A Thin Disguise by Catherine Bybee

CHAPTER TEN

Neil sat back in the desk chair, his arms folded over his chest.

Sasha stood beside him, eyes taking in the footage he’d brought up for her to view.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

A touch . . . a smile . . . and just enough ogling when the other one wasn’t looking to clear any doubt of what was going on. It was like watching one of those women’s movies Gwen insisted on dragging him to a couple of times a year.

“Should we stop it?” Sasha asked, her eyes glued to the footage that kept playing.

Lars had caught the interplay between Leo and Olivia from the night before and made sure to bring it to Neil’s attention first thing in the morning.

Neil shook his head. “I saw the look on Leo’s face . . . but now it’s clear it’s mutual. I say leave it. Maybe encourage it.”

Sasha turned her back to the monitors, leaned against the desk, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you turning into a matchmaker in your old age?”

He’d deny that to the grave. “Maybe this will give Olivia a reason to stay.”

Sasha nodded toward the screens. “This is sexual.”

Doesn’t all attraction start that way? “Tell me in a week if you feel differently.”

“There’s a reason she’s alone. You know it. I know it. Everyone here but Leo knows it.”

“I’m more concerned with Olivia losing her humanity than Leo ending up with a broken heart. He will survive. She might not.” Neil pushed back from the desk and stood.

Sasha didn’t argue, which told him she agreed.

“I won’t encourage it.”

That, he was okay with. “Then encourage the others to leave them be. Give them time . . . alone.”

“A wee bit manipulative, MacBain,” she accused.

“If there’s nothing there, nothing will happen.”

Sasha was a beautiful woman when she smiled. “When is your flight?” she asked.

He looked at the time. “Three hours. I’ll be back next week, give you and AJ a break.”

“We told you that wasn’t necessary.”

“You and Olivia are a lot alike. The more you’re around her, the more likely she’s going to notice similarities. Her questions may lead to her memory returning too quickly.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We don’t not know that.”

Again, no argument.

“You’re doing the right thing here,” Sasha said. “Maybe not the matchmaking part . . . but taking care of her.”

“Claire could have ended up like her . . . or you.”

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember that.”

“Then you know why we’re here.”

“We all do.”

Neil smiled and left the room.

“Stop fidgeting.”

“I’m not.”

Pam glared with a stink-eye stare that had Olivia holding her breath and standing still.

“There.” Pam eased back, looked at her handiwork.

“It’s only one hole,” Olivia told her.

Pam stared in the mirror. “One hole. One soldier at a time.”

Olivia let her gaze shift. “When did you serve?”

Pam’s eyes caught hers in the reflection. “A long time ago.”

“You’re too young to say that.”

“I’m twenty years older than you.”

Olivia felt a smile on her lips. “Considering I don’t know how old I am . . . that’s safe.”

Pam chuckled. “I’ll take a bullet wound any day over a bomb. A hole . . . so much easier than a dripping mess of bone and flesh with no skin to pull it together.”

That was a visual Olivia would take some time to get over.

And from the look in Pam’s eyes . . . yeah, her, too.

“I’m sorry,” Olivia found herself saying.

Pam blew out a breath. “Long time ago.”

“Still affects you.”

She shrugged. “And you don’t remember what you did last summer.”

For reasons Olivia couldn’t name, she started laughing.

And laughing.

“Touché, mademoiselle.”

“I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

They descended the stairs together.

The crew, a term Olivia had coined for the lot of them, had gathered around the kitchen. Someone said something about the temperature of the flame for the eggs being prepared on the stove, and someone else questioned to what level the bacon had been cooked.

“Good morning,” AJ said from his perch in one of the many chairs in the open living room.

“Morning,” Olivia greeted him. Her eyes moved around the room, did a quick inventory.

Lars and Isaac were wrestling in the kitchen in an episode of “I know more about cooking than you do.”

Neil sat in one of the high counter chairs, a duffel bag at his feet.

Sasha and Leo were both absent.

“Where are the others?” she asked, really only interested in Leo.

“Sasha’s in the surveillance room, and Leo is doing his best Sleeping Beauty impersonation,” AJ told her.

Pam left Olivia’s side once she’d cleared the last step of the stairs. She moved into the kitchen as if she was now the boss. “Is this going to be a daily thing with you two?”

“Bacon should be close to burned, right, Neil?” Lars asked.

“I’m staying out of this.” Neil gave Olivia a sideways glance. “How did you sleep?” he asked her.

“It’s very quiet here,” she said.

“Everywhere is quiet compared to Vegas,” Lars said.

“And dark,” Isaac added.

Olivia only had the trip from the hospital to the airport to compare. And she’d been so busy watching Neil and Leo as they escorted her, she didn’t think to look out the window. The men had a laser focus on everything going on around them and the car as if they were truly worried someone was going to jump out at any second and shoot her again.

Of course, the lead vest they’d put on her before leaving the hospital would have clued her in to the threat even if they’d said nothing.

She looked at the bag on the floor at Neil’s feet. “Are you leaving?”

He offered a single nod. “I’ll be back in a week. Sooner if I’m needed.”

“I doubt it will take this many people to keep me safe.”

Isaac started laughing, then seemed to catch himself before turning around and going back to preparing breakfast.

“I thought the same thing,” Pam said as she removed juice from the refrigerator.

“If you knew the players, you might think differently.”

Olivia moved to stand beside the kitchen counter. “Who are the players?” she asked Neil.

He paused and weighed his words. “A large international family. People that don’t like going to jail.”

“Does anyone like going to jail?” Pam asked.

“I’ve been avoiding it for years,” AJ said from the living room.

Isaac and Lars stopped arguing about the bacon long enough to laugh at AJ’s statement.

Olivia found herself staring at AJ, a tilt to her head. Is he serious?

“Time to eat.”

She was shooed out of the kitchen when she attempted to help. After pouring herself a cup of coffee, she took a seat at the table and let the crew serve her.

From what she’d been told, Pam was the only newcomer. But you wouldn’t know by watching her interactions with the others. The bacon debate continued, the easy banter telling Olivia that this group had a long history.

She’d been told they were a private organization that helped the feds and local police from time to time. And since they were invested in Leo, and she’d been with him when she was shot, Neil’s team had taken on the task of keeping her safe.

If she was a burden, she didn’t see it. They all appeared to like each other’s company and acted as if relocating to remote areas with complete strangers was a weekly occurrence.

Olivia ate in silence and soaked in their individual mannerisms.

Neil said very little but did smile on occasion. He spent most of his time watching her and pretending he wasn’t.

AJ passed the plate full of toast to his left, the way he moved suggesting he had a gun strapped to his side. Not that she could see it with the light jacket he wore. The knowledge and absolute certainty of that fact caught her unexpectedly. Once she realized that, she started to look for signs of who else in the room was armed.

Neil . . . his weapon was behind his back.

Pam? No. She didn’t have a firearm on her.

Isaac had his sleeves rolled up, his shirt tucked in. No.

Lars wore utility pants, and she counted one gun and two knives on him.

Pistols . . . So where were the rifles?

Olivia’s eyes shifted around the living room, scanned the open kitchen.

Pantry.

Behind the dining room hutch.

Why did they hide them? Did they think the sight of a gun would cause some kind of PTSD?

Considering the circumstances, that was likely.

“You’re not hungry?” AJ asked, causing Olivia to turn her attention away from the weapons and back to her plate of food.

She picked up her fork and filled it with eggs. “Distracted,” she said.

That’s when she realized that everyone at the table had their forks in their right hands.

Her thoughts returned to the conversation the previous evening with Leo.

“A preference . . .”

As if just thinking his name somehow summoned the man, Olivia heard Leo’s footsteps descending the stairs before he came into view. “I thought I smelled food.”

“Last one to the table does the dishes,” Isaac teased.

Leo stopped at the coffee pot before finding an empty seat across from her. “Morning,” he said with a smile.

“Finally found yourself facedown in that bed?” she asked. He looked rested, a fresh shave . . . his hair slightly damp. His weapon was in the same position as Neil’s.

Why did her mind pick that up?

“A late-night conversation seemed to do the trick.”

“Glad I could help.”

Isaac used a piece of bacon as a pointing stick. “What did you think of the meatloaf?”

“Surprisingly good.”

Isaac puffed out his chest.

Lars rolled his eyes.

“But if I find the box of potatoes, I’m likely to burn it.” She politely smiled and chewed her eggs.

“They’re easy,” Isaac insisted.

“They were hideous.”

“Do you cook?” he asked.

“No.” Her denial was instant and felt right. “It’s a potato, how hard can it be?”

“I vote you make the mashed potatoes,” Isaac decided.

She set her utensil down. “Challenge accepted.”

“Keep an eye on her,” Neil told Leo. They stood in the driveway, the driver’s side door of the SUV open.

“We will,” Leo said for the others.

“You. You’re the only one in this group she doesn’t know. And Pam, but I didn’t hire her to protect her. The more time Olivia spends with the rest of us, the more likely she’ll remember things.”

Spending time with the woman was not a hardship.

“I won’t let her get shot twice,” Leo assured him.

Neil extended his hand to shake. “I have Claire and the others working on Navi . . . see if we can find a link.”

“You and I both know it’s there.”

“Then we’ll find it.”

Neil climbed into the car and drove away.

Leo walked around the perimeter of the house before taking a back stairway up to the main floor. The wraparound porch was a nice touch. The house sat up on a small knoll and looked out to a valley with a mountain range in the distance. He had a feeling he’d be spending a lot of time outside watching sunsets and stars.

Which didn’t suck.

“Are you from this area?”

He heard Olivia’s voice before he walked around the front of the house to find her sitting in a deck chair, her legs kicked out in front of her . . . Pam at her side.

“No. I live in LA, like everyone else here.”

“Lots of traffic,” Olivia said.

Leo hesitated.

“Have you been there?”

“I think so. It’s a bitch not knowing for sure.”

“You’re not missing much. Busy city, traffic like you said. I prefer this,” Pam said.

Leo stepped closer. “Best seats in the house,” he said as a greeting.

Olivia smiled up at him. “My private nurse said I need fresh air.”

“You do.”

Leo took a vacant seat. “Your color is better today,” he told her.

“It’s amazing how good you feel when a member of the hospital staff isn’t sticking a needle in your arm every morning at five a.m.”

“Hospitals are no place to rest,” Pam said.

They all nodded in agreement.

“Do either of you know when this area gets its first snow?” Olivia asked.

“No idea, but we can find out.”

“I’d like to get a feel for the place before then. Take a few walks,” she said.

Leo thought that was a reasonable request.

Pam, on the other hand . . . “Veto on walks in the woods for a couple of days.”

Olivia looked at the woman as if she were crazy.

“That evil eye isn’t going to work on me. The altitude is higher here, the ground uneven, and a few days ago you needed a hole in your lung to breathe. Up and down the flat driveway is enough for you.”

“And never alone,” Leo added.

“I have a feeling the logic the two of you are using is only going to work on me for a short time.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “Never alone, Olivia. Neil has done everything he can to ensure that no one knows we’re here, but . . .”

Those green eyes found his briefly, then turned away to stare at the landscape. “I don’t have a death wish. I do, however, have a desire to build my strength and be independent.”

“You’re independent now,” Pam assured her.

“As evidenced by the fact that one of you is at my side every time I walk up or down the stairs.”

Leo smiled at Pam. “She has us there.”

Olivia sat up, placed her feet flat on the ground. “You have fifteen minutes to decide who gets to hold my hand on my morning walk. I plan on taking another after dinner, so be warned.”

“Olivia!”

“Yes, Pam?”

The two of them stared each other down.

Pam rolled her eyes. “I knew this assignment was too good to be true,” she muttered, a smile on her face. “Meet you out here in fifteen.” She left the two of them alone.

“Are you always this stubborn?” he asked.

“I think so. The opposite feels uncomfortable. Much like holding my fork with my right hand.” She paused. “Every day I feel that much closer to remembering who I am.”

Leo’s stomach churned. “That’s good,” he lied.

Olivia stood. “So, you’re up for a walk? I mean, you’re the one with the gun.” She nodded toward the path Pam had just traveled to go inside. “She’s making sure I don’t hurt myself, and you’re here to make sure no one hurts me.”

Leo nodded. “Fourteen minutes and counting.”