A Force To Be Reckoned With
Previously...
Opening her eyes, Abby's heart started pounding in her chest. Without moving her lips, Abby whispered, "Oh my god."
"What's the ma..." Olivia began. Her door was pulled open. She turned in her seat to see what the hell was going on.
Collin stepped closer to her and roughly grabbed Olivia's arm. He gave her a smile and in an overly sweet voice he said, "hey, pretty girl."
His sugary sweet greeting slid into her ears and immediately brought bile to the back of her throat. Olivia stumbled out of the car, crawled a few feet away, and wretched on the ground. As her stomach emptied, only one thought screamed itself repeatedly in her brain. How was she going to get Abby and herself the hell away from Collin?
Lifting her weary head slowly, she caught sight of the beach house she shared with Abby and Quinn. There were no lights on inside or outside. They had discussed that as a group recently. To leave at least one light on at all times to make it look like someone was home after dark or expected to be home soon. Someone had forgotten. Probably Fitz.
Olivia quickly wondered where Fitz was at. And then she remembered what he had told her earlier. He had a meeting with the expansion team at the hotel, and then he was going to the grocery store. Part of her wished that he would show up and beat the shit out of Collin and end this now. The other part prayed he didn't come back to the beach house any time soon. She didn't want him to get hurt.
Maybe she could convince Collin to leave Abby there if she went with him? She was pretty convinced Collin didn't come all this way to leave empty handed. He'd come for her and probably the baby too. Of course, any interest in the baby on his part now was strictly out of spite. He didn't want to be a father. He'd told her that himself. It made Olivia wonder why he cared that she had kept the baby instead of getting rid of it as he wanted her to begin with.
It didn't matter what he wanted or how he wanted to get it. Olivia had to figure out how to get Collin to leave and keep herself and Abby safe in the meantime. He grabbed her arm once again when the vomiting stopped. "Get up!" he demanded and pulled her to her feet. "Let's go inside and have a little chat."
Olivia had a strange feeling that once they went inside the beach house, all of them weren't coming back out. She had to think fast. She'd try pleading first. "Let Abby go. She has nothing to do with any of this. Just leave her here and I'll go wherever you want to go."
"Shut up, Liv!" Abby screamed at her best friend. There was no way in hell Liv and Riley were leaving with this psycho!
"HEYYYY! Don't talk to her like that!" Collin said defensively with a raised voice. He let go of Olivia long enough to shove Abby forward. It caught her by surprise, and she fell to her knees, cutting them on the gravel driveway.
Abby brushed off her knees and got to her feet again. As she continued walking towards the house, she realized something. Collin didn't like it when she spoke against Liv. She would use that. She would also kick him in the balls for shoving her.
"Now open the door, you dumb bitch!" he growled.
The redhead unlocked the door before taking a step back.
"You go in first." he ordered.
Abby turned the doorknob and stepped inside. Collin held Olivia in place in front of him as the two of them walked into the kitchen. It was too damned dark to see anything at all in the beach house, but the three of them stood there listening for any sounds at all. When he didn't hear anything, he breathed a little easier. "Turn on a fucking light."
"Now then. Let's sit down at the table and talk some shit out. Red, pour me a drink."
Abby sent him a hate filled look. The last thing she wanted to do was wait on the bastard, but it would get her closer to the knives, or a frying pan. Anything to hit him with. "What do you want?"
"Sit down, Abby" Olivia said, getting to her feet.
"I asked her to get it" Collin told Olivia impatiently.
Olivia ignored him and went to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a glass. "Right, but she doesn't know what you want or how to fix it. Let me."
Collin watched her go to the freezer door and push the glass against it. Three or four ice cubes dropped inside the glass and then she pulled a familiar bottle down from another cabinet. She poured a generous amount into the glass before taking to him at the table.
"Whiskey on the rocks? That's his difficult drink? Whaddya think I am, stupid? Jeeez, Liv."
Collin sprung to his feet and stomped over to where the redheaded bitch was sitting. He grabbed her wrist hard, causing her to wince in pain. "I warned you about that shit."
Abby looked up at her best friend's ex. He wore a look of pure hatred as he twisted her wrist. Her heart was pounding so loud in terror, she just knew that Liv and the asshole could hear it. But she also knew that when she spoke like that to Olivia, he became enraged and took his focus off Liv long enough to dish out some kind of punishment. She looked up at him and her eyes flicked to Olivia, who was standing behind him. Hoping Liv would take the hint, Abby rolled her eyes towards the door. And that was when Collin pushed her backwards in the chair. Her head hit the floor and she was out.
Olivia covered her mouth with her hand, to keep the scream inside that threatened to spill out. Her best friend was unconscious on the floor because she was trying to protect her. Olivia needed to check on her. Was she even still breathing? Maybe if she asked him really...
"Let's talk now that that bitch is finally quiet."
Her wild eyes shifted to Abby's crumpled body on the floor. "Can I please just check on her first? To make sure she's breathing at least?"
"She's fine."
"Just let me..."
"I said she's fine! Now sit your ass down and let's talk about some things."
Olivia nervously sat down onto a wooden chair at the table. "What do you want to talk about, Collin?"
"Let's start with an easy question. Is that my baby you're carrying?"
"No, it isn't." Her hand protectively went to her belly where Riley was being very active. "It's my fiancé's baby."
"You're pregnant and getting married? You haven't been gone very long." He remarked calmly. On the inside he was anything but. He had a feeling she was lying to him. He just didn't understand why. "That was quick."
"When you know, you know." Olivia answered honestly.
"That's a lot going on in your life over a short amount of time, Oh-livia. Are you absolutely sure it's not my baby though?"
"I'm positive." Olivia answered without blinking or breaking eye contact with him.
"We'll...come back to that one later. Why did you leave me without any warning?"
"You didn't really give me a choice."
"What the hell are you talking about? I gave you money. A lot of it, to pay for an abortion. And then you were supposed to come back to my place once you had healed up so we could party. It's what we discussed."
"Do you want me to pay you back? I have the money in my bedroom." She got to her feet to go and get it. Anything to get his crazy ass far away from the beach house. She needed to check on Abby, to call Fitz, to breathe for a minute without the overwhelming stench of fear mixed in with it.
He got to his feet as well and calmly said, "no, no. I didn't come here to be paid back."
Collin pointed at her chair, and Olivia sat back down. She had to keep him calm to prevent him from flying off in a blind rage again. "I don't understand. If not for the money, then why did you come?"
He sat down in the chair closest to her and gave Olivia a smile. This bitch was lying to him. He didn't know how to explain how he knew that was a fact, but he did. No matter what it took, he was going to get her to admit the truth to him. "Well, I guess I'm wondering why you couldn't have ended things with me personally, instead of running away like a dog? You ghosted me. I wasn't even aware that there was a problem. Let alone, one big enough to cause us to break up. I guess I'm looking for some closure."
Did he really just say closure? He knocked her best friend out cold and left her lying on the kitchen floor for closure? He stalked her house for closure? He stood outside and watched her through the window for fucking closure? She couldn't scream any of that at him because it would make him lose his shit, and Olivia wasn't in a position to allow that to happen. No one was home, Abby was hurt, and Olivia was trying like hell to protect her daughter.
Instead, she kept her face free from any expression and told him, "it just felt like things were getting stale. We did the same thing every week. It was super repetitious. Looking back, I can see that I could have handled it better. I guess I understand that need for closure."
She just had it all figured out, didn't she? Miss I have an answer for everything. Bitch. He was trying to think of a different approach when Olivia spoke up.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"When you gave me the money to get the abortion, you told me how long it would take me to heal, and you knew how much it would cost. I guess I'm just wondering how many others you have paid for?" She loved to watch that look of shock spread across his face. It was all she needed to know that he had done it before with some other woman.
"We also decided not to discuss our pasts. Remember?"
"That's right. It's been a while, but I remember that rule."
"How about you tell me why when I gave you money to take care of that..." He gestured wildly with his hands towards her belly. "...thing, you kept it? And then you just ran away without a word."
She would have to lie now. She wasn't going to think about it. She was just going to say it. She put her hand back on her belly. "I did get rid of it. I got rid of it, and then I got rid of you."
Collin picked up on her tell. An evil grin covered his face. "You're a lying bitch."
"I'm not lying!" She had to convince him somehow that she was telling the truth.
"When you're trying to protect your kid, you put your hand on your belly. I've been watching you. So, shut your lying mouth and start telling me the truth, or things are going to get ugly real quick!"
"Abby is unconscious on the floor. Don't you think we are way past things possibly getting ugly?" She yelled.
He reared his hand back and slapped her across the face. She screamed out in pain and almost fell out of her chair but grabbed onto the table at the last second. One of her hands came up to her cheek, and the heat could already be felt on her skin. As bad as it hurt, Olivia would take much more as long as Collin got the closure he claimed he needed and left her unborn baby alone. She had a feeling that wasn't going to be enough though.
"Admit to me that you didn't get the abortion, and that you are still carrying my baby." He was done screwing around with her. It was time for some straight answers.
"I told you, I am carrying my fiancé's baby. This is not your child." And she wasn't his. Not really.
He slapped her again. And again, she cried out. "Please stop!"
"Admit it! We decided, Olivia. To get rid of it."
She was about to deny it a third time, and saw his hand fly up. The thought of being hit again was too much. Instead, she screamed at him as tears rolled down her reddened cheeks. "No, we didn't! You decided all by yourself that I would get rid of this baby! I wanted to keep it."
"See, that wasn't so hard." He grabbed a hand towel and ran it under cold water before giving it to her as he continued talking. "We discussed it. I remember. You thought you might want to keep it, and I reminded you that we weren't made for that life. You sure didn't have a problem taking my money. Did you?" He tipped his glass back and emptied it.
She put the towel on one of her cheeks to ease the sting. She would have to try another approach. "Your money went towards removing the baby from your life. Is there a baby in your life right now that you have to worry about?"
Was she insane? Had she lost her mind? Collin kept eye contact with her, and hoped she wasn't about to say some smartass bullshit right now. "No."
"See! You got what you paid for. You didn't want a baby, and you don't have a baby. I do."
"Don't talk to me like that, Olivia! I am not above slapping you again! To get down to brass tacks, why the hell didn't you get an abortion, like we discussed?"
"Because I didn't want to have an abortion. I wanted to have a baby! And she will never know who you..."
"You already know what it is? That's amazing. Another pretty girl."
Olivia got to her feet, feeling bold determination mix with her motherly instinct. "You will never call her pretty girl! Do you hear me? She will know about you only when she's old enough to be told about you. You didn't want her, and she doesn't need you."
"Calm down." he said quietly. He did not appreciate the way she was speaking to him.
"She has a dad. A real dad, who loves her and is there for her, and can't wait to spend time with her."
"I am her dad!" he screamed.
"You didn't want her from the moment you found out about her. But he did! He loves her and he is going to be her dad! He is going to adopt her and make her legally his daughter." She screamed back.
Collin couldn't listen to her rant on and on about that fucking guy anymore. He pushed his chair back and got to his feet quickly. With an ugly sneer on his face, he took the few steps to her and slapped her across the face again to make her stop talking.
The sound of his hand hitting her skin was deafening. Olivia fell to her hands and knees, holding her face. Her cheeks were throbbing. A headache was beginning to make itself known too, and all of a sudden, she felt exhausted. She held onto her belly to protect her daughter as the tears began to fall. He was going to end up killing them both out of hatred. All because she didn't do exactly what he commanded months ago.
As she wiped her eyes, her gaze fell on Abby, still lying on the floor. She scurried over on her hands and knees to where her friend was, and pushed her beautiful, long, red, hair out of her face to make sure she was still breathing. Abby's eyes were still closed, and she was unresponsive. Olivia cried louder, making her lip throb. One of her fingers came up to touch the painful spot on her lip and Olivia discovered it was split open. She wiped the blood away and focused on Abby.
"Abby? Hey, Abs? You okay?" Olivia gently called out, shaking her slightly. Abby groaned faintly and Olivia cried harder and continued to push the red strands out of her friend's face.
The air suddenly came whooshing out of Olivia as an arm hooked under her armpits and pulled her away from her friend. "Abby is taking a little nap."
"Stop it! She might be hurt really bad!" Olivia screamed, trying to get away from him. She slapped his hands, clawed at him, and screamed louder. "NOOOOOO!"
Collin grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked it back so that Olivia was looking up at him. She immediately stopped fighting against him as she winced, and her hands went to her head to try to pry his fingers out of her hair. Her face was tear soaked and both cheeks were red. "You listen to me now. While your good friend Abby sleeps, we are going to pack for a little trip. Well, that's a lie. I guess that makes us both liars, huh? It'll be a long trip. You're not ever coming back here."
Olivia remembered her initial feeling when they entered the house. Bone deep fear gripped her heart and began to squeeze tightly. "I don't want to go with you, Collin. Just leave me here. Please! I won't tell anyone anything I swear! I'll say that Abby fell and bumped her head. She will go along with it. Pease!"
He simply gripped her hair even harder until she stopped fighting and stopped begging. "You are going with me. You will be taken to a doctor and examined. I will be told when your due date is and how far along you are. You will never come back here, and you will never see that goofy looking asshole ever again. The three of us will learn to be a happy little family."
She had to think fast. She decided to just go with the truth. "I am due on November twenty fifth. I don't want to go with..."
Collin pulled her hair impossibly tighter in his fist, making her cry out in pain. "How do I know you're not lying?"
Olivia recalled the paperwork she had gotten from her first obstetrician appointment here. Paperwork that confirmed that she was pregnant and what her due date was. Papers she had gotten while Fitz had gone back to California. Her hands dropped as a feeling of defeat took over her. She would never see Fitz again. She would never tell him that she loved him or hear him say it to her. The ache she felt in her heart hurt worse than any pain Collin could inflict on her. "I have papers in my room that prove what I'm saying."
"Let's go get them together. Nice and slow." He helped her to her feet and followed her to retrieve the papers she claimed to have.
"I need to use the restroom first." She saw the hesitation in his eyes, she added, "please."
"Fine but leave the door halfway open. If things get too quiet in there, I'm coming in." he warned. "Where are those papers?"
Olivia stepped into the bathroom and closed the door halfway. It creaked at the effort. Looking at her reflection in the mirror brought fresh tears to her eyes. Her face was red and blotchy, from crying and from his hand. Her hair...It would take a miracle to get a comb through it. It didn't matter anyway. "They are in the top drawer of my nightstand."
She pulled her leggings and underwear down, sat on the commode, and started emptying her bladder. Listening to him rustling papers in her room, Olivia lifted her head in time to see a shadow move past the door. Who in the hell was that? Abby? She doubted her best friend had made such a quick recovery since she had checked her less than five minutes ago. Where was Collin?
"Did you find them?" she called out as she hurriedly finished.
"Got em!" He called out.
Olivia cleaned herself up and yanked her pants up. She went to the sink to quickly wash her hands when she heard an ear piercing sound. Olivia hit the floor and curled herself into the smallest ball possible and once again covered her mouth to keep the frenzied scream inside. She didn't even dare to breathe.
A million questions ran through her mind. Was that a gunshot? Since when did Collin have a gun? Was he shooting at her? At Abby? Was he trying to scare the shit out of her? Trying to get her to hurry up?
Suddenly, the bathroom door creaked open. He was going to kill her now for sure. Olivia squeezed herself into an even smaller ball and put a hand protectively over her belly. She listened intently, still too terrified to breathe. Why wasn't he yelling at her? The waiting was much worse.
A hand touched her arm. Olivia screamed loudly and continued crying, but she avoided looking up into his mean face. "Stop it! Stop it! I'll go with you. I'll do whatever you want. Just please don't hurt my baby."
"Liv? It's me. It's Quinn." a voice answered in a soothing tone.
Olivia took a moment to make sure the voice matched Quinn's. When she realized that no one was kicking her or hitting her or yelling at her, Olivia's head snapped up to meet the concerned brown eyes of Quinn. Her eyes doubled in size and they darted fearfully towards the door. "Quinn? H...How did you get in here? He'll hear you. He's got a gun. You've got to go get help! Hurry!"
Quinn's heart broke at the sight of her friend. She was curled into herself, trying to keep Riley safe from the asshole known as her father. "Liv? I am the help. I shot Collin."
"He'll get up again! He always gets up again." Olivia whispered.
"Hey! He's not gonna get up this time. He's dead. I checked. Now, I need to call nine one one to let them know what happened."
"Don't leave me!" Olivia pleaded with wild eyes as she clung to Quinn's arm and tears ran down her face.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna stay right here with you, okay?" Quinn said in a soothing voice.
Olivia clawed at Quinns shirt while keeping her eyes trained on the door. She still wasn't quite convinced that Collin was dead.
"Liv?" Quinn asked, trying to get her mind on anything but her ex. "Where's Abby?"
"Sheeee's in the kitchen. Collin pushed her backwards in her chair and she hit her head. She wasn't moving. I don't know if..." Olivia couldn't finish that sentence.
"Hey!" Quinn said in a firmer tone as she touched the three digits. "She's fine. Do you hear me? We'll go check on her together while I talk to them on the phone. Yes, this is Quinn Perkins. I just shot and killed an intruder. My address is..."
Olivia nodded wildly and Quinn helped her to her feet. The two of them crept into the kitchen quietly, where Olivia got down on her knees near Abby while Quinn gave more information. "Abby?" she whispered.
"My head is killing me." Abby moaned.
"Abs! You're okay? I am so sorry!" Olivia said, still crying. She gently pulled her friend's head onto her lap and apologized over and over through her tears.
"They are sending a car and an ambulance for you guys. I don't care what you say, Liv, you're getting checked out this time." Quinn told her. She took a few steps away and immediately touched the screen of her phone to make one more much needed call.
"Don't be sorry, Luv. He's was a monster." Abby stated. "Did you really shoot it, Quinn?"
"Shoot him? Yes, I did. You might have a concussion, Abs."
"How did you get into the house?" Olivia asked when Quinn rejoined them.
"I came home from work early with a migraine. In fact, I saw Fitz before he left for his meeting. I told him I was going to lay down in Abby's bed. He turned off all the lights and assured me that no one would be home for hours, and hoped I'd get better. I heard you guys come in, but thought I was dreaming. By the time I realized that I wasn't and exactly what was going on, I had to wait for the opportunity to catch him alone." She shrugged. "When I heard you ask to go to the bathroom while he rummaged around in your room, I knew that was my moment. I'm really sorry I scared the shit out of you, Liv."
"Don't ever apologize to me for anything that happened here tonight." She hugged Quinn and the tears started again. "You saved Abby, me, and Riley from him. There's no telling what would have happened if you hadn't been here. Thank you."
Abby shakily got to her feet. She had a huge knot on the back of her head, along with a killer headache, but she was alive. She owed Collin some payback. "Take me to him, Quinn."
"I really don't think that is such a..."
"Do it" Abby commanded.
"I need to see it for myself too. Otherwise, my mind will make me think he could come back any time." Olivia admitted.
"You two are crazy as hell. Let's go." Quinn announced. She got on one side of Abby while Olivia got on the other side. Together, the three of them slowly made their way towards the body on the floor in Olivia's bedroom.
Collin was crumpled up on the floor lying mostly on his back and side. The three women huddled together as they tiptoed towards him. "There's a lot more blood than they show in the movies." Abby said softly.
"And his eyes are open. It's really weird looking."
The three of them all looked up when blinking red and blue lights slashed through the mostly dark house. Abby quickly stepped away from the other two women and boldly went to the dead body on the floor. She reared her foot back and let it fly into his still soft crotch. "That's for hitting me, you asshole."
She kicked him twice more and said, "one's for Liv and one's for Riley. You were a son of a bitch and I'm glad you're dead."
Knocking could be heard at the door and a man's voice informing them they were the police.
"Come on. Let's go let them in and give our statements." Quinn told them.
Just as Olivia was finishing up her side of the story for the officer, a car sped into the driveway. It had barely been put into park when the driver's door was opened, and Fitz jumped out. He yanked open the front door and ran inside shouting, "LIV!"
Officers quickly reached for their weapons as Quinn quickly said, "it's okay. He lives here!"
Olivia immediately ran to him and collapsed against his body. They both sank to the floor as they held each other as tightly and as closely as they could. Both of them were crying and whispered comforting words to the other. The officers relaxed by several degrees and gave them some time together.
After every statement had been taken, and Collin's body had been tagged and bagged by the morgue, the ambulances loaded Olivia and Abby and took them to the hospital to be checked out fully. Abby had concussion, as suspected, and Liv was kept for overnight observation for both she and her baby.
It was never discussed, but the girls never went back to the beach house. Fitz knew that they wouldn't want to go back. Not with all of the dark memories and death the house now held for the three women. He had his father find a reasonably priced rental house on the beach for Abby and Quinn to live in. Someplace to start fresh together. The rent was paid for three months by Fitz. He felt it was the least he could do for the brave women who helped keep his fiancé and daughter safe.
Max got in touch with a moving company, who went into the house once the all clear had been given by the police. They packed up everything, with the exception of anything that was in Olivia's bedroom and took it to the new house. The two women would have to unpack their items and put them wherever they wanted them to go, but they had the breathing room to do that when they were ready.
The next afternoon, Abby and Olivia were picked up by Fitz, Stephen, and Quinn. All five of them spent a week at Fitz and Liv's beach house. It was the perfect diversion while the new rental for Abby and Quinn was being settled. There were serious conversations, some laughs, and a lot of tears. The five of them began the long healing process, and helped each other become much stronger than they already had been.
