“Shut up! You know that’s not true.”
“This makes no sense, Wendell. Think, man. You can still get out of here before you do something you can’t take back,” Dylan said. His hands were raised in the air, but he attempted a step toward Wendell.
He twisted the gun in her side, and she gasped loudly, her eyes tearing from the pain.
“Why should I just give up? I got nothing and I should have had everything. My cousin made it big in the NFL, and I had access to the good life until she interfered and told him to get rid of me. Then she hooked him up with dumb-ass financial classes and people who told him to look out for users. Now he thinks I’m one of them.”
Dylan held her gaze. She didn’t trust him not to try to save her at his own expense.
“Who the fuck asked you to interfere? Any of you?” Wendell continued his tirade, his voice wild, the gun digging deeper, bruising her skin.
She swallowed past the pain. “Maybe if you hadn’t caused Marcus and the team unwanted publicity, we wouldn’t have had to get involved,” she said, trying to explain and force him to be reasonable.
“This was supposed to be easy!” Wendell ignored her, ranting like a spoiled child.
A spoiled child with a deadly weapon.
“You can still get what you want,” Dylan said to the man. “Marcus can send money home, and you can be the big man there.”
“Even I know there’s no fun in being the big man in East Bumfuck,” Wendell muttered. “I’m done talking to you.” He raised his gun and aimed it at Dylan, as if Wendell knew he’d have to go through Dylan before taking out Olivia.
“No!” she screamed, hoping to distract Wendell.
Just then, the sound of a loud roar echoed through the house. A huge body came flying forward, slamming into Wendell, tackling him and knocking Olivia sideways against the nearby closet door.
She glanced over in time to see Marcus slam his fist into Wendell’s jaw
with a sickening crack.
“Freeze!” Dylan yelled, standing over both men with Wendell’s gun in his hand, which he must have retrieved from the floor.
Marcus rolled off his cousin and held up his hands, looking more like an overgrown kid than a man.
Suddenly sirens rang out in the air.
“I called the cops,” Marcus said, slumping against the nearest wall.
Wendell started to rise, but Dylan leveled the weapon at him. “Just give me a fucking reason.”
The police burst through the door, guns drawn. Dylan immediately dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air.
Olivia remained curled around herself as the cops sorted through what had happened, until finally they checked Dylan’s ID, confirmed the story with Olivia and Marcus, and snapped cuffs on Wendell, who’d skipped bail in Arizona and had a warrant out for his arrest.
No sooner had they released Dylan from questioning than he pulled her up and into his arms, her entire body shaking. She grabbed on to him and held on, as he ran his hand over her hair and down her back, keeping her pressed tightly to him.
Chapter Eleven
By the time Dylan brought Olivia back to his place, he was ready to jump out of his skin. The presence of the police at Marcus Bigsby’s house was on the news in no time, and the rest of the story spread just as quickly. Television news crews and paparazzi showed up before Dylan and Olivia had been released by the police. Eventually the cops led them out a back door and escorted them to Dylan’s, where he fielded calls from Ian and the team’s PR team while Olivia took a long, hot shower, to—in her words—wipe the stench of Wendell off her body.
He was in shock from how quickly the events of the night had gone down. One minute they’d been ready to make love here, in his apartment, the next, she’d been held at gunpoint, and Dylan’s life had completely flashed before his eyes. A life without her in it—and it hadn’t been worth living.
He stripped to his boxer briefs and crawled onto the bed to wait. Folding his arms behind his head, he stared at the ceiling, forcing himself to stay calm.
A few minutes later, the shower had stopped, and Olivia walked into his bedroom wearing one of his large tee shirts. He loved her wearing his clothes. He loved her, period. Nearly losing her merely confirmed everything he did want with her. Family. Kids. A full, happy life and one she was completely capable of having, if only she’d let go of her fears.
She curled into him, but her phone was full of messages and still ringing with family members checking in. And there were a lot of Dares for her to reassure, starting with Ian and her mother. She reassured each and every person, insisting she was fine and she didn’t want company—that she needed to be alone. She’d send him a wink and continue with each call.
She was on her fourth or fifth sibling—Dylan had lost track which—when he realized she was speaking to Avery. These sisters had a dynamic that was easy to recognize, and he grinned as he listened to Olivia volley sarcastic comments in between promising that she’d never been in any real danger. A lie if Dylan had ever heard one. He still shuddered when he thought of Wendell and the gun he had shoved into Olivia’s ribs.