“Why do I need to know this?” I ask, and he laughs.
“Trust me, I would not be telling you this for no reason. He got out, and suddenly, the only witness to the case for murder was missing. Turns out, she still hasn’t been found, but her parents get a letter every year with her hair. That’s how he got his nickname “the barber.” From then on, he became his own contractor. They have him associated with about seventy-two missing witnesses, but nothing sticks to him.”
“Where is he going now?” I ask, looking into the room where Olivia puts down the spoon and leans back in the bed. She is too pale, I think to myself.
“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?”