Page 28 of Deadly Hope
Axel: 5 minutes. Front entrance.
She grabbed her coat, already knowing she’d have to cancel her next client. The Prados lived fifteen minutes away. Plenty of time to get there, assess the situation, and return for her 11:00 appointment.
But as she hurried down the hall, past Deke’s carefully disguised security measures and Izzy’s thoughtful touches, a cold certainty settled in her gut. This wasn’t a simple disappearance. Ben, with his OCD tendencies and careful routines, would never just vanish.
Unless he had to.
Axel’s black SUV pulled up to the Prado residence—a modest colonial with meticulous landscaping. Everything in its place, her client’s influence visible in the measured symmetry of the planted beds.
“Stay behind us,” Axel murmured, but Olivia was already moving toward the front door. Eileen Prado stood there, stillin her travel clothes, looking small against the white doorframe.
“I haven’t touched anything,” the woman said. “Once I realized ... I just sat in my car and called you.”
Ronan did a quick sweep of the perimeter while Zara spoke quietly with Eileen. Olivia followed Axel inside, her therapist’s eye cataloging details: no sign of struggle, no displaced furniture. Too perfect. The kind of perfect that came from calculation, not chaos.
The study hit her hardest. She knew this room from Ben’s descriptions—the exact placement of his medal case, the precise angle of his desk, and the photographs of his unit arranged by date of service. All gone. Even the walls were bare, though slightly darker squares marked where frames had hung.
“Professional job,” Ronan said from the doorway. “No forced entry, no trash left behind. Someone knew what they were doing.”
Zara appeared with Eileen’s permission to access their home security. “System was disabled at 2:47 a.m. No footage.”
Olivia thought of their last session, of Ben finally speaking about “the incident.” He’d never hinted that he was in any kind of danger. Not currently. But what had he been about to reveal?
Her eyes locked on the empty medal case bracket on the wall. Eight months of trust building, of careful progress ...
“Olivia.” Axel’s voice pulled her back. “We need to know exactly what he told you in your last session.”
She met his gaze, understanding the implications. This wasn’t just a missing person case anymore. This was something else entirely.
“I’ll need to speak with my ethics board,” she said carefully. “About breaking confidentiality under thesecircumstances. But I can tell you, we haven’t discussed anything suggesting he was in current danger.”
Zara looked up from her tablet. “You might want to make that call soon. Someone just tried to access your client files remotely.”
Olivia’s head snapped up. “My files are triple encrypted.”
“And someone’s working very hard to change that,” Zara said, fingers flying across her tablet. “They’re good. As in professional good.”
“Like the house,” Ronan added grimly.
Axel’s hand went to his earpiece. “Deke, full lockdown on Olivia’s system. Now.” He turned to her. “We need to go. Ronan, stay with Mrs. Prado. Zara?—”
“Already tracing the attempt,” Zara said, not looking up. “They’re bouncing through servers in ... interesting places.”
Eileen stepped forward. “What aren’t you telling me about my husband?”
The question hit Olivia like a physical blow. She opened her mouth to respond, to offer some professional reassurance, but the words wouldn’t come. Because Ben’s wife was right—there was something here, something in Ben’s last session, something in the way his hands had shaken when he’d finally started to talk about— Ugh. She figured his reveal would be about ghosts from the past. It always was. But now … How could she have been so wrong?
“Olivia, look at me.” Axel’s voice carried an edge of urgency. “We need to move.”
A subtle vibration from her phone—another client confirmation. The day was supposed to be about helping her patients feel secure in the new space. Instead ...
“Eileen,” Olivia said carefully, “I’m going to have Dr. Rodriguez contact you. She’s excellent with trauma and?—”
“I don’t want another therapist,” Eileen cut in. “I want to know what happened to my husband.”
“We’ll find out,” Olivia promised, even as Axel guided her toward the door. She caught a glimpse of Ronan positioning himself near Eileen, of Zara’s intense focus on her tablet.
In the SUV, Axel drove with contained precision while speaking quietly into his comm. Olivia stared at her phone, at the growing list of clients she’d need to reschedule. Her new office suddenly felt very far away.
