Page 76 of Enigma

When he was gone, the room fell quiet except for the hum of the air conditioning and the distant sound of highway traffic.

“Thank you.” Olive looked at Tevin. “For coming all this way. For being here.”

Tevin set down his phone and met her eyes. “You don’t have to thank me for caring about you.”

“Still, I know this is . . . complicated.”

“Olive.” Tevin’s voice was gentle. “I can see how much Jason cares about you. The way he looks at you, the way he takes care of you.” He paused. “And I can see you care about him too.”

Olive opened her mouth to explain, to somehow articulate the tangle of emotions and history between her and Jason, but Tevin held up a hand.

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I should never have put you in this position back at Grayfall. What I said about being in love with you—I think it was more of a crush that I let myself believe was something deeper.”

“Tev—”

“I value our friendship too much to let my feelings complicate it,” he continued, not breaking his gaze. “You mean too much to me as a teammate and a friend to risk losing that.”

Tears pricked Olive’s eyes—relief and gratitude and a deep affection for this man who understood her so well. “Our friendship has meant everything to me. You know that, right?”

Tevin smiled, almost sadly. “I know. And I hope it always will.”

“I wish we could just order some Chinese food and sit in front of the TV like we used to,” Olive said. “Watch terrible movies and argue about whether the plot makes any sense.”

“We will again,” Tevin assured her. “When this is all over, we’ll go back to being the dynamic duo of terrible movie commentary. Some things don’t have to change.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” A soft smile feathered across his lips. “We’ll always be friends, Olive. That’s not going anywhere.”

The sincerity of his words brought an immense relief through her.

The door opened, and Jason stepped back inside, his expression grim. “The gang will take the next flight out. They’ll be here tonight.”

“Great.”

He looked between Olive and Tevin, sensing the shift in the room’s atmosphere. “Everything okay?”

Olive hadn’t told him about Tevin’s declaration of love. She’d thought about it, but the admission would only complicate things. She didn’t want Jason to have any hard feelings toward Tevin.

Now, she was glad she’d kept it quiet. This just needed to be between her and Tevin.

“Everything’s fine.” Tevin stood. “Now, I believe I came here to share some information that couldn’t wait.”

Olive adjusted her position on the bed, wincing as her bruised ribs protested. “What did you find, Tev?”

Tevin pulled out his laptop, his expression growing serious again. “Something that changes everything we thought we knew about this case.”

CHAPTER 49

Tevin opened his laptop and pulled up a series of spreadsheets and financial documents.

“I’ve been trying to follow the money,” he explained. “The shell company that owns your old house just didn’t make sense to me.”

“It didn’t make sense to me either,” Olive admitted, shifting on the bed to get a better view of his screen. “Why keep paying taxes and maintenance on an empty house for a decade?”

“Exactly. So I dug deeper into the Northwood Investment Group’s financial structure.” Tevin’s fingers moved quickly across the keyboard, pulling up account records. “It’s basically a sophisticated money laundering operation. They take cash from illegal enterprises and filter it through legitimate-looking investments and real estate purchases.”

“I suspected that much,” Olive said.