Except it wasn’t love. Not for him, anyway. A guy like him wouldn’t fall that quickly. She, on the other hand…
I love him with every piece of my heart.
It was crazy. She knew that. And yet, she didn’t care. Her mom and dad had only known each other six months before they got married. And Scarlett knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the two would still be together if they hadn’t lost her mom all those years ago.
So yeah. She loved Olly. But her feelings were her problem, and she wasn’t about to lay something that big on his shoulders. Not now, anyway.
He had enough on his plate without her making him feel obligated to continue trying to have a relationship with her. The forefront of that being the possibility that his criminal record might actually be expunged.
Not just pardoned or amended. But completely erased, as if it had never existed. Which reminded her…
“Have you heard any more about Olly’s case?”
Izzy shook her head but kept her eyes on the road. “Not yet, but Noah, Wade, and A.D.A. Umbridge have been keeping in contact with the governor’s office. We’re hoping to hear something by the end of next week.”
Ollie thought it was a long shot, but Scarlett held out far more hope. Since he’d played such an intrical part in taking down Valdez’s main trafficking hub here several weeks prior—and the fact that he never should have been convicted in the first place—the governorhadto agree to expunge his record.
He has to.
“I can’t imagine anyone looking at the facts of this case or his original one and not see that he doesn’t deserve to be labeled a felon for the rest of his life.”
“Will it bother you if he is?”
“Me?” Scarlett shot the other woman an incredulous stare. “Absolutely not.”
“Good answer.” Izzy grinned.
The woman had just given her a test. And from the smile still spread on Izzy’s face, it appeared as if Scarlett had passed with flying colors.
“Original case aside, Olly helped save the lives of several innocent women with the first take-down. Including yours, from what I’ve been told.”
“Yes.” Izzy nodded. “Including mine.”
“And now that Pauly and those guys are behind bars, and the FBI is still working diligently to find the rest of the women who’d been filtered through The Mystique…” Izzy sighed. “I just don’t see how anyone could look at what Olly did for those women…you…Rose…and not see him as anything other than what he truly is.”
Well, Pauly and the jerks who’d stood guard at the club and the back building were behind bars. Victor Manning was in the wind, though Agents Killion and Crenshaw had assured them the FBI was hot on the man’s trail.
Last update had a report of him being spotted somewhere up north, near Washington state. The guy was on the run, that much was clear. And he was good. But Denver’s FBI was better.
Even Olly’s P.I. friends were on the case. So, as Olly had said, it was only a matter of time before they found him.
“And what do you see when you look at my brother, Scarlett?”
“A hero.”
Her answer was immediate. It was also the truth.
Olly was a hero. Whether anyone else saw it or not. And she loved him.
Felon or not, it didn’t change a thing where she was concerned. It was just too bad they lived halfway across the country from one another.
Nothing says you have to stay in Indiana, you know. You can teach from anywhere. And your dad would just be a phone call or a quick plane ride away.
It wasn’t the first time those thoughts had rolled through her mind this past week. But while all those things were true, there was still one problem.
She may love Olly, but she had no idea how he felt about her. Oh, he was attracted to her. Of that, there was no doubt. He evenliked her, as evident by the evenings they’d spent talking and laughing, or just curled up on the couch watching T.V. And the sex…
The sex was out-of-this-world amazing.