Page 8 of Enigma
“It’s fine, Olive. Really.” But she could hear in his tone that it wasn’t fine, not completely. “Lloyd Stewart. Clearwater, Florida, area. Retired doctor. I’ve got enough to get started.”
“Whoever is behind this is escalating, Tevin.”
“Maybe you’re getting too close to the truth. And that means you could be in serious danger.”
“I know. That’s why I need your help.”
Another pause, and Olive could hear the internal debate Tevin was having with himself.
Finally, he said, “I’ll start on Lloyd’s financials tonight. Should have something for you by morning.”
“Thank you.” The relief in her voice was genuine. “I owe you.”
“No, you don’t.” His voice was quiet. “That’s not how this works between us. It never has.”
The simple statement hit her harder than she’d expected. He was right—they’d never kept score with each other, never treated their friendship as a transaction.
Which made what she was doing right now feel even worse.
“Tevin, I?—”
“Don’t,” he said gently. “Don’t say anything you’re not ready to say. And don’t apologize for needing help. That’s what partners do.”
Partners.The word carried so much weight between them now—professional partners, sure, but also the partnership he’d offered her four days ago, the one she’d walked away from without an answer.
“I should let you get started on those financials,” she said.
“Olive?” His voice stopped her before she could end the call.
“Yeah?”
“Be careful. And keep Jason close. Forget about whatever’s happening between you two right now. You’re going to need someone watching your back.”
“I will.”
“And when this is over, when you’ve talked to Lloyd and figured out what your father’s network was really about . . . we are going to have that conversation.”
The line went dead, and Olive sat in her rental car staring at her phone, feeling like the worst kind of friend. Tevin had agreed to help her despite everything, had offered his professional expertise and personal concern without asking for anything in return.
And she still didn’t know what she was going to tell him when this was all over.
But first she had to survive whatever was coming. And that meant walking into Clearwater General Hospital to wait for Jason, knowing that he had every right to be angry with her for the choice she’d made to come to Florida alone.
She opened her car door and headed toward the hospital, Tevin’s words echoing in her mind:Keep Jason close. You’re going to need someone watching your back.
The problem was, she wasn’t sure Jason would want to watch her back anymore. Not after the way she’d betrayed his trust by investigating his father without including him.
But she was about to find out.
CHAPTER 5
Clearwater General Hospital smelled like disinfectant and industrial-strength coffee.
Olive sat in the emergency department waiting area, surrounded by the usual collection of people. A mother held a feverish toddler, an elderly man clutched his chest while his wife filled out paperwork, and a teenager with a clearly broken wrist tried to look tough while his parents worried beside him.
Olive checked her phone for the dozenth time.
It had been three hours and fifteen minutes since her call with Jason. He’d said six hours, which meant she still had two hours and forty-five minutes to figure out what she was going to say when he walked through those doors.
