“Olivia?” I look up and come face to face with green eyes I wasn’t sure I’d ever see again. I throw myself into Victor’s arms. He catches me, lifting me bridal style to carry me, and turns. All the nausea and lightheadedness I’ve been fighting comes rushing back.
I place my hand on his jaw, loving the way his beard feels against my palm. He’s moving quickly. Where I’m not sure and I don’t want to take my eyes off him to look around. “I never thought I’d see you again,” I whisper. I close my eyes and finally allow myself to succumb to the absolute exhaustion pulling at my mind and body.
Chapter seventy-seven
Victor
Everyone is at my house. The Outsiders, Olivia’s friends, mine too, according to her, and the FBI. A doctor has come to check on Olivia. She’s hooked up to an IV to help her with dehydration. He said whoever did her stitches knew what they were doing because they’re beautiful. I still don’t know who that is because she’s still sleeping. When she passed out, my entire body lost feeling because I thought she had died in my arms. I almost dropped her, but Connor was there and stepped in so I could lean on him.
That’s when I realized she was still breathing and still very much alive. The doctor came in and checked her. He said she’s fine, but the day’s events caught up with her, and her body couldn’t handle it anymore. So, she’s asleep in our bedroom. Everyone is downstairs talking about what happened today. Irefuse to leave Olivia’s side, so I told them if they needed me, they knew where to find me.
There’s a light knock on the open door. I turn my head toward the door to see Ansley and Lincoln standing there. “I brought you a cup of coffee,” Ansley says. She steps in and hands it to me.
“Thank you.” I take a sip and hum. I needed this. “How’s your eye?” I ask Lincoln. He touches the nasty bruise that surrounds his eye gingerly and shrugs.
“It’s alright. I’m still not sure how it happened. It must have been when that beam came down. I grabbed Liv and her arm got cut.” He shrugs again. “How are you doing?” he asks.
When I glance back at Olivia, my gut churns, looking at how helpless she seems. There are dark circles under her eyes and she’s even paler than she usually is. I look back at Lincoln.
“I’m relieved Donovan is dead, but I want to know who took her and why. I’m ready for her to wake up, so I can find out.”
“She may not be up for questions when she wakes up,” Ansley says softly. I smile at her, appreciating the protectiveness I hear in her voice.
“I promise I won’t bombard her,” I assure her. “Anything going on downstairs?” They step further into the room and exchange looks.
“Malachi says Donovan was working with that woman, Alice Brighton, and that is who probably took Liv,” Lincoln says, keeping his voice low so he doesn’t disturb Olivia. I lean back in the chair and nod, remembering Malachi telling me about that. “Arden seemed to know some about this woman too. He’s making some calls and said he’d give you an update soon.”
“Arden is here? How’s Leo doing?” I stand, willing to leave Olivia for a few minutes to go check on Leo. Ansley and Lincoln exchange looks again.
“I’m sorry, man. He didn’t make it.” I stare at Lincoln, his words taking several moments to click in my brain. I turn awayfrom them and rub my hands over my head. My throat gets tight as emotions swell in my chest.Fuck!
“Tell Arden I want to see him as soon as he’s done making his phone calls,” I say, not turning around.
“Of course,” Ansley whispers. “We’ll leave you alone for a few minutes. Just text us if you need something.”
I don’t respond, but hear their retreating steps. Once I’m sure they’re gone, I walk to the door and close it. I’d like to slam it, but I restrain myself. My shoulders shake as I try to suppress the emotions I’m not ready to deal with yet.
“Victor?”
I turn so quickly it makes me dizzy, but that doesn’t stop me from rushing over to the bed and sitting beside Olivia. Her piercing blue eyes are gazing up at me. I cup her face and kiss her softly. “Treasure,” I whisper reverently.
She brings one hand up and rubs my jaw. I close my eyes and lean into her touch. The emotions I’m trying to suppress erupt and a tear escapes. Olivia wipes it away with her thumb. “What’s wrong?” she asks.
The news of Leo is going to devastate her. They were close.
“I was worried about you,” I tell her instead, which isn’t a lie. After everything that happened today, I’m surprised I’m holding it together as well as I am. “Seeing you awake…”
“I know.” Her voice is rough, so I lean over and grab the glass of water I brought up for when she woke up. “Running into you was like an answered prayer. I thought they were going to kill me.” I help her sit up so she can take some sips of water. She studies me, her eyes taking in my face. “What happened?”
“Olivia, maybe we should wait until—”
“No,” she cuts me off. “I want to know everything, then I’ll tell you what happened to me.” She hands me the glass back to put on the nightstand. I take a deep breath and nod.
“Okay, but let me get the doctor up here to check you out first and if you’re feeling up to it, we’ll go downstairs with everyone else to talk.”
She sighs, but nods. I call the doctor, even though he’s downstairs, but I’m not leaving Olivia. He comes up and I lean against the dresser to watch. He goes through various questions, then examines her arm.
“Who did the stitches?”
