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Push through. Find the solution.
Inside her palace, she heard a phone ringing. “I received a call right before I left that day. The person on the other end told me to come to him or he would…” A hot lance seared up the back of her head and into the spot between her eyebrows. Grabbing the edges of the furniture, her breath caught. Her mind was fighting back. There was that goddamn wall she had to get past. “I can’t… It’s too…”
Ian swiveled her chair around and bent down in front of her, grabbing her wrists. “Youcando it. Look at me, Vivi. Remember.”
Tears burned her eyes, but she blinked them open. The cool green of his irises met hers. She blinked away the tears and drew another shaky breath. He was her rock. He wouldn’t let them hurt her again.
More importantly, hewassafe. Safe here at this place, surrounded by these people.Family.
It’s what the two of them had dreamed of.
Gritting her teeth, she stared into his undaunted eyes and shoved on that mental wall.I can and will remember.Ian is safe and so am I.
“Deep breath,” he commanded. Always the soldier. The leader. Her warrior. “There’s no hurry. I’m not going anywhere. I love you, and nothing that happened that day will change that.”
“He’s all you have,” the voice had taunted, “and I’ll take him from you, too.”
Something snapped inside her, fear morphing into rage. She felt the wall give.
As if it were as fragile as Sherlock and Watson’s wings, the memory of those words fluttered on the outskirts of her mind. Breathing like Ian instructed, she forced herself to relax and reel them in.
Come to me, little bird…
Save Ian…
Her eyes flew open as the words repeated.
“I remember!” The sentences felt trapped, though. “He said…” She swallowed, cleared the lump in her throat, and tried again. “Come to me, little bird, or your husband will be tried and executed in front of the entire world.He’s all you have,and if you don’t do as instructed, I’ll take him from you, too.”
Expecting him to be upset at the threat, she was surprised when Ian smiled. Still, the commander in him issued another directive. “Good. What else?”
Beatrice and Rory exchanged a glance. She squeezed her eyes shut, recalling the rest. “He told me to get on a plane and gave me the address for Lawrence’s compound. Told me I was expected.Save Ian. That’s the last thing I remember him saying.”
Beatrice stepped to the desk. “Did you recognize the voice?”
Vivi opened her eyes. “No, he disguised it.”
Rory sat in the visitor chair, laying his crutches on the floor. The bag rested in his lap. “That suggests that youdoknow him, and he was covering his tracks.” He withdrew a sheet of paper, sliding it to her. “I recovered your calendar and printed off the list of patients you saw that day. The codename thing makes sense of these seemingly random terms. Cobra Red 12, Phoenix Snicker Monster.”
Ian released her hand and looked over her shoulder as she swiveled to glance at the names. “You really do have skills,” she said to the computer guru. In the back of her mind, she was glad he was using his crutches again. “Cobra Red 12 was a female CIA operative who always wore red lipstick and considered 12 her lucky number. Phoenix was an analyst who survived a fire as a kid and loved snickerdoodle cookies.” At their semi-confused looks, she said, “Cookie Monster?”
Ian snorted. “Your brain is…well, weird, but somehow it works.”
“At least it used to,” she grumbled.
He rubbed her tight shoulders. “What was your codename for me?”
“Teddy Green,” she said. “You continually brought me gummy bears and your green eyes have always relaxed me.”
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head.
Beatrice moved to her other side and scanned the codenames. “Our perpetrator may be on this list. He had to get close to leave that photo. Do you remember your sessions with any of these patients? Could one of them have planted it?”
Ian pointed at a name in the margin. “Dr. Crowe? Who’s that?”
Vivi’s breath caught, her world turning upside down.Find the answer.
She just had.
