Chapter 8
Todd thought about Olivia’s words. Thought about being free to find love. To have a normal life. Up until he’d received that text, he would have thought it was possible. Now, however, he was beginning to think that coming to Silver Cove was a mistake.
He wasn’t free any longer. Not now that they knew where he was. Actually, he shouldn’t be sitting out here in the wide open, with Olivia and her daughter, enjoying the evening air and grilling dinner like he had not a care in the world.
What he should be doing is packing up, changing his name and… he thought about hiding for the rest of his life and shook his head. That wasn’t what he wanted. That was no way to live life.
He looked at Olivia and smiled. She easily matched his idea of the perfect woman. If he was free to live and love, that is.
“I’ll have to start believing in star charts then,” he said with a smile.
She remained quiet for a moment and then glanced over to where Simona was fast asleep in the chair. The iPad continued to play the show she’d been watching.
“I’d better get her home,” she said with a slight sigh.
He wanted to offer to bring Simona inside, to lay her on the sofa while they went into his room to… He took a deep breath and stood up.
“I’ll help you carry her out to the car,” he said while she gathered their things and piled it all into a massive bag.
He gently picked Simona up in his arms, careful not to wake her, and followed Olivia down the gravel pathway towards her car.
“Thank you,” she said after he set her down in the car seat. “For today,” she said after she secured Simona in the seat.
When she shut the car door, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. This time he moved slowly, enjoying the taste of the chocolate and sugar on her lips. The feeling of her soft body against his. The way she melted in his arms.
He wanted to explore that feeling further but knew that Simona was sleeping just inside the car. When he pulled back, Olivia swayed slightly. He smiled when she leaned against the car, as if needing it to hold her upright.
“Thursday,” he said, and her eyes cleared a little.
“Thursday.” She nodded and turned to go.
“Can I get your number?” he asked before she left.
“Oh, I… um.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Yes, it’s…” She started to rattle off a number, but then stopped and sighed. “I forgot. I just had it changed.” She pulled out her cell phone and looked up her new number. She connected their phones and shared her contact with him.
“Thanks.” He remembered what she’d said about her ex and sobered. “If you need anything. If you feel unsafe in any way, or if your ex…” He shook his head. “I’m a phone call away.”
“Thank you.” She touched his arm.
“Tell Simona I said goodnight.” He glanced into the car.
“She’ll be upset that she didn’t get to say goodbye.” Olivia smiled.
“Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to run into the two of you again before Thursday,” he suggested.
Olivia smiled. “You know where I work,” she hinted. “And Simona and I like to play in the park on Wednesday afternoons when I get off work.”
He nodded. “I like parks.”
She laughed. “See you around.” She got in her car, and he stood there, in the middle of the one-lane road, and watched her taillights disappear.
He had to admit, it was nice living on a point. One road in, only a handful of homes, no traffic. If anyone came around that didn’t belong there, someone was bound to notice.
He glanced up and down the lane at the other homes around him. Most had lights on inside, a signal that his neighbors were inside enjoying their evenings. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a new security system installed. Something state of the art.
He knew he had to call his CO and inform him about the text message. No doubt they’d want him to come in or sign up for some sort of protection.
He walked over to the back of his house and looked out over the sea wall towards the small town of Silver Cove.
This was where he wanted to be. Where he’d hoped to build a home, to have a family, to spend the rest of his life.
Now, after that text message, he was thinking of taking off again and that thought sank in his stomach like a stone.
He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to hide. He wanted to see Olivia and Simona at the park tomorrow. He wanted to take Olivia out on a date the following night and kiss her again. Maybe even a little more.
That thought had him smiling. Pulling out his phone, he shot a text message to his CO and informed him of the message he’d received. Before he could step inside his house, his cell phone was ringing.
Carl Harper, his commanding officer was one of the most straightforward men Todd had ever met. Straightforward and intense.
“Are you packing?” Carl asked when he answered the phone.
“No, I’m sticking.” He locked the door and walked around to make sure the house was secure. “I’m going to invest in a security system in the morning.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll send my guy,” Carl replied, and Todd could hear him typing. “I know you don’t need it, but he’ll be sticking around for a while. I hope you have a place to put him up.”
Todd instantly wanted to argue that he didn’t need to be babysat, but then he thought about the three other people in his team that had thought the same thing. Three other members that he’d watched being lowered into graves.
He glanced around the house and then thought about the room above the garage. “Yeah, I’ve got a place.”
“Good, his name is Ethan Knight. He’ll be there first thing in the morning,” Carl said. “Until then, sleep light.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, wondering if he’d get any sleep at all. There had been plenty of nights that he’d gone without sleep in the past. “Thanks,” he said before hanging up.
Morning seemed to take forever to come. He spent half of the night researching and trying to figure out who in his team’s past would have the resources to find his crew and the money and reach to hunt them down one by one.
When he’d been in the service, he’d been responsible for Roderick Murphy, AJ Collins, and Jamie Anderson. Their lives had been his responsibility. Losing one would have been tragic, but all three… it had been the reason for his early retirement.
If he’d lost any of them in the line of duty, he could have at least been a little consoled that they’d died for a cause. But having them hunted down in the real world, as they called it, had been far worse.
When Rodrick and his wife had died in a car accident, it hadn’t sent up any red flags. After all, accidents happen. Right?
But less than a month later, AJ was shot in what appeared at first to be a botched mugging.
A second death in his team had caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand.
He’d mentioned it to his CO, Carl, who had listened to his concerns and thankfully done something about it.
By the time of AJ’s burial service, Carl had information that there was more to Rodrick’s accident than they’d thought.
He’d also somehow gotten a hold of some grainy video of AJ’s shooting that clearly showed it wasn’t a simple mugging.
The same van that had caused Rodrick’s accident in Dallas had been used to snatch AJ off the street in Houston.
An hour before AJ’s body was found on the sidewalk, a figure in all black had rushed out of a dark van, tased AJ, and quickly loaded him up in the back. Less than an hour later, they’d returned his body to the very same spot, dumping him like trash on the sidewalk.
The first thing Todd had done was to alert the rest of his team.
Jamie Anderson, the only female member under his control, was one of the members still out on active duty.
She had been working in Asia on assignment, but when their concerns were raised, she was brought back to the States.
Within a month after AJ’s death, she’d been kidnapped from her apartment in San Diego.
By the time he’d gotten there, they had already found her body, which had been dumped in the bay. Video surfaced of the same dark van pulling out of her apartment garage the night of the kidnapping.
Carl had wanted to place the rest of his team under protection. Since Todd had officially retired two months earlier, he’d headed to Silver Cove, knowing that his team was safe, never expecting he was on the hit list as well.
Retirement wasn’t hard. After all, in the past few years on the job, he’d been dreaming of settling down and returning to Silver Cove.
But having three of his team members killed had made him wish he was back on the job to hunt down the bastard taking them out.
When his doorbell rang shortly after seven the next morning, he pulled out his gun and was ready for a fight. Then a man called out.
“Todd O’Brien? I’m Ethan Knight. Carl Harper sent me. I’m sending my credentials to the cell number Carl provided.”
Todd opened the text message. After glancing over the information, he received another text from Carl.
“And Carl just sent you confirmation,” Ethan said from behind his front door.
When Todd opened the door, he realized that if the man standing on his front porch had wanted to break in and kill him, he would have been dead moments ago.
To say the man was massive would be an understatement. The man towered over Todd’s own six-foot height and was easily double his weight, with solid muscles.
“Todd.” Ethan nodded and held out his hand. “Ethan Knight.”
Todd shook the man’s hand and opened his front door for him to enter. The man glanced back at a white van parked in front of his garage. “My teammate Javan is going to start setting up the security system.”
Todd glanced out to see a black man almost as impressively large as Ethan unloading equipment from the back of the van.
“Sure,” he answered. “I was going to set you up in the apartment above the garage.” He motioned to the space.
“Keys?” Ethan asked.
Todd reached over and took a set of keys from the key ring by the front door and handed them to Ethan.