The Academy

Part Two: Chapter Ten

A scream escapes my lips and I jolt upright in bed, panting heavily, a few tears on my cheeks. I'm clutching the blanket, panicked as I try to figure out where I am.

"Liv?" I hear a sleepy, soft voice next to me, and I nearly fall out of bed in fear. This must alarm Lindsey, as she sits up, her eyes cloudy with sleep, and looks at me. It takes me a minute to recognize her, but when I do, we lock eyes. "It's me. Olivia, you're okay. You just had a dream, okay? You're safe here."

Her tone is velvety, and somehow instantly finds a way to calm me. The walls of our bedroom begin to familiarize themselves, and I can feel my heart rate starting to slow. Images of blood and Skipton on top of me, as well as throbbing pain coming from my center, start to fade.

Lindsey reaches out, and I fall into her arms, closing my eyes and trying to control my breathing. As she rubs my back soothingly. 

"I'm sorry," My voice cracks. "You shouldn't have to deal with all this."

"Don't ever say that," Her voice becomes firm and hazel eyes find mine. "Darling, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Don't forget that. I love you."

The fear in my body moments ago dissolves and I'm filled with a strong, warm feeling. "I love you too. What time is it?"

"Early," She yawns, then looks at me, eyes twinkling with amusement, "And that's coming from me."

Lindsey is very much a morning person. Apparently growing up on a farm meant that she has grown into the habit of naturally waking up at the crack ass of dawn. I don't understand how she does it, seeing as I'm the exact opposite. 

I shake my head lightly at her, a smile on my face, and sink back into the pillows. When I close my eyes to go back to sleep though, I instantly see Skipton. Just a flash of his face can send me into a panic, so my eyes stay open and I'm wide awake now. My mind begins to race, and I know that there's no way I'll fall asleep again.

Lindsey is laying next to me, her eyes half open as she watches my face. "You're getting up?"

"I'm not going back to sleep," I shrug softly.

She smiles, sitting up again. "You wanna go for a ride?"

At first, I'm taken aback by her comment, then I realize she's talking about literally riding. As in, horses. I blush, embarrassed that my mind instantly thought of something much dirtier.

"You're gonna have to help me, a lot." I smile. She had managed to get me onto Helios a few days ago, and I swear, riding a horse is a lot more difficult than it looks. I learned a few things and took her stallion for a lap around the paddock, but that's about it.

"You can ride Helios, I'll take Nike. He's perfect for you to learn to ride on. Plus, he and I have telepathy." Her tone is joking, but I'm ninety-nine percent sure that she and her horse actually do speak to each other on another level. How else do they move so perfectly in sync, like one being?

With that, we haul ourselves out of bed and get dressed before heading out to the barn to gear up our horses and adventure through one of the many trails in our yard. A perfect way to clear my head before going to work.

"Jonathan Stanos." Lacey spits the name, slamming the door to the interrogation room behind her. I stand with the rest of the FBI team in the viewing room at FBI headquarters, watching our leader squeeze every last drop of information out of our serial rapist, Jacob Mason.

"That's the name!" I exclaim. Upon getting confused looks from the team, I explain. "We've been after Stanos for months now. He's one of Knox's go-to guys. Not only does Stanos do Knox's dirty work, but he's also in charge of a giant counterfeit money cartel. He's been introducing his crap cash into California for months now. If he's here, he's planning on doing the same thing."