Chapter 1
S he stood in the rain for what might have been hours, not bothering to check her watch. Previously the watch had meant a lot to her, had meant everything. A six hundred dollar Swiss diving watch wasn’t something to take lightly. But now she didn’t think of it as she stood perfectly still, waiting and watching. It was raining, a fact she only vaguely registered. She was probably soaked, maybe shivering. She didn’t care.
The man emerged from the building at last and she made her move, stealthy enough to be a shadow, slipping so close behind him it gave her a small thrill, even in the midst of such misery. How many people had gotten that close? Not many.
He prickled with awareness and straightened, alerting his driver who tossed her against the car, his arm at her throat.
“Drop it,” the first man said in the tone of someone telling an errant puppy to let go of a stolen sock. The driver did so immediately, trained to act on orders like a seal waiting for a fishy reward. He stepped back. The two men regarded her together.
“In the car,” her target said.
The driver opened the door for them both. They slid inside, waiting to speak until the driver closed the door.
The Colonel stared at her, waiting her out while she shivered and dripped all over his fancy leather seat. “I’m ready to come inside,” she said, voice soft but firm.
He regarded her in that way he had, that way only he could. It was at once comforting and terrifying. “All right.”
She blinked at him, trying not to reveal her shock. She’d expected to have to fight for it, to lay out all the reasons she was done. She should have known better, though. The Colonel had never acted the way she thought he would. For that she was forever grateful.
“Where are you going to go?” he asked.
She blew out a breath. “I have no idea.” This was the tricky part of the plan. Some people prepped for the end, longed for it, spent all their lives living for that day. She hadn’t. She had been happy to be where she was until all of a sudden she wasn’t, and now what?
“I know a place,” The Colonel said.
Only years of training and acquaintance kept her from the inane response. You do? He hated stuff like that. She sealed her lips together and waited him out.
“How do you feel about small towns and country living?” The Colonel asked. By now she recognized the hints of amusement in his tone.
“About as well as you’d expect,” she said.
He chuckled and somehow the sound was more terrifying than silence. “A person in your unique situation needs somewhere unique to settle, somewhere rural with a lot of space, somewhere not on the map.”
“Does such a place exist?” she asked. She’d been a lot of places, all of them on the map and teeming with people.
“You’ll love it,” he said in a tone that told her she’d likely hate it. His eyes almost crinkled when he spoke again. “It’s Paradise.”