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Texting back an affirmative, he looked around at the shabby accommodations he’d been forced to live with for the last few days. The stink of motor oil and old sweat permeated the place, and he doubted he’d ever get those smells out of his senses. This was the last time he’d set up business in an old, abandoned car repair shop.
Turning back to the men glaring at him like they’d take his head off any second, he offered them a smarmy smile. “Go find a place to hide and lie low. I’ve got some business to take care of. When I get back, we’ll regroup.”
“What about my brother?” the man gritted out.
He huffed out an exasperated sigh. With lightning reflexes, he pulled a knife from the sheath at his belt and threw it with maximum force. The blade landed in the man’s throat, slicing his jugular in two. The dying man reached toward him.
The Killer smirked, not moving.
The other men stood and watched. When the man fell dead at their feet, The Killer met the others’ gazes. “Any more questions or complaints?”
The remaining men quickly shook their heads and backed away.
“Good. I’ll be in touch.”
The Killer strode out the door.
Nothing like a little bloodletting to make a point.
CHAPTER TEN
OZ Headquarters
Olivia eased her tired, sore body into the hot, foamy water and released a long, shaky sigh. Hawke likely wanted to talk tonight. So did she. But that would have to wait until she’d soaked her physical pains away. The emotional ones would likely take a lot longer to erase.
Leaning back against the back of the tub, she closed her eyes. The fragrant scent of wild jasmine rose up with the steam, soothing not only her muscles, but also her weary soul. She had yet to come to grips with all that had happened over the last thirty or so hours. She had been beaten and drugged, and she’d found out her dead husband was alive. That was a lot for even the most seasoned and toughest person to handle.
Hawke and the people he’d had watching her had likely saved her life last night. She knew she should feel grateful. She still didn’t know what her attackers had wanted, but there was no telling what might have happened. Overshadowing that gratitude was the monumental sense of betrayal. Her husband, the man she had loved and trusted above anyone in the world, had betrayed her trust. He had destroyed everything she had thought they’d built together. She wanted to hear the reasons, but she already knew there was no adequate excuse. No word had been invented to justify what he had done. All the promises they’d made to each other, all the things they’d meant to each other had been ground into dust. There was no way she could forgive him this. She had forgiven him other things. Terrible, rotten words that scored her soul. But this? No, there was no reason, no explanation good enough to justify why he had let her think he was dead all this time.
She told herself she shouldn’t be that surprised. Betrayal certainly wasn’t new to her. At an early age, she had learned that most people had an agenda, and if you got in the way, they would do whatever they felt necessary to achieve their goal. Sometimes, they would do extraordinarily wicked things.
Her first real lesson had been when she was ten years old. Not by any stretch of imagination had she ever believed her childhood was normal. Her parents had been cold and distant. Discipline had been a way of life. Even when she’d been allowed to play, it had been with a training purpose in mind. Every moment of every day had revolved around that training.
Her only outlet had been her grandmother. Her mother’s mother had been the exact opposite of her daughter. Warm and loving, with the most wonderful sense of humor and adventure, Maggie Marshall had been everything good and kind. She had come to live with them when Olivia was seven. There had been no explanation of why she was there. She had just shown up one day, and much to Olivia’s delight, Gram had changed her life forever.
For three years, Gram had been her touchstone. She had gone to her grandmother for solace, for encouragement, and for the love she’d longed for from her parents.
There was so much her grandmother had taught her, but the number one thing had been the recognition that there was good in the world. Without her grandmother’s influence, Olivia knew she would have become just like her mother.
Olivia hadn’t known the extent of how much her mother was watching their relationship until she had returned from school one day to learn that her grandmother had been moved to a care home for the elderly. Just like that, her foundation had been shaken to the core.
She had asked her mother why and was simply told it was time. Even though her heart had been torn to shreds, she’d known that reacting to that news in a negative way would have put Iris Gates on high alert. Instead, she’d nodded calmly and asked the location of where her grandmother had been taken. Without hesitation, her mother had told her.
Olivia later decided that it had been a test. One that she failed miserably.
The next day, instead of going to school, she caught a bus and traveled the forty-six miles to see Gram. It broke her heart to see her lively and intelligent grandmother sitting in a chair by a window looking like a frail and lonely old lady. At ten years old, with no resources, Olivia didn’t know what to do or how to fix anything. She spent the day with Gram, promising her she would visit frequently. She promised they wouldn’t lose touch. They both knew she was lying. Before Olivia left, her grandmother took her in her arms and hugged her harder than she ever had before. It felt so final.
At the door, before Olivia walked out, Gram said softly, “Get away from them, my precious, before they destroy you.”
Those words proved to be prophetic.
She walked out of her grandmother’s room, and her parents were waiting for her in the hallway. She wasn’t surprised. She had known her mother would find out where she’d gone. There was no place to hide, no secrets that Iris Gates could not find.
Not one word was spoken between them. She simply followed them to their car, and they traveled home in silence. Her parents didn’t even talk to each other. They were on a mission, and Olivia was it.
The moment she got out of the car at home, her mother said, “Go down to the training room.”
It never occurred to her to argue or protest. She was not only powerless, she had been trained to obey. Traveling to see her grandmother had been an anomaly. One that she had known at the time she would pay for. And now that time had come.
