Page 113 of Before the Bond
I had no one to watch over from a distance. No boundary to run in the dark. No thread to follow across a country in the hope that she was safe.
She was here. She was chosen. She was home.
I closed my eyes.
Tonight you just get to be here.
Alright.
Chapter 25
Olivia
The assignment at Greyhollow arrived the way all new ones did: a phone call, a name, and the expectation it would change everything.
I was glad I was wrong.
The sky above the firs was a pale grey that came just before the light tried.
The fog greeted me that morning, the way it always did — never really leaving. Even on the clearest mornings there was always some of it clinging to the tree line — the kind that felt less like weather and more like the forest exhaling. I used to find it unsettling. Now I just found it quiet.
I was on the back porch with coffee, both hands around the mug, taking in the smell of the rain from last night.
I wasn't planning anything.
That was the thing I kept catching myself on. My brain, which spent years running contingencies — next city, next assignment, next exit — was now quiet in a way that felt unfamiliar.
I wasn't calculating how many weeks were left on the contract. I wasn't drafting the message to the agency. I wasn't checking the exits the way I checked every room in everybuilding I'd ever occupied, quietly and without thinking, the way some people check their phone.
I was just standing here, holding coffee, watching the fog.
The day after I came back, Maureen walked me to my room herself. She pushed the door open ahead of me, swept her gaze over it, and then turned to me.
"It's exactly as you left it," she said, beaming. "Though I'll have fresh linens put on."
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said. “I know you have a lot to do. After everything that happened with Voss...”
Maureen laughed. “Nothing I’m not used to, I promise.”
She was already moving toward the window to crack it open, because she believed in fresh air the way other people believed in prayer. She straightened the curtain. She tested the latch.
She set my towels down and shrugged. “But if you insist, I can leave them on a little longer.”
As she moved back next to me, she gave me a small teasing nudge. "Of course, you may find you need it less than before. Given… certainthings."
I stared at the back of her head.
"Certain things?" I repeated.
Maureen turned around. She tried to keep her expression neutral, but she was failing badly.
There was something at the corner of her mouth that she was working very hard to contain, and her eyes were warm in the particular way that meant she already knew exactly what she was doing.
"Caleb's room is larger," she said simply. "The view is better, too. I’m sure you’ll come to love it.”
The heat that climbed the back of my neck was immediate. I told her I would keep that in mind.
“Breakfast is at seven, by the way,” she said in a singsong voice.
