Page 146 of Magic or Madness

A cold shiver runs through my body, and I stare blankly at Ozzy, unable to speak.

The adrenaline is coursing through my veins, and when he places me on the ground, I instantly find the strength to drop to my knees, checking if Oliver is still breathing.

“Olly. Oliver, it’s me, it’s Fallon. Are you with me?” I ask, my voice breaking with each word, and finally, he coughs, nods, and gives me a weak thumbs-up.

I exhale, looking for the wound, but I come up short.

“Kevlar, Fallon. It just knocked him on his ass,” Ozzy says, reaching down to help Oliver up, and I step back, completely in shock.

I thought he was dead.

For a split second, I was convinced that one of my favorite people had been stolen from me, and that thought paralyzes me.

“That’s going to hurt in the morning,” Oliver laughs, clutching his ribs as he limps toward the truck.

“We need to go. Mr. A isn’t far from here, he’s probably watching us,” I choke out, coughing as the dust from the ground catches in my throat, and they both stare at me in bewilderment.

“Mr. A?”

“The client. He visited me this morning,” I confess, and they both move quickly, helping me into the middle seat of the truck.

Ozzy runs back for the cash, tossing it onto my lap and peeling off the dirt road, a dust cloud forming behind us.

I rest my head on Ozzy’s shoulder, and he wraps an arm around me, holding me close. He briefly looks away from the road, his eyes meeting mine, and rage is roaring in his irises, but that sparkle is still there.

He gently places a kiss on my forehead and turns his attention back to the road. One small gesture of intimacy places a bandaid over what happened to me, and I feel safe again.

I’m home.

I can’t bringmyself to move, the idea of walking back into the dealership looming over me like a bad nightmare. It looks so much smaller now, knowing that something bad happened to me inside, and I can’t push away the last memories I have before everything went dark.

“I’ll stay with you,” Ozzy whispers, his fingers laced through mine, not forcing me to go before I’m ready.

“I don’t remember most of it. I was drugged,” I say softly, and I feel his body tensing with my words.

I want him to feel assured that nothing happened, that nobody touched me so he can let go of the rage, and see me asme,again. I’m no damsel, and he knows that, but he’s stuck in protective mode, almost as if he’s not fully processing that I’m safe.

“Did anyone … hurt you?”

“No, I did this one to myself when I was fighting them off,” I say, gently rubbing the cut on my forehead.

He moves my hand, examining the gash himself, and sighs, placing his fingers along the dried blood stuck around the wound.

“Bambi, I’m so sorry. We shouldn’t have left you alone. I didn’t stop looking for you, even when we had a deal in place. I was only focused on you,” he confesses, and I tilt his chin so he’s looking into my eyes.

“I’m home now, with you. I’ve survived worse, and I just want to forget about this. Move on,” I say, but he shakes his head, a look of fear in his eyes that I rarely see.

“I made a deal for your life. One million dollars, and we work for him now. No refusing jobs, or fighting back,” he tells me, but I’m stuck in shock.

Why would he do something so reckless, agreeing to work for the person whokidnappedme when he didn’t get his way?

“We did fight back, though.”

“I know, Bambi.”

I rub my eyes and hold my head in my hands, the feeling that we’re never getting away from this creeping over me, leaving a sense of dread and doom in the pit of my stomach.

We’re both silent, sitting in the truck, our bodies barely touching.

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