Page 78 of After Midnight

A cold sweat had broken out on my brow, and I accepted the bottle with shaking hands as I sat up.

Olivia must have noticed because her face held a worried expression. “Were you having a bad dream?” she asked.

When I nodded, she climbed onto the bed to sit next to me.Still my little heroine, I thought,trying to help me.

“It was like one of your fairy tales. There was an evil dragon trying to hurt you and Alli. But Dillon was there, and he saved you. It was scary. The tower I was in started crashing but then I woke up.”

She nodded and stayed curled up next to me. “Miss Rita said you need to drink all of this.”

I laughed. “Did you volunteer to come up and make me do it?”

She grinned at me. “Yep, and I’m going to be just like Miss Rita when I grow up.”

“So, you’ll be standing watch like a sentinel to make sure I finish all of my water glasses and Gatorade bottles, even when I’m an old man,” I asked teasingly. Unfazed, Olivia nodded.

Then, in a voice that sounded very much like our caregiver and friend, she said, “Now, mister, eat all those vegetables and then clean your room.”

I barked out a laugh. She’d captured Miss Rita perfectly.

I opened the bottle and took a drink. “Thanks for saving me,” I said quietly.

She shrugged, clearly downplaying her emotions, but she leaned into my side. “Thanks for not hating me.”

I leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I could never hate you, baby sis. You’re a brat of epic proportions sometimes, but I love you with everything in me. Nothing will ever change that.”

She leaned into me again before slipping off the bed. “Dillon’s coming over later, and he said he owes me a movie. I told him it’d beThe Princess Bridebecause that makes him moan and groan now just like it does you, even though I know you both like it. Anyway, tonight I think I want to watchThe Princess and the Frog. I’m gonna ask Uncle Jeffrey and Ashton if they want to watch it with us.”

That made me smile. If Olivia was inviting others into our movie night tradition, it meant she considered them family, andher including the three most important men in my life warmed my heart. “If I feel better, I’ll come down and join you.”

She insisted on watching me take another slug of Gatorade before leaving, and when she was gone, I snuggled into my pillow and fell back into a blissful sleep. This time with no dreams of evil dragons or prison-like towers.

Chapter thirty-six

Dillon

Dominic came downstairs and sat with us as all of the adults gathered to hear what the cops had to say about Margarette, or Ms. Dames, as they now referred to her.

“We have a sworn statement from a woman arrested at the scene of the crime. Fortunately, she didn’t hesitate to tell us her version of what happened,” the detective said.

“She was at the factory hoping to score some drugs when Ms. Dames and her dealer arrived with Mr. Lawson.” We all glanced at Dominic, and when he nodded as if ready to hear more, the detective continued.

“The woman alleged Ms. Dames was a drug runner for the man and apparently, owed the dealer a lot of money. The were arguing about how much.”

Somehow, that information was shocking but didn’t surprise me. It made sense that even with the trust fund stipends she received, and bilking that system for all it was worth, she still wanted more. The woman had been nothing if not greedy.

“Supposedly, she did a yearly run for them, posing as a tourist enjoying a post-holiday vacation,” the detective continued. “Butthat was just a cover. We now have evidence that proves she was, in fact, moving drugs from the U.S. to parts of Europe.”

Well, that certainly explained all of Margarette’s trips without her stepchildren. Knowing now what she’d really been up to, thank God she had never taken them along.

“Why did they kill her? Was it about the money?” Dominic asked.

“According to the witness, Ms. Dames had been siphoning money off the top of each drug sale. One night when she was out with friends, she’d bragged about what she’d been doing and word got back to the dealer. So, he sent his top enforcer here to the house to toss it, and the man found the money hidden in her mattress.”

Dominic sighed. “That’s why they broke in that night. It all makes sense now.”

The detective nodded. “When they found the stash, they were then able to determine roughly how much she’d already spent, which, of course, she couldn’t pay back. We’re talking several years of her doing that behind their backs.”

The detective looked at Dominic and his expression grew even more serious. “Your abduction was her last-ditch effort to keep them from taking what she owed out of her hide. It seems to have been purely a self-preservation tactic, because you had a significant amount of money at your disposal and she was desperate.”

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