Page 27 of Deadly Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #2)
“Got something,” Kenji announced.
Axel felt the team converge with that fluid efficiency he’d come to trust. Out of habit, he positioned himself where he could see both the screen and the room’s entry points.
He was acutely aware of Olivia watching him. He shouldn’t notice these things—the way her breath changed when she was processing something difficult, or how she shifted from therapist mode to something more personal when she thought no one was looking.
“First gateway,” Zara said. “Looks like a prompt. ‘What falls when it’s cold out, but never breaks?’”
The answer hit him immediately, memory flashing to that first night at the safe house. Snow falling thick outside the windows, Olivia’s voice soft as she shared the story about James and their childhood traditions.
“Flowers,” he said quietly. “The password is flowers.”
She turned to him, surprise clear in her expression. He met her eyes, knowing he should look away but couldn’t. “Our first day here, at the safe house. It was snowing hard. Fat flakes. You told me what you and James used to say. ”
Something flickered in her gaze—recognition, maybe something more. He shouldn’t have remembered that conversation in such detail. Shouldn’t have cataloged the way her voice had softened when she spoke about her brother, how the snow had caught in her hair.
“Try it,” she said, her voice unsteady.
Zara input the password. The screen flickered, then a message:
Liv - they’ve found the trail.
Axel watched Olivia absorb the blow of her brother’s words, noted how Deke moved to steady her. The chaplain’s instincts were good. She needed that anchor right now.
The words disappeared, only to be replaced.
Remember that book you tortured me with? Trust your heart. Love you, kid.
Below, numbers appeared:
11-4-17-9-23-31
“ Where the Wild Things Are ,” Olivia whispered. “I made him read it to me over and over and over. He hated it.”
“But remembered it,” Griff observed.
While Kenji and Zara discussed the numbers, Axel watched Olivia’s reflection in the monitor.
The professional mask was slipping, showing glimpses of raw emotion underneath.
His training screamed at him to maintain distance, but his body betrayed him, unconsciously orienting toward her like a weapon finding its target.
“Your brother knew what he was doing,” Deke said softly, his hand still on Olivia’s shoulder. “Leaving breadcrumbs only you would recognize.”
Axel recognized the struggle in her eyes—the same one he fought every time they were in the same room. The battle between professional boundaries and something deeper, something that had started that snowy night when she’d trusted him with memories of her brother .
The numbers pulsed on screen, but the real cipher was this: how to protect her while respecting the lines between them. How to be both operative and ... whatever else he was becoming to her.
Even Griff seemed affected, his ocean-deep silence rippling with undercurrents. But Axel’s focus kept returning to Olivia, to the way she was both Dr. Kane and something more vulnerable, something that made him want to cross lines he knew should stay uncrossed.
James’s words hung in the air. Trust your heart .
Axel had never been good at that part.
“We need the book,” Griff stated, breaking his silence.
“Already pulling up a PDF,” Kenji started, but Olivia shook her head.
“James wouldn’t use a digital copy. The numbers ...” She leaned forward, studying the sequence. “They’re page numbers, maybe, or line counts. We need the physical book. The exact edition matters.”
“I had the hardcover,” she added. “But that’s all I remember.”
“It’s a kid’s picture book,” Kenji said. “How many editions could there be?”
Zara cleared her throat. “Uh, for one of the most popular children’s books ever? Published sixty years ago? Try a whole bunch.”
“Bookstores?” Zara suggested, already typing.
“Hope Landing’s shop closed last month,” Deke said. “And Reno’s too far if we’re being watched.”
“The library,” Olivia said suddenly. “The children’s section. Where the Wild Things Are is a classic. They’ll have it.”
“It’s Sunday. The library closes in two hours,” Izzy confirmed, checking her tablet. “Light security, mostly cameras.”
Griff’s slight nod carried weight. “I’ll go. ”
Ronan shot Axel a look. “How about you and Deke and I stay on guard duty. Griff could use Zara and Izzy and Kenji to cover his six.”
“I should go,” Olivia insisted.
Exactly as he would have guessed. “Not necessary.”
Her face twisted in that stubborn look he was coming to know, but he cut her off before she could protest. “Every time you’re in public, you’re at risk. And you put my team at risk.” He hated dumping the guilt trip on her, but it was only the truth.
Which she immediately realized. She ducked her chin. “Of course. Sorry. That’s an excellent point.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s fun sitting out the action,” Griff said.
Axel watched the team prep through practiced eyes, but his attention kept drifting to Olivia. She was observing them all with that careful therapist’s focus, but something else played across her features now—a softness that hadn’t been there before.
He should back off. He knew the signs in himself: the hypervigilance that kept him positioning between her and potential threats, the way his hand kept finding his weapon, how his body oriented to her presence like a compass finding true north.
Classic PTSD behavior patterns. She’d probably already noted them all.
“Just saying,” Kenji’s voice cut through his thoughts, “Code Crackers has a certain panache?—”
A paper clip sailed across the room with deadly accuracy, catching the man right above the ear. Zara continued her weapons check as if she hadn’t moved.
“Better than STEAM Team,” Deke muttered, doing his final gear check.
The familiar banter settled something in Axel’s chest, even as he caught Olivia’s expression—that mix of professional observation and personal warmth that kept blurring lines he knew should stay clear.