Page 44 of Her Silver Fox Firefighters
“The veil?” Leo asks.
His gaze never leaves my face as I speak.
“He started asking me to do things I knew weren’t ethical or even legal. Then, the requests pushed me way outside the law. Marcus had influence. To everyone else, he was the golden boy. He could do no wrong, and the sheriff worshiped him, trusted him. But I started going over their case files in my downtime, and I noticed a pattern, some inconsistencies. I realized that Marcus was working with the very dealers and mobsters he was bringing in.
“It wasn’t long until a fuller picture emerged. I graduated from college, got my degree, and Marcus took me out to celebrate. We were at a swanky nightclub, three towns over. A shady place,” I add, “full of shady people, and Marcus was doing business with all of them. We weren’t there to celebrate my degree, we were there for him to shake hands with the powers that be who were moving heroin through Devon. Three days later, the sheriff asked for the case files I’d perused before. I had a feeling he was catching on.”
“Did you tell the sheriff about any of this?” Dax asks.
I shake my head slowly, shame burning its way up my throat. “I wanted to, but I loved Marcus. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. We’d moved in together by then. We were going to start a family, or so he kept saying. I believed him. I wanted to believe the stories he told me, that he was just doing undercover work, that he was about to nail this huge drug and weapons trafficking ring. God, I was foolish, but I believed him.
“So I kept my mouth shut. But then the sheriff died under suspicious circumstances, to say the least. That same night, when Marcus came home, he went straight to the bathroom. Later, I found bloodied clothes in the hamper, and I confronted him about it. He got physical. It was the first time I saw the real Marcus.”
I choke up but keep going. “He painted a clear picture for me. All the favors he’d asked of me, the transfers, the code changes in our computer system… it all added up to some serious embezzlement and fraud charges, all of them done under my username and password.”
Beck heaves a heavy sigh as he gives me a troubled look. “He framed you.”
“Well, I did do those things. I just didn’t know why or where it would lead. I wanted to come clean about it, to undo everything, but Marcus made it clear that if I did, he would destroy me, he would hurt me.”
“So you stayed quiet,” Dax says.
I nod slowly. “I began to see the truth in everything he was doing, in everything he’d done. They appointed him sheriff, but that massive trafficking ring never went down. It only got bigger and more powerful. Marcus is still the golden boy of Devon, mind you. They still worship him over there.”
“How did you get out?” Leo asks.
“I asked Chloe for help. I gathered what evidence I could, prepared to leave, and tried to record Marcus while I confronted him about how the previous sheriff died. It was a gamble, and it cost me.”
“What do you mean it cost you?” Dax asks.
“He beat me pretty badly. I knew it was time for me to disappear before it got any worse.” I see the darkness come over his eyes, the quiet rage of a man who would rip someone like Marcus to shreds just for looking at me the wrong way.
“One night, not long after that, I snuck out of the house. Iswitched license plates with Chloe, and she gave me the keys to this place.”
“You drove across the country to get away from him,” Leo concludes.
“I did, yes. Now you know why I couldn’t exactly go to the police about it. You have to understand something: Marcus is connected, not just to drug dealers, he’s connected within the system. He’s got deputies and lawyers in his pocket, public sector employees, a couple of judges, too. It’s my word against his.”
I fail to mention the USB stick I brought with me. It will open a can of worms I’m not ready to deal with, because I don’t know how deep this conspiracy centered around Marcus goes. It could get me or other people killed.
Just thinking about Chloe makes my stomach turn.
“Like I said, he’s dangerous. Chloe’s parents died and Chloe is missing. A car accident, they called it, but I know there’s more to it than that.”
“Wait, when did that happen?” Dax sits up, suddenly alarmed.
“Last week,” I say. “That’s why I was so distant. They only found two bodies. The car burned to a crisp. I still haven’t heard from Chloe, though I’ve been feverishly trying to reach her. There’s no word about her anywhere in the news. I’ve tried the local hospitals, friends of theirs… I don’t know what happened to her. I can’t stomach the possibilities.”
“Olivia, why keep all of this to yourself?” Dax comes over and kneels in front of me. His gaze is soft; his brows pulled into a deep yet gentle frown. “This is too much for any person to bear.”
“I didn’t want to drag any of you into it. You have a good life here, and I thought maybe I could be a part of it without my past coming into play. Boy, was I wrong.”
“Youarea part of our lives,” he says. “But you come to us whole, Olivia, not with missing pieces. It doesn’t work like that.”
“It’s too late, anyway,” I reply, wiping away tears with the backs of my hands.
He pulls me into a kiss. It’s soft, and it transcends every other kiss before. It feels more intimate than ever, as if his very soul is reaching through to touch mine. I welcome the taste of him on my lips; I welcome the comfort that his touch brings me.
“Why would you say it’s too late?” he asks me.
