She looked at her watch. Two hours had passed since she asked to be left alone.
It had been nearly twenty-four hours since her meeting with Friedrich.
Her dream swam in her head. The faces, the heat . . . the misery.
The message, however, had changed.
She wanted to break the binds of the stacks . . . the memories of the past. Keeping one woman alive may not be the redemption that would free her, but perhaps it was a start.
If Olivia had concluded that Friedrich still had unfinished business, then Leo and the others would, too.
Why would Friedrich tell her his target?
Never once in Olivia’s time on the other end of a scope had she revealed any names of her victims.
Friedrich had. To serve what purpose?
His words and logic twisted in her head. The forked tongue of the devil in the stacks can’t be trusted.
“Son of a bitch.”
Olivia walked out of the bedroom in the back of the private jet and saw Leo and Neil deep in conversation.
“He’s going after Marie,” she said in a rush. “He’s going to use us to find her.”
Neil sat back in his chair, a smile spread over his face.
Leo walked over, placed his lips to hers. “Let’s find a way to stop him.”
“His story fell apart the moment he said Leo was my man.”
Leo squeezed Olivia’s hand. “Well . . . I am.”
Olivia smiled at the thought. “But you weren’t then. Friedrich had no way of knowing we had zero contact until that night in Vegas.”
“He figured out there was a connection . . . eventually,” Neil said.
“By following me to the hospital and watching. Noticing how often Leo showed up and that guilty ‘you were shot because of me’ look on your face.”
“He admitted he shot you instead of me. So I’m right about that one.”
Olivia rolled her eyes.
Neil waved a hand in the air. “Let’s get this back on point. Can we trust that the hit on Leo is gone?”
Olivia released a short laugh, looked directly into Leo’s eyes. “He’s still here, isn’t he?”
“I haven’t been hiding since Colorado.”
“I’m sure Friedrich had a shot if he wanted to take it. At the hospital . . . the trial . . . on the way to the bathroom after a coffee break.” She could think of a hundred ways to eliminate the heartbeat of someone who wasn’t avoiding a bullet.
“And now the target is Marie,” Leo said.
“We all knew her life was threatened. That’s why SWAT surrounded the courthouse. Why Neil had me on point to make sure all those bases were covered.”
“Friedrich never had a clean shot,” Leo said.
“And when you don’t have a shot, you wait until you do. But the protection program does a good job, and even people in my line of work—”
“You’re retired,” Leo interrupted.
“My previous employment,” she corrected. “Even we have a hard time finding people in the protection program.”
Neil tapped a pen on the notepad in front of him. “Friedrich shoots you but makes sure he’s seen so you’ll seek him out once you’re recovered.”
“Must have been a bitch when he learned you’d lost your memory,” Leo said with a laugh.
“Eventually I show up . . . he tells me how happy he is to see me alive, paints some kind of solidarity between us. Leads me to think this isn’t personal.”
“And what is the best way to get someone to do something?” Leo’s question was rhetorical.
“Tell them not to,” Neil said, deadpan.
“He knows I have people in my corner, and I won’t risk you,” Olivia said. “He thinks I’ll search out Marie myself and go alone to protect her. Two hours ago, that was exactly my plan,” she admitted.
“You’d be walking into a trap.”
“Or leading him right to her. But like any good sting . . . he needs to believe that is still my plan.”
“And if we do nothing? If you don’t search for her . . . what then?” Leo asked.
“His strategy will change. He has a resource order with Marie’s name on it. She dies, or he dies trying. There isn’t a lot of middle ground.” Unfortunately, Olivia understood the rules all too well.
“We need to catch him in the act.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Neil removed his phone and dialed a number.
Leo sat beside Olivia and grasped her hand in his. “You made the right choice.”