Page 94 of Oliver

Ramsay appears before me and I eye his loafers with a sneer, before saying, “What?”

“I’ve known Oliver basically my whole life. He’s not being a dick for any other reason than he doesn’t understand how to be any other way. He doesn’t feel like normal people do. He’ll never be what you want him to be.”

“Really?” I snap, standing and waving my finger. What a heartless piece of shit. True or not, he should be encouraging his friend to find peace instead of feeding into this bullshit. “Fuck you. You don’t know jack. Oliver feels just fine.”

“Is that so?” he says raising that fucking brow.

“Yes,” I hiss, and he sighs.

“Then why doesn't he answer your calls? Why has he been threatening you? If he wanted you Penny, he’d have you.”

Sucking in a breath, I turn away and meet Oliver’s stone-cold stare. He raises his gaze over my shoulder, and I shudder at the wasteland in those beautiful eyes as he says to Ramsay, “You got something to say to me, bro?”

Ramsay’s eyes narrow before he shrugs and says, “Nope. Did I lie?”

There’s not an ounce of fucking emotion in Oliver’s expression when he turns to me and says, “Let’s go.”

Exhaustion rolls through me in waves, and I don't argue. At the door, I glance back. My home is a crime scene and I suspect at some point what I did is going to come crashing down around me. For now, I guess I will embrace the anger Ramsay roused in me because I have a feeling what’s about to follow may crush me.

“Go,” Oliver says, pushing me gently through the door. Once we’re on the road, I say softly, “What about the b-body?”

Is this my life? I can’t believe I just said that. Hell, I can’t believe I just left a dead body on my dining room floor.

“Diem will take care of it,” Oliver says.

“Where were you?” I ask, eyeing his ticking jaw. The distance between us feels like miles but I can’t get near him because this is more than a fucking walk down a lonely damn road. This is a full-on roadblock with nothing but traffic cones in sight. Ramsay may be a dick, but he was right.

It’s like whatever capacity to fucking feel the rest of us were born with is missing in Oliver which leaves me all kinds of fucked because I can’t exactly turn my own off.

“It doesn’t matter,” Oliver finally says, and I shake my head.

It does to me, I concede, but not for the reasons it should. I’m scared for Oliver. What happens when he meets someone who’s fiercer, stronger, darker? Is he in too deep to get out now?

Chapter 29

Penny

We end up back at Ramsay’s place, which brings me no joy because I know what Ramsay thinks of me and Diem isn’t my biggest fan either.

Maeve greets me with a hug which I’m not ashamed to say I return because I need something right now and Oliver isn’t exactly offering.

“Are you okay?” she whispers, and I shrug, my throat thick with tears.

“C’mon.” She leads me up the stairs to the room I was in before and says, “Lie down.”

Once I’m settled stiffly on the mattress, she covers me with a blanket, and sits beside me. Only then do I relax. I guess I didn’t want to be alone.

It’s not long before I’m dozing only to rouse when Maeve eases from the bed and whispers, “What?”

Opening my eyes, I stare at the wall facing the window as Oliver grunts, “Nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” she hisses.

“Not here,” he growls, and I strain to hear when they step outside the room.

“Whatever it is you’re doing, stop,” she says.

“Back off, Mae.” His icy tone makes me shiver but Maeve is undeterred.

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