Chapter 34
OLIVIA
I had to get out of this hospital.
Even though Jason had been moved to a nice, private suite near the top floor, I couldn’t remain in the comfortable sitting area with the rest of the Dunns. The smell of disinfectant invaded my nose, the frigid hospital air clung to my skin, and I worried I was going to have a nervous breakdown.
After the helicopter crash, I’d spent nearly a month in the American military hospital Landstuhl recovering, and that month had been agony. Every day I’d been trapped in an endless hell of burning pain and nightmares. Nightmares I was constantly reminded of by the media when I returned home.
Changing to my mother’s maiden name helped a little.
Moving overseas helped a lot.
Shawn assigned a quiet, German security guard named Markus to escort me when I said I needed to get some air.
He wore a dark suit without a tie and was broad shouldered. He had curious eyes and a pleasant smile, and he fell in step beside me as I made my way out into the hall. “Do you speak English?” I asked softly.
“Yes, I speak some English.” His accent was thick.
“Oh, okay. Good,” I babbled. The hospital walls seemed to narrow in on me as I strode toward the elevator. “I’ve been trying to learn German, but I just started.”
He followed me down to the cafeteria where I bought a bottle of water, and he continued to stay close when I stepped out into an exterior courtyard.
It wasn’t warm outside and I didn’t have a coat, but I spotted an empty bench near the water fountain in the center that had most likely been turned off for the winter.
The moment I sat down, he gestured for me to stand up.
“No, Frau,” Markus said, his tone polite but firm, “we sit where I see people coming.” He pointed to a stone bench in one corner.
The slab was freezing, the cold seeping in through my uniform slacks as I sat, leaving space for Markus to join me. It was one of those deceptive days where it was brightly sunny but bitterly cold, and I shivered as I drank from my bottle of water.
“Sorry you have to be out here in the cold with me,” I said. “I just needed a minute. Hospitals make me uncomfortable.”
He put his hands in his suit coat’s pockets to keep them warm and help keep his coat closed. “It is fine.”
The courtyard was busier than I expected. It seemed like hospital staff often used it as a shortcut, and we watched people in scrubs and doctor’s coats hurry from one side to the other.
The silence and cold air created space for my thoughts.
The relief that had flooded me when Ethan returned to the hangar uninjured had been short lived, and now I was filled with anxiety. More feelings he’d given me. I’d have been so pissed at him if he’d gotten himself shot.
Even though he was physically fine, I was worried about him. The man I’d spoken to on the phone had sounded none too pleased when I’d told him my name and that Ethan had been arrested.
Where was he right now? What was going to happen to him? To us?
“Can I ask a favor?” I tightened the cap on my nearly empty water bottle. “Can you distract me? Tell me how you like your job, or how you met Shawn, or . . . hell, what your favorite color is and why. Anything.”
Markus’s shoulders straightened and his expression softened. “Herr Dunn—Jason will be all right.”
He thought my concern was over Jason’s injury since he knew nothing about me, other than I was an American. He probably assumed I was a friend of his or Laurel’s. I pressed my lips together and nodded. “I know.”
He took pity on me though and began to talk. He told me how he’d been hired initially as part of Laurel’s security team but moved to Kara’s just a few weeks before her very public abduction. Even though he understood nothing could have stopped it, he carried guilt that he hadn’t been able to.
Now, his time was mostly spent shadowing Kara and Shawn whenever they stepped out in public.
“The tabloids,” he said it with distaste, “are persistent.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
I imagined I’d only experienced a fraction of what they had gone through. Were still going through. My ordeal had been at the top of the news cycle for a few months, but once I’d recovered and there was nothing new to report, interest had waned.
Their wedding had kept them on the radar.
Once I finished my water, I set my hands on my knees and took a deep breath to even myself out. “Okay. I’m ready to head back in.”
He was on his feet quickly, looking relieved to get out of the cold, and I couldn’t blame him.
I’d been shivering in my pilot’s uniform the whole time on the bench.
I stood and headed toward the door, and as I dropped my bottle in the recycling bin, a doctor moved to pass us.
His white lab coat fluttered in the breeze, and he abruptly stumbled, falling into Markus.
There was a grunt of pain from him. As if he’d been hit much harder by the doctor than I’d realized—
Not a doctor.
Carlo.
“Gun inside my coat.” Markus said, almost inaudible as he grabbed my arm, using me for support. “Use it.”
I froze. The metallic smell of blood was thick.
As soon as his command registered, I tried to go for his gun, but Carlo was too fast. He disarmed Markus and helped him collapse on a bench that was just a step away.
A dark stain was rapidly spreading from his side, a hand clenched over a stab wound, and the knife was bloody when it disappeared into Carlo’s pocket. His hand reappeared a half-second later, brandishing a gun. He jammed it in my spine just as I was about to scream.
“No,” he warned. “It’ll be much worse for everyone if you do that. Go with me now, and it gives this man a chance to live.”
Markus’s face was pale, stricken with pain, taking what appeared to be only shallow breaths. He wouldn’t last much longer unless he got help. And since Carlo and I stood in front of Markus, we were blocking the view.
I was sure he was dying.
“All right,” I whispered.
Carlo shoved the gun’s barrel harder against me, digging it into my skin. “The exit to our right. Straight out the front doors without a word. Otherwise, I kill you and go upstairs to finish the job I came here for.”
My stomach was lined with lead as I followed his orders. There was at least a shimmer of relief when we were halfway out the door and I heard someone yelling, followed by commotion. People probably helping Markus.
Carlo put metal handcuffs on me when we reached his car. “Giovanni told me not to hurt or mark you yet. He wants me to leave you as a blank canvas to start with, but understand something, you bitch. If I have to kill you, I’ll do it, and he’ll understand.”
Acid churned in my stomach as he drove back to the airport. We entered at a different security checkpoint, one that seemed to be for freight vehicles, and the guard in the booth barely looked at us once Carlo swiped an ID and the gate opened.
The Abramos’ Bombardier was parked on the tarmac, looking like it was in the final stages of preflight. I was pulled from the car and up the stairs into the cabin.
Riding in the passenger section instead of the cockpit added to my trepidation. The O2 masks had been stowed, and I assumed the blood of my friends and Renzo Librizzi had been hosed out of the luggage compartment.
This wasn’t my plane anymore, so I wouldn’t know for sure.
At least I was good at surviving.
Surviving—and fending off attacks. I’d cut my teeth on that mountain fifteen years ago. I could do this, I told myself, over and over, forcing myself to believe.
“I saw you,” Carlo said, “kissing the enormous American. Giovanni wasn’t happy to hear that.”
“I don’t give a fuck about what makes Gio happy.”
His smile was evil. “You will.”
I bit back the desire to spit in his face. No, I’d wait on that.
Survive. That is your mission.