past him as if he might be there to empty the trash.
The only visible change in Neil was a muscle twitching in his jaw.
Fitz stood and put out her hand for Neil to shake. “What brings you here?”
“I know Leo didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and I thought my team and I could help with backup.” Neil shook her hand, and then moved his eyes back to Olivia.
“That’s thoughtful, but we should have help here within the hour,” Fitz said.
Neil didn’t comment and walked to the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
Olivia narrowed her eyes. “I was shot.”
Leo smiled. “That’s an improvement. An hour ago, she needed to be told that over and over again.”
“Do I know you?” she asked Neil.
“I’m hard to forget.”
Leo heard Fitz laugh under her breath.
Leo asked the same questions the nurse had. “Do you know where you are?”
Olivia squeezed her eyes shut. “Atlantic City.”
He looked at Neil as if to say, See . . . she doesn’t remember a thing.
“Wait.”
Leo turned back to her.
Olivia’s features twisted in pain. “That’s not right. Not Atlantic City.” She brought a hand to her face and pressed her fingers to her temples. “Why is this so hard?”
The monitor over the bed started to ping.
“It’s going to be okay.” Leo dropped into the chair beside the bed, placed a hand over hers.
Her eyes welled with tears. “I don’t know you.”
“No, you don’t. And you didn’t before either.”
The nurse walked back in, took one look at Olivia, and glared her disapproval. “My patient needs her rest, not this overstimulation. You’re not getting your answers tonight. You might as well come back in the morning.”
Maureen wasn’t amused. “In here, I’m the boss. If one of you needs to stay, I’ll put a chair outside the door of her room.”
“Completely fair,” Neil spoke up. “A chair would be appreciated.”
The three of them filed out while Maureen spoke in soft tones to Olivia.
“I’ve got this,” Neil told them both.
“We’re bringing in local PD,” Fitz said.
“Police officers who haven’t been vetted? Rookies who wouldn’t know to stop a housekeeper from walking in the room.” Neil shook his head. “I got this. I have resources. Save the taxpayers their money.”
Neil’s argument was solid.
“Why?” Fitz questioned him.
Neil didn’t miss a beat. “A bad cop kidnapped one of mine trying to bury what Mykonos and his family were doing. Now there’s a woman in the ICU without a memory. I take that personally. If she remembers the shooter, she’s going to need more than a local anything to keep her safe.”
Leo placed a hand on Fitz’s arm. “I think Brackett will agree.”
Fitz put both hands in the air. “It’s your aching back,” she said.
Leo shook Neil’s hand. “I’ll be in touch.”
CHAPTER SIX
Neil stood outside the doorway of Olivia’s room. His eyes fixed on her sleeping features. She was softer here. The sharp edges of her personality had been chipped away with one bullet.
Two years before, she’d reached out to him.
The gesture caught him off guard, but he knew what it was.
A cry for help.
The woman walked the world completely alone. More than once she’d pointed out that there was no other way for her.
Part of him believed she might be right. But that didn’t stop him from trying to hook her into his team. A team composed of retired military, recovered thieves, private investigators, orphans, and the latest acquisitions from a military school in Germany.
Richter wasn’t like anything else out there. Many students like Olivia left the school employed by less-than-honorable entities. They exploited the talents Richter taught them. Skilled in weapons and hand-to-hand combat, versed in a handful of languages, masters of disguise, students like Olivia were shaped into spies . . . or worse.
Olivia was one of the worse.
Neil had finally convinced her to help him out. A favor, he phrased it. No, she didn’t need to be in contact with anyone but him.
Keep an eye on Marie Nickerson while she was in the hospital and wherever the protection program took her until the trial. Once the trial was over, so long as the jury delivered the verdict deserved, the job would be over, and Neil would pay Olivia for her time. If the man went free, the assignment would go on.
He didn’t think for a minute Olivia needed his money. The woman would be able to con, steal, or maybe even earn money the old-fashioned way by simply working . . . but she’d