Page 97 of Heartless

So he’d hurt her right back. Yeah, definitely dickwad territory.

“Stolen?” Olivia said. “When? How?”

“I got the call yesterday morning. It was a professional job. Not only her body, but all her medical records were taken, too.”

She’d been pale before, but now all color had leached from her face. Still feeling like a jerk but knowing he had to move forward, he said, “Since the players have changed, let’s review the details for Olivia’s benefit.”

“Wait,” Olivia said. “If the people we’re meeting aren’t the same people who stole Iris’s body, then who are they?”

“We don’t know,” Hawke said.

“Where and when is this exchange supposed to take place?”

“One p.m. tomorrow, at a warehouse in Cartagena, Colombia.”

“One of the cartel’s that we missed?”

“No. This is an abandoned warehouse outside of town. There’s no connection to the Gonzalez cartel.”

“What was the plan before I came in?”

“Eve, disguised as Iris, and I were going to go in, and the team would have the area surrounded and wait for my signal to attack.”

Olivia turned to Gideon. “And you don’t like that plan?”

“Didn’t say I don’t like it. I just think it’s too dangerous.”

Eve rolled her eyes at Gideon’s assessment.

Hawke knew exactly why Gideon objected. What these two felt for each other was obvious. But would they ever figure out that they were made for each other?

He and Livvy had thought the same thing—that they were made for each other. Maybe that wasn’t even a real thing, though. Maybe it was as simple and as complicated as two people who cared about each other enough to want to work on their relationship together. Somehow he and Livvy had gotten lost along the way.

“Do we or do we not believe this person is connected to the Wren Project?” Olivia asked.

“Who else would want Iris Gates back and be willing to hurt Olivia to make that happen?” Serena said.

“I’d say there are a lot of people who’d like to get their hands on Iris Gates,” Gideon said.

And that was the question. If this was the Wren Project, did they want Iris back because she was a valuable asset, or did they want her back to find out what she’d revealed during her captivity? Did they plan to kill her once they learned what they wanted? Not that any of that mattered—the woman was dead.

“We’ve been reviewing the intel that we got from the microdot found on Iris,” Serena said. “So far, all the info contained in the documents seems legit. All the people, businesses, and organizations mentioned do exist, and there’s some shadiness surrounding them.”

“So do we now think Iris was a good guy?” Eve asked.

“No,” Olivia said. “She was involved in hurting Hawke.”

Weird, but he felt a small easing of his heart at her emphatic words. What that said about their relationship he didn’t even want to consider.

“Okay, let’s get back to the plan.” Hawke clicked a remote, showing a photo of a warehouse. “Here’s where we’re going in Cartagena.” Giving Olivia a sharp-eyed glance, he added, “And I have a new idea about how we can play this.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Cartagena, Colombia

The Killer walked around the perimeter of the warehouse for the third time. Everything had to be perfect. Everything had to go just right. He would get only this one chance, and he didn’t plan to blow it on something he’d missed. He’d been a perfectionist all his life, and it had always paid off. This time would be no different.

Iris would be coming back home. He felt a little thrill about that. She had been his one constant for so long, he couldn’t wait to see her again.

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