He didn’t want to leave. After ten minutes of internal debate, he slowly slid out from under her and smiled in silent satisfaction as the hand that had been on his chest fisted into the space he’d just vacated.
“Good night,” he whispered before letting himself out of her room.
Olivia physically put her fist in her mouth to stop the sound that wanted to erupt with his departure.
This was the emotion she’d avoided her entire adult life. And it threatened to engulf her. Just like the hellish landscape of her dreams.
She lay there, wide awake, and waited.
Hours passed, the time of the surveillance room shift had come and gone, giving Lars a chance to fall asleep and Isaac a chance to become complacent.
She prepared herself with layers of clothing under her bathrobe and put into motion everything she had to do.
One last lingering look at the bed and the memories she’d made in it, and she walked out of her private world and in front of the cameras where others could see her.
She tiptoed into the kitchen, as she had many nights, and went to the fridge. She poured a glass of milk, meandered to the living room, and picked up the remote for the TV no one ever turned on.
She shook her head for anyone who might be watching her movements and set the remote back. Five . . . four . . . three . . .
By the time the generator kicked off, she stood at the edge of the stairway looking down.
Before Isaac could stop cussing about the generator, she was standing over him, her bathrobe dangling from her fingertips.
“Hello, Isaac.”
She knew what he saw.
Richter Olivia was there, wearing what any cat burglar would. She dropped the robe, reached behind, and raveled her hair up onto her head.
A red security backup light illuminated the space, but otherwise, the room was dark . . . the monitors useless.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” She motioned for him to stand.
“Olivia . . . we—”
“Stop talking.”
He knew better than to tangle with her and stood.
“Turn around.”
“C’mon. Aren’t we past this? I’ll just let you go, you don’t have to tie me up.”
Less than two minutes and he was on the sofa, a gag in his mouth, his hands and feet bound together. She felt bad this time but knew someone in the house would realize the generator wasn’t running and come and check.
“I am sorry about this,” she told him.
He rolled his eyes.
She opened the supply room door and went straight for the weapons she needed. Only two, and just for the short journey to where she had her stuff.
She pushed aside a field bag and saw her duffel. The one she’d stashed in the hotel ventilation system in Vegas. A quick look inside and she found her fake IDs and two wigs. In addition, there were two stacks of currency. Hundred American dollar bills and euros.
And a note with her name scribbled on the envelope.
Neil.
But now wasn’t the time to read what he had to say.
She shouldered the bag, checked her watch.
“Tell him not to look for me,” she instructed Isaac. And because she really did feel bad about tying him up, she placed a kiss to his forehead before walking away.
She exited through the mudroom, slipped into the still damp ski pants and jacket, and then went into the garage. There was a motorcycle, which would be suicide in this much snow, a Jeep, and a truck.
She yanked enough cables off the truck and the bike to slow the chase, opened the garage door, and fired up the Jeep.
There was a flicker in one of the upstairs windows of the completely dark house, telling her someone had watched her escape.
Sasha.
The others would have sounded an alarm.
She ignored the useless tears she didn’t think she was capable of shedding as the silhouette of the log cabin disappeared in the moonlit background.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
She’s gone.
Leo had woken to Sasha’s words, spoken from the doorway to his bedroom.
He’d jumped up and run to Olivia’s room. Other than an unmade bed, the space hadn’t changed.
Even though Sasha told him he was wasting his energy, he’d jumped in the truck as soon as AJ wired it back together, and the two of them followed the tracker Neil had put on the Jeep.
Olivia had abandoned it in Durango.
In the front seat AJ picked up three more bugs, devices placed in the lining