“Don’t I know it.” He removed his cell phone and hesitated. “Is there any reason I shouldn’t give this name to Neil?”
“Why ask? You’re going to do what you want.”
He set the phone down, reached for her hand.
She tried to pull away, and he held tighter until she looked at him. “Full disclosure from this point forward. I needed to get you here so you knew I was serious about doing this with you. I can’t sit back and do nothing. If I was that man, you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”
She stopped pulling, and her voice lowered. “I don’t want you to die.”
It wasn’t the “I love you back” he was aiming for, but it was a start. “I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.”
He waved the phone again with a silent question.
A single nod and he texted the name to Neil.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The small town they landed in was a little too close to the center of Budapest for Olivia’s comfort, but any smaller and the two of them would stick out as the strangers they were.
The moment she mentioned Friedrich’s name, she committed.
All the years she’d been on her own, and now Leo was at her side picking apart her plan, giving suggestions and offering different scenarios. Although she’d executed many plans, very successfully, on her own, there was comfort in having another educated opinion.
And Leo was right.
If he were the type of man who didn’t want to jump in feetfirst, she wouldn’t have looked at him twice.
All the years Neil encouraged her to join his team, and it was her asking for their help.
Gathering more information on Friedrich was imperative.
She needed leverage. Needed to find the man’s weakness.
Just as Leo and, if she were being honest with herself, Neil’s entire team were her Achilles’ heel, Friedrich had to have one.
They set up in their hotel room and opened a secure connection to talk with Neil.
Olivia was nervous, but there wasn’t any turning back now.
Neil came into view, his lips pressed together. “Glad to see you in one piece,” he said in greeting.
“I didn’t expect to be talking to you like this.”
Neil offered a nod. “I know. We’re a team. We take care of each other.”
Leo reached over and grasped her hand.
She squeezed. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”
Neil started talking. Friedrich Schmidt was nowhere close to being an orphan. But the father on his birth certificate and the man whose DNA he matched were not the same. His parents sent him to Richter, and the uncle, Louis Schmidt, took over as the boy’s family. And in the records of secrets, Louis and Friedrich shared the same DNA.
“Are his parents, any of them, still alive?” Olivia asked.
“Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt live in Munich. Uncle Louis is proving harder to locate. We need another twelve to twenty-four hours on this.”
“If Friedrich cared for his uncle, he’d make the man disappear,” she said. “It might take years to find out where he is.”
“We’re not working hard, just scouting. Learning where Louis is might result in word getting back to the family that’s trying to hide him.”
“And if Friedrich knows someone is looking, he would be more inclined to deal,” Leo pointed out.
“Or shoot first and skip any deal.” Olivia saw the other side of this.
“I have several people asking the same questions in different locations. Schmidt will know that can’t all be you. And when someone in your line of work suddenly has backup, the tables shift.” Neil looked pleased with himself. “Let’s go over A Róka.”
For twenty minutes Olivia worked through the neighborhood surrounding the nightclub. There was roof access, street access, and possibly an underground passage. “I’ll confirm that before I go in.”
“You’re not going in. Not at first,” Neil told her.
If Neil didn’t see the danger in telling her what she was entitled to do or not do, he was going to see it now. “The only way this team will work is if you understand that I do not take orders. From anyone.”
“Hear me out.” Neil regrouped. “You’re dead to this community. Schmidt might be the only one that knows you’re alive.”
“And whoever hired him.”
“Perhaps. But the fewer people that know you’re alive the better. We all agree on that, right?” Neil asked.
“Right,” Leo answered for them.
“We send Leo in—”
“Out of the question.” Olivia pulled her hand out of Leo’s, sat back.