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“I’ll tell her when the time’s right.”
Kate huffed out a breath of exasperation and headed to the door. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
“Everyone will be at the meeting. Expect fireworks.”
“Do they know I’m coming?”
“No. So be prepared. They’re pissed.”
“Pissed-off OZ operatives?” Kate grinned. “I’ve faced worse.”
Hawke released a dry laugh. “Yeah, I guess you have. But these people are your friends. They feel betrayed.”
“I know they do, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Put it on me, where it belongs.”
“No, Hawke. Stop the martyr act. I was one hundred percent on board, as was Ash. We’re adults, and we made the decision on our own.”
“Olivia will be there, too.”
Kate shrugged. “Just because you’re one hundred percent sure of her doesn’t mean I am. I’ve seen the evidence, too. I have no regrets about what I did.”
He had more than enough regrets for both of them. Everything Kate had done, all the lies she’d told Olivia, had been at his request.
She put her hand on the doorknob and turned back to him. “One last question. If with one little conversation, you’ve decided upon her complete innocence, why did you wait so long to talk to her?”
“I had my reasons.”
She raised a brow, shrugged, and walked out the door.
Hawke stayed glued to his chair for several more moments. Why hadn’t he let Olivia know he was alive? The first four months after his disappearance, he’d had good reasons. But after that?
She’d asked him last night if he had planned on not coming back, and he’d admitted that he hadn’t, but it was more complicated than that. He’d had every intention of checking in with her each week. But she was right about the reason for giving her the divorce papers. They might’ve been working together, but that hadn’t meant he intended to reenter her life. Their marriage had been over—there’d be no point in returning.
Truthfully, he was surprised that she could even stomach looking at him. After what he’d done, he had assumed she wouldn’t want to even be in the same room with him. Which was one of the reasons it had been easy for him to believe that she might have tried to kill him. He had deserved no less.
But she hadn’t. She had no idea what had happened, and though she was not a victim in the truest sense of the word, she had still been wronged. Someone had set it up to make Olivia look like both a traitor and a murderer.
Olivia was not his enemy. But was she his ally?
With the capture he’d made last week, the answers were close, and the lid on several issues was about to be blown. Which would cause Olivia only more pain. It couldn’t be helped, but he’d make sure that he was there for her this time, whether she wanted him to be or not. He was done letting her down.
* * *
Coffee mug in hand, Olivia headed to the conference room. OZ meetings always started on time, and she had thirty seconds to go. She had deliberately waited until the last moment. Before each meeting, there was always chatting about weekend plans and back-and-forth about different things, much the way coworkers or families would behave. She wanted to skip all of that. She was no longer part of that world.
She stopped at the conference room door, glad to see that everyone was already seated. A young woman she didn’t recognize sat beside Liam. She wondered if she was a new OZ operative, but then the woman gently caressed Liam’s face. This must be Cat. Or Aubrey Starr, as she’d learned from Eve yesterday. The woman Liam had searched almost twelve years for and, despite all odds, had actually found.
Spotting an empty chair next to Eve, she headed her way. She was halfway there when she caught sight of another person who hadn’t been here yesterday. Kate Walker was seated three chairs down.
Rage pumping through her, dispelling all the calmness she’d felt before, Olivia marched to Kate’s chair.
Kate gave her a cool nod. “Hello, Olivia.”
This was the woman who had lied to her face for over two years. Every time Olivia had called, pleading for information about Hawke, Kate had insisted she hadn’t heard from him. She had told her she had people looking for him, that she had no idea what could have happened. Kate was the one who had finally convinced her that Hawke was dead.
“You lying bitch,” Olivia whispered.