PART FOUR
Chapter One
Olivia
I opened my eyes and it took me a few seconds to remember where I was. I was back at my uncle’s house. I sighed, I felt like I was constantly going backwards with my life. I felt like since the day Dax was arrested that my wheels had been spinning but I never got anywhere. I needed to get off this crazy ride once and for all and take the route that would lead me away from all of these people who kept holding me back.
I put on my robe and went out to the kitchen to start the coffee brewing. I was trying hard to look ahead instead of backwards but my mind wanted to run over and over what I had lost…which right now seemed to be everything.
I’d lost Terrance, which was mostly good news. With him, I could at least tell myself I never really had him. He was nothing but a fake and I knew that I never really knew anything about him. I felt so stupid when I thought about how I believed for so long that he only ran parts for his dad and Bull. He helped set Dax up and he was involved in the drug side of the business. Scariest of all was that he was the guy they called to bring in the big guns when there was a report of a member of a Mexican drug cartel running around.
I had been living with a man I knew nothing about and the fact that I could be that naïve scared me to death. Maybe I should have been grateful to him for opening my eyes. I wouldn’t trust that easily again, that’s for sure. Terrance was out of my life for good so I guess I could at least give myself credit for that one step forward.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and as I poured the cream and sugar into it, I thought about Dax. When he came to see me yesterday he seemed like he was upset with me, like I was the one doing something wrong. Maybe it was only to appease his own conscience. I wasn’t the one choosing something over him. I wanted to be with him…more than anything. I just couldn’t keep compromising my own values and beliefs for those men.
I washed my hands of my own father because I didn’t believe in the way he was choosing to live his life. What was I doing continuing to pick these men that wanted to lead me right back into it? I knew Dax said repeatedly that he didn’t want to live the MC life and I wanted desperately to believe him. But how much more needed to happen before he was willing to just make a clean break and walk away? Was someone going to have to pull the trigger the next time a gun is in our face for him to get how dangerous this quest for revenge had become? He had a choice, revenge or me. He walked out yesterday. He made his choice and now I had to accept it and move forward….I had to.
I pulled myself up out of the chair and went to get into the shower. I had to work and I didn’t have any more time to waste sitting there wallowing in what should have or could have been.
I showered and dressed in a black and pink Harley t-shirt and jeans, put on my tennis shoes, pulled my hair into a ponytail and headed off to work.
My uncle wasn’t working today so me and the new guy Tyler opened up the shop. He was working in back doing some detailing and mechanic work and I was working the parts desk. As soon as he had gone in the back, the front door jangled. I looked up, right into Terrance’s brown eyes. Damn! I knew I would have to run into him sooner or later since I was working there, but I was hoping it would be on a day when someone else was working with me and I didn’t have to be the one to help him.
“Hi Liv,” he said, like I might possibly be happy to see him.
“I’m surprised you wouldn’t be ashamed to show your face around here,” I said. “Yet, you just walk in here like any ordinary citizen.”
“Come on, Liv. It’s just me. I’m still the guy I’ve always been.”
“And who is that guy, exactly, Terrance? Is he the guy who pretended to care about me when my boyfriend got locked up, but who was only looking for the opportunity to get into my pants? Or, maybe he’s the guy who carries an automatic rifle and busts down doors looking for the Mexican cartel?”
Terrance looked around the shop like he was looking to see if there were any witnesses to our conversation. Then he leaned in close to me….too close and said, “First of all, you should be really careful who’s around when you say things like that. Second, I was your friend. I wouldn’t have ever turned my back on you. You chose to walk away from me, remember?”
“After I found out what you did to Dax, remember?”
“I explained that to you,” he said, like it made it all better. Those guys were all crazy and I didn’t have the time or the patience for their shit.
“What did you come in here for, Terrance? Do you need one of those parts you buy in order to cover up what you’re actually running for your dad?”
“Knock it off, Olivia. I’m serious,” he said. He actually sounded a little scary when he said it. I guess I should quit thinking of him simply as an ex-boyfriend and remember who he really was. Proving it, he said, “I don’t need any parts today. What I need is for you to pass on some information. Let your new boyfriend know that what he’s doing could have fatal consequences. If he wants the business to leave him alone, then he needs to stay out of the business. This revenge crap is going to get him dead.”
“Are you threatening Dax?” I asked him. Just saying it made my heart pound in my chest.
“No, I would never hurt Dax. I know you and Dax both don’t believe this, but I still love him like a brother. My father on the other hand, does not feel the same kind of loyalty. He’s not a guy you want to mess with. Do you think I chose this life?”
I suddenly felt bad. I knew I shouldn’t have felt bad for him, he was a grown man. He could choose to do whatever he wanted to do with his life. But I felt bad for the little boy who grew up thinking so highly of a father and Bull and the others, only to find out who they really were. But, that’s when he should have walked away and he didn’t. That’s the guy that I didn’t feel sorry for.
“No, I don’t think you chose it to begin with, Terrance. I know how you grew up. But, I also know that you’re grown now and you continue to choose to stay. Is what your father wants that important to you still? Or, does he threaten you if you leave? Or, do you just choose to stay because this mess is your life and you don’t want to have to go out and work for a living the way everyone else does?”
“I do what I have to do,” he said, in a matter of fact tone. “Tell Dax to back-off, Olivia. I followed orders and I put those drugs in his bags. I was willing to do that to save my own ass. I’m not willing to see Dax hurt or killed. That’s what’s going to happen if he doesn’t leave it alone.”
“So it is a threat, then?” I asked again.
He looked pissed off and said, “Just tell him what I said, unless you want his blood on your own hands.”
I didn’t say anything. Terrance looked at me again for a while like he was waiting for confirmation that I would talk to Dax. I would, as much as I didn’t want to, but as far as Terrance was concerned, I was finished talking to him. I watched him walk out of the shop and drive away on his bike, knowing that I was going to have to talk to Dax.