“How are you doing back there?” Leo asked her.
“Never better.”
Neil eased up on the gas.
“No, really. I’m fine. Not to sound like a child, but how much longer?” she asked.
“Ten minutes to the turnoff, then we’re on-site,” Neil informed her.
She nodded and continued to look at the passing landscape.
Neil couldn’t help but wonder if anything looked familiar. He knew she’d spent several years in Germany, but he didn’t have a lot of information on the woman before that time. And after, well . . . he could only speculate. Her history had been erased long before she was shot.
As they moved toward the gate, AJ drove up first, jumped out, and opened the manual fence. Much as Neil would have liked an automated gate, the homes that had them were in more densely populated areas. That didn’t stop him from securing sensors that let those inside the house know the gate was opening. There were trip wires, electronic and physical, closer to the house. He’d be sure and spend some time with Leo outside before he left.
AJ moved faster down the road while Neil stayed mindful of the patient white-knuckling it in the back seat.
She needed time to heal.
The doctor had joked, telling her to avoid gunshots, car accidents, or bar fights for at least a month.
None of which were off Olivia’s radar when she was in her right mind.
The docile woman staring out the window would have no problem avoiding drama.
Olivia . . . not so much.
I’ve seen trees. They’re pine trees.
The smell reminded her of Christmas. How was it she could remember the holiday, but not a single one with her in it?
Every bump in the road was a knife in her side.
She wanted to look at the bandage on her chest but didn’t desire drawing attention from the two men in the front seats.
She’d been under a microscope for days and looked forward to time alone.
A proper shower. What she would do for a shower.
Neil pulled the car up to what had to be one of the largest log cabins in existence. When she’d heard cabin, she assumed something small and easy to manage.
That was not what he stopped the car in front of.
“Wow,” Leo said for both of them.
“I’m sure it will be comfortable for everyone,” Neil said before opening his door and moving to hers.
Outside the climate-controlled car, she took her first step with Neil close by. He didn’t reach for her, but somehow she knew he would if he had to.
Leo, on the other hand, walked around the car and took her elbow like she couldn’t manage without him. Something about the gesture felt off, but she didn’t know why.
He’d only been helpful the whole time she’d known him.
“Doing okay?” he asked.
She took a deep breath. “Only hurts when I breathe.”
She wasn’t sure, but for a second she thought Neil laughed. Since the man barely cracked a smile, she must have been mistaken.
The home appeared to have two entrances, one on the ground level, the other, larger one requiring a flight of stairs.
She wasn’t about to admit that she appreciated Leo’s arm when she started stepping up. Nearly a week in a bed took a toll on her body. And as much as she wanted to stop and take in the grand vista of trees and forest surrounding the cabin, she was hyperfocused on that shower and a bed. One she could collapse in and sleep for a year. Maybe then her memory would come back, and her life could return to normal.
Inside, Sasha and AJ were talking with two other men, both of whom stopped when she stepped inside the spacious room.
Big furniture, leather accents, with massive logs holding the whole thing together. Huge windows shot up twenty feet taking in the view, with a vast porch that stretched the length of the house. The living room opened to a kitchen and dining area that looked like it seated eight. “This is crazy,” she said softly.
“There are enough rooms for everyone,” Neil pointed out.
She turned away from the windows and found everyone staring at her.
“Hello,” she said to the new faces.
“I’m Lars,” the older of the two said with a slight wave across the room.
“Isaac,” the shorter one wearing glasses added.
“I’m . . .” This was getting old. “Jane Doe, happy to meet you.”
Both men seemed to wince at her introduction.
Sasha stepped around the giant sofa and tilted her head to one side. “You remind me of someone I went to school with.” Sasha glanced at Neil, then back. “Her name was Olivia.”
Olivia blinked a few times, noticed all those eyes on her . . . the microscope dialed in.
“I like it,” Leo said. “It’s better than Jane Doe.”
“You don’t look like a Jane,” Lars told her.
“Olivia,” she said aloud for the first time. Then she shrugged. “You have to call me something. Might as well be Olivia.”
Again, everyone seemed to hang on whatever she was going to say next. “Which room is mine?”
The question had everyone moving.
Heavy footsteps preceded a woman half jogging down the stairs from the floor above. “Is our patient here?”
Olivia turned toward the woman. “That’s me.”
“You look haggard.”
“Great.” What was she supposed to say to that?
“Sorry . . . I’m Pam, the nurse.” She had to be in her sixties, short gray hair, wiry . . . thin.
“I’m a . . . Olivia, I guess. They all just named me,” she told her.
Pam narrowed her eyes, looked around the room. “Are you okay with that?”
“It’s a name.” Just a name.
“Well, Olivia . . . you’ve got to be tired.”
“It’s been a long day.”
Pam nodded toward the stairs. “Let’s get you settled. You up for a shower?”
Olivia sighed. “I’d kill for a shower.”
Someone behind her laughed.
CHAPTER NINE
“Holy shit . . . not one spark of recognition. How is that possible?” Isaac asked. “The woman tied me up and put me in a cell . . . How can she forget that?”
Leo turned to Isaac. “She what?”
Neil stared at his colleague.
Isaac closed his lips. “It was a case. A joke.”
AJ sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. Sasha took up position on the armrest with his hand on her leg. “Not even her name. It’s hard to believe.”
Sasha sighed. “It was only a matter of time before one of us slipped and called her Olivia.”
The close-knit group would keep anything Leo wasn’t supposed to know to themselves. He’d just have to whittle away at them, one at a time. “So, what’s the plan?” he asked, looking at Neil.
“We work in shifts,” he said, lifting himself up from the couch and walking away. Everyone stood and followed. They took a back stairway down to what looked like in-laws’ quarters. The living room furniture had been pushed back, and a set of portable monitors were set up like a workstation.
Cameras had been placed around the inside and outside of the house, and all the feeds funneled into the monitors.
Isaac sat at the chair and started typing. “I’ll show you a shortcut of commands,” he said, looking over his shoulder at Leo. The feed from the living room brightened and then faded when Isaac moved to another one. The camera he was highlighting was one just outside the door of a bedroom.