Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
A fter ending their video call with Rex, Olive stayed with Tevin in the van, talking through different scenarios and looking up what information they could. The two of them made a good team.
There were only six agents at Aegis, and Olive was one of them.
Tevin technically acted as more of a handler.
Then there was Rex, their leader.
Nova Levington was a tech genius.
Patrick “Trick” Grimshaw was another agent and a master of disguise.
Mitzi McGraw was the other female operative.
The agency also had tech support and administrative assistants who helped plan details for their high-level assignments.
Olive had followed an interesting path to get here.
She’d dropped out of college, overwhelmed by the classes, the debt, and the uncertainty of what she really wanted to do with her future. Instead, she’d taken a job as a salesperson for a health food company. She’d quickly worked her way up the ranks to become a top salesman.
She was naturally gifted at convincing people to buy whatever she was selling. She had the knack of being able to read people’s body language, to exploit vulnerable thinking that eventually led them to believe they had to buy what she was selling.
Olive had been good at what she did—and she’d brought in good money to prove it.
But she hadn’t been satisfied.
While doing one of her sales pitches at a hotel in Vegas, Rex had stumbled upon her. He’d stood in the background, watching her presentation as she sold energy bars to a group of wealthy women with money to burn.
After work that evening, he’d found her in the hotel lobby and asked to talk.
Olive had dismissed him at first and thought he was simply hitting on her. Then he’d told her he had a job offer.
She’d been curious so she’d decided to meet him. She’d picked a place out in the open, somewhere she could easily leave if things got uncomfortable.
Rex had shown up and told her about a private security firm he ran. Said he was looking for new agents.
Olive had literally laughed in his face and told him she had no training as a detective.
That was when he’d told her he would personally train her. He’d said he could teach people certain skills, but there were others that couldn’t be learned, that were natural. Her ability to read people and to convince them of things was a real talent.
Rex had told her to think about his offer and that he’d be in touch. He hadn’t taken any contact info, which at the time seemed strange.
Even so, she’d thought about it for a week. Then after a particularly grueling day trying to sell people products she didn’t truly believe in, she’d decided she would entertain the idea.
As if reading her mind, Rex had found her while she was out to dinner with a friend that evening.
Rex had been thrilled when Olive told him she was in. Two days later, she was on a plane to Indianapolis and wondering if she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.
But Rex had proven to be legitimate. He was a former Navy SEAL who’d gone on to work for the State Department. He’d left those jobs when he was only thirty-six in order to start Aegis.
He never took applications; he only recruited. Others at the company were former CIA, former cops, former bodyguards.
Then there was Olive.
True to his word, Rex had trained her. Taught her the tactics needed to defend herself. Taught her how to find out information. Taught her the ins and outs of computers.
She’d excelled, to say the least.
That was three years ago.
She snapped back to reality and glanced at the time again.
Five forty-five. She had to get ready to meet Jason, something she dreaded.
“What is that?” Tevin tilted his head as he observed her.
“What is what?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You look nervous. I see it in your gaze.”
She laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m fine.”
She never showed her nerves. She’d perfected her acting skills so she could only show people what she wanted them to see. She was always guarded, yet she could act relaxed when needed.
Compartmentalizing. She was an expert, even when it was to her detriment.
“Are you forgetting that both of us have to be good at reading people in order to do our jobs?”
Olive wanted to continue to deny his words, but maybe chatting with someone would be nice and help her clear her head.
However, opening up to others wasn’t something she was good at doing.
She paused as she considered her options.
Olive swallowed hard as she gathered her thoughts.
At once, she remembered when she and Jason had met the first time.
Her friend had forced her to go to a school dance. Olive hadn’t wanted to. She was tired of making friends only to move.
But her new friend had insisted.
Once at the dance, Olive had mostly stood in the background, not wanting to participate.
She’d gone to get some punch. When she turned around, she walked right into someone—and spilled her punch all over his suit.
It had been Jason. The star football player. The boy all the girls wanted to date.
She’d expected him to be angry. But he wasn’t.
He’d been gracious.
Then he’d asked her to dance.
She’d said yes—mostly because she felt bad.
She couldn’t believe it when he told her he hadn’t brought a date.
They’d laughed on the dance floor. Been goofy together. Found out they both loved Marvel movies and chicken tenders and stargazing.
They’d been inseparable afterward.
It was the only time in Olive’s life she’d ever felt that way.
Finally, she admitted, “I never thought I’d see Jason again.”
“It sounds like he meant a lot to you.”
“I loved him, and I’m pretty sure he loved me. But my family had to move. It was all very last minute. I didn’t even have a chance to tell him goodbye.”
Tevin squinted. “Why was the move so sudden?”
Olive didn’t normally talk to people about her family. But she’d make an exception for Tevin. She trusted him . . . as much as she trusted anyone, she supposed. But he’d proven himself time and time again.
She drew in a deep breath. “My dad worked various jobs, and each time those jobs required moving. He liked to make clean breaks, he said. That meant relationships as well.”
Tevin squinted. “What kind of jobs did he work?”
“It was for the government.” That was what Olive told people.
But her dad had confided to her that he actually worked special assignments for the FBI. That was why, when they moved, he always took on different jobs and used aliases. That was all the information he could tell her. His job and what he did was classified. Not even Olive’s mom could know the details, he’d said.
For most people, his story would have raised questions. Her family’s lifestyle definitely wasn’t ideal. But for Olive, she’d grown up that way, so it became her normal.
In the years since her family had died, she’d tried on the down-low to find out more information about what her father did. About which of the cases he’d worked on might have gotten him in trouble. Which cases might have made someone want to kill him and his family.
But everything was top secret, and Olive didn’t have the names or contact information for any of his superiors at the Bureau. Every time she asked questions, she was met with silence. After hitting dead end after dead end, she’d given up searching that avenue—for now.
“You are a big mystery, aren’t you?” Tevin gave her a sideways glance.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” She shrugged, brushing off his statement.
Her life was different than most people’s, including Tevin, who’d grown up with a father who worked as an attorney and a mother who was a teacher. He’d lived in middle-class America, taking vacations with his family and celebrating birthdays with friends.
It was the kind of childhood Olive often longed for.
She couldn’t sit here talking to Tevin anymore or thinking about things. Reminiscing would only make her late. “I need to get going.”
She slid her earrings back through her ears and straightened her dark-blue power suit.
The name-brand clothing cost more than she used to make in a week when she’d waitressed in college. Thankfully, she didn’t have to buy it herself. Aegis Strategic Enterprises had.
With a final nod toward Tevin, she climbed from the van. She glanced around once more to make sure no one was looking.
The area was clear.
She smoothed her pencil skirt before starting toward the stairway. She needed to go downstairs in order to reach the coffeehouse where she and Jason would meet.
She had no idea how this would go.
But she’d have to sell her story, or she’d be made. She couldn’t let that happen.
However, finding those answers would be difficult considering Jason had mentioned something about a baby.
His question still didn’t make any sense. What baby could he be talking about? Why was he so furious with her?
Maybe he’d have some clarity for her.
Just as she stepped into the stairwell, a footfall sounded in the parking garage.
She froze. Something about the slow pace indicated this wasn’t someone leaving work and hurrying to their car. The pace was too slow . . . almost like this person was waiting or watching for someone.
Was someone following her?
Olive wasn’t sure but, just in case, she braced herself for the worst-case scenario.