A Thin Disguise by Catherine Bybee

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“I understand you had some excitement today.” Neil’s face came across just as stoic on a video monitor as it did in person.

Leo stood in the background as one of the monitors performed as a giant Zoom meeting. Neil was on one camera, and Cooper, Claire, and Jax were squeezed into another. Considering the newest members of the team all lived in the same house, it made sense. Clearly this group didn’t mind late hours.

Olivia had stayed up past ten, and they hadn’t assembled down in the situation room until eleven.

The monitors throughout the house would show any movement should she wake and decide she needed something that wasn’t in her bedroom.

“Olivia had a memory flash, tried to marry her fist with Sasha’s face,” AJ told him.

Leo listened while Sasha relayed the facts to Neil.

“Old memories, then . . . nothing new?” he asked.

“Not that she’s told any of us,” Lars said.

“What about you, Leo?”

“Nothing I haven’t shared.” The intimate moments didn’t need to be talked about. He couldn’t help but look at the monitor that showed the interior of the kitchen. There was no way the household hadn’t shared that with everyone.

Neil took his word. “Before we dig in, I want to remind everyone that while Leo is here, we have to respect his position and Olivia’s privacy. And, Leo?”

“Yeah?”

“If I ask you to step out . . .”

He didn’t like that. “I haven’t earned my stripes yet . . .”

“Thank you for understanding.” Neil nodded. “Let’s start with Brackett.”

Isaac cued up the conversation Leo had had earlier with his boss.

“Jax and I have been mulling this conversation over all day,” Claire announced. “There isn’t any logic to taking Leo out this late in the game . . . not for the sake of the lawyers. And since the judge didn’t slap Mykonos with a ‘say you’re sorry and don’t get caught doing this again’ sentence, it’s safe to say the judge hadn’t been threatened.”

“That leaves the jury,” Lars said.

“Agreed,” Claire said.

“If one or more of the jury members end up facedown in a river, we’ll know we’re onto something,” Cooper added.

“Hey! Sensitive much?” Isaac said to the camera and nodded in Sasha and AJ’s direction.

“Awww, fuck, AJ, I’m sorry.”

Leo felt the weight of the room, and judging from the pressure, there was a lot to whatever was making Cooper apologize. “What am I missing?” Leo asked.

Claire said something in German.

Sasha responded in the same language, then turned to Leo. “I’ll tell you later,” she said in English.

Claire cleared her throat. “Okay . . . going back to motive. If not as a warning to those in the courtroom . . . that means it’s personal. Leo, can you go over exactly what happened when you confronted Navi again? Maybe we’re missing something.”

He’d told Neil the details shortly after they discovered Olivia’s identity, but he went ahead and repeated the story for the entire team. “There isn’t much to tell. I followed him to the restaurant to see who he was meeting.”

“Was there any intel on a meeting?”

Leo shook his head. “A hunch. Navi was too quiet. Perfect cousin standing by his family with a shut mouth and not so much as a glare? It didn’t feel right.”

“Who knew you were going to watch him?” Neil asked.

“No one. My partner and my boss were pissed when they found out.”

“So . . . you follow him in. He’s having dinner with a woman. Why did you approach him?”

“His bodyguards saw me. I could bow out like a coward or confront the man. Make sure he knew I was watching. I walked in, asked about the food, told him to have a good time, and I left.”

“That’s it?” Cooper asked.

“By the time I cleared the restaurant, Claire called and told me you had Navi Sobol covered.”

“Olivia saw you. Called in,” Neil explained.

She more than saw him, they all but ran into each other.

Right in front of the bodyguards. “Olivia was in the restaurant . . . walking out as I was walking in. I stopped her,” he said, remembering the scene vividly.

“Why?” Sasha asked.

“I thought she looked familiar.” Leo shook his head. “That’s when Navi’s bodyguards saw me. As Olivia was walking away.”

A hush went over the room and the others online.

Sasha said something in German.

Claire and Jax both responded.

“English, ladies!” Lars said with a roll of his eyes.

“Leo wasn’t shot,” Cooper said for them. “Olivia was. A centimeter in the other direction and she’d be dead.”

“So maybe Leo wasn’t the target,” Claire said.

Sasha shook her head, started again in German.

When no one insisted she speak in English, Leo couldn’t help but wonder if the secrets he’d yet to earn his stripes to hear were being discussed.

“Or maybe Navi is a pushy prick and wanted to get back at me for interrupting his evening,” Leo said, not willing to accept that Olivia was the one the bullet was intended for.

The alarm on the trip sensors went off, and everyone turned to look at the map. A second set in line with the first sounded off.

“Same two sensors. Neil, when you come, bring some silencers. I’m in need of a hat,” Lars told him.

Leo stood, looked around the room. “Since it appears as if I’m about to get asked to leave, I’ll go out and reset them.”

“Take a radio,” Sasha told him.

Leo grabbed one that sat on a charger and left the room.

He looked up the silent stairway and pictured the sleeping woman everyone was talking about.

Who the hell is she?

“There is the logical side of your brain and the emotional side.”

Olivia sat across from a new doctor. The man had flown in with Neil for the sole purpose of following up on her healing process. After a thirty-minute physical exam, he now sat with her in the sitting room on the upper floor. Leo was beside her while Neil and Pam were across from them.

“The logical,” Dr. Falconio said, “is what you’re using right now. It’s the knowing how to speak without having to learn the language again. It’s cooking, driving . . . whatever your normal function is.”

“Fighting?” she asked.

“Yes, fighting. If you were a boxer, you’d remember how to box, but maybe forget that you did it for a living. I once knew an emergency medicine doctor who hit his head in a skiing accident. While he was a patient in the ER, he couldn’t remember his name or his profession, even though he was in his normal environment. He could read an EKG but couldn’t recall why he knew how to do that.”

“Did he regain his memories?”

“Yes. The trauma wore off and he went back to normal. But consider the emotional part of the brain. The part that is likely blocking you from remembering who you are or were the day of the shooting. Here you are walking down the street minding your own business and you see someone with a gun. There is an emotional component here that protects the brain. Over time there are triggers . . . like the strong reaction you had when you thought you were threatened. Emotion shot through your system, triggering logic to kick in.”

“It wasn’t logical for me to attack Sasha.”

“It’s no different from thinking you see something on the side of the road dart out, and you swerve to get out of the way. You striking out is like swerving out of the way. It was instinctive. Eventually you’ll match your logical actions with your emotions, and attacking Sasha or anyone else won’t be an issue. Severe head trauma often changes people’s personality.”

“The extent of my head trauma was a laceration and a headache.”

Dr. Falconio shook his head. “The extent was a loss of consciousness, a concussion, and amnesia. Just because you didn’t need brain surgery to fix the problem doesn’t mean the trauma is less.”

All this was nice information, but it wasn’t answering her question. “How long is this going to last?”

“Until your brain is ready to accept the mechanism of injury without causing it more harm.”

“That was a perfect political answer,” Leo said at her side.

Dr. Falconio laughed.

“When your brain is damn good and ready,” Pam answered for him.

Dr. Falconio pointed to her. “She’s right. Physically, you’re doing fine. Your lungs sound good, your wounds and incisions are healing. If you weren’t here, I’d send you to physical therapy, start building strength in your left arm and upper body. But you can do those exercises without a professional. Work on you . . . the parts you can control. Maybe try some meditation, write down your thoughts and dreams. If you see a calculator and think you need to use it, use it. Maybe you were an accountant. A piano . . . play it.”

She didn’t see herself sitting at a desk, but she understood what the man was saying.

“One thing I do know is forcing the memories will only frustrate you. If you remember eating an ice cream at a lake, relax into the memory, but don’t try and remember the lake, the day, or the people you were with.”

Or who was telling her she couldn’t go to class with a broken bone. “I’ll try.”

“In the meantime, if you have any questions, I’ll leave my contact information. Feel free to reach out.” He looked at Neil, then back to her.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He stood and looked at his watch.

“Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“Is it possible that I won’t get my memory back?”

“There are very few documented cases of permanent loss. Not in cases like yours. And considering you’re starting to recall snips and pieces . . . I honestly don’t think that is something you should spend time worrying about. Get your strength back.” He glanced at Neil again. He signaled to Pam. “Let me go over some PT for her.”

The three of them left her and Leo.

After they disappeared downstairs, he twisted his position and rested his arm on the back of the sofa. His hand gently touched her shoulder.

Her mind raced. When would she remember? This couldn’t keep going. Every day she opened her eyes, she held her breath and waited. Waited for her brain to kick in and life to return to normal. One where she didn’t look at the stranger in the mirror.

“That’s not what you wanted to hear,” Leo said.

She shook her head. “I want to circle a date on the calendar and know it will all come back.”

“He did offer some practical advice. Start a journal. Work on your physical strength.”

“I’m glad he said that. Maybe now Pam will lay off.” She looked out the window behind them. It had been raining for the better part of the weekend. “When it clears up, I’m taking a hike. I have a feeling that will bring me closer to who I am than plucking away on a calculator.”

Leo smiled. “Olivia . . . CPA. I can’t see it.”

She placed a hand on his knee and pushed off the couch. “I’m going to find a notebook, put it by my bed. If nothing else, maybe I’ll write a book about my acid-trip dreams.”

“Your what?” Leo stood along with her.

She thought of the hellish landscape and fire that always burned her feet. “Nothing.”

He stepped closer, touched her hair.

Olivia looked at his hand, then him. “One kiss and you feel like you can touch me whenever you want?”

He lifted his eyebrows, a smile in his eyes. “I counted three. That last one might even be considered two in one.”

It sure could. Mr. FBI knew how to lock her mind down and let her simply feel. The few minutes in his arms made her forget everything going on around her. Flirting with the man had been entertaining. Kissing him pulled her shoulders back and brought out a boldness that felt completely normal. “Stamina is a good thing,” she said, teasing.

He placed his hand on the side of her neck, his intentions clear. “Maybe someday I’ll show you what I can really do.”

She leaned in, stared him in the eye. “Maybe?”

His eyes traveled to her lips.

She placed her hand on his hip as if inviting him. When he leaned in, she let her pinky trace the outline of his arousal before dropping her hand and walking away.

His growl was satisfaction to her ears.