“Thank you for trying to stop it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much that means to me.” Olive sniffs through her emotional appreciation.
Crew turns and starts to walk away before he pivots back to us. “One more thing, I’ll do everything I can to get every cent you gave Marcus back to you.” And with that, he stalks back into the chaos.
My hands find Olive’s shoulders as I set her back a little from me. “I get the impression there’s a lot you need to fill me in on, regarding what’s been happening.”
She grimaces but relents. “Yeah, maybe a few things.”
I can’t even be frustrated because of how relieved I am that she’s safe and with me. And that she doesn’t hate me for being an asshole. She’ll learn in time that she can rely on me to help and care for her. But tonight, all my focus is on getting her out of here so she can rest and recover. If I’m already feeling the adrenaline crash, what she’ll feel soon will be much worse.
I’m about to suggest we find Jack so he can give us a ride to one of our places when he appears next to us.
“Hey, Olive, we haven’t met yet, but I’m Jack. How are you feeling?”
Olive’s smile lacks her usual brightness. “I’m okay, considering. Have you heard anything about my brother?”
“I did. He’s stable and resting. They’re going to want to question him tomorrow, though.”
“Is he going to get in trouble for what he did?” She runs her hand aggressively through her hair, trepidation echoing in her words.
Jack shakes his head sadly. “I don’t know. I wish I had a better answer for you.”
Her distress compresses my heart. I hate that I can’t just make this all go away for her.
Pressing her fingers to her lips, she stares at a group of police officers to our right, then looks back at us and asks, “Am I going to get in trouble?”
“No,” I insist.
At the same time, Jack says, “I don’t know that either.”
I glare at my friend. While I don’t know exactly what happened, I can guess, and I can’t fathom Olive being in trouble for anything she did.
Olive just nods, and her hands drop to her sides. “So what happens now?”
“They would like to ask you some questions down at the station.”
“Okay, can we go now?”
Jack glances at me, and I frown and say, “I’ll call Chris.”
“He’s going to love this,” Jack mumbles with a laugh.
Chris Rivers is one of our good friends who’s an attorney. He helped Jack’s fiancée a while back, despite not actually practicing criminal law anymore. Hopefully, he doesn’t mind helping us out one more time before he retires from criminal law for good. Again.
Chris,Olive, and I settle into the hard, uncomfortable chairs on one side of the interview table as two detectives sit on the other. Crew leans against the wall behind them, his arms crossed. He’s apparently been undercover for two years and was almost ready to wrap up his case and start making arrests before Benny got involved. I’m sure this isn’t how he saw this case ending.
One of the detectives gives Olive a kind smile. “Miss Moore, can you tell us how you came about being in that house tonight?”
After Chris gives her the okay in the form of a curt nod, Olive spends the next fifteen minutes explaining how she knew Marcus from high school and how he called her about Benny owing Tatum money. She tells them about the money she gave and the threats that were made, going into detail about Crew and the guy named Tiny being in her apartment and how she got hurt after finding out Benny was taken from rehab.
When she talks about going to Marcus’s house and Tatum, Tiny, and Crew showing up, I think I might have a coronary from the panic I feel at the realization of how close I was to losing her. The thought makes me physically ill.
If Crew hadn’t been there and Marcus didn’t have a history with Olive that gave him some conscience about her well-being, this entire situation could have ended very differently.
When she’s finished retelling her story, she slumps back in her seat. I squeeze her thigh under the table in support, and her skin is warm when her hand slides on top of mine.
“Did you know your brother was attempting to sell drugs?”
I tense and shift my eyes from Olive to the detective.
