Page 113 of Heartless

“Thank you.” She had known that but appreciated Samara saying so.

She took another sip of tea. “It’s hard to know where to start. You’re the only person I would even consider talking to about this.”

“Start where your heart tells you to.”

She nodded, took a breath, and it was no surprise to her that she started at the very beginning. “Nic and I met in Germany, when we were both undercover. I was working for MI6. Nic was working for a deep-cover intelligence agency in the US. Neither of us knew the other was an undercover agent. The attraction was instantaneous.”

There was no way to describe just how explosive that attraction had been. First, his mesmerizing voice, then his incredible eyes, his smile. By the time she’d gone into his arms to dance, she’d already been halfway in love with him.

“It was the briefest of meetings. We shared no personal information, but it made an impact on both of us. Since I didn’t know his name or anything about him, I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. A few months after that, an assignment became available in the US that I volunteered to fill. It was a chance to work with a covert agency as a liaison. For a lot of different reasons, I jumped at the chance. I was still fairly inexperienced and didn’t think I’d get the job, but I did.”

The fact that Iris’s machinations had put her in that position would only cloud the issues she wanted to discuss, so she kept that part to herself.

“It wasn’t until I arrived at the facility that I realized Nic was in charge of the team.”

“So he knew who you were in Germany after all?”

“No. He really didn’t. It was one of those weird coincidences that occasionally happen. When he learned I was being assigned to him, let’s just say he wasn’t very keen on the idea.”

A smile played around Samara’s mouth. “There were fireworks, I imagine.”

Olivia laughed softly. “Oh yes, plenty of them, but we soon started working well together. The team was exceptional, and it was perfect for a while.”

“What changed?”

“We were on an op. We had turned an arms dealer into an asset. My assignment was to protect the asset’s son.”

As concisely as possible, she explained how that had been a life-changing mission for her. Not only had it been her first solo mission, completely separate from her team, which was working in another part of the world, she had finally acknowledged the immensity of her feelings for her team leader. He had been Hawke to her at that time, and she had fought that attraction for as long as she could. When she’d been separated from him, she’d felt as if she were missing a piece of herself.

He had arrived unexpectedly one day to break the news to her that her father was dead. He’d held her in his arms and commiserated with her when she’d realized she couldn’t grieve for a man she’d had little affection for. He’d told her about his own father that night—about the beatings, the abuse, and his mother, who had abandoned him to such a fate. They had bonded by sharing a few horror stories from their childhoods.

A connection that had already started was knit together that night. He had kissed her for the first time, and that was when she’d learned that he had been fighting the same feelings for her. He had left soon after, but the promise in his eyes had given her hope that when the mission was over, they would explore these new feelings.

Days later, the mission had gone sideways. An army had descended upon the tiny island. Eighteen people had been killed, and twelve others had been injured, including her. Tomás, the child she’d been protecting, had been a bright, energetic seven-year-old, and Olivia had done everything in her power to keep him safe, including covering his body with hers when the bullets had rained down on them. In the end, Tomás had been the only one not injured.

When she glanced up at Samara, she realized she’d stopped talking and had gone down a rabbit hole filled with memories.

“Sorry. Got lost there for a moment.”

“Just take your time. We’re not on the clock.”

She nodded her thanks. “After the attack, we knew we had a mole. The team disbanded, but Nic and I stayed together. We took the jobs we wanted to work, got married, bought a house.”

That one sentence couldn’t in any way convey the absolute joy she and Nic had shared during that time. Eighteen months of perfection.

“I approached Noah around that time and offered my services to LCR. Nic ran some of his own ops without me, but it was still good. We were doing what we loved, but we still made time for each other.”

Their separations had been few and far between. When they had been without each other for more than a couple of days, their reunions had been deliciously passionate.

“A few of Nic’s friends contacted him about joining Option Zero. Both of us were intrigued and agreed to come on board. I wanted to continue my work with LCR, too, and that wasn’t a problem.

“Everything worked fine for a while. Then Nic started working a difficult op. He was deep cover, completely dark. He excels at that type of work, but he was gone for long periods of time. At first, it wasn’t a problem, but the longer he was away…” She shrugged. “I don’t know… I could tell when we did see each other that we were drifting apart.”

Something had felt as if it were missing then. She hadn’t been able to put her finger on it, and she had told herself it was nothing. And then something had happened on an LCR op that had turned her life upside down, showed her who she was and what she wanted.

“Do you remember the Fleming kidnapping case?” Olivia asked.

Samara nodded. “The one in Reno. The newborn stolen out of his crib?”

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