Chapter Three

"Marni wouldn't want this for you."

It wasn't the first time Olivia had found herself in a tight spot. It was, however, the first time she'd been hiding under a bed to avoid being caught by some kid's father. This was new.

The most disturbing thing was, however, not that it was new. Instead this situation felt completely familiar. She could feel her body going still, her heart beating evenly despite the stress. Masculine shoes slowly approached the bed, carefully tracked by Olivia's eyes. There wasn't fear, just a certainty that she was being hunted. She would have to fight. She was ready.

"Shilo, wake up," Nathan said firmly. Olivia blinked a few times. Sanity intruded on instinct as Shilo gave up on pretending that she was asleep.

"Dad?"

"Whom does this jacket belong to?" Olivia let out a quiet breath. There was nothing here she would have to battle. Wallace was just a regular man. He wasn't going to beat her to a pulp just for visiting his daughter. Her reaction had been totally uncalled for and now she had less time to think of reasonable, calming things to say to him. Even if he wasn't going to beat her to a pulp, they were going to get into an argument.

"Oh, that… that jacket? Um, well, I - "

"No point in trying to cover our tracks, Shilo. We're caught," Olivia said in a deliberately casual voice. She pushed her way past the clear plastic curtain surrounding the bed and crawled out into the open, taking her boots with her. About a second later Nathan Wallace had her tightly by the arms, slamming her hard against a bedpost. The breath shoved out of her in a shocked gasp. She could feel the tension in his body, the restraint. He was holding back. If he hadn't, he might have broken her arms.

Meeting Nathan for the second time cleared a few things up for Olivia. For one thing, he wasn't creepy. He was downright terrifying. His eyes blazed, far greener up close than from a distance. She could also see a small patch of hazel on his right eye, which was hard to see behind his glasses. Being this close, she could see a lot of things. His face was handsome, age lines carving deep into his cheeks and giving him more character than any younger man. There was experience there and the edge made him dangerous. Briefly, Olivia felt like a helpless, stupid deer staring into headlights. It was an old metaphor and there were never any deer in the streets nowadays but she felt the comparison appropriate. Then her boots slipped from her numb fingers, banging hard against the floor. It was enough to shake her out of her shock. "Get off me," she snarled, her tone deepening to one she used very rarely.

"What are you doing here?" he snarled back with a tone that matched hers.

"Dad, stop it! You'll hurt her!" Shilo cried, jumping out of bed and running to Olivia's defense.

"Get back, Shilo!" Nathan and Olivia shouted together. Then they both paused to stare at each other, bewildered by the coincidence. Shilo stumbled back. She wasn't used to being shouted at by two people at once and it was enough to make her obey.

"Please, dad, I just wanted to talk to someone who understood," she pleaded softly. Nathan's eyes flicked toward his daughter and Olivia felt his grip soften. She immediately shoved him away, instinctively moving to shield Shilo.

"How did you get in here?" he demanded. The softness his daughter inspired had vanished. A little voice in Olivia's head told her he was still holding back, that he could be a hell of a lot scarier. She tried to ignore it.

"I climbed," she replied flatly, refusing to supply details.

"I asked her to come," Shilo hurried to tell him. Olivia fought the urge to roll her eyes. Here she was trying to cover for Shilo while the kid was trying to cover for her.

"Getting inside was my idea," Olivia said firmly, trying to get Nathan's attention away from Shilo. The teenager wasn't going to give up that easy, though.

"I'm the one who tied my sheets together."

"I scaled the fence without anyone's help," she shot back. Nathan's eyes flicked between the two of them, frown lines deepening.

"It's still my fault," Shilo claimed stubbornly.

"Oh, it is not!"

"Enough!" Nathan snapped. The women fell silent. He looked briefly at his daughter. "We'll discuss this later. Miss Stewart," he said, surprising Olivia. She hadn't thought he remembered her name. "Collect your things and join me in the hall." In one graceful move he turned and was out the door before she could complain about being ordered around.

"That doesn't bode well, does it?" she murmured quietly, tugging on her boots and picking up her coat from the floor. Shilo watched her and tried not to give anything away with her expression. Olivia could see the plea in her eyes anyway. She reached out, tracing Shilo's cheek with her fingertips. "You'll be seeing me again, kid. Acid rain couldn't keep me away."

"I'm not a kid," Shilo said but there wasn't any force behind it. She smiled as Olivia walked into the hall, gently closing the door behind her.

"What do you think you're playing at?" Nathan demanded once the door had closed. Olivia took a brief moment to observe her surroundings before she responded. The hall was dark, although the wallpaper was a light rose color and the carpet was red. Without natural sunlight the place was sinister, lamps and wall fixtures creating more shadows than comforting light. The holographic portraits didn't help warm the place up, either. There was always a spooky quality to those things and these were no exception. It was the same woman over and over again, in different outfits and various poses. In a few she was even reaching out. It was the perfect hall for ghosts.

"What am I playing at?" Olivia mused, turning to face Nathan. "I'm playing at keeping your daughter out of trouble. What are you playing at?" If she had been closer, she might have seen his eyes go empty as something warred for control in his body. He shook his head and she didn't realize how close she'd come to ruin.

"My daughter is my responsibility. I've kept her out of trouble for sixteen years and I have absolutely no need of assistance." Olivia snorted.

"Yeah, right. She's a teenaged girl with raging hormones and curiosity but you think you've got it handled. By sheer luck your daughter reached out to one of the few people in this city who wouldn't kill, rape, manipulate or rob her. How lucky do you think she's going to be a second time?"

"There won't be a second time," Nathan replied flatly. He took Olivia by the elbow and led her down the hall toward the stairs. Although, led wasn't precisely the word for it. Dragged was more appropriate. "You will leave our house. If you come back, I'll have you arrested." It took everything Olivia had not to say 'like I haven't heard that before'. Instead she continued to argue, pressing her heels into the carpet to slow his progress.

"The hell there won't be a second time. Just because you wag your finger at her doesn't mean she's going to fall into line without a second thought. She's good at strategy. One way or another, she'll find a way around you and into the world without any idea how to protect herself."

"How do you know anything about my daughter?" he snarled. They hadn't even gotten half way down the stairs, she was resisting so hard. Nathan wasn't getting anywhere by dragging her and if he pulled too hard he'd dislocate her arm. The notion wasn't entirely repulsive.

"I know about her head for strategy because I just spend the last two hours getting my butt kicked at chess. The rest I know because, oddly enough, I was a teenager once," she pointed out dryly.

"Clearly not very long ago," he retorted. Her eyes narrowed.

"That's rich coming from you, gramps. At least I remember being a teenager." Then his eyes narrowed.

"Gramps? I'm forty-five, you obnoxious little - "

"And I'm twenty-nine. Bite me," she snapped. Olivia regretted tagging on the 'bite me' but she hadn't been able to resist. Of all the things to argue about, she hadn't predicted age. Instead of striking back, the air seemed to go out of Nathan. He released her arm and stumbled back a few steps. Something had shocked him but Olivia couldn't figure out what it was. His eyes went to a portrait. It was the same woman from the hallway, the dark curls and cat-that-ate-the-canary grin gave her away. She frowned. How many pictures of one woman did he really need? Then it hit her.

Oh.

"That's… that's your wife, isn't it?"

"Yes," he answered softly. Olivia gulped. She decided not to ask about how old she'd been when she died. She was pretty sure she already knew, since Nathan's face had considerably more somber since she shouted her age at him.

"I'm sorry you lost her. It couldn't have been easy, raising Shilo on your own. Now that she's older, it's going to get even harder." He frowned at her and, for the first time, she offered him a smile. It was a small one and it wasn't enthusiastic but it was definitely a smile. "I'm a woman. To get there, I had to go through what Shilo's dealing with now. I know what it's like and it's not pretty."

"I'll handle it," Nathan said with every intention of taking Olivia's arm again. She jumped down a few steps and away from his hand.

"Can you hear me out for a second? I swear, you're one of the more stubborn men I've ever known." He let out an exasperated sigh and passed a hand over his face. Olivia took that for an agreement. "Would it really hurt anything if I came to visit Shilo every now and then? I understand she's sick. I wouldn't do anything really physical. Besides, you're around her all the time and she's fine."

"I'm clean," he pointed out. Olivia's lips thinned. She understood exactly what he was intimating and she didn't appreciate it.

"I don't do drugs. I'm high on the toxic fumes released into our atmosphere." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Brilliant. An environmentalist," he muttered.

"Almost worse than a zydrate addict," she quipped lightly before getting back to the point. "She needs a woman around, Mr. Wallace. She has questions and concerns that a middle-aged man will not be able to answer." He grunted. It wasn't encouraging but then, it wasn't an outright denial, either. "Is that a maybe?"

"We'd need rules." She smiled again.

"I can do rules." Sort of. "How about a fixed schedule to start with? Would that appeal to your compulsive side?" He glowered at her but nodded anyway.

"Once a month you can - "

"Twice a week," she countered. "Five hours each visit, at least."

"Once a week," Nathan argued. "And you can have three hours."

"Once a week and half the day each visit." He started to argue again but Olivia cut him off. "I'm not going any lower than that."

"You realize I could just kick you out and never let you in again," he informed her bluntly. She just shrugged.

"So I'd have to do some more climbing. I can use the exercise."

"I knew I should have made that fence electric," Nathan muttered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at Olivia without blinking for a long, disconcerting moment. "Why are you doing this?"

"To be honest, I need to be needed. I've been floating without much of a purpose and Shilo is like an anchor into something real. She's a special girl," Olivia replied gently. "She's unique in this world. Clean. I don't want to see her hurt, even if I don't know her that well. I've never been very good at controlling my feelings and it seems I'm already emotionally invested in her. Stupid, really, but there it is. I'm stuck. So either you and I learn to tolerate each other or I sneak in on a regular basis. Which is it?"

"I would prefer to keep an eye on you," Nathan conceded. His face was inscrutable. Olivia just took comfort in the fact that he hadn't booted her out already.

"If you let me have my half day each week, I promise not to be too much trouble. Hell, I'll even let you keep two eyes on me instead of just the one." His mouth twitched. Olivia's eyes widened. She'd almost made him smile. Now that had to be a good sign. "Deal?" She held out her hand, hoping the unpainted nails might be a mark in her favor.

"For the time being… Yes, deal," Nathan agreed as his large, long-fingered hand swallowed her narrow one. The contact made her hand tingle slightly, although she couldn't image why. Nathan wasn't her type and never would be. She was there for Shilo, period.

"I'll see you Wednesday, then," she said lightly, quickly releasing his hand and hurrying down the stairs before they could argue about that particular day of the week.

The tingles didn't go away.