Southern Comfort

by Natasha Madison

  “I’m waiting for them to place him, and then I’ll get eyes on him,” he says. “According to what I can find out, it looks like he was hired by Dominic to get to Olivia. Dude, this guy has nothing but bad news written all over him.”

  “Jesus fuck, why the fuck would he want to take her out when she knows nothing?” I ask.

  “I can’t answer that,” he says, “but I’m trying to find out.”

  “Let me know if anything changes, and I want only you working on this. I also want more eyes on my house. This guy literally walked up to my house, and nothing was triggered.”

  “He found the wires,” Derek says. “There is a feed of him arriving today, finding the one wire, and snipping it.”

  “Well, you know what that means. We need to get some wires that are triggered when cut,” I say, and I feel the headache coming on.

  “On it,” he says and disconnects. The door opens, and Jacob comes out.

  “Everything okay?” he asks as I put my phone away.

  “No,” I answer him. “Nothing about this is okay. Something isn’t adding up,” I say. Olivia’s door opens again, and Kallie steps out into the hallway.

  “Did she eat?” I ask, and she nods.

  “Just a bit, but then she threw up,” she says. I’m about to charge into the room, but then she adds, “The nurse said it’s normal.” I look into the room now and see she is turned on her side. Her eyes are closed again, and my heart speeds up, thinking that it’s too soon for her to go to sleep. She should stay awake a little longer. I see the nurse writing something in her chart.

  “Casey.” Kallie draws my attention back to her. “You need to relax a bit.”

  “I am relaxed,” I lie to her, and she just rolls her eyes. “Listen, she lives in my house. I just want to make sure she is okay. All this happened on my property, so it’s my responsibility.”

  “Is that what you're telling yourself?” Kallie says, trying to hide the smile on her face. “We are going to go to the cafeteria and get some coffee. Do you want anything?”

  “No,” I say as I walk past them to enter the room. The nurse looks over at me and puts her finger to her lips.

  “She was tired,” she whispers. “Push the button if you need anything.” She walks out quietly. I walk over to the bed where she’s lying on her side. I sit in the chair watching her, and it finally dawns on me the danger that she was in. It finally dawns on me that she could have lost her life today. Everything that Derek told me makes this even more real. He would have killed her without a second thought. And then what? I would have gotten strands of her hair for the rest of my life. I watch her chest rise and fall, trying not to think of the look on her face when I walked into the media room. Seeing a gun pointed right at her face and all the fear that was etched on it. I try to block out how when she fell, my heart literally stopped beating. She moans, then her eyes flutter open, and she looks at me. “You okay?” I ask, leaning in.

  “Yeah,” she whispers and then looks away from me. “You don’t have to stay here, Casey.”

  I try not to let her words cut me. Maybe she doesn’t want me here. “I am not here because I have to be here.” I lean in, putting my elbows on my knees. “I’m here because I want to be here.”

  I’m expecting her to fight me on this, but she doesn’t. Instead, she just closes her eyes again. “I just want to go home.” She takes a deep breath. “Just want it over with.”

  “As soon as the doctor gives you the okay, we’ll get you home,” I say. Reaching out, I take her hand in mine, and I don’t care. The need to feel her heat run through me is something bigger than I can say or admit. “You know Mom is going to be cooking until the sun comes up.”

  She doesn’t pull her hand away from me. “I’m sorry, Casey,” she says again.

  “Sorry for what, darlin’?” I ask. Leaning over the bed, I wipe away the tear rolling down the side of her face with my thumb. Her beautiful face, her blue beautiful eyes dark with worry and fear, instead of light with happiness.

  “I’m sorry that I brought all this to your farm,” she says. “I’m sorry that all of this is happening. I shouldn’t have come here.”

  “None of this is your fault,” I tell her, hoping she hears me. “Not one thing that happened today is your fault.”

  She shakes her head. “What if your mom was over?” she says with a sob. “What if your father got hurt instead of me?” She shakes her head. “What if he shot you?”

  Her words echo in my head. “Were you the one holding the gun?” She looks at me. “Were you the one who broke into my house? No,” I tell her, hoping she understands me. “None of this is your fault, so get that thought out of your head.” I’m about to lean in to kiss her just to taste her and feel that she’s okay, but the door opens and Kallie walks in.

  “Guess what I found?” she says, smiling. “Tea.”

  Olivia moves her hand out of mine and turns to sit up. All I can do is sit here hoping that I’m still standing at the end of this.

  Chapter Seven

  Olivia

  I want nothing more in the whole world than for this mess to go away so I can just be a normal fucking person. Just for once, I want to be the normal person who works, meets a man, and then falls in love. I want the white picket fence, and maybe, one day I’ll get to be a mom.

  I mean, it’s not like I had any good role models growing up. My mother was … well, she’s a bitch. She lived through me my whole life. Almost like I was a show monkey that she would parade beside. I shake my head when the tears pinch my nose. The door opens, and the nurse comes in. “Well, don’t you look better.”

  “I feel okay,” I tell her. I hear Casey exhale a huge breath beside me, but I don’t look at him. I can’t look at him. I’m afraid the minute I look at him, I’m going to sob like a baby and ask him to hold me. Since I’ve been here, he has given me more hugs than I can count. I feel safe in his arms and know that no matter what happens, I will be okay. He doesn’t give those fake side hugs like everyone else I know. Nope, not with Casey. I’ve been on the runway more times than I care to admit with models who have chiseled faces and perfect bodies, yet this man with a little stubble on his face, his piercing blue eyes, and dirty blond hair … he’s what perfect is.

  “Well, it looks like you can go home,” she says. I almost clap my hands, but I’m afraid my head would throb. “How is the head?”

  “I have a headache.” I’m honest with her. “At least … it feels like a headache.”

  “That’s normal,” she says, and I smile at her. “If it gets worse, or you have trouble keeping your eyes open, you need to come back. Now I need to know that you will have someone with you to help you.”

  I’m about to tell her that I’m leaving as soon as I get to Casey’s house and pack my stuff. I’ll go stay in a hotel and hire a nurse if I have to. “She’s with me. I’ll check on her.”

  The nurse smiles at me and then turns to Casey. “She should be woken up every two hours. Just make sure she is coherent and stays hydrated.”

  He gives the nurse the smirk that I’m sure makes all the girls go crazy. “I can do that.” She walks past him out of the room.

  Kallie looks at me, then looks at Casey. “Why don’t you go get the truck?” She hands him the keys and pushes him out.

  “Make sure she uses a wheelchair,” he says right before she closes the door on him, shaking her head. But he just knocks, and I have to laugh when I look over and see his face pressed to the little window. “Wheelchair,” he says. Kallie sticks up her middle finger at him. He looks at me, smiling, and just like that, he’s gone.

  “Okay, missy,” she says, coming over to the bed and sitting down beside me. “I need you to promise me that you aren’t going to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night.” I look down at my hands.

  “I’m not kidding.” When her voice goes low, I look over at her, and she has tears running down her face. She’s been my best friend and as close to a sister as I have
ever had. I would do anything for her, and I know she would do anything for me, which is why we’re back in the town she ran away from eight years ago.

  “Olivia.” When she presses for an answer, I swear all my words are stuck in my throat. Knowing she put aside her heartache to come back to this town for me is everything, and I could never repay her for it.

  She takes my hand in hers. “You know, if we don’t get out of here, Casey is probably going to drive the truck in here.”

  I nod at her, getting up, slipping off the hospital gown that they made me change into when I threw up to put my clothes back on. “I don’t think I could ever repay you.”

  “What are you talking about now?” Kallie looks at me.

  “For all this. I don’t …” The sob comes out, and she comes over to me, holding my face in her hands.

  “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have the love of my life back,” she says. “If it wasn’t for you, I would still be existing and not living life.” She wipes my tears away with her thumbs, just like her brother did not too long ago. “I should be the one thanking you.”

  She’s about to say something else when my phone rings in her pocket, and after she looks at the screen, she shows me it’s Casey. Putting it on speaker, she doesn’t even have time to say anything before he barks out, “What’s taking you so long? Is she okay? Does she want me to come in and carry her out?” I smile at the sound of his voice. I have no choice.

  “Relax there, cowboy. I’m changing my clothes. We’ll be right out,” I say. Taking the phone from her, I hang up on him when he starts issuing orders about the nurse and the wheelchair. “Is he always like this?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

  “Never,” she says, and I’m afraid to ask her what she means. The door opens and the nurse comes in with the wheelchair. “We just got a call at the nurses’ desk about you needing a wheelchair.” She tries to hide her smile, pretending she’s annoyed, but I can see it written all over her face. She is another one who has fallen for Casey’s charms.

  I roll my eyes and shake my head as I go take a seat in the chair. She wheels me out, and I see him leaning against the truck with one foot up. He’s wearing blue Levi’s with his white T-shirt. He looks to the side, and I have a second where I watch him. He must sense that I’m watching him because he turns and looks at me, his whole face lights up with a smile.

  “There you are,” he says with his Southern accent, making my stomach flip. He holds out a hand for me, and I take it, expecting him to hold my hand while I get in the truck, but instead, he picks me up like a baby and places me in the front seat. I’m so shocked I have nothing to say while he buckles me in and then closes the door. Walking over to the nurse, he kisses her on the cheek, making her blush. “Now you bring your granddaughter over to the farm, and we’ll get her riding some horses.”

  “Will do,” she says, turning to walk back into the hospital with the empty wheelchair. Kallie gets into the truck.

  “He’s lost his mind,” I say as she fastens her seat belt. I watch him walk around the truck and get in.

  “Shall we go home?” he asks. I want to tell him that my home is in Los Angeles, but I just nod. I look out the window into the dark night as he makes his way home. When we pull up to his house, all the lights are on, and his parents are sitting on the porch waiting for us.

  “What a shocker,” Kallie says from the back and gets out of the truck. I reach for the handle, but the door is being opened by Billy.

  “Hey there, pretty girl.” He puts out his hand to help me down, and I take it. I don’t know what to do with all these people around me trying to help. I’ve never had this before.

  He holds my hand, walking with me to the porch where Charlotte stands with tears in her eyes. “I was so worried,” she says, taking me in her arms, and I hug her with the one hand I have available. “Are you hungry?” she asks me.

  “I think I just want a hot shower,” I say. I would actually kill for a bath, but I’m not going to ask Casey to sit in his bathtub. Billy releases my hand, and I walk into the house with Charlotte, her arm around my shoulder. She takes me straight to my bedroom, and I see that the bed has been turned down.

  “I didn’t know if you were hungry or not, so I just left you some water and a couple of muffins by your bed.” She points at the huge basket of muffins and the two water bottles beside my bed. “In case you are too tired to get out of bed.”

  “Thank you so much,” I say, smiling at her. Walking over to the bed, I sit down, not admitting that it took way more energy than I have just to walk into the house. Over the years, she has come to visit maybe once or twice. I knew right away that she was the mom I wanted to be when my time came, whenever it did. A mother who puts her kids first, a mother who nurtures and loves unconditionally. Not just because you won first prize or were selected to walk in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

  “You didn’t have to do that.” She wrings her hands in front of her, looking like she wants to say something, so I take all my remaining strength to get up and go over to her.

  “Are you okay?” She looks at me, and she has tears in her eyes.

  “I’m just …” I want to tell her that I’m sorry that I brought all this to her. “I was so scared that you were going to be hurt.” She blinks, but a tear falls anyway. “But now I see for my own eyes you’re okay.”

  My own tears gather in my eyes when I look at her; this woman, who is as simple as can be, and all she wants is to have her daughter home. My mother, on the other hand, has everything that she can buy at her fingertips, and the last thing she wants is for me to come home.

  “Oh, Charlotte,” I say, hugging her. “Thank you for having me, and I’m so, so sorry,” I finally say out loud. “I’m going to make a couple of phone calls tomorrow. I’ll find somewhere else to go.”

  She looks at me in shock. “You will do no such thing,” she says. “When you finally get settled, we’ll have a family meeting to discuss whatever is going on. But whatever it is, we handle it here.”

  “But I’m not family,” I say, trying not to let the sting hurt so much.

  She puts her hand on mine. “Oh, hush your mouth, silly girl.” She smiles through the tears. “You’re one of us now.” I don’t answer her. Instead, I blink away the tears that are stinging my eyes, and all I hear is my mother’s voice.

  “Tears are a waste, Olivia. No one is going to want such a dramatic woman.”

  “Thank you,” I say, and she gets up.

  “You go take a shower. I’ll send Casey to check on you later.” She walks out of the room.

  Walking over to the drawer, I open it to grab my stuff, then walk into the bathroom. I turn on the lights, but they’re too bright, so I turn them off and make my way through the dark to the shower. With just the little light shining into the bathroom from the room, I undress and step under the hot water. And as it pours over my face, I let the tears fall.

  I sob, wondering how I got myself into this mess. I should have walked away long before Dominic proposed. I shouldn’t have settled, but all I could hear is my mother’s voice.

  “Olivia, you never marry for love. You marry for money; the bigger the wallet, the bigger the happiness. You marry a man who has a private plane, not one who cleans them.”

  I didn’t even love him. I tolerated him. I mean, in the beginning, he treated me like a princess. He took me on these romantic little dates, but then the dates got less romantic and more extravagant. So I would forget the small stuff, like how he sent me flowers every time we went out the first month, and then they just stopped. God, I was so stupid, and now look at where I am. In the middle of the South trying to make sure the people I love don’t get hurt.

  When I get out, it takes everything in me to dry off and put my pjs on. When I open the door, the only light in the room is coming from the little lamp on the nightstand. I walk over to the bed and slide into it. I should tell them I’m okay, but the minute my head hits the pillow, I’m sucked into
sleep.

  The darkness takes over, and I’m suddenly standing in the middle of my apartment. Except it’s vandalized exactly like it was in the pictures that they showed me a couple of weeks ago. I look around and see that our couches are shredded like people thought we were hiding something in them. The stuffing is scattered around it, and the coffee table is tossed over on its side. I look over at the shattered television. Walking over to the kitchen, I see that all the cabinets are open, everything is thrown on the floor, and the fridge is tipped over. When I turn to walk to my bedroom, I stand in the doorway, seeing my stuff on the floor and smashed to bits. The pictures I had on the wall are thrown on the floor, and the walls have holes in them. My bed is flipped over, and the mattress is cut right down the middle. My drawers are all over the floor, and my clothes or whatever is left are scattered. And I can’t forget the red writing on my bedroom wall.

  You’ll get what’s owed to you.

  I hold up my hand to the wall, my fingers reaching out to touch it, but I’m suddenly in Casey’s house. I’m standing in the living room, and the writing is on his wall. His whole house is trashed, as I stand in the middle of it. The front door opens, and when I look over, Dominic comes in, looking at me. “You can’t outrun me this time.” He raises his hand and aims a gun at me and then shoots. The sound of yelling makes my eyes fly open when I realize I’m the one screaming.

  Casey runs into the room, and he has me in his arms before I can take my next breath. I’m gasping for breath and trying to get my heart to slow, but all I can do is sob and cling to Casey while he holds me.

  Chapter Eight

  Casey

  The sound of her screaming makes my blood run cold. Jumping off the couch, I run over to her room and find her thrashing in her bed. “It’s okay,” I say. Her eyes open with a wild look in them. “I got ya, darlin’.” I hold her in my arms as she sobs, clinging to me, then I climb into bed next to her when she finally calms down. “Do you want something to drink?” She just shakes her head but doesn’t move from my arms.