Leo saw a shadow, then Isaac turned on the audio.
“You’re sure you don’t want something for the pain?” It was Pam’s voice.
“There are cameras in every room except Olivia’s and this one.” He pointed to the bedroom off the living space where they were standing. “And all the bathrooms.”
“I would think Olivia’s room would be the most important,” Leo said.
Lars started to laugh. “Yeah, well . . . when she gets her memory back, I don’t want to be the one to tell her we watched her sleeping . . . or saw her naked.”
“She’d kill us,” Isaac added.
AJ shrugged in agreement.
“I’m sure she’d understand,” Leo suggested.
Sasha lowered her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t know her. Don’t think the woman you’re seeing here is the real person. It isn’t. And Olivia wouldn’t kill you, she’d remove your balls and make you eat ’em. Then if you’re lucky, she’d kill you.”
Lars moaned, shifted his hips a couple of times. “Thanks for the visual, Sasha. We can always count on you.”
Leo couldn’t help but think Lars believed Sasha’s joke.
She had to be kidding.
Isaac pointed to a monitor with an aerial view of the property. There were red lights dotted in a dozen places. “Trip sensors. Red means they’re live. If they’re off, they’ve been cut, or something is in the way of them talking to each other. They work in pairs. If they’re blinking, something has disturbed them. They need to be manually reset.”
Neil glanced at Leo. “You and I will take a walk before it gets dark.”
“We’ve been here for two days. There’s a lot of wildlife out there, so remember that. When the trip sensors go off closer to the house, the lights turn on and the audio sensors enhance.” Isaac brought up a video.
Leo peered closer. It looked like the outside by the driveway, and it was pitch black. The lights clicked on, and a few raccoons stood up, looked around, and then lumbered off. “If they keep coming back, we might have to do some target practice.”
Neil walked toward the other room. Inside was a bedroom, but so much more.
He opened a closet to display a significant amount of firepower. ARs, AKs, several pistols, two shotguns, and a couple of rifles that Leo couldn’t identify. “Do I even want to know how many of these are illegal?”
“It’s Colorado,” AJ said. “People are less itchy here.”
Yeah, sure . . .
Neil moved the closet door to the other side to display vests, both for protection and for carrying ammunition and magazines. “Audio,” he said, pointing to a stack of headgear. “Channel six.”
Leo remembered the first time he’d seen Neil. He and one of his staff were all but jumping out of the rafters of a warehouse dressed for war. Someone on his team kept Claire from a bullet to the head by making a kill shot of their own. Leo looked around the motley crew and wondered which one of them had taken that shot. Neil had said it was him . . . but something told Leo that Neil would take blame, or credit, to take any heat off his people.
“This is one hell of a setup,” Leo finally said.
“She’s one of us,” Sasha said, as if that’s all that mattered.
“How long have you known her?” he asked.
Sasha stared at him as if he were an idiot. “A long time” was all she offered.
Neil closed the closets. “Let’s take that walk.”
Neil waited until he was well outside of the audio feed to start talking.
It was a story he’d repeated with nearly every recruit on his team. One that spelled out just enough facts to let a new employee understand what they were all about and why.
“When I left the Marines, I thought I’d be able to go back to a normal life. But when a war is still playing in your head, that war is around every corner. I started all this as a bodyguard and driver for my now brother-in-law.” Neil offered a rare grin. “Blake shits money in his sleep. The man can’t make a bad investment. I followed his lead. Invested, got a decent return. Was lucky enough to win his sister over.”
“I’ve seen your wife. You’re a lucky man.”
Neil warmed just thinking of Gwen. “She’s not as fragile as she looks. She’s put up with me for nearly twenty years.” He kept walking. “Slowly, through time, this team fell together. Too amped up after being military grunts to see things the way other people do. And too skilled to give up the parts about the service they loved. Big part of our job now is keeping people safe and oblivious to the stupid in the world. Celebrities, politicians, businessmen and women with deep pockets. I have this team and another one in Europe. And on the outside, that’s what we are . . . what we do. But you know we do more.”
Leo knelt down and picked up a stick lying on the forest floor. “Undercover agents tracking down a Russian mob ring selling kids . . . yeah, I know you do more.”
Neil nodded. “Some of our intel might not be gained in ways that your boss would approve of.”
Leo shrugged. “I know that, too.”
“Then you’ll have to respect when I, or my people, avoid your questions.”
“You can trust me, Neil. I’m sure Claire would vouch for me.” While Leo was playing undercover teacher, Claire was playing undercover student. Only for two different departments. He thought the world of the woman.
“She has. Many times. Our secrets aren’t just for us, they’re for you.”
“I’m not following.”
Neil took a deep breath. “What happens if you overhear or obtain information you can’t sit on?”
Leo stopped, turned to Neil. “You’re the good guys.”
“I like to think so. But we don’t call 911. We call each other.”
Leo stayed silent, digesting what that implied.
“We didn’t wait for your people when that scumbag held a gun to Claire’s head. We all know she wouldn’t have made it if we had,” Neil said.
Yeah . . . maybe Leo didn’t want to know all their secrets.
Just Olivia’s.
Or maybe he didn’t.
“I take it Claire’s situation wasn’t unique.”
Neil closed his mouth and stared.
“I allowed you to come here because I do trust you. I also saw something in your eyes that told me you weren’t going to take no for an answer.”
“Got that right.”
“Good. So now that we understand each other, let me tell you why she’s really here. And this is for you, not your boss.”
“I’m listening.”
“None of us are in a hurry for her to get her memory back. In fact, if I could stop it from ever happening, I would. But since the doctors believe it’s only a matter of time, I want to make sure that when it does return, she has healed one hundred percent. That her body is ready to jump out of an airplane and land on someone’s back when her chute doesn’t open.”
“That’s pretty hard-core.”
“It’s not far from the truth.” Neil wouldn’t be surprised if Olivia had taken that leap at some point in her life and lived to tell about it.