“I’ll give you guys a minute,” Derek says. After he walks out of the room, I hold her face in my hands.
“Look at me, darlin’,” I say. She looks at me, and her eyes are so bright I could get lost in them. “Everyone is fine,” I say. “We got all of the traps out and took care of it. I also have people at the farm locking it down so no one is going to get hurt.”
“But …” She starts to say and puts her hands on my hips.
“But nothing,” I say. “Now I want to warn you. Today is going to suck,” I say. “It’s going to be the suckiest day you’ve ever had. But …?”
“It might be my last,” she says, and I want to say it can’t be her last because we are just beginning.
“Can’t be your last.” I kiss her. “I still have a bet that needs to be collected.” She smiles now, and then there is a knock on the door, and Derek comes back in.
“Feds are here,” he says, and I look at her.
“I need to wash my face,” she says, and I nod and show her where the bathroom is. Then I walk back into the room and see Derek standing there with the computer in his hand.
“Is she okay?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“You going to say how you feel before all this?” I look over at him. “I never thought I would see the day that badass cowboy Casey Barnes falls in love and breaks his whole I’m never getting married bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit,” I say and then turn back to look at the closed door. “I’m not getting married.”
“Then you’re not as smart as I thought you were.” He plugs the computer in.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask.
“It means that if you don’t marry her, someone else will, and then what?” he says, knowing that it’s going to burn me. “You going to watch her come visit Kallie with her husband and kids and not kick yourself for letting her go.”
“She …” I start to say, and then the door opens, so I stop, and I look over at her. “You ready?”
“No,” she answers honestly. “But there is no time like the present.”
“Let’s do this,” Derek says, and he walks out of the room. I grab Olivia’s hand and walk with her into the conference room.
We walk in, and I scan the room and hear Olivia say from beside me. “Isn’t he the butler?” She points at the butler from the hotel.
“Special Agent Duchene.” He says his name. “Thank you for not being a diva.”
“Did you know?” She looks at me, and I answer her honestly.
“I did. They got to me right before we took off,” I say. “Shall we sit?” I motion for her to sit down, and I sit down next to her. There are five guys around the table all dressed in suits, all with the USA flag pinned to their lapel.
“Olivia,” one of them says. “My name is Special Agent Robinson, and we’ve been watching you for the past six months.”
“What?” she says, and even I’m surprised they would say that.
“Dominic Albano is mixed up with the wrong type of people. He doesn’t know it, but his time is almost out, and the people who he owes are tired of waiting for him.”
“I don’t know what that means,” she says, looking at them. Her hands shake, but I take one of them in my hand, and I have to hold it in both of my hands because it’s cold as ice.
“It means that he owes the mob a lot of money. More money than his ass can cash,” one of the other agents says.
“Is that who is after me? The mob?” she asks, and they all shake their head.
“They want nothing to do with you,” Special Agent Duchene says. “They told him that he made the deal with them, not you.”
“I don’t know what they want.” She looks around the table. “Honestly, I don’t. I have thought and thought, and there is nothing that he told me, nothing that he gave me, nothing.”
“I just got her computer,” Derek says. “It may take me an hour, but I can see if there is anything in there.”
“Please do,” one of the agent says, and Derek gets up and then looks at Olivia.
“Can you come with me so you can see if anything looks unfamiliar to you?” he asks. Olivia gets up and walks out with them, and only when she’s out of earshot do I look back at the table.
“Now that she isn’t here, what aren’t you telling her?” I ask them. “And it’s safe to say that even if you don’t want me to know, we all know that I can find out.”