Page 98 of Wait for Me

It was eerily quiet.

I’m overthinking again.

Marie closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, Esperanza was standing in front of her, waving a bottle of cold water at her.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Marie grabbed the plastic bottle and drank it.

“You’re aware that you’re drinking micro-plastic,” Esperanza said.

“Or die?”

“Good point.”

“What’s the situation?” Marie placed the bottle against her cheeks and neck, letting the cold condensation on the wall of the plastic cool her down.

“We’re still waiting.”

“Waiting. That’s all we do, it seems.”

Esperanza nodded. “This will be over soon, and you’ll be with your family again in no time.”

“I have to tell Logan.”I wish I could tell him everything.

“Not what’s in the past, but you can if you work for me.” Esperanza tilted her head. “Made your decision yet?”

Marie sipped water slowly.

If it hadn’t been for Esperanza, INTERPOL would not have known that the private investigator whom Logan sent to Europe to find Marie had entangled himself with Buchanan. The PI had seen an opportunity to make a quick buck, and nearly lost his life in the process. He could never tell anyone what really happened three years before in Europe. It explained the lack of forthrightness the PI had with the man who had hired him and paid for all his expenses.

Once again, Logan would be left in the dark.

Yet, he and Marie had Esperanza to thank for their safety. It had been Esperanza who had sent a decoy to throw off the real scent of Marie’s whereabouts, leading the PI to dead ends.

Now Marie knew that Esperanza had done all that as a gesture of good faith.

And a carrot to get Marie to work for Mendenhall Security.

Two months after the PI went home to the United States, they lost Buchanan again. Marie filed for divorce to distance herself from Logan and her beloved son. Using the divorce settlement, she paid Esperanza’s company to protect Jonas and Logan for a year—until word came to her that Buchanan was killed in Yemen.

Two years later, Marie found out on their family cruise in Alaska that the news of Buchanan’s death had been false.

Esperanza’s secure phone buzzed. “What? Who?”

Marie finished drinking her water. Maybe she shouldn’t have gulped it down, but whatever. She turned to return to the operational center as Esperanza was still on the phone, but the latter stopped her.

She hung up. “Your ex-husband relayed a message to my office in Misty Mountain.”

“Logan?” Marie asked.

“Is there another ex I don’t know about?” Esperanza asked.

“What does he want?” Marie didn’t know why Logan would try to contact her, but she recalled the last day they had been together, when he told her he missed her already. They were standing on the foyer of his house on Paces Ferry in Atlanta.

“He wants to know how to send you a care package,” Esperanza said.

“Seriously?”

---