women. The stories of how each of his old teammates had found their wives were legendary in our tight-knit community. Each of the men had found their other halves in what started out as a high-stakes life or death scenario but quickly turned into a true and lasting love story as they claimed their women. Lucky bastards.

  “That’s something.”

  Zane disconnected, and I went over the plan again. I didn’t like that we were drawing Gomez out and essentially leading him right to us. Garrett believed the best way to get to Gomez was have him come to us. His network in Bolivia was far-reaching, it would be like trying to find a needle in a fucked-up haystack if we went to him.

  Tex had left crumbs for Gomez to follow back to us. Crumbs that Gomez, being the type of egotistical ass he was, would want to handle personally. I didn’t like that we were calling the man out while Olivia was with us. He was unstable and dangerous.

  With miles and miles of open road ahead of me I had nothing to do but think. For a moment, I considered waking Olivia to talk. But that would’ve been the equivalent of dangling the proverbial apple in front of Eve. Better to drive in silence than temptation.

  ***

  Another ten hours later and we were in our hotel. I was dog-dick tired after a seventeen-hour drive. I rushed through my shower, ignoring my hard cock, and threw some sweatpants and a tee on. Last night Olivia slept in the clothes she had been wearing all day. Tonight, she tortured me with a pair of rolled up boxers and a tank top. I was going to kill Jasmin for packing that shit. Surely the girl had flannel PJs that buttoned up to the neck. I made a mental note to text Garrett and ask him to buy Olivia something more appropriate to sleep in.