For the first time since he’d returned stateside, Sal wasn’t certain of his next move. If it had been any other op, he’d have a dozen scenarios lined up. As it was, he couldn’t keep his mind off Olivia.
Denying that he cared for her didn’t wash. From the time he’d laid eyes on her again, he knew what they’d shared hadn’t died. If anything, his feelings were stronger than ever.
Despite her work as an attorney, Olivia remained largely untouched by the seamier side of life. She wanted to believe that people kept their word, that they’d play by the rules simply because that was how she lived her life.
With several tours of duty in the Middle East behind him, Sal knew that life was seldom fair and that people lied whenever it suited their needs.
He’d enlisted with a wide-eyed patriotism and a determination to serve his country to the best of his ability. He hadn’t been afraid of dying. No, his greatest fear was that of failing. Failing his unit. Failing his country. Failing himself.
He’d never lost his resolve to serve his country, but the innocence of that young boy he’d been was tarnished forever. Whatever naiveté he’d once possessed had been stripped away after witnessing the cruelties that people committed against others without hesitation.
Sal had never tolerated those who preyed upon those weaker than themselves. It wasn’t in his makeup to do so. From the time he’d been a boy, he’d tried to defend those who needed protection from the bullies of the world.
Now Olivia needed him, and once again, he was afraid of failing. Because if he did, it could cost her her life.
Olivia had insisted on returning to the office to get some work done. Sal knew she needed to rest, but he went along with it. While she went through a stack of papers, he contented himself by watching her.
The lamp on her desk cast her in soft light. He took in the line of her cheek, the stubborn set of her jaw. She had a way of biting her lower lip when she was concentrating that made him want to smile.
Olivia was holding on by a thread. Sal knew it, saw it in the trembling of her hands when she picked up a glass of water, heard it in her voice when she occasionally talked to herself about what she was doing.
She had been threatened with a knife, her boss had been kidnapped, she herself had almost been abducted, and then there was last night’s attack. The fact that she was still standing said volumes about her strength and faith. When she leaned back in her chair to stretch, Sal came to stand behind her and rub her neck.
“Thanks.”
The shrilling of the phone caused him to drop his hands. She put the phone on speaker, allowing him to listen to the caller’s part of the conversation.
“It’s time, Olivia.” The voice was maddeningly calm. “Are you ready to do your part?”
“Yes.”
“Then listen carefully.” The voice was irritatingly patient, as though the caller was speaking to a slow-witted child. “Your boss’s life depends upon you following instructions to the letter. You can do that, can’t you? Follow instructions?”
“Of course I can.” The snap in her voice had the person at the other end of the line laughing softly.
“Temper, temper. Be careful. You don’t want to make me angry. Chantry’s desk has a concealed drawer. Inside is a thumb drive. We want it. Bring it to us and we’ll turn him loose.” The voice gave instructions to meet at a boat slip at the docks. “Leave the drive in a brown paper bag in the blue trash can. It’s almost over. Do as you’ve been told and your boss will be released.”
The call ended as abruptly as it had started.
“You know about the drawer?” Sal asked. “How to open it?”
She nodded. “Calvin bought the desk from an antiques dealer who pointed it out. When the desk was delivered, he showed the drawer to me.” A faint smile touched her lips. “He was so excited about it, like a little kid with his first bike.”
“Let’s go get it.” They headed to Chantry’s office.
In the opulently appointed office, Olivia walked to the desk and kneeled in front of it. She reached beneath and pressed a button. A small drawer, cleverly concealed by intricate carvings, slid open noiselessly. Inside, as the kidnapper had said, was a thumb drive.
“We need to see what’s on that.”
Back in Olivia’s office, Sal inserted the drive in the computer. The documents on the drive revealed that Hewston had been selling information concerning Olivia’s plan of attack in the court case to the pharmaceutical company. If he knew that Chantry possessed such proof, no wonder he’d kidnapped the man in an effort to get his hands on the file. He must have been desperate. Sal realized something else as well. That made someone in the company Olivia was fighting as dirty as Hewston.
“Why are they still going through with this?” Olivia wondered aloud. “Why not release Calvin? Bryan’s already in jail.”
“He’s in jail for embezzling and assault. If this gets out, it will send him to prison for a lot longer.” Sal hesitated. “This implicates the drug company as well.”
“I thought I knew him. It turns out I didn’t know him at all.”
* * *
Olivia tucked the USB drive inside her briefcase. She saw a similar-looking drive there and remembered she still had the “leaf-peeper” pictures she’d taken last fall during a trip to Connecticut. Her goal had been to print the pictures and scrapbook them. Of course, she’d never gotten around to it.
Work had a way of interfering with the rest of life. Once Calvin was safely home and the case against the pharmaceutical company was over, she intended on changing that. Though she loved her job, she wanted a life outside of it.
One that included Sal? She pushed that thought away and concentrated on the present.
“We need to be ready for the exchange.” She’d gone over the kidnapper’s instructions. She had to carry them out exactly. That was Calvin’s best chance. His only chance.
“You really think they’re going to hand over your boss just like that?”
Doubts, which she’d deliberately ignored, now assailed her. “That was the agreement.”
“You can’t be that naïve. Hewston has every reason to make sure Chantry doesn’t survive. He may beat the embezzling rap, even his part in the mugging if he has a good enough lawyer. But he won’t be able to talk himself out of what your boss knows if he’s alive to testify.”
Bryan’s part in the kidnapping still baffled her. She found herself voicing her doubts aloud. “Bryan’s weak. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. Everything about the kidnapping is ugly. That’s not his style.”
“That’s why he hired thugs to do the dirty work.” Sal’s gaze bored into hers. “I’m hoping everything goes according to plan, but they won’t have any reason to release your boss once they have the drive.”
“Everything will be fine. We just have to do what the kidnappers say.” Even as she said the words, she heard the foolish hope behind them. She refused to take them back. She needed that hope, held on to it as she would a lifeline. It was all she had.
“Something’s off about this whole exchange. Think about it. Why ask for a drive with the files when they had to figure you’d copy it?”
She’d asked herself the same question and hadn’t been able to come up with an answer. Then or now. The kidnappers had to know that files could be copied with a press of a computer key. In fact, she and Sal had done that last night after looking at what the drive contained.
Nothing added up, including Bryan’s part in the plot. “What about the men who attacked me in the office and then tried to kidnap me? How do they fit in?”
“At a guess, more of Hewston’s hired muscle.” The hard glitter in Sal’s eyes warned her that she wasn’t going to like what he’d say next. “I know Chantry has been more friend than boss—”
“He’s family.”
Sal continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “But you need to be prepared that this isn’t going to go down the way you want.”
“Why do you keep doing that?” Anger spilled over and out.
“Doing what?”
“Making me fear the worst.” Didn’t he know how much she needed to hope, to believe that everything would be all right?
“Because I’m trying to keep you alive.”