Page 47 of Deadly Hope
“Flowers,” he said quietly. “The password is flowers.”
She turned to him, surprise clear in her expression. He met her eyes, knowing he should look away but couldn’t. “Our first day here, at the safe house. It was snowing hard. Fat flakes. You told me what you and James used to say.”
Something flickered in her gaze—recognition, maybe something more. He shouldn’t have remembered that conversation in such detail. Shouldn’t have cataloged the way her voice had softened when she spoke about her brother, how the snow had caught in her hair.
“Try it,” she said, her voice unsteady.
Zara input the password. The screen flickered, then a message:
Liv - they’ve found the trail.
Axel watched Olivia absorb the blow of her brother’s words, noted how Deke moved to steady her. The chaplain’s instincts were good. She needed that anchor right now.
The words disappeared, only to be replaced.
Remember that book you tortured me with? Trust your heart. Love you, kid.
Below, numbers appeared:
11-4-17-9-23-31
“Where the Wild Things Are,” Olivia whispered. “I made him read it to me over and over and over. He hated it.”
“But remembered it,” Griff observed.
While Kenji and Zara discussed the numbers, Axel watched Olivia’s reflection in the monitor. The professional mask was slipping, showing glimpses of raw emotion underneath. His training screamed at him to maintain distance, but his body betrayed him, unconsciously orienting toward her like a weapon finding its target.
“Your brother knew what he was doing,” Deke said softly, his hand still on Olivia’s shoulder. “Leaving breadcrumbs only you would recognize.”
Axel recognized the struggle in her eyes—the same one he fought every time they were in the same room. The battle between professional boundaries and something deeper, something that had started that snowy night when she’d trusted him with memories of her brother.
The numbers pulsed on screen, but the real cipher was this: how to protect her while respecting the lines between them. How to be both operative and ... whatever else he was becoming to her.
Even Griff seemed affected, his ocean-deep silence rippling with undercurrents. But Axel’s focus kept returning to Olivia, to the way she was both Dr. Kane and something more vulnerable, something that made him want to cross lines he knew should stay uncrossed.
James’s words hung in the air.Trust your heart.
Axel had never been good at that part.
“We need the book,” Griff stated, breaking his silence.
“Already pulling up a PDF,” Kenji started, but Olivia shook her head.
“James wouldn’t use a digital copy. The numbers ...” She leaned forward, studying the sequence. “They’re page numbers, maybe, or line counts. We need the physical book. The exact edition matters.”
“I had the hardcover,” she added. “But that’s all I remember.”
“It’s a kid’s picture book,” Kenji said. “How many editions could there be?”
Zara cleared her throat. “Uh, for one of the most popular children’s books ever? Published sixty years ago? Try a whole bunch.”
“Bookstores?” Zara suggested, already typing.
“Hope Landing’s shop closed last month,” Deke said. “And Reno’s too far if we’re being watched.”
“The library,” Olivia said suddenly. “The children’s section.Where theWild Things Areis a classic. They’ll have it.”
“It’s Sunday. The library closes in two hours,” Izzy confirmed, checking her tablet. “Light security, mostly cameras.”
