felt as real as it had been the first time. “He’s crapping his pants,” Leo said.
“The only reason I’m not snapping your neck myself is because Olivia said you both deserved a chance at a new life. If she’s dead . . .”
“I had no way of knowing this was going down.”
Friedrich continued to plead, and Neil opened up a new asshole for the man.
The communication link faded as the airplane moved out of range.
The door to the van opened, and Claire and Cooper stood in full combat gear covered in weeds and dirt. The assailants climbed into the van with handshakes and pats on the back.
Claire started to laugh. “Now that was fun!”
Olivia rested her head on Leo’s chest.
He squeezed her tight. “Let’s go home.”
EPILOGUE
Jax walked along the uneven crowded streets of Ubud. Her long hair was braided in a way that kept it out of her face. Her skin had been kissed enough to suggest she’d been in Indonesia for several weeks.
With mala beads around her neck, and flowing skirts swishing at her ankles . . . she blended.
This was the kind of assignment she liked.
Every day, she passed the entrance to Friedrich and Louis’s home.
From the outside, the colorful doors looked just like everyone else’s.
On the inside, a lush courtyard sat center to a private home with a personal chef and housekeeper that lived on-site.
Friedrich Schmidt was now known as Ted Miller, an ex-pat who had sold his small chain of fast food restaurants to retire at an early age.
If the man was itching for a different life, Jax couldn’t tell.
When it was her turn to pass the baton, she walked by Friedrich’s mail slot and left him a token and a note. Jax used a mixture of Russian and German, a code she and Claire had come up with at Richter and some of the other students had adopted.
The note simply said . . .
If information circulates among our joint enemies and your location has been compromised, another token will find its way into your home without explanation. If you are informed of a threat to “the team,” we expect the same in return.
Jax watched from a distance as Friedrich sat and read the note.
Afterward he burned the paper with the end of his cigar.
He looked around as if knowing he was being watched and smiled.
At that moment a Balinese monkey jumped up on the table beside him and grabbed a date from a bowl.
Friedrich reached to pet the animal before standing up and walking out of view.
Sven nudged Jax’s shoulder. “So this is what you’ve been doing all winter?”
“I’m working hard here.”
They both laughed and enjoyed their one day together before Jax headed back to the States.
Olivia stretched her cold feet toward the roaring fire that heated the Lake Tahoe cabin.
Neil had found a remote location for her and Leo to spend the remainder of the season.
The sting to shut Mykonos down and remove the possibility of parole had worked.
Even if the cost was Leo resigning from the FBI.
Working outside the department’s radar, regardless of the outcome, wasn’t tolerated.
For three weeks Olivia and Leo picked up where they’d left off before her memory returned.
They had snowball fights and ate a lot of mashed potatoes while they contemplated what they were going to do next.
“I think we should take it,” Leo announced.
The written description of Neil’s job offer solved all of their problems.
Olivia took the proposed contract from him to read it again.
“It looks more like we’d be working for his brother-in-law.” With her head resting in the crook of Leo’s shoulder, she read a few details.
The European arm of Harrison Shipping, specifically the Amsterdam offices, was in need of an investigative group. There had recently been a consistent loss of cargo, small at first, but increasing at an incremental pace. Harrison would need both Leo’s investigative skills and Olivia’s hacking and language abilities to get to the bottom of the missing cargo and money. It would, however, require relocation for the both of them for an undisclosed amount of time. The job came with a housing budget, travel, a company car, phones, computers . . . everything one could possibly need. And a six-figure salary and benefits.
“The only thing this offer is missing is bicycles,” Olivia announced.
“Excuse me?”
“No one drives a car in Amsterdam.”
Leo laughed and pressed his lips to her temple. “I think we should take it.”
“You’re ready to become an ex-pat?” she asked.
“I’m ready to take on all the new titles. Ex-pat. Ex-FBI.