No Reason to Run (15 page)

Chapter 25

Olivia stared at
Brian unable to believe the words coming from his mouth. She took a careful
step back unwilling to let him pin her in the alcove of the coffee shop. At
least, she had the reassuring presence of Striker two tables away. Anyone that
lingered too long received a narrow eyed stare that led to a scurry toward the
glass door exit. Striker didn’t blend in much despite the fact he held a
colorful coffee cup loosely in his hand. It was impossible for such a large man
with his noticeable scars to blend in a town like Harmony. Although, Olivia
gave him points for style. Legs crossed at the ankle, a folded magazine in
front of him, he
almost
passed for your average customer.

“Are you listening
to me, Olivia? This has always been our problem.”

Brian paced two
steps away and then came back to stand in front of her. “All you have to do is
sign the papers.” His hand extended in her direction but Olivia made no effort
to reach for them.

As usual, when
frustrated, his face darkened. She’d never seen her ex this flustered in
public. Senator Brian O’Donnell exuded placid calm in the storm. People loved
it and large audiences ate it up. Today, his blond hair was mussed, the navy
patterned tie loosened and his suit jacket actually appeared to be rumpled. His
personal stylist would have a fit if the woman could see him now.

“I really want to
read over them, Brian, and now isn’t the time. Let me take them and I promise
I’ll get them back to you.”

“I need them now.
Are you stupid?” He snapped. “I’m in the middle of preparing for a speech in
two days and I don’t need this hanging over my head. Just sign the damn
papers.”

Olivia shivered.
Brian O’Donnell reduced to profanity was a sight. Wouldn’t his voters be
pleased to see this side of him. “I’m not signing anything I haven’t read.”
Which she’d told him three times already.

He glared at her and
leaned close to her face to whisper the next words. “I’ve never asked you for
anything, Olivia. The sooner you sign this the sooner we can put the
inconvenient matter behind us. Why won’t you trust me when I tell you it’s a
simple non-disclosure?”

Olivia laughed. She
couldn’t help it. “Why won’t you trust me when I say I won’t discuss a word of
what I saw that day?”

His eyes widened as
if amazed she’d ask. And that was typical of Brian. Always quick to point out
matters to others but never able to make the connection with his own flawed
values. She watched his face carefully and right before her eyes he became the
charming senator. The man people eagerly waited to hear speak. His charismatic
voice carrying with no effort on his part, those blue eyes glowing with
sincerity and that self-deprecating grin that sucked them right in. Born to be
a politician, she’d often thought.

“It isn’t about you
or me, Olivia.” He pasted a cajoling smile on his face but Olivia had immunity.
“I have to have a binding agreement in place to protect me. You understand all
of this. I know you haven’t forgotten how devious the media can be?”

Olivia forced a
calming breath. The few patrons in the coffee shop started to stare in their
direction. Brian hadn’t come with his security detail but it wouldn’t be long
before someone recognized him. It amazed her that he’d showed alone to begin
with.

“Is that what this
has all been about?”

He rolled his eyes
and gave her a patronizing look. One she’d grown to detest. “Now, I have no
idea what you’re talking about. You’ll have to be more specific.”

She wouldn’t snap.
He couldn’t make her feel stupid unless she let him. “The men, Brian. You sent
those men after me and Chloe. How could you?” The more she thought of it the
angrier she became. After all this time, he couldn’t be honest with her even
about this.

“Olivia,” Brian
spoke her name with utmost patience and she felt her cheeks flush. “I don’t
know what you’re talking about and frankly I don’t care.” His blond brow
arched. “If you’re finished with your histrionics let’s focus on what’s
important.”

Olivia had enough.
There was no talking to him. “I’m leaving, Brian.”

Putting action to
words, Olivia turned. His hand snapped out and grabbed her arm. Striker lowered
his coffee with a frown and leaned forward in his chair. Olivia shook her head,
hoping he’d listen. In minutes this would be over and Brian would leave.

“Take the damn
papers, Olivia. I want them back tomorrow. I don’t care if I have to make
another trip to this backwoods town you seem to like.” Brian’s hand tightened,
squeezing her skin before he dropped it with a look of disgust and once again
handed her the papers.

Olivia reached for
them and controlled her nerves by fiddling with the edges. “I’ll call you
tomorrow, Brian.”

He huffed and
stormed to the door drawing more stares. Customers whispered with one another
but Striker distracted her when he stood to his formidable height. He hustled
her from the coffee shop. Anger rolled from him in waves as he used his hand to
hold the door for her and pushed on her lower back with the other.

“What’s wrong,
Striker?”

“Shane’s gonna fuck
me over for letting O’Donnell hurt you.”

Olivia skipped to
keep up with his brisk steps to the truck. “What? I’m not hurt.”

Striker held the
passenger door open for her and lifted his chin toward her arms. Always quick
to bruise, the red blotches caught Olivia off guard. She climbed in the SUV
while staring. Now that she saw them, she felt the residual throb of pain.
“Crap.”

“My feelings exactly
albeit toned down.” His lips curled down in a fierce frown and Olivia sensed
more than his anger at a few bruises that would probably fade long before the
week was out. Her skin was just delicate as evident by the blushes she couldn’t
stop around Shane.

The ride to Shane’s
was made in silence. As soon as Striker’s truck pulled into the driveway, Shane
opened the door and headed down the walkway. From the corner of her eyes,
Striker stiffened and exited the vehicle behind her.

“What happened?” The
scent of smoke wafted from him.

Striker answered
before Olivia could part her lips. “He gave her papers to sign. Grabbed her arm
and left fingerprints.”

Shane turned to
Olivia and reached for her arm. She had the childish urge to tuck them behind
her back but his look did not encourage play. “It’s nothing, Shane.” He
searched her arm and grunted at the small reddened ovals. They’d turn purple by
evening then sickly green by morning.

“It would be easier
on everyone involved if you let me shoot him.” With those words, he dropped her
arm and headed back to the house.

Was he kidding?
“Shane.” He never turned and the door closed behind him with a solid thud.

Olivia started to
follow. Striker gripped her shoulder halting her flight. His palm warm through
her shirt. “Give him a minute. None of us like seeing a woman hurt. Not being
able to retaliate is a shit pill for any man to swallow.”

She hurried to go
into the house but Striker continued. “We might, however, have to tie Vik down
to keep him from finding your ex and solving things his own way.”

“What?” This was way
out her league. She wanted to grab Chloe and run.

“Vik hates abusers
with a passion. He sees your arm, he’ll flip faster than Shane.”

Olivia entered the
house with Striker’s words in her ear. Shane stood at the kitchen counter. As
soon as he saw them, he announced, “I need a smoke. Let me know when Aidan gets
here. I’ll be out back.”

Olivia waited for
him to make eye contact but Shane never looked up as he did a fast exit. Vik
glanced up at them, nothing stopping him from the apples he diced in a bowl
with a kitchen knife. Chloe sat across from him eating the cubed pieces as fast
as he could cut them. “What happened?”

Striker leaned
against a wall and lifted his chin in Chloe’s direction. Once Vik nodded,
Striker answered. “He gave her some papers. Made a grab at her arm and left
prints.”

The knife in Vik’s
hand paused for the first time. A line creased his brow. He focused on Olivia
but asked Striker. “She hurt?”

“Some bruising.”

Olivia started to
protest the conversation taking place as if she didn’t stand several feet away
but Chloe smacked a fist on the counter and said something to Vik. He responded
in the lyrical language Olivia still hadn’t placed and resumed cutting apples
for her daughter. “What did she say?”

“More,” Vik answered
as if it was no big deal.

Olivia stared. “In
what language?”

“Russian.”

Russian.
He
spent his little time with Chloe and managed to teach her Russian.

“She’s a quick
learner,” he added. “Da?” He tugged on one of Chloe’s curls and her daughter
smiled.

“Da.”

The doorbell
interrupted Olivia’s fascination. Striker left them in the kitchen to answer.
Olivia’s gaze was drawn to the sliding doors leading to the back. She and Shane
needed to talk. “I’ll be back.”

“Wait.”

But Olivia had no
intention of letting Vik stop her. Knowing Chloe was in good hands, Olivia
dashed through the glass doors and slid it shut behind her. Shane stood at the
bottom of the deck a cigarette loosely held in his left hand, his right braced
on the deck railing.

With those stormy
eyes on her, Olivia halted at the top of the deck. This was the first time
she’d seen him smoke. Was it a new habit? When he made no move to speak first,
she walked down slowly until she stood one step above him. She looked up to
meet his gaze. “We should talk.”

“Now, isn’t a good
time, princess.”

So she was back to
princess. Fine. “Brian’s not what people see.” She wanted him to understand
that her ex had no place in her life. She couldn’t let Brian’s actions dictate
how she felt.

Shane tossed his cigarette
to the ground and crushed it under the heel of his boot. He blew a stream of
smoke upward and nodded his dark head at her arms. “He’s exactly what I see. A
fuck who likes to put his hands on women.”

Olivia lifted her
arm and checked out the mottled bruises. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“He the reason you
jump when I move too fast toward you.”

Olivia huffed out a
breath and sat on the step. She needed to sit for this conversation. “That in
itself is a whole other story. I’m not afraid of Brian or I wasn’t. Well, not
physically and until today he’d never done anything more than yell at me during
arguments. Chloe hates yelling.” Olivia stared across the yard and wondered
where the best place to start. When she’d left home a determined angry teen at eighteen?
Or when she’d been naïve and full of hope thinking her marriage to an upcoming
politician would solve her problems and feelings of self-worth.

Shane propped a leg
up next to her hip and used a knee to nudge her thigh. “You gonna tell me the
story or reminisce about Senator O’Donnell.”

She snorted and
stuck her tongue out at him. “I promise I’m not doing that. Trying to figure
out where to start.”

“The beginning is
usually a good place.”

She shaded her eyes
and faced him. “Maybe you should sit next to me and keep me from straining my
neck while we talk.”

Shane remained
standing leaving Olivia no choice but to press forward. She started with her
teen years. Her father and his quick fist, her mother and her lack of defense,
Olivia told it all. The desperation which drove her to leave for college right
after high school graduation and her subsequent marriage. When she finished,
Shane brushed his thumb across her cheek. Her head tipped up and she scrubbed
frantically at the tears.

She huffed out a
laugh. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. It’s been years.”

“Maybe you needed
it.” He slid his hands under her arms and pulled her to her feet. Their bodies
brushed chest to chest. Her hands landed on his shoulders and the smell of
cigarettes wafted on the breeze.

Olivia snuggled into
his chest. She didn’t want to dwell on her past. A subject change was needed.
“I didn’t know you smoked.”

Shane cocked a hip
to the side and shifted his weight placing his back to the railing and wrapped
her firmly in his arms. His warm embrace felt good.

“Vik had an extra
pack.”

“He smokes?” The
dangerous man in the kitchen entertaining her daughter didn’t look like he’d
foul his body with any chemical product.

“Not in years but he
carries a pack around.” Shane laughed and stared at the butt. “I quit, too.”

Quiet settled
between them until Olivia braved the nerve to say. “This is all happening
really fast. I don’t know what’s going on between us.” Her growing feelings for
him weren’t casual.

He placed his chin
on her shoulder. “I don’t either.”

Shane’s admission
relaxed her further. The renewed silence soothed in a way she’d never
experienced. With her head resting against his chest, Olivia closed her eyes
and let go of the tension meeting with Brian caused. The solid thump of Shane’s
heart lulled her into a sense of complacency. He radiated quiet strength which
led to her next question. “What’s going to happen next?”

His chest rose on a
deep inhale beneath her head. “You’re gonna come back.”

“What?” She tipped
her head up but his rough palm pushed her head back down.

“Like I was saying.”
Olivia smiled as he continued. “You’re gonna take care of this business with
your ex and come back.”

She stretched her
hands around his waist and slid them in his back pockets. The move felt like
the most natural thing to do. “You want Chloe and I to come back?” She met his
eyes.

Shane stared hard.
“Are you confused about what I’m asking?”

Olivia muffled her
laugh in his shirt. No, she wasn’t. His annoyance shifted her feelings of
confusion to giddy happiness. As unlikely as it seemed, good fortune might
actually smile down on her once with a man.