Olivia's POV
"Olivia?" Nick says my name in the same startled voice I whispered his in.
For a moment he continues to kneel on the road beside me where I'm still sprawled on my hands and knees after someone pushed me off the sidewalk. Then he jumps forward and helps me move around so that I'm sitting more comfortably on the cold road.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"I'm fine."
Instead of listening to me, he scans me from my messy hair to my scraped knees and stops only when he's sure I'm not sporting any serious injuries.
"Good." He breathes out and slumps onto the road beside me. "I thought we'd hit you for sure when you stumbled onto the road right in front of our car."
"I was too," I admit, but then continue before he can misunderstand. "It wasn't my fault. Someone pushed me."
"I know."
Because I expected him to disagree with me, his instant agreement takes me off guard. For a second I stare at his expression of relief, wondering what he is thinking. "You know?"
"Yeah." Nick glares at the edge of the sidewalk where I had been standing a few moments ago. "My old man and I saw the hooded figure who pushed you."
I glance around the small circle of space the car's bright headlights are illuminating around us, but I don't see anyone else around. "Your dad was here too?"
"He went after the hooded creep." Nick nods at the street behind me. "Don't fret, he's a good runner. He'll catch the bastard."
"Him? Did you see who it was?"
"Nope. All I saw was a black hood."
"Do you think it was the driver from my accident? I mean, who else would do this to me?" I can't think of anyone else, especially since Nick had seen the figure, which means that whoever it was, they were definitely a human.
"I don't know. We'll have to see when my old man returns."
A few minutes later, officer Wright's footsteps pull Nick away from yet again making sure I'm okay. Instead of with a cuffed culprit though officer Wright returns on his own.
"Where's the bastard?" Nick jumps to his feet.
"Gone." Officer Wright takes in a deep breath and rests his hands on the side of his stomach. "He was too quick."
"You lost him? How could you lose him?"
"It's not his fault." I step in before Nick's voice can get any colder. It's, after all, obvious from Officer Wright's shallow and quick breaths that the culprit didn't get away because of a lack of trying on the officer's part.
"Olivia?" Officer Wright snaps his eyes to me. He sounds just as surprised as Nick did, which tells me that neither of them knew I was the person they almost ran over. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
To show him that I'm uninjured I move to get up. Before I can lift a finger, Nick offers me his hand. With a smile in thanks, I accept his help and allow him to pull me to my feet.
"Do you think it could have been the same person I remembered leaning over me on the night of the accident?" I ask.
"We can't be sure." Officer Wright shakes his head. "But what are you doing here alone at night?"
"I thought that me standing in the middle of the road in darkness while a car approaches me would help me trigger my missing memories."
Officer Wright begins to open his mouth, but before he can say anything, Nick grabs my forearms and forces me to face him.
"Are you crazy? Do you know how dangerous that is?"
"That's not theâ" I begin, but Nick doesn't allow me to finish.
"And where the hell did you get such a stupid idea? You could've been seriously hurt."
"He's right." Officer Wright nods, but opposite to his son's angry expression, he looks more on the line of amused. "Your actions could have ended with serious consequences."
"But it did the trick." I pull out of Nick's hold and glance between the father and the son. "I remembered another thing about the accident. I now know which direction I came from and which direction the car came from."
"I don't care," Nick hisses. "Getting yourself almost killed isn't worth it."
"I didn't intend to get run over. I only wanted to wait long enough to remember something and then move back onto the sidewalk."
"And if you're too late? Then what?"
"Let's all calm down," officer Wright cuts in. "You two can talk about this tomorrow once you've both calmed down. For now, let's just take Olivia home."
Because I have already found out something new about the accident, I follow officer Wright's suggestion and get into their car. After all, I am now one step closer to figuring out what happened on the night of the accident.
*
Samuel's POV
I'm not worried.
Olivia is nothing but another one of my charges. She will get her six hours in less than two days, so there is no reason for me to be thinking about her.
I glance at my pocket watch for the fifth time in the last hour and scowl at the minute head, which refuses to move. It's seven minutes past nine p.m., which means Olivia is already home doing... It's Olivia I'm thinking about. The only time when she isn't doing anything is when she's asleep, and even then she keeps moving around in bed.
With the watch still open, I glance at the time again. Eight minutes past nine. Screw it.
I shut the watch and shove it back inside my pocket. Then with one last look at my charge to make sure he has no intention of going anywhere, I stand and close my eyes.
A moment later, when I open my eyes, I'm not inside Olivia's house like I expect. Instead, I find myself standing in the middle of her front drive just as a car comes to a stop in front of the house. And it's not just any car. It's a police car.
From the back seat, where the criminals sit, exits Olivia.
"What did you do?" I ask the moment she steps onto the sidewalk.
Her eyes jump to mine, but instead of answering she turns back to the car. The front passenger door opens, but instead of a police officer, Nick climbs out.
"You sure you're okay?" He stops beside Olivia. "If not we can take you to the hospital."
The moment the word hospital leaves his mouth I run my eyes from the top of Olivia's loose hair to the pair of sneakers she's wearing. Though from the looks of things, she isn't sporting any new major injuries.
"I'm fine," Olivia confirms my guess as she waves off Nick's offer.
"Olivia!"
The shout comes from the house, where the lamp above the front entrance buzzes to life and Mina rushes through the door. She flies down the front steps and the front-drive until she stops a couple of steps away from the police car.
Behind her follows her Guardian, Eliza, but opposite to her charge she moves at a much slower pace. With her hands in the pockets of her pants, she stops at the bottom of the stairs and focuses on the humans.
"What happened?" Mina glances from Olivia to Nick and then to Wright, who gets out of the driver's seat. Before anyone can respond, she diminishes the distance to her daughter and smacks her across her upper arm. "What did you do this time?"
"It wasn't my fault." Olivia takes a step back while running her hand up and down the upper arm Mina hit her on.
Mina turns in Wright's direction. "I'm so sorry. I know how reckless my daughter is. It's why I don't want you to give her any special treatment. If Olivia did something wrong, she should be punished accordingly."
While Nick and his father stare at Mina with furrowed eyebrows, Olivia rolls her eyes.
"Olivia didn't do anything wrong," Wright says. "My son and I only drove her here because we didn't want her walking alone at night."
"So you're telling me she didn't do anything to deserve to spend the night in jail?" Mina's shoulders slump in defeat.
"No, mam. She was the one assaulted. Someone pushed her onto the road in front of our car. I tried to catch the culprit, but for now, he got away."
"What?" I move a few steps closer to Olivia while ignoring everyone else around us. "Someone tried to hurt you?"
"Again?" Mina, on the other hand, turns to her daughter with a shake of her head. "Do I need to take you to the hospital again?"
"I'm fine," Olivia assures her and then turns to Wright, who is still standing on the other side of the car. "Thank you again for everything."
"It was no problem," Wright says and then glances at his son. "I probably didn't have another choice anyway."
I follow his gaze and notice how close Nick is standing to Olivia. He is close enough for his shoulder to brush against hers, which flattens my mouth into a straight line. I'm not sure I like both of my charges getting this close.
Mina follows Wright's gaze as well, but opposite to me, she smiles at my charges. "Oh, dear. How hadn't I noticed such a dashing young man before? My name is Mina and as you can probably guess I'm Olivia's mother."
"Nick. I'm Olivia'sâ"
"He's a friend." Olivia cuts in, glaring at her mother. "So stop looking at him like he's your next target. He and I are just friends."
While Olivia is focused on her mother, I don't miss the way Nick stiffens at the part of the two of them being just friends.
"Do you want to come in for some coffee?" Mina turns back to Wright.
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary. It's late, so we should get going."
Nick's shoulders slump at his father's words and he turns to Olivia. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Olivia nods and then watches as Nick and Wright climb back into the car. I, on the other hand, keep my eyes focused on her. She has a lot of explaining to do, starting with how the heck she managed to get into trouble. Again.
***
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- E