by T. K. Leigh
“I’m not making any promises. All I know is that I need a drink and a distraction. Let’s go dancing.” Olivia got up from her barstool after downing her martini and headed in the direction of the dance floor. Kiera followed.
The girls found their way to the center of the dance floor, club lights barely illuminating the dark floor. The club was rather busy and there wasn’t much room to move, but that was okay. Olivia moved to the rhythm of the music, trying to block out everything that had happened that past week. The girls danced for several minutes before a tall blond man wearing a black button-down shirt and jeans moved toward Kiera and started dancing with her.
“Are you okay?” Olivia mouthed. Kiera gave her the thumbs up signal, to which Olivia signaled that she was going back to the bar.
“Where you off to, beautiful?” a short, built man with blond hair and far too orange skin said to Olivia, standing in her way.
“Um, just off to get a drink, so if you’ll please excuse me…” she replied, trying to move around him.
“Okay, hot stuff. I’ll see you back here.”
Olivia rolled her eyes as she continued to walk past the man, on a mission to get drunk. Kiera had tried her best to help Olivia keep her mind off Alexander, but he was all she could think about.
She approached the long circular bar and placed her drink order. As she waited for her martini, she heard loud laughing on the opposite side of the bar. She turned her head and gasped when she saw Alexander there with several other people, one being Detective Wilder, his sister. She looked a little closer, squinting through her eyes foggy from the alcohol, and noticed that hanging onto his arm was the woman from the photos, Adele.
She grabbed her drink off the bar, fuming, and returned to the dance floor, hoping that Alexander had not seen her. She was fairly certain he was too absorbed in the people he was with to notice her. Why would he notice Olivia when someone as beautiful as Adele clung to his arm?
She made her way through the crowds of people, finally finding Kiera.
“He’s here!” Olivia shouted as her friend danced with another random guy.
“Who is?” she shouted back over the loud club music.
“Alexander. And the bitch is clinging onto his fucking arm.”
Kiera immediately pushed the guy away. “Sorry. Girl problems. Thanks for the dance.” Kiera turned to face Olivia as she finished her drink in one gulp, needing it to dull the pain. “Are you mother fucking serious?”
“Yes. And I’m so glad to know you have a degree in English. It makes me hopeful for the future of our country.”
“Shut it, Libby. Where is he?”
“At the bar.”
“Okay. Here’s the plan. Two can play his little game. And don’t yell at me and call me immature,” she said, grabbing Olivia’s empty drink glass from her hand. “We find you a hottie to dance with and just pretend he doesn’t exist.” Kiera scanned the dance floor and found a tall man with dark, brooding eyes and a chiseled face. He was very handsome.
“Hey! You!” Kiera shouted to her target, getting his attention. He walked over to the girls. “This is my friend, Olivia. I saw you checking her out like all night, so maybe you should grow some balls and ask her to dance.” Olivia loved how direct Kiera was. She wished she could be like that sometimes.
“Olivia. It’s wonderful to meet you,” he said in a slight Irish accent. “My name is Collin.” He reached his hand out for Olivia’s and she gingerly placed her hand in his.
“Nice to meet you, too, Collin.”
“Dance with me?”
“Yes.” Olivia allowed him to lead her a few feet from Kiera and she got lost in the music.
At the bar, Alexander desperately tried to shake Adele off his shoulder. He had no idea how she knew he would be at the casino that evening. His luck was horrible as of late. She brought one of her college friends with her, who was shamelessly hitting on Tyler, not seeming to care that he was easily several years younger than her.
Adele wrapped her arm through Alexander’s yet again. He was getting ready to lose his mind when Carol shot him a questioning look.
“Adele, how many times must I tell you? Get your hands off me.” Alexander reached for Adele’s arms that were clasped around his and rid himself of her touch.
He signaled the bartender for another drink and saw a familiar silhouette walking away from the bar. He was seeing Olivia everywhere lately. Everyone with dark hair seemed to be her. He felt bad for not contacting her since Thursday, but he just needed some time to figure out what to do about that letter.
“So Alex, how’s everything at the company going?” David asked.
“Pretty good. We’re getting into air escorts and drone technology now. Still being contracted to train civilian forces overseas. Private security business is booming,” he winked. “And there’s still the domestic protection details we do. I have a new batch of recruits that start their training on Monday, so I need to go down to base camp for their first day.”
“Good. Glad to hear it’s all going well.”
“And anytime you want to retire from civil service, there’s a job waiting for you, man.”
“Thanks for the offer, Alex. But I’ll stick to homicide, if you don’t mind.” The men laughed. David had worked extremely hard to become a homicide detective. He had dreamed of that job nearly his entire life.
“Come on, Alex. Let’s go dance,” Adele whined, grabbing Alexander around the waist.
“Adele, I didn’t come here to dance with you. I came here to spend some time with my family, which you will never become part of. If you want to dance, there is absolutely nothing stopping you.” He gestured to the dance floor, signaling that Adele should go, when he stopped dead in his tracks.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Olivia and Kiera were on the dance floor. He watched as Olivia danced with a tall muscular man, her back to his front, her hips moving to the driving beat of the music in such a way that he felt himself immediately harden.
Olivia was enjoying the dance with Collin. He had been respectful of her boundaries and didn’t try to touch her too much. All of a sudden, Collin grabbed her hair and pulled her head to the side, exposing her neck. Olivia gasped in shock as his other hand roamed her body from her waist up to her chest.
“Collin,” Olivia whimpered as he kissed her neck. She immediately turned around to face him. “Look, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea. I’m just not interested in you that way. Maybe if it was a few weeks ago, I’d probably take you back to my hotel room right now and fuck you…”
Collin’s eyes grew wide. He pushed Olivia against the wall, crushing his mouth on hers as she fought against him, unable to finish her sentence.
Alexander felt his face flush with anger and rage. He slammed his drink down on the bar and rushed across the dance floor to the far corner where some guy had Olivia pinned against the wall.
Olivia pushed repeatedly against Collin, thinking how shitty her luck had been lately. She pushed one last time and Collin went flying to the side. She couldn’t believe her own strength for a minute until she saw that familiar silhouette standing over her.
“What the fuck, man?” Collin exclaimed angrily.
“Do not mess with me, man,” Alexander retorted.
“Whatever,” Collin said, walking away. “Bitch isn’t worth it.”
“What did you say?” Alexander roared, his voice easily heard over the loud music. Olivia stood motionless, having trouble comprehending what was happening.
The two men stood glaring at each other. Kiera slid up to Olivia’s side to watch the spectacle. “This is a dick waving contest, isn’t it?” she whispered into Olivia’s ear. Olivia hushed her friend, not wanting to miss anything.
“I said, the bitch isn’t worth it,” Collin repeated.
“First off, she is not a bitch. She is one of the most precious people to me. And second, she is absolutely worth it. She is worth every ounce of every effort anyone could give to her.”
Alexander’s eyes met Olivia’s and he could tell she was confused.
“Then why was she here dancing with me? Obviously she’s not satisfied with you.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia saw a tall, skinny blonde stroll up to Alexander. Kiera elbowed Olivia in her side and they shared a knowing look. This is definitely getting interesting, Olivia thought.
“Alex, darling. Please. No need to fight for my honor tonight. I know you love me. Let’s just go back to our family and enjoy our evening together.”
Alexander heard Adele’s words and he looked over into Olivia’s eyes. Adele’s eyes followed where he was looking, stunned at what she saw. She remembered those eyes, but it wasn’t her. Olivia DeLuca was killed years ago. It was just an uncanny resemblance.
Alexander noticed that Adele was staring at Olivia and he worried about what she would say. Instead of putting up a fight, he retreated back to the bar, following Adele. Olivia’s heart sank as she watched him walk away with her, his hand on the small of her back.
Tears threatened to fall down Olivia’s cheeks. Kiera looked at her friend and saw how upset she was. “Men. Such jerks.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, attempting to regain her composure.
A man who Olivia recognized as one of the guys Kiera had been dancing with that evening approached the two women.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked Olivia.
“Yes, thank you. I’m fine.”
“Libby, this is Matt,” Kiera said, introducing the smiling blond man standing to her left.
“Nice to meet you, Matt,” Olivia said, shaking his hand before turning back to Kiera. “Listen, I’m going to head back to the room. I’ve had enough excitement for one evening. But you stay here, okay?” She knew Kiera was having fun dancing with Matt and she didn’t want to be the one to rip her away from her good time.
Kiera looked at Olivia. “Are you sure? I can come back with you. We can order room service and a ridiculously expensive bottle of champagne and bitch about how much of an ass Alexander Burnham is.” Kiera laughed.
“No. You have fun. You deserve it. And don’t worry about me. I just need to be alone for a little bit.”
Olivia left before Kiera could respond, quickly retreating from the dance floor, past the bar, and out the front doors of the club into the busy casino.
She was nearly at the elevators leading to her room when she heard a voice shouting. “Olivia! Wait!” She stopped in her tracks, refusing to turn around. She didn’t know if she could look into those eyes again. Those eyes that once held such promise for her own future. Those eyes that she had become so accustomed to in just a week. Those eyes that remained the same, even when they were lying to her.
“Please. Olivia, Love…”
“Do not call me that,” Olivia hissed as she spun around. “You lost that right, Alexander. I only ask for one thing out of people. The truth. And, well, I know it never came up, but you could have told me you were already fucking someone else.”
“Olivia, please. Adele doesn’t mean anything to me. She never has. We’ve known each other nearly our entire lives and she was more of a distraction for me than anything serious.” Alexander moved toward Olivia. She held up her hand and took a step back, wanting to keep her distance from him.
“So, is that what I was, Alexander?” she asked quietly, her voice full of pain. “A distraction? I thought I meant more to you than that. I actually believed…” Olivia looked into his eyes, her own eyes brimming with tears. “I actually thought I could get close to you, something I have trouble doing. And this is what happens. I get hurt. You ripped my fucking heart out and stomped on it. I saw those god damn pictures all over the internet of you and her. And I was actually worried something happened to you and that’s why you weren’t responding to any of my texts. Stupid me. You were off getting fucked by some blonde bimbo who probably has more plastic in her body than anything else.”
“Olivia, please. It wasn’t like that. She found me yesterday morning and invited me to a thing her parents were putting on at the country club and I agreed to go. And tonight was just supposed to be me and my brother and sister and her husband. Adele found us and just attached herself to our small little party.”
Olivia thought about his explanation. Some of the things she had read about Adele made Alexander’s story plausible. She was noted for being a gold digger, looking for a rich husband to marry, her father having lost a big chunk of his fortune in the recent recession. But one thing just didn’t make sense to Olivia.
“If that’s true, why did you follow her back? Why didn’t you tell her you didn’t love her? Why did you just stare at me, afraid someone would find out that I was your dirty little secret?”
Alexander opened his mouth, wanting to calm her fears, but was unsure of what to say. He closed his mouth, hoping to formulate his thoughts. A few brief moments passed and he offered no explanation.
“That’s what I thought,” Olivia said, spinning on her heels and walking away from him into a waiting elevator car.
CHAPTER TWENTY
HELPLESS
“LIBS, you’d probably feel better if you talked about last night,” Kiera said, interrupting the dead silence in the car as they drove back to Boston the following morning.
“I’d rather not,” Olivia replied dryly.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m just going to get back to the city and try to forget that Alexander Burnham even exists. Now you know why I don’t date. It’s not worth the heartache. It’s not worth this totally helpless feeling I have right now.”
Kiera looked at her friend briefly before returning her eyes to the road. “You’re only helpless when your nails are drying and even then I’m sure you could still pull the trigger if you had to.”
Olivia couldn’t help but laugh. “You spend far too much time on Pinterest looking at all those e-cards. You know that, right?” Kiera always knew how to lighten a tense situation.
A few moments passed before Kiera spoke again. “But seriously. What do you think you’re going to do? Has he tried to call you or anything?”
“Yeah. He has. I have about ten missed calls from him, a few voicemails, and a shit ton of texts. I just can’t bring myself to listen or read or anything.”
“Well, maybe you should. I mean, maybe closure is something you need here.”
“I got enough closure last night when he couldn’t come up with one simple explanation of why he chose to follow Bombshell Barbie back to the bar instead of stay with me. It was like last week was one big act for him to try to get in my pants or something.”
“Did you sleep with him? You didn’t tell me that!” Kiera exclaimed.
“No!” Olivia shouted. “That’s the thing. We didn’t even sleep together. We fooled around a few times. Wednesday night when he took me home and I was all drunk, he barely even laid a hand on me. Hell, I grabbed his hand and made him feel me up, but he felt like he was taking advantage of me because I was pretty far gone. He helped me get into my PJs since I was too wasted to even attempt it, but he was so sweet about it. It’s almost like there’s two sides to him. He can be rather forceful when he wants to be, but also sweet and caring.”
“How so?” Kiera asked. “I see the way he looks at you and I’d give anything to have a guy look at me that way. Even last night. The heat between you guys was palpable.” She fanned herself, making Olivia smile before her serious expression returned.
“Well, I didn’t want to tell you,” Olivia said, glancing over at her friend. “But I’ve been having those nightmares again. They’re more clear now than they’ve ever been. And I see the person who pulled me out of the car. It’s a boy who probably wasn’t that much older than I was at the time, and he has those same green eyes as Alexander.”
“Have you spoken to Dr. Greenstein about these dreams?” Kiera asked.
“Not yet. I mean, it’s on my list of things to bring up with her, but we’re still kind of playing catch up.
” Olivia fidgeted in her seat, hating to talk about her ongoing need to see a therapist with anyone, including Kiera.
“Did you have that dream when Alexander stayed over?”
“I did. And that night it changed again. The boy with the green eyes pulled me from the car, just like he had been doing. And he placed me in another car and then I saw someone come up behind him and hit him on the back of his head with a gun, knocking him out. I woke up screaming. And Alexander was so sweet during the whole thing. He jumped out of bed and turned on the lights and just held me for like hours it seems like.”
“Aww. I mean, he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t care about you.”
“I know. And that’s the part I’m struggling with. It’s like he was a totally different person this past week than the person I saw at the bar last night. It’s almost as if he’s hiding something from me. I don’t for a second believe that he and Adele are in a relationship. I mean, there are photos online of the two of them, but the dates are so random. If they were dating, there would be a lot more photos, ya know?”
“Exactly. So why are you ignoring his calls?”
“I want him to be honest with me,” Olivia exhaled. “I don’t want him to keep things from me. There was some reason that he wanted to get as far away from me as possible last night at the bar. And I want to know what it is. And until he comes clean, he can fuck off for all I care.” Olivia crossed her arms in front of her body and looked out the window to see the Boston skyline appear in the distance. She was happy to be getting closer to home.
“Are you sure you’re not just using this as an excuse to push him away?” Kiera asked quietly.
Olivia opened her mouth, surprised at her friend. She closed it quickly, knowing Kiera was probably right. Olivia was looking for a reason to push Alexander away. She was scared at how close they had gotten over the past week. And pushing him away seemed like a good idea, if only to save her the heartache.
~~~~~~~~~~