Chapter 40
ETHAN
Like I’d assumed, Olivia needed surgery to repair the break.
While I waited for her to come out of recovery, I changed into the clothes Hendrix had brought me.
Jeans and a t-shirt, making me feel more American than I had in a while.
Though we were in Germany, being on a U.S.
military base and surrounded by U.S. accents, with all the signs in English, made the hospital feel like a home away from home.
Probably not so much for her.
She was in recovery a long time, and because I was exhausted and in pain, I fell asleep. Upright, and in the most uncomfortable chair on Earth.
When I woke, I went to the desk to ask for an update, but the nurse was confused. She’d already notified the man waiting that Kathryn Pierce was out of recovery.
My heart jerked to a stop.
I tore down the hall, searching for her room number. Had someone from the Abramos been dispatched on a suicide mission of revenge? I didn’t have my SIG now, but I’d protect her with my bare hands if I had to.
I burst into her hospital room without knocking, startling the man sitting beside her on the bed.
Oh.
That made sense now.
Her father was pushing sixty, with white hair, a strong jaw, and a few extra pounds around the midsection. He looked exactly like the photo in the file Fletcher had put together and e-mailed following Jason’s phone call.
I pulled in a deep breath and exhaled, releasing the tension. Olivia’s arm was in a cast, resting on a stack of pillows, her mouth hung open at my abrupt entrance.
Shit. I had no idea what to say. “How are you feeling?”
Her mouth closed and her gaze shifted to stare blankly at her father. “I’m okay.”
I glanced down at her chart. Pierce, Kathryn Olivia, it read. Would the media pick up on this? She’d have to forgive me for outing her. I’d do it again if it would save her life.
Her father glanced me over with a single discerning, evaluating look. His expression hardened, like he wasn’t pleased with what he saw. Me just being in the general vicinity of his daughter made her father nervous.
He sensed how dangerous I could be.
“Dad, this is Ethan Foster,” she said.
“Michael Pierce.” He extended his hand.
“Colonel,” I responded. His grip was dominating, but I could respect that.
“And you are her . . . ?” We waited for her to jump in, but when she didn’t, he prompted, “Katie, help me out here.”
“He’s my friend.”
My mouth tightened into a line, the word stinging.
“A good friend,” she continued. Sorry, Olivia, only marginally better. “Also, I’m going by Olivia, remember?”
Her father looked displeased. “Right. I forget you’re not using the name your mother and I gave you.”
She scowled back at him. “I’m still using the name you gave me, just not the one you want. It’s easier this way.”
He sat back down beside her on the bed. “I didn’t fly here for us to get into that again. I’m sorry. I’m just so glad you’re okay. I can’t believe we’re back here.”
Awkward silence filled the room.
She stared at her cast, at her father; she looked anywhere but at me. It was because it was Landstuhl and the hell in Vitale’s office, I convinced myself. Yet it hurt anyway.
Michael couldn’t seem to stand it any longer. “How did you two meet?”
“I’m a friend of Shawn Dunn’s,” I said, “the man who runs Osterh?gen Beverage.” It wasn’t technically a lie, and I didn’t want to lie to her father.
“Oh, Katie’s new boss,” he said. “That explains why I haven’t heard about you.”
“Can you give us a minute?” she said tightly.
For a moment, it seemed like the answer would be no. But he hesitantly rose, strode toward the door, and cast a warning look at me before exiting.
“I didn’t know what to tell him,” she said, when the door was shut.
“About what happened?” Or about us?
When she nodded, I stepped up to the side of her bed, my mind exhausted, my knee aching, and my back full of fiery pain the painkillers barely touched. Every second I remained in this room and couldn’t touch her made things worse between us. She was slipping farther away.
“So, what did you say?”
“That I was stupid and worked for some dangerous people. I thought I had escaped, but they found me. I said I got lucky. The authorities came to arrest them before it got really bad.”
“Did he believe it?”
“I think so.” Her empty gaze went up to mine. “I’m a good liar.”
It was eerie seeing her like this, her whole personality stripped away. Empty. Lifeless. I couldn’t tolerate this space between us anymore. Her left hand was icy in mine, and it was alarming.
“Olivia, are you okay?”
She stared at me, and her voice was low and flat. “I don’t really feel anything.”
I slipped my hands through her soft hair, leaning down to kiss her, to bring her back to life.
“No, don’t,” she said, her good hand flattening against my chest to push me back. “Maybe I don’t want to feel anything.”
It was like I’d just hit a brick wall while running sixty miles an hour. “What? You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
I held my breath, waiting for the tell in her eyes when she was lying, but it wouldn’t fucking come. “So, where does that put us?”
“I don’t know.”
After what we’d just gone through together? If she didn’t want to feel anything . . . how could she feel anything for me? Anger rose in my chest. This woman was a fighter. It wasn’t in her nature to give up. How could she sit there, silent and motionless, and give up on me?
“I have to go Stateside,” I announced finally. “I need to be debriefed at Langley.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “How long?”
“A week, maybe longer. Where are you going after you’re released? Back to Munich?”
“I don’t know. My father wants me to come home with him.”
“Detroit.”
She nodded. “I might go for a little while. I can’t work while I’m on pain medication.”
I straightened, using all my remaining strength not to push. The urge to kiss her, to force her to feel something, was strong, but I resisted. She’d been through a lot. I could let her pretend these feelings didn’t exist a little longer.
She’d come around. Eventually.
There was a dry-erase board on the wall with a marker. I uncapped it, scribbling my number there since the Agency had taken her phone.
“When you figure out what you need, call me.” The hot words stuck in my throat. “Put that number down somewhere else, or memorize it, just make sure this gets erased.”
I went to the door and yanked it open, my stab wound sharp with pain, although the pain felt like it was everywhere.
“Goodbye, Olivia.”