Chapter 63
570 Words
“What’s up?” Dean said leaning against the railing.
Dallas sighed. “Olivia.”
Dean c****d his blond head. “She’s OK?”
“She’s here.”
Dean stared at Dallas. “Liv’s here? Like… here here? In your house?”
“In my bed.” Dallas took a big sip of his black coffee.
Dean grinned. It’s about f*****g time, Foreman. Took you long enough to make your move, man. “Uh-huh. So, she came home with you last night? Why didn’t you just stay at her place, since you were there already?”
“It’s not like that, man. She’s got bad trouble.”
Dean’s whole demeanor changed now. “What kind?”
“Stalker trouble.”
Dallas had just filled him in when they heard a noise inside the house. They turned to see Olivia standing there, her hair tousled and her eyes still tired.
“Hey, Olivia,” Dallas said. “You OK?”
She nodded. “Better.”
“You want a coffee?”
“Yeah.” When she saw Dallas coming back in, she shook her head. “No, it’s OK, stay where you are. I’ll get it myself.”
“And grab that blanket off the sofa, baby. It’s chilly out here.”
Dallas and Dean watched her in the kitchen, their instinctive desire to protect and care for other people coming to the fore. They were both physically huge men, both highly-trained and skilled, both lethal and both with numerous kills under their belts. If anyone was even thinking about hurting Olivia, they’d have to get through Dean and Dallas first, not to mention their other friends and Dean’s fellow ex-Rangers, Chris and Jim.
Olivia came out on the porch now, and Dean gave her a hug. She returned it, and her smile was a bit shaky.
“Dallas told you?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He touched her hand. “Why didn’t you say something, Liv?”
She shrugged, dropped her eyes. “Blue Star was supposed to be handling it for me, and besides, Emma’s been my priority for the past few months. It just – it wasn’t so important. Or so I thought.”
Dean sighed. “I know that this whole thing with Emma’s been front-and-centre, and that’s been the case for all of us. But a stalker? Sweetheart, that’s serious s**t. You don’t mess around with this kind of thing.”
“I’ve just had so many weird and creepy e-mails and phone calls over the years, so many ugly and horrible things said about me on the internet… I guess by now, I just don’t know what a real threat looks like anymore.” Olivia bit her full lip. “I trusted Greg to tell me when to worry, and when to just let it go. I trusted the wrong guy.”
“Well, don’t you worry about Greg Wallace,” Dallas said. “I’ll be paying him a visit at the Blue Star Security offices this morning.”
She started. “You will?”
“Damn right I will.” Dallas’ blue eyes were hard. “I assume I’ll be firing his incompetent ass on your behalf?”
She laughed, and visibly relaxed. “Yeah, you will. And will your security company be taking over my protection?”
He grinned down at her. “I kinda thought we already had, darlin’.”
- Writer
