Page 56 of The Ruthless and the Strong

Max

Someone was in my house.

I was woken up by a small shuffling noise, and it didn’t take long for me to realize I was no longer alone. And with all that had happened today, I was a little paranoid.

Carefully, I sat up on the bed and climbed out without making any noise.

I was thankful the bed didn’t squeak as I moved, and I reached behind my dresser for the handgun I had stored there, checking to make sure it was loaded before moving toward my door.

I held my breath and listened more carefully to the noises outside and when I didn’t hear anything, I slowly opened the door and walked out.

What I saw had me pulling up short. Then I let out a breath of relief and walked back to the room to put the gun away before coming back out again.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. It had been years since she came out to my door and slept by it, to make sure I didn’t abandon her like her mother had.

Shortly after Grace left and I had taken Olivia home with me, she would visit my room every night for a month, listening to any noises I made to ensure that I was still in there. That I hadn’t taken off in the middle of the night like Grace had done when she was seventeen. I knew about it the first week in, though I never said anything, not really sure how to help her cope with this.

I hadn’t realized it then, but it gotten better when her and Mason started dating, even if they had done it in secret. I knew the news she received today was probably bringing back all those issues and insecurities she had in her teens, all those unfounded fears that I would abandon her.

I crouched down on the floor and looked over a sleeping Olivia in front of my door. I wondered how long she had been here. It was long enough for her to have fallen asleep deeply, and I hated it.

I moved a strand of brown hair away from her face, and ran my fingers gently across her cheek. She wrinkled her nose a bit, but didn’t wake.

I lifted her up in my arms and I moved her back to her old room. I had long ago converted it into a guest bedroom, but there was a bed, at least. She didn’t even stir when I tucked her in, and I waited a beat before I moved out of the room and back to my room.

I texted Mason to let him know, so he wouldn’t freak out when he woke and found Olivia gone, then I sat down on the bed and looked out the window.

Fuck, I didn’t know what to do anymore.

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure I didn’t leave any traces behind. No one knew I went to Wyoming except Nicholas, and he would never betray me. Not only because he had helped me, which made him an accomplice to the crime, but because he was one of my loyal friends. And because he owed me.

Like Mason, Nicolas’s little brother had been at the hockey camp where Terrance Hughes had coached. Nicolas was one of the few men who didn’t believe Terrance had killed himself. It didn’t take long for him to find me. And not long after that to figure out what I had done, even if I had never confirmed his theories.

Still, I called him now. Despite the late hour, he picked up on the first ring.

“Are you all right?” he asked in a way of greeting.

“They talked to you?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. They’ve got nothing.”

“I wasn’t worried,” I said, and to be honest, I wasn’t. Even if Officer Kyle figured out I was somehow involved, he had no proof of it, and nothing to implicate me in the crime.

But this had become way more complicated than I would have liked it to be.

“Good. How are you holding up?” he asked.

I frowned a little at the unusual question. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, no matter how many times you say this doesn’t affect you, I still don’t believe it.”

“Well, believe it. I’m fine. It’s not my first time,” I said, alluding to Terrance and confirming his theories once and for all.

Nicholas was quiet for a second. “Doesn’t make it any easier.”

“You got a lot of experience in this kind of thing, do you?”

“Yes,” he said. “In case you forgot, I spent all of my twenties in the military, staying in war-torn zones.”

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