Chapter 1
Chapter 1
L eo Holland woke with the feeling that he had forgotten something. But since he always woke with that feeling, he ignored it and reached for whatever drink was on the table beside his bed. Grimacing, he sat up and tried to work the kinks from his body. Getting old was brutal. Technically thirty two wasn’t old, but Leo had lived fast and hard and his body showed all the signs of giving in and giving out. His back ached all the time now, as did his knees. Even his hips had started to hurt.
His glance slid around his shabby room—bare mattress, one sweaty wadded blanket, a broken chair draped with a week’s worth of laundry. Beneath that, his phone now buzzed insistently. He considered ignoring the phone, but no one except work would contact him at this hour, or any hour, really. Haphazardly, he tossed the clothes onto the floor and reached for his phone, swiping it with his thumb as he said a mumbled greeting.
“Boy, if you are not in your car and halfway to the airport before I finish speaking this sentence, I will come through the phone and snap what’s left of your neck.”
The call ended as Leo dove for his pants and skidded to the hallway, hopping on one foot as he paused to put them on. Only The Colonel could inspire the sort of fear Leo now felt. He had forgotten something, something important. His new assignment, the girl.
Cursing, he sprinted down the stairs and jumped in his car, using the wipers to push away the accumulated parking tickets. They were more of a suggestion, really. Technically he was in law enforcement. Shouldn’t that buy him some leeway with parking? He might have an emergency, like now when he forgot where he was supposed to be.
The drive to the airport was its usual nightmare. He skidded to a halt in the no parking zone—again, another suggestion he would ignore. Over the years he had timed exactly how long they would let his car linger before they had it towed. He would have enough time to secure the girl before they took his car.
He sprinted into the airport and slowed to a walk, sucking oxygen. When did you get so winded, old man? As a young marine, he had been able to sprint for miles. What happened to that cocky young jarhead? What didn’t, Leo thought before pushing the thought away. Now wasn’t the time to put his life under a microscope. In fact there was never a good time for that, which was why he refused to do it. He was surviving. He’d had enough near misses to appreciate that fact and keep his focus on it, possibly indefinitely. If he pulled back the scope and looked closely at what he’d become, he wasn’t certain survival would look like such a benefit anymore.
The girl was already there and waiting on him. He had no trouble finding her because she stuck out as much as he knew she would. In an airport teeming with every manner of person, she was still singular—alone, innocent, small, and slight, her long dark hair secured in a thick braid that trailed down to the middle of her back, a long dress, too homespun to be stylish. He expected her to be either afraid or excited but she was neither, at least as far as he could tell. Her face was a total blank as she stared around her, observing people as if they were the mice and she was the scientist.
“Esther.” He tasted the name out loud, priding himself for his remembrance. She looked like an Esther somehow, as if someone shook the old family bible and she fell out.
Her big eyes rested on him, surveying him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, as if doing a full body scan to pull out and examine more closely at a later time. “Yes,” she said at last, as if he’d been waiting on her agreement.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said again, same even tone.
He supposed he should make polite conversation, ask her about her trip, about the contest that brought her here, about her life. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. Long ago he had run out of empty chatter and given up on polite society. Words were a luxury he didn’t waste on just anyone. When was the last time he talked, really talked to someone? He couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. She was the job. All that was required of Leo was keeping her safe, and he could do that. Easily, he thought with some bitterness. It was likely why he’d been given the task, because there was no challenge to it. He was fading. He knew it, The Colonel knew it, the entire intelligence community knew it. Burnout hovered over his head like a death cloud. At this moment in time, he didn’t much care. Let them fire him; let them kill him. What was it to him? At least then he’d finally get some rest.
They retrieved her luggage and reached his car as it was being hooked to a tow. “No,” Leo said, using his foot to kick aside the chain. He held the door for Esther, practically shoving her inside in his haste to take off. In the background, airport security gave him an earful about the lawfulness of parking in a no parking zone. Leo tuned him out, started the car, and zoomed away.
The rain had ended. Leo belatedly realized he was soaked from his dash to the car. He blasted the heat, pointing it at his soggy midsection. Esther uttered a word, her first since “yes.”
“What?” he said, unable to hear her over the blast of the heater.
“Petrichor,” she repeated, louder this time.
“That some kind of dinosaur?” he asked.
“No, it’s the smell of the earth after rain.” She inhaled deeply and turned her face to the window.
Okay, he thought but didn’t comment. He only knew the vaguest details of her life. She had won some sort of contest to nab her current gig, meaning she was some sort of smarty pants. Geek or no geek, it was nothing to him. She could be the smartest person in the world or the dumbest, he didn’t care. She was the job and nothing more.
He inhaled deeply, smelling the smell of renewed earth after a rain. Petrichor. Who knew?
E sther’s father had found the apartment for her. Leo helped her carry her things up three flights. His first sight of her new living arrangement was her first sight, but that was nothing unusual. Esther was used to other people ordering her life for her. Not that she needed or even wanted them to, it was simply how it was in her world. Now apparently the United States government and Leo were in charge of her. So be it.
“I’ll pick you up in the morning and drive you to work,” Leo said after all her bags had been carried and set inside the tiny space.
“I’d like to be early,” she said because he seemed like the kind of guy who was always late, as evidenced by the fact that he was late to pick her up this morning and seemed to be wearing the clothes he slept in last night, if their crumpled state was any indication.
“Something told me you would,” Leo replied. It was possible he was making fun of her. Esther didn’t know and didn’t care. They remained quiet, inspecting each other from twelve inches away, an intimate distance to share with a stranger. Esther supposed he was handsome, in a rugged secret agent sort of way. He wasn’t overly tall, not as tall as her father, but he was compact and solidly built, all muscle, like a bull. Or a lion, if his name was any indication. His eyes were a muddy shade of either brown or green and his face was slathered in wiry stubble. Some men tried to grow that sort of stubble to be sexy, Esther knew, but in Leo’s case she thought he had merely neglected to shave that day. He probably dated women who wore lots of makeup and skimpy clothes, had probably never met a woman who did puzzles for fun and had made her own butter with cream straight from the cow.
“Do you need anything else before I go?” he asked, hoping desperately she would say no. What if she was that sort who could always find something for a man to do? Something to lift, assemble, or hook up?
“The else in this case is extraneous,” she said.
“What?” he asked, blinking at her in confusion.
“You asked what else I might need, but I haven’t actually needed anything to begin with, though I do appreciate your assistance,” she said.
“Are you a grammar nazi?” he asked.
“No.”
“Hmm.” They regarded each other in silence again. “I’m going to take off, then, unless you can think of else for me to do.”
The corner of her mouth tipped in what might have been a smile but was such a small movement it was hard to discern. “I think your else is safe for now. But keep your phone handy. I tend to think of things that need doing at three in the morning.”
“Is this how you tease men, Esther?” he asked.
“Maybe. You won’t know for certain until three,” she said.
Her delivery was so deadpan it was hard to know if she was teasing or serious. Either way she wasn’t like anyone he’d ever encountered, and that said something. As he watched, she turned away from him and stared out the window, summarily dismissing him. Relieved, he slipped out the door, closing and locking it behind him.