Page 38 of Lone Star Hostage

Presley wasn’t immune to those tears in her eyes. Nor the ones in Olivia’s eyes. But he needed answers.

“How did I end up in a fire station?” he came out and asked.

Victoria shook her head and drank more of the water. “I’m not sure. I didn’t know you had been abandoned there until you told me right here in this hospital room. I just assumed Jesep’s friends had adopted you as planned.” She stopped, groaned.” I need to ask Jesep about that,” she added in a mutter, and her expression said she was dreading that conversation.

“Dad knew you had given birth to me,” Olivia said in a hoarse whisper. “Mom knew.”

“They did,” Victoria verified.

“And they never said a word. They never told me…” Olivia seemed to freeze. “The bone marrow. That’s why you and I were a match.”

Victoria nodded. “When you got sick, Jesep contacted me and asked me to be tested. I did it, and I was a donor match. Jesep was…grateful,” she said after seemingly searching for the right word.

“So, you married Jesep to be with your daughter?” Presley concluded.

“Yes. But he insisted I never tell Olivia the truth.”

Presley recalled Victoria saying that Jesep had never wanted Ari and Olivia to think of Victoria as their mother. Ironic since she was Olivia’s child and not Jesep’s.

“Oh, God,” Olivia blurted. “He knew. Dad knew. You knew,” she said, looking at Victoria.

“We did, and I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” Victoria insisted. “You had the right to know, especially after your mom died.”

Olivia shook her head. Not a gentle motion. But a frantic denial. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.” She said, throwing open the door and bolting out of the room.

Angel was right there, and Presley and he exchanged a glance before Angel set off after Olivia, no doubt to make sure she was all right.

“Ari,” Victoria spat out. “He should have never done this.”

“How did he know?” Presley asked.

Victoria opened her mouth but closed it. Her forehead bunched up before she whispered, “I have no idea.”

“Would Jesep have told him?” Billie pressed.

“I wouldn’t have thought so, but maybe Jesep said something when I was a hostage.”

“Maybe,” Presley agreed. “But I can’t see Jesep mentioning me to Ari. Olivia, yes, but not me. That means Ari would have had to do some digging, and finding that kind of info takes time.”

Victoria stared at him. “You believe Ari found out some other way. But how?”

“Don’t know yet, but consider all of what’s happened in the span of a couple of weeks. Jesep changes his will, cutting out Ari and Olivia and leaving everything to you. I doubt they’d be happy about that.”

“They weren’t,” Victoria was quick to confirm. “Ari left in an angry tirade much as he did today.”

“Don’t doubt it,” Presley commented. “He could have sulked for a while, but at some point, he might have started to consider how he could fix this. And maybe one fix was to kidnap, and kill, you.”

Victoria moaned, but she didn’t look that surprised. He wondered though if she’d considered the rest of what might have been Ari’s plan.

“Ari might have been worried about your bio-son having a claim to your estate, so that could have been why the kidnappers requested me. As Billie pointed out, she could have been added as a distraction, so that I might not be on top of my game.”

The kidnappers had been wrong about that though. Billie hadn’t been a distraction. She had only given Presley more reason to get Victoria, their fellow operatives, and her out of the attack alive.

He could practically hear Victoria trying to wrap her mind around all of that. “You believe Ari planned to have Olivia killed too?”

“Maybe,” he settled for saying.

But there was a huge question mark there. Because if Ari hadn’t honchoed the kidnapping, then the next logical suspect was Olivia.

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