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But the mere thought... God. What if something had happened to her and I would never have known because the DUIO treated the conditions of its employees as discreet matters?

“No. You know, if there's one thing I absolutely hate, it's those people.”

Of course she knew, because she knew that part of me better than anyone else did.

“I know,” Olivia began calmly, her hand stroking up and down my upper arm. “But I'm fine. The DUIO has accepted me into their advanced training program, and I've never felt better.”

For the first time, our eyes met for several seconds. But she couldn't take away my anger. What took away my anger were the memories of how bad she had had it back then and how she had run after the DUIO. Now she apparently had a good position and was under their protection. What more could I wish for her?

“At least something,” I sighed, stood up and walked around the bar, pulling the glass shards out of my hand while grimacing in pain.

I had to clean up this mess.

“I hope you stayed away from gangs.”

To this day, I wondered how the daughter of a wealthy businessman could have ended up in a gang that organized illegal street races and did the dirty work for massive drug cartels.

Olivia was silent for a while, and I already knew the answer.

I knew the girl who had somehow stumbled into the city's shady street life better than she would have liked, but I still had a tiny glimmer of hope.

After I had removed the glass splinters from my hand, picked up the shards from the counter and thrown them away, and cleaned the bar, I leaned on the counter and observed her intently.

“Sometimes you can't avoid it, even there,” she said with a shrug.

“Oh, great,” I sighed, thinking back to the old days.

I had met her when she had been hanging out with those people. Our story had begun in a trendy nightclub. And the fact that I had turned her there didn't make it any better.

The mere memories of my old self were a complete disaster.

Olivia had somehow managed to save me, and I owed her a lot.

“Miles. I'm an adult. Please don't lecture me,” she snorted, rolling her eyes.

She was right. Two years at our age meant a lot of change.

“I'm worried,” I finally admitted, trying to find her gaze.

“I'm not used to seeing you so worried.”

She grinned again, as if she hadn't just told me some horrible things.

This girl was still putting up with a lot more than she should.

“I've changed too.”

The words came out of my mouth unexpectedly, even to me, because I had been afraid to admit it to her, even though it was clear that we weren't the same people we had been two years ago. And yet I didn't want Olivia to see a stranger in front of her. I wanted her to feel welcome here and to feel that someone cared about her.

“Hopefully not too much,” she laughed. “Can one still have fun with you?”

“Depends what you mean by that,” I murmured playfully, pulling out one of my knives with a faint smirk and starting to play with it on the countertop next to the other thousand notches, without breaking eye contact.

Olivia's eyes widened.

“Miles!”

Grinning broadly, I tried to forget what she had told me about her time in Sacramento.