Her words were a string of emotionless noise. Monotone. Cold.
“I’m sorry.”
“Now who is the one with the limited memory? Your apology is futile.”
Maybe so, but he wanted to scream it until she heard it.
“I believe I’ve had about all the new knowledge I can take for one day,” she told him.
He took his cue to stand. “I’ll be back in the morning.”
She pressed a button on the bed and lowered her head.
Outside the room he stopped at Rick’s side. “I assume Neil is still at the hotel?”
Rick smiled. “I’ll tell him you’re on your way over.”
It was time to get more answers.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The rocks were scalding and jagged. Each step more painful than the last. If only she could breathe, then maybe she could control the pain.
“Breathe through the pain. You know that’s what you have to do.”
Tears stained her cheeks.
“Stop crying, you weak piece of shit.”
It hurts.
“Get over it. And walk. What are you going to do, lie there and wait for the Grim Reaper to come and carry you?”
She took a step, and another, refusing to look up into the vastness of nothing. Nothing but fire, rock, and pain.
Her eyes opened, and with them her lungs pulled a sharp inhale.
The room was dark.
And hot.
Something wasn’t right.
“Nurse?” She cleared her throat. “Nurse?”
Neil’s words swam in Leo’s head as he sat across from his boss, pushing the plan.
“Olivia is a highly skilled operative, if she starts coming out of the amnesia and thinks someone is a threat, there is no guarantee how she’ll react. With my location, and my people, she’ll be safe.”
“Define operative,” Leo had told him.
“I can’t do that.”
“Can’t or won’t?” He knew there was something Neil wasn’t telling him.
“Your choice.”
Their conversation had been short. One where Leo asked questions and Neil avoided the answers.
In the end, Neil gave him an ultimatum. “You convince your superiors that my protection program is far greater than theirs, complete with doctors, nurses, and armed security, and that your people should focus on finding the shooter, or whoever paid the shooter. Or . . . Olivia will disappear, and you’ll never see her again.”
“Not only are they invested, they know the players. From Mykonos, to his cousins, uncles, the two-bit grunts that do the dirty work. Yeah, we could brief the marshals, but why bother?” Leo asked.
Brackett stared. “Where would they take her?”
“No idea.”
“That won’t work. We need to know.”
Leo had seen that expression on his boss’s face before. It said nonnegotiable.
Fitz kept silent at his side. She knew what was being said.
“I have vacation time I haven’t used,” Leo started. “I spent nearly a year of my life undercover on this assignment . . .” Months pretending to be someone he wasn’t. His personal life on hold. “I’d like to take that time now.”
Brackett leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “What are you suggesting?”
Leo leaned forward. “Sign this off to me. I’ll stay with the witness. Along with Neil’s team. You get what you want, and the two people that were shot at disappear until we can guarantee their safety.”
Brackett glanced at Fitz.
Time ticked and ticked . . . and ticked.
He sat forward. “I want weekly updates.”
Leo felt a lion’s smile spread over his face.
“This better not have anything to do with your dick, Grant,” Brackett warned.
Leo shook his head and repeated Olivia’s words. “For all we know, she’s married with two kids and a dog.”
“If that’s the case, someone is bound to look for her. In the meantime, keep her alive.”
Leo stood, shook his hand. “I will.”
Durango, Colorado, was a quintessential western town nestled in the southwestern corner of the state. The mountainous terrain was perfect for the team to hide in plain sight. The summer months were filled with tourists, people that came and went, most of them just passing through. An old narrow-gauge steam train was a major attraction, carrying passengers up to the small town of Silverton, where the population was anywhere between four and five hundred people. That population doubled and sometimes tripled in the summertime when the train was running. All of those passengers started their journey in Durango. A town as small as Silverton would be a place the team would stick out. In Durango, however, that was not the case. Not that the team planned on spending much time in the city itself. With summer sliding into fall, they arrived at the perfect time to blend in. It would take a while before winter brought in the skiers, and tourism was winding