Chapter Thirteen
Pressure built behind Eli’s sternum as he watched Olivia and Tristan through the binoculars.
He gritted his teeth over the fact that he wasn’t at her side.
Even though she was trained in hand-to-hand combat, she didn’t have a gun on her.
The kid had checked her with an RF detector, and now, she didn’t have a GPS tracker, or an active listening device either.
The thought of her even needing to fight her way out of a situation while pregnant sent a bolt of cold fear straight into his heart.
“I wonder why the need for an RF detector,” Autumn said over comms. “Is it just to keep her conversation with Shepherd private?”
“Why the need for such privacy?” Chance asked. “You’re not law enforcement, so he can’t be worried about saying anything incriminating. What would Shepherd need to hide from you that he’s willing to say to Olivia?”
Excellent questions that did nothing to put his mind at ease. “I still don’t have eyes on Shepherd. Do you guys see anything on the drones?” Eli asked. “Anything unusual? Another person approaching?”
One by one, they all gave the same response. “Nothing.”
Eli adjusted the focus wheel on the binoculars, zooming in.
The magnification was high-powered, the optics clear.
It was easy for him to keep track of her at a distance with the yellow poncho she wore.
Part of him was grateful to have her in sight.
The other part was well aware the binoculars were a tool of control and manipulation to keep him from going into the forest.
Tristan reached into the backpack and handed Olivia a cell phone. She took it, holding the phone up—a video call—and spoke to someone.
Eli’s view of the screen was blocked by Tristan.
Was she talking to Shepherd? Did he drag her all the way out into the forest for a phone call? More importantly, what were they saying?
Anxiety welled in his chest.
“What’s happening?” Chance asked.
“She just got on the phone, presumably with Shepherd.”
“We’re not going through all this just for a phone call,” Bo said. “Are we?”
“I asked myself the same thing. But that’s what it seems like.” So far, anyway. “It’s a video call, too, but that kid is standing in the way of me getting a look at the screen.”
A dull ache started behind his eyes from a lack of sleep and an abundance of worry over how this was going to play out. “Tak, are you sure there’s no one else in the woods near her position?”
Takoda’s drone was flying overhead of Olivia. If anyone spotted any sign of danger or another person closing in, it would be him first.
“I’m only picking up two heat signatures,” Tak said. “Nothing else.”
Everything appeared fine, but Eli couldn’t shake the sense that something about this wasn’t right.
Shock short-circuited Olivia’s brain. “You’re supposed to be dead,” she said in a whisper.
“It’s a long story. I want to tell you everything. Explain it all. But it has to be face-to-face.”
She thought she’d prepared herself for everything. Every eventuality. Except this. “Where are you?”
“You’ll have to come to me.”
“I thought I already had. That’s why I’m here.”
He smiled, a warm, smooth curve of his lips, but his eyes reflected cold, hard steel. “Just you. Not Eli.”
Dual strings tugged at her heart—the hopeful need to see Sean, get answers to the questions swirling in her head, and the desperate desire to spare Eli any torment by disappearing. “Go where? Are you here in the park?”
“Have I ever led you astray?”
He’d only ever protected her. “No.”
“I have so much to tell you. This might be the most important choice you’ll ever make. But it is your choice.”
She felt stuck. Torn. Almost numb. The still-lingering grief and guilt over thinking Sean was dead, and the gut punch of seeing him alive, rendered her unable to decide.
“I hate to pressure you, but I need to know now. This is the one-and-only opportunity I can give. For me to answer any question. For us to talk. You’ll come, won’t you?” he said, nodding.
Something about giving a person a one-time offer worked.
Olivia released a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Follow my instructions carefully. You’ll call Eli on your phone. I’ll be listening. Tell him you’re leaving to meet me. Shepherd. You are not to tell him who I really am. Or signal him in any way. Instruct him not to follow you. Reassure him you’ll be returned to him, unharmed.”
“Eli won’t listen to me.” Her hand trembled, her palm growing slick with sweat. “Any more than I listen to him.”
“Do you want to see me in person and hear what I have to say?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. She’d replayed their last mission together a hundred times. Imagined a different outcome where he survived. Where she got to see him again. Hug him once more. Thank him for everything he’d done for her. “Of course.”
“Then make him listen.”
Her heart hammered against her ribs, like the wings of a frantic bird trapped in a cage. She couldn’t risk Eli’s safety, trying to do the impossible. “Nothing I say will stop him from coming after me, and if you hurt him, I swear I’ll—”
“Shh. No need for threats, Dove,” Sean said, calling her an old nickname he’d given her years ago because she always sought a nonviolent solution.
How times had changed. She was prepared to kill to protect Eli.
“I know what he means to you.” Sean’s eyes softened, the steely glint replaced by a flicker of something she couldn’t quite decipher.
“And I believe I’ve proven I don’t want to hurt either of you,” he said, his voice warm with affection.
“This isn’t a zero-sum game. Not yet anyway, and I’m doing my best to prevent that from happening. ”
“What will you do when Eli enters the forest and follows me?” Because nothing would stop him from doing so once he learned her intent to leave. And where exactly was she going?
She clenched her hand into a fist, nails digging into her palm as she waited for Sean’s response.
“I have a contingency in place to neutralize Eli and any friends of his who may be lurking nearby.”
Sean had always been meticulous, a strategist of the highest order. If he had a contingency plan, it meant he’d considered all the angles, anticipated every move, and he had the advantage of knowing his opponents. Whatever it was, the plan wouldn’t fail.
“If he violates the terms and enters the woods,” Sean continued, his voice losing any of its previous warmth, “I’ll initiate Protocol Sunburst.”
Through the binoculars, Eli watched Olivia nod to the person on the video call. A moment later, she passed the phone back to Tristan. The kid didn’t put the cell away. Instead, he held it up and spoke, but the screen was turned away from Eli’s line of sight.
“Takoda, can you get a visual on the screen of the cell phone?”
“For starters, I’d have to switch off the thermal imaging. I wouldn’t be able to detect any other heat signatures in the area. Secondly, I can’t do it with the drone at its current altitude. If I get it any lower, the drone could be detected. Do you want me to take that chance?”
There was no need to risk it. Olivia would be able to give them an accurate description of Shepherd and detailed account of the conversation.
“No, that’s all right. Hold position.” He just had to be patient.
It wasn’t his strength and being so far apart from Olivia only made it that much more difficult.
Tristan looked in Eli’s direction and so did Olivia.
Something was up. If only he had audio to know what.
Tristan pressed a button on the phone and lowered it to his side, but he didn’t put it away. Next, Olivia pulled out her cell from the Faraday pouch.
Eli’s phone rang. Taking it from his pocket, he looked at the screen. It was her. “Yeah,” he answered, putting the call on speaker so the entire team could hear. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to do something for me.” She turned in his direction as she spoke. “It’s going to be very hard for you, but it’s important.”
“Anything.” He zoomed in and stared at her face through the binoculars. “I can do anything for you.”
She sighed. “If only that were true.” Her brow furrowed, a line etched between her eyes, and it was like déjà vu. “I need you to leave the park.”
Alarm raised the hair on the nape of his neck. “Leave you there?” he asked, his voice laced with disbelief.
“Yes.”
Cold filled the pit of his stomach. “There’s no way in he—”
“I spoke to Shepherd, briefly,” she said, cutting him off. “To continue the conversation, I have to go meet him.”
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“I’ve given my consent to go. This is my choice. It’s important.”
There was nothing in the world that was more important to him than her. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you.”
“I can and I will because I want to do this. I need to do it.” Her gaze hardened. “Don’t enter the forest. If you do, you’ll make things worse, and in the end, I’ll still go to meet him. After I’m done talking to him, I’ll be returned to you unharmed.”
“No, Liv.” His voice grew tight, betraying his escalating fear. “You can’t believe anything Shepherd tells you. You can’t trust him.”
“Listen to me carefully, it’ll be okay. Get in the truck and leave.
” Her mouth trembled for a second, but she marshaled her expression into a mask she wanted it to be.
“When this mission is over, we’ll take a trip.
I want it to be just like the last time we saw each other.
Do all the same things, especially what we did on the final day.
Please, trust me.” She ended the call and handed her phone to Tristan.
“She hung up,” he said to the team.
“Eli, you should listen to Olivia,” Autumn said. “Don’t break the rules.”
“Have you lost your mind?” How could she suggest such a thing? Autumn used to work for the FBI, she knew better than most that you never leave the scene with a perpetrator. It never ended well.
Tristan tossed Olivia’s phone on the ground and grabbed the backpack, slinging it on his shoulder. Then the two of them turned and walked deeper into the forest.
“Liv!” On a burst of panic, Eli bolted into the woods. “Liv!”