Chapter 47
CHAPTER 47
TODAY
O live still hadn’t heard from Jason, and two hours had passed. Two long hours.
He should be done with his meeting with Adriana by now.
Knowing Jason the way she did—or the way she had —Olive would think he’d slip away from Adriana long enough to give Olive an update. He knew what was at stake, knew she was waiting.
But she’d heard nothing.
Olive continued to scroll through some security footage she’d been sent from the day Beau had been killed. She wanted to see everyone coming and going from the building that day.
The task felt mundane. But it was necessary. So far, she’d found nothing of note.
But as she scrolled, her mind remained on the case.
She took a break from the video and decided to review everything she knew so far.
Adriana was a Russian operative who’d been sent over to obtain sensitive, dangerous information from Conglomerate. The woman had needed to pinpoint employees within the company who could allow her to get her hands on it.
She must have first targeted Jason and then realized he was a brick wall she wouldn’t be able to break through.
So she’d then moved on to Beau. Yet, in other ways, his murder had seemed to be one of circumstance, like he’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Olive hadn’t figured that out yet.
For some reason, Adriana had also pulled Claudine and Alex into this.
Or maybe the mole had been blackmailing Alex and Claudine. That made more sense.
Their original intel said the deal was supposed to go down today. Could that change? Of course. But most of the Russians Olive had encountered liked their deals to happen on time.
A bad feeling churned in her gut.
She glanced at the time again. Two hours and twenty minutes.
Still no call from Jason.
She stared at her phone, contemplating her next decision.
Maybe she shouldn’t do this. But she was going to do it anyway. She had to know Jason was okay.
She dialed his number.
Then she waited for him to answer.
Jason didn’t answer. In fact, the call went straight to voicemail.
Something was wrong. Olive was sure of it.
She should have gone with him. Why hadn’t she insisted? She could have lingered in the lobby or down the hallway. At least she would have been close if he ran into trouble.
Instead, she’d sent him into the lion’s den alone. How could she have been so stupid?
That settled it.
Olive stood and grabbed her keys.
She couldn’t wait any longer. She would go to the hospital herself. It was the only way.
Just as she stepped from her office, her phone rang.
Her breath caught. Was it Jason?
She frowned when she didn’t recognize the number.
She answered anyway.
“Is this Ms. Whiten?” a deep, slightly familiar voice asked.
“It is. Who’s this?”
“It’s Sonny.”
Sonny, the security guard from downstairs? ”What’s going on, Sonny?”
“I think something’s happened to Jason.”
Olive’s heart lodged in her throat. “What?”
“He told me to call you if anything went wrong, said you’d know what to do.”
“Why do you think something is wrong?” She gripped the phone so tightly her fingers and knuckles ached.
“I had an emergency at work and tried to reach him. He’s not answering. That’s not like him.”
No, it wasn’t like Jason. “I’m glad you called. What’s the emergency? Maybe I can help.”
“The silent alarm is going off in the SCI corridor, and we can’t find the guard we stationed there. He’s missing. Gone.”
Suddenly, all Olive could hear was the pounding in her ears.
This was it, wasn’t it? The culprit was making their move.
She had to stop him.
“I’ll be right down,” she told Sonny. “Don’t try to be a hero. Just stay where you are until I get there.”