The scary went out of her eyes and she smiled.
I watched her smile and another part of me—the last part, a tiny part, the only part living, that being the part that was my love for my sister which I thought reciprocated the love she had for me—died.
I did not let this show.
I was a practiced hand at that too.
The rest of our business wasn’t nearly as much of a roller coaster ride, and when it was concluded, she left.
I wondered about Bali.
Or Fiji.
Or Timbuktu.
But in case they had someone following my browser history, I did not turn to my computer and do searches.
I’d learned.
I breathed but I did not exist.
This would always be the way.
The thing was, I wanted that way to be somewhere else so, even if I only breathed, I did it in a place I breathed easier.
One thing I learned from my sister and Nick Sebring was how to play the long game.
I would not go tomorrow or next month or maybe even next year.
But I’d go. Patient. Smart. I’d go.
Worried she’d try to find me, I’d never breathe free. Georgie had proved even more than Dad that she had no intention of letting go an asset she could use, an asset she thought was hers.
But maybe someday in the far distant future, I’d breathe easy.
And in the meantime, it was clear she was turning her full attention to Nick Sebring.
That was not my business.
He could take care of himself.
I never breathed easy.
But just the thought of my soulless sister deciding it was time to take care of that particular threat…
It was a wonder I could breathe at all.
*
11:13 – That Night
I stood in my great room, staring out the front windows, the old burner phone I used to use when I called the club in my hand.
I’d looked up the number in the phonebook. That way, no one could trace the search.
I’d memorized it.
I shouldn’t do what I was thinking of doing.
I couldn’t not do it.
I looked down at the phone, punched in the numbers and put it to my ear.
It rang four times before I heard a woman answer, “Slade.”
There was dance music in the background—not loud, muted. She was in an office at a nightclub.
Knight Sebring’s nightclub, Slade.
“I’d like to speak to Knight Sebring,” I stated.
“Mr. Sebring doesn’t take calls through this line. You have to talk to his PA, Kathleen, during normal business hours. I’m sorry, but if you don’t have her number, it’s difficult to get to him.”
This meant she wasn’t giving me Kathleen’s number.
“Tell him it’s Olivia Shade.”
“Ms. Shade, it’s unlikely—”
I cut her off.
“He’ll want this call and he’ll know why he wants this call. What he won’t want is to find out an employee got this call and didn’t share the information with him the call was placed. He can call me back. But tell him Olivia Shade wants to speak to him. He has tonight to call me. I won’t answer any other time.” I gave her my burner number and finished, “He has tonight.”
I then hung up.
She clearly had a direct line to “Mr. Sebring,” because in astonishingly little time, my burner rang.
The small display on the flip phone said, Unavailable Number.
Definitely Knight Sebring.
I answered with, “Mr. Sebring.”
“Olivia, it’s—” Knight Sebring started.
I didn’t let him get any further.
“My sister is interested in your brother’s whereabouts. He knows that as I’ve told him before. He’s undoubtedly taken measures. Even so, he should know, she’s getting impatient.”
“Oliv—” he started, sounding irked, urgent and impatient.
I flipped the phone closed.
Before it could ring again, I slid the back open and pulled the chip out. I took it to my sink, dropped it into my garbage disposal and turned it on.
I dug through my trash and buried the phone in it, tucked inside a used food container.
After that, I washed my hands, dried them and took a deep breath.
I’d done what I could do.
All I could do.
Now it was over.
All that was left was unfamiliar territory.
That being hope.
The only hope I allowed myself to have.
Hope that Nick stayed safe.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Morning Light
Olivia
Four Days Later
The hand closing over my mouth woke me with an agonizing rush of terror and panic.
“Be calm, Olivia,” a deep voice came through the dark, right in my ear, and I could sense him hovering over me on my bed. “It’s Knight. I need you to come with me.”
Knight?
Knight Sebring?
I turned my head on my pillow to look up at the shadow above me and the hand over my mouth came with me.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he told me. “I’m here to deliver a message. When I do that, what’s next is your choice.”
I stared at his shadow.
“You gonna stay calm?” he asked.
It took a moment for what was happening to penetrate before I nodded.
He immediately moved his hand.