Page 16 of The Ruthless and the Strong

This she said quietly, and I knew even though Lizzie was in the room, she didn’t hear. Olivia wasn’t stupid. She knew of Lizzie’s crush on me when she was little, and I had thought I hid my feelings well, though I always thought she suspected something she never said.

“I won’t do that anymore, I promise,” I said quietly, because I could see the hurt she was trying hard to hide in her eyes.

She shot me a wobbly smile, and it made me feel about two inches tall. I never wanted to hurt or disappoint her.

I tugged on her long hair and asked, “So what are we having for dinner?”

Her eyes brightened at that. “It’s Italian theme night.”

My eyes softened and my shoulders relaxed. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “I made lasagna.”

“Well, it smells delicious.”

“Thank you.”

Turning away from me, she moved over to check the food in the oven. I watched her for a beat. For her to even decide to do an Italian theme night was huge. Lorenzo’s family had owned, and still did to this day, a chain of Italian restaurants throughout the country. Lorenzo had been her boyfriend very briefly, the summer after she graduated high school. That was before he’d sexually assaulted her in my house.

It was Mason and I who found them in the living room that day, who found him pinning her down on the floor while he violated her. And aside from spaghetti—her favorite food—she hadn’t eaten any Italian food for close to two years after.

I was glad to see she wasn’t going to let that fucker take anything else from her. I would have sold the house in a heartbeat, but Olivia hadn’t wanted him to take away the house that had been her safe space since I’d bought it. I kept it only because I knew she was right. We didn’t want to give him any more power over her.

And he would never have that kind of power over anyone else ever again.

He was dead.

His body was rotting in the woods of Wyoming, and hopefully, he wouldn’t be found for a long time.

Lizzie moved over to Olivia and helped her with the plates. And I watched as the two most important women in my life moved around the kitchen, laughing and joking with each other, as if they hadn’t been through all this hurt in the past. I could hear the children laughing in the background.

I wanted time to freeze just at this moment, for a little while longer. Just to keep everyone happy and safe for a little while longer.

I rubbed at the small ache forming in my chest, and when Lizzie caught my eyes, she smiled a bit, brightening the room by a million.

I couldn’t bring myself to smile back, though my eyes softened as I took her in and nodded. She seemed to understand because her smile widened slightly before she turned back.

Olivia said something to her, and she threw her head back, laughing.

Suddenly, it was getting hard to breathe.

The garage door opened and closed quietly, and I knew Mason was home from work now. That was confirmed moments later when I heard Emma’s excitement over her dad, and then some soft giggles coming from the little girl.

Moments later, Mason walked in with Emma in one arm and Hunter in the other. They both looked at him with hero-worship in their eyes, and I knew Hunter was in need of a male figure in his life… a good male figure in his life.

I wasn’t good.

I looked down at my rough hands, my thoughts going back to that moment when they were covered in another man’s blood.

Everything fell away, and all I could think about was the night in the woods.

“Hey, man, are you okay?”

I looked up to see my brother’s eyes clouded in concern, his arms now free from two little kids. Mason looked like me. Just a little taller than my six-foot-three frame, a little bulkier, but nonetheless like me, with similar blue eyes and black hair.

I nodded. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. You’ve been distant lately. Do you have something on your mind you want to talk about?”

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