You Distract Me - Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Olivia
Ten thirty-seven, the time on the  alarm clock said.
I'd been sitting like a rock in bed, waiting.
Two hours after Shayne had left, I'd given up on waiting for her in the lounge with Byron. So I'd gone into the bedroom, changed into my nightwear and gotten into bed. Still waiting.
Now, as I eyed the door knob of the door, hoping for it to turn, I knew I was going to go insane if she didn't step through that door in the next couple of minutes. So I got out of bed, slipped on my silk rob and stepped out of the room.
Quiet, big and incredibly still, there sat Byron with his eyes glued to the little red book in his hands, like all was alright in the world.
"She's not here yet?" I asked, gripping the robe to my neck as I stepped further into the room. Shayne's teeth marks were still fresh and stark against my skin.
He looked up at me, patient brown eyes acknowledging my presence. His deep voice was smooth and soothing. "No, ma'am."
I nodded slowly, trying and failing miserably to hide the disappointment and worry on my face. Understanding eyes smiled at me.
"Trust me, if there's one person you never have to worry about, it's Shayne. I'm sure she'll be back soon."
"Of course." I plastered on a smile that we both knew took a lot out of me.
But he was right. I had to trust Shayne to come back to me, in one piece.
"What are you reading?" I asked, lowering myself into a sofa.
His lips twitched, but what was supposed to be a smile ended up being a grimace, the scars adorning his face hindering him. My heart broke into a million pieces.
"Anne of Green Gables," he said, flipping the book so I could see the typewriter-style title on the cover.
"Anne of Green Gables?" I frowned. "I thought you were reading some kind of Pig Latin autobiography. You've been on the first page ever since I first saw you reading it."
His eyes smiled softly, the slightest hint of sadness there. "Yeah, well, dyslexia does that to you."
Punch to the gut.
I facepalmed myself, floods of guilt assaulting me. How could I not have noticed? The way his eyes jumped around the page instead of side to side. His constant squinting, as though he was trying to focus.
"I'm so sorry, Byron," I said, completely embarrassed.
He chuckled nonetheless, acceptance brightening his eyes. "It's nothing to worry about, miss. It was an honest mistake, you wouldn't have known."
"Really, you're not upset?" I asked, wringing my hands together.
"Not at all—" He was interrupted by a frantic knock at the door. He immediately pushed off the sofa and went to open in.
In the next second Freya was pushing past Byron. Without a word, she went straight for the remote on the coffee table and aimed it at the TV.
I was just about to ask her what was happening when the late night news came on. The impeccably-dressed reporters—a man and a woman—sat behind the platform that had their network engraved into it.
"—come to you live with breaking news. CEO of Reyvox Records, Shayne West, is being arrested under suspicion of money laundering with connections to human and drug trafficking. LAPD managed to track her down to a mall parking lot where they're attempting to subdue her. Gaven Mann at the scene... "
The screen slid to an on-the-scene reporter, his hair flying about due to the commotion from the chopper's blades. "Thank you, Owen," he shouted into his microphone. "I'm out here at the mall while we wait for LAPD to take Shayne West into custody. She seems to comply—"
I zoned out on the reporter's words as he moved aside.
Shayne. The camera zoomed in as she slowly stepped back towards the police officer firing out words at her.  Her tattooed hands were in the air. Her demeanor appeared relaxed and not at all panicky.
She lowered herself to her knees while the police officer brought her hands down and slapped on the handcuffs. When she stood and turned, her face was in view of the camera.
My heart did a sickening somersault.
Her face was blank and devoid of any emotion, except for that perfect jaw that was clenched impossibly hard. Her absolutely gorgeous eyes gave nothing away either.
She looked diabolically unfeeling, and yet I still wanted to hold her against me and feel her strong arms wrap around me.
A sob threatened to make its way up my throat just as the screen slid back to the two reporters.
Freya turned to me, "Don't worry, sweetie. I'm sure it'll all solve itself, don't ya worry."
I simply nodded, avoiding Byron's perceptive eyes. "Excuse me."
When I went back into the bedroom, I barely got half way to the bed before my knees gave way and my body dropped to the floor with crushing despair. I sat on my calves as the shock hit me.
Shayne was going to prison. She wasn't coming back. This I knew for sure because Shayne West was no saint, and yet I was stupidly in love with her.
I was aware of the danger that she was. I knew the accusations against her could very well be true, unless she ran a mafia family that dealt roses and scented hand sanitizer.
But still, I just coudn't find it in my heart to care. Shayne could be a stone cold killer and I didn't care. I was that far gone.
And to think that someone as lethal as Shayne cared about me even in the slightest made me all the more certain that she was deserving of all the love I was willing to give her.
She's not coming back.
As soon as that realization hit again, the backs of my eyes burned with unshed tears as my throat swelled with the need to weep. But I knew if Shayne were here, the last thing she'd want me do right then was cry.
Suddenly, an image of my father being taken away from us assaulted my mind.
It was the day of his hearing at the court house right after the date of his trial had been set. We'd had a window of opportunity to say our goodbyes before he had to be taken back to prison.
He'd been dressed in that taunting orange overall that guaranteed us of the ample time it would be spending with him.
He had looked me in the eye, silent apologies swimming through his own eyes, and said, "Smile, Ollybear, it'll make it all the more easier to know you'll be just fine."
I'd cried for weeks after, until I simply didn't have the strength anymore. I didn't want to be happy while he was gone, it didn't change the situation then and certainly not now.
But then Shayne had come along.
She made me happy and stronger. The possibility of her facing jail time made me determined to be hopeful. She needed my strength to sustain her, just as my dad needed it too. I understood his words right then.
The deepest parts of my brain reminded me that my dad wasn't my father. Yet at this point, I was failing to figure out why that mattered.
Getting up to my feet with a mission to control my unstable emotions, I walked to the door and stepped out, finding Freya and Byron still in the lounge. They ended their conversation as soon as they saw me.
A smile as optimistic as the next pessimist, I said, "Anyone feel like baking?"
🍀
Shayne
"Jesus Christ! Don't you see it? You don't have a choice but to confess. The evidence against you is clear as day."
The moppy haired detective sitting on the other side of the table was already red faced. He'd been playing 'bad cop' while his partner sat patiently next to him, cooing him out of his temper. She must have been the 'good cop' during their little interrogations.
Lucile sat as cool as me, except that he did all the talking. "Bank records can be forged, detective. I thought in your line of work, you'd know that by now."
Bad Cop laughed a humorless laugh and bolted off his chair. He picked up said chair and hurled it across the dimly-lit square room. "Bullshit!"
I remained unfazed, more concerned about the chair's poor leg that had broken off.
When I looked away from the chair, Good Cop had already gotten up some time during Bad Cop's tantrum and was now standing over my sitting form, her palm flattened against the metal table.
Her black eyes were big and stunning against her Middle Eastern features. "Excuse my partner, he has a problem with criminals, you see. But are you a criminal, Shayne West?"
I merely shrugged, noting how her eyes outlined my neck, shoulders and face. I couldn't read her expression but she only seemed to study me. And to my irritation, it unsettled me to some degree.
"Okay, Miss. West, why don't I pave the way so you can decide faster?"
She picked up the envelope in which her partner had pulled out printed copies of the bank records that showed monthly transactions being sent to the Swiss account that Long had created.
Of course they didn't know about his involvement in the scheme. His name had casually been brought up as the company's financial lawyer. Dumb feds.
"Explain this," she said, spreading out a few photographs towards us. "That's you at a hotel in Ankara. Could you tell me what you were doing in Turkey? Which, may I remind you, is the base for the trafficking grounds connected to you."
I glimpsed at the picture of me walking out of the hotel lobby, scanning through the other pictures and momentarily relieved that none of them had Sasha in them. I needed as many people to look after Olivia in case everything went to shit. Also, Sasha was important to me, she was as good as family.
Lucile didn't waste a beat. "Do you have something against vacationing? Miss. West was simply trying to have some down time and it just happened to be in Turkey. This doesn't prove anything."
"It proves everything actually, because surprise-surprise, Oran Demir had left for Belarus the same day you had left to come back to L.A. Is that a coincidence too?"
Rage instantly sipped in. That motherfucker had been there the whole time? It didn't make any sense.
I'd had my best trackers look for him. It was nearly impossible for Demir to have slipped through our fingers. Hence, we'd concluded he hadn't been in the country at the time.
"Could you kindly tell us who this Oran De-whatever is?" Lucile said.
Bad Cop sneered. "Oh for fucks' sake!"
Everyone who spent their days living on either side of the law knew who Oran Demir was. More than a dozen cases had been investigated involving Oran Demir, including Olivia's father, in just the last few months. Yet the bastard never got nailed.
I still frustratingly had no idea how Oran Demir was connected to those two crazy bitches that had dared threaten me with Olivia's well being. One thing I knew for sure was that they were hell bent on destroying me and the girl that had my heart. Not if I could help it.
"Fine, we're done here, for now," Good Cop said, leaning in and making sure I looked at nothing but her eyes. "Pray that you don't become one of Oran Demir's disposables, because the way I see it, whichever woman was supposed to get that little velvet box won't be seeing you anytime soon. Let's just hope she won't end up in a jail cell like you. Scratch that, let's hope Demir doesn't make use of her in ways we both know."
I saw red, and if Lucile hadn't immediately dug his fingers into my knee, I would have already torn off the woman's trachea. Still, my anger was evident in my eyes, my jaw and my fist. I was insanely furious.
The woman actually took a step back while her partner took three.
"Are we done here?" Lucile asked.
"Yes," she said, lifting her chin after probably realizing she'd let her guard down.
When I was taken back to my jail cell, waiting for Lucille to handle bail, I vowed to kill the woman. But for now, I had to focus on staying under the radar so that the people I cared about would stay safe.
But if I were being honest, there was one person who I needed way more than they needed me.
I needed my heart to survive, and Olivia Ryans was its fuel.