Page 109 of Boxed In

Brand walked toward them. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Thank you for being here.” She touched his arm. “You could see the temple.”

“Yes. My eyes are different from those of most men.”

They climbed into the SUV and buckled up. When he started off, Luke asked. “Are we going back to that . . . private hospital?”

“No. We figured you might need some R and R after whatever happened in there.”

Luke sighed. “Right.”

“I’m driving you to the Ritz-Carlton, where you can decompress. You’ve got a private apartment. The refrigerator’s stocked with food, and the linens on the bed are fresh. You’ve got a hot tub and a home gym. And the movie theater has all the latest DVD’s. When you’re ready, you can tell us about your adventures.”

Olivia felt overwhelmed. “Thank you so much,” she murmured, then thought of something that had slipped her mind with everything else she’d had to think about. “What about Carl Peterbalm?”

“He believes he was in the hospital being treated for an injury during a robbery.”

“Did he really buy that?” Olivia asked.

“It appears so.” Brand made a dismissive sound. “He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to be facing charges for importing stolen property. And of course, when he has to explain what hospital he was in, he’s not going to be able to find the place.”

She felt her mouth harden. “Too bad for him. He’s overdue for a lot of bad news. Even though that means I’m going to be out of a job. There’s no way I could go back to that office now.

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Luke muttered.

Her gaze shot to him. While she’d been talking to Brand, Luke had been looking inside the briefcase. He reached in and pulled out a neat stack of hundred dollar bills.

Her eyes widened as she stared at them.

“That’s just one stack,” Luke said, his voice hoarse with amazement.

“Where did it come from? Is it . . . stolen?”

“Over the years, the Moon Priests have made a lot of investments. They’re rich,” Luke said, only she knew that Zabastian was the one answering the question.

He pulled out a folded piece of paper, read it and handed it to Olivia. “It says there’s a million dollars in the briefcase. And half the money is yours.”

“What?”

“A million dollars,” he said. “I guess he wasn’t kidding. They were grateful for our service.”

She dragged in a breath and let it out. “How am I going to explain that much money?”

“We can make it look like a grant from the Decorah Security Foundation,” Brand answered. He laughed. “For a small charitable donation, of course.”

“Yes,” Olivia answered, still trying to wrap her head around the sudden change in her fortunes.

She looked at Luke. “I can open my own shop.”

“Yes.”

Brand spoke to Luke. “And while we’re discussing business, Frank has offered you a job with the security team, if you’d like to switch from IT.”

Luke looked stunned. “You know I’d like that.” His gaze turned inward. “Zabastian likes it, too. And he’ll be an asset in the new position.”

“Yes,” Brand agreed.

Olivia leaned back, her head spinning, trying to take it all in.

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