Inside Out (19 page)

Olivia shook her head. “Somehow, I took over Hunter’s body, and part of her personality. I have these crazy streaks during which I do things I normally wouldn’t.”

“No. You kidnapped Olivia Hart. You caused her death!” he slammed his fist against the table, his wide face as red as his hair.

She smiled. “But I’m here, Alfie. Just look into my eyes. Can’t you see me? It’s your Livvy.”

He groaned. “Orlando, stop.”

“Not before I tell you about when we were kids and you told me you loved me.”

Alfie gaped at her.

“Do you think Olivia would have ever told anyone?” she prompted.

“Never.”

“Well then please believe me. I am Olivia. I don’t know how, I can’t explain it. It must be the tattoo Hunter did for me, but I can play the Cello, still, Alfie. Did Hunter Orlando ever study the Cello as far as you know?”

Alfie coughed. “There’s no end to the lengths you’d go to get away from the law.”

“Over the phone I told you I had a gang for you.”

“Yeah.”

“I am the gang leader.”

“So you admit it.”

Olivia shrugged. “Hunter and Jimmy Port kidnapped me. Randy had nothing to do with it, but I suspect he’s the one that tried to kill me—twice, if you don’t count the little visit Shane received on his boat.” Alfie watched her shrewdly, but she continued, undeterred. “At first, I thought Randy was the leader, but then I realized it had to be me. Randy can’t organize a trip to the restroom without me.”

“So you’re not ratting on your man. Got it. What do you want? Immunity? I can’t guarantee that. Just give me all the names of the gang members and confess to the rest of your crimes already.”

Olivia shook her head. “I would, but I don’t know enough about it yet. But there is one guy—he called me, saying I had a thing for cello cases and coins. I think it’s Randy trying to spook me.”

Alfie grinned. “Spook you? You are one sly bitch, Hunter Orlando.”

“Alfie, please,” Olivia begged, her hand on his forearm. “If Randy tried to kill me for betraying him, what’s to stop him from trying again?”

Alfie’s lips curled with malice. “If a gang member kills another gang member he’s actually doing us a favor.”

“Please, Alfie. Please believe me. I can tell you more about our friendship. Our childhood. Ask me anything.”

“Olivia could have told you anything.”

“She wouldn’t have.”

Alfie watched her. “Alright. I can’t believe I’m doing this. What was my first dog’s name?”

“Jack,” Olivia answered and his eyes flashed.

“And my second?”

She shook her head. “After Jack died you were so heart-broken you never wanted another dog, but you helped me take care of my cat Missy.”

Alfie rubbed his eyes and groaned.

“Your secret hiding place was in the Anderson shelter out back. I’d always pretend I’d lost you and we’d drive your Nana crazy.”

Alfie wiped his eyes and coughed, then took a long sip of his whisky as he studied her. “What do you want?”

“I want you to help me convince Shane of who I am.”

“That’s not happening. This is absolute bedlam.”

“Alfie, please,” Olivia repeated. “Give me some time to learn more about Hunter Orlando’s gang. I’ll owe you that much if you help me.”

“No. I’m not going to tell Shane his wife has come back from the dead in the shape of the most wanted gang-leader in London. He’s already messed up enough as it is, without you playing with his mind.”

Olivia sat back, studying him. “You’re right. No one can help me.” And with that, she got to her feet.

“Hunter, where are you going? You promised to help me dismantle the gang.”

“I will, as soon as I’ve got more information. I may be inside Hunter’s body, but I’m still in my own mind, whether you believe me or not.”

“Hunter…”

“You can still call me that. For now,” she whispered.

Before he could see her tears, Olivia walked out of The Rising Sun and into a humid summer day. She may be wearing an Olivia dress, but she was trapped inside Hunter Orlando now more than ever.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“It was about time,” Alfie muttered without looking up from his desk as Shane walked into MIT headquarters. “I was going to unleash my men on you.”

Shane blinked at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Alfie sprang to his feet, eyes level with Shane’s. “You told her everything, didn’t you? How could you be so stupid, Shane? I understand she’s sexy and all that, but the girl’s a criminal, and you let her into our personal
lives
?”

Shane plunked himself down onto the chair opposite Alfie’s desk. “I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“She knew about Olivia and I growing up together. She—” His chest heaved and Shane realized how much Alfie must have suffered as well for Olivia’s death. “She knew about my pets and my secret hiding place and—”

“Alfie, mate, I couldn’t have told her any of that. What the hell do I know about your secret hiding place? I didn’t even know you had any pets as a kid.”

“Olivia never told you?”

“Why would she?”

Alfie tapped his pen against the desk, his eyes on Shane.

“Alfie, what is it? I can smell a rat.”

“You should’ve heard her, saying she was Olivia stuck in Hunter Orlando’s body. Can you imagine such bullshit?”

Shane shuddered as a strange wave passed over him. Hunter Olivia’s reincarnation? Bollocks.

Alfie huffed. “What the hell. When we were kids I told Olivia I loved her.”

Shane stared at him blankly.

Alfie’s eyes widened. “She never told you. Right?”

Shane shrugged off the feeling of being left out. “She never said a thing. Olivia was like that. She would never betray anyone’s confidence.”

Alfie chewed on his lip. “So how the
fuck
did Hunter Orlando know? She sure as hell isn’t Olivia’s reincarnation, for Christ’s sake. Although, I couldn’t think of a more bizarre match.”

Exactly
, Shane thought to himself.
How does she know all these things? And how did she know my favorite meals and the music Olivia played?

Alfie cleared his throat. “I spoke to her, Shane. She’s willing to tell me all she knows in exchange for immunity.”

Shane looked up. “Sounds good.”

“Sounds good? You’re fucking kidding me, right? The bitch kidnapped your wife.”

Shane shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong, Alfie. For Christ’s sake, she lives in a sink estate in Plumstead. You think she wouldn’t be better off if she had five thousand Krugerrands or the equivalent stashed away somewhere?”

“She does. We now have to prove she’s Sweetsrings.”

Shane rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Ridiculous.”

“Shane, you listen to me. Randy is only a small time thief. He is nothing without Hunter Orlando pulling the strings, but he’s a nutcase where she is concerned. There’s no way he’s going to let her go. He’s already tried to kill her twice.”

At the thought of anybody hurting Hunter, Shane’s abdomen tensed, and a sharp pain began to spread through the muscles. He squeezed his fists.

Alfie watched him, then sighed. “Right, get her down here and we’ll see what we can do.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed. He knew Alfie too well to think he’d give up months and months of his team’s work just like that. He remained silent, wondering again how to confess to Hunter his involvement in this whole thing.

“Alfie, let
me
talk to her, okay?”

Alfie shook his head. “See, this is why you’d be a crap copper. You have to stay focused; you don’t get involved, because you never know where the next bullet is coming from. Look at you, you’ve fallen for her and you’re an absolute wreck.”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Shane snapped, running a hand through his hair. Reincarnation.
Absolute
bollocks.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Hunter’s mobile phone rang and Olivia jumped.
Shane?

“It’s Alfie,” rasped the beloved voice, and Olivia sat up in her chair.

“Alfie, what—”

“Listen up. I’ve just come up with evidence linking Hunter Orlando to your—Olivia’s kidnapping and subsequent death.”

“What?”

“Hunter fished over two hundred Krugerrand coins out of the river. Coins that were part of your ransom.”

“Oh my God.”

“On the night you…died, Shane had a cello case full of money ready.”

“I know. But I didn’t know they were coins.”

“During your accident the cello case fell into the Thames. Since then, you’ve been digging them up. That explains the scuba diving gear on the boat you rented.”

“I can’t believe it. Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you need to get your act together, whoever you are, and prove that you had nothing to do with it.”

“But I did. I was there the whole time. I mean Hunter was. I remember her voice.”

“Jesus.”

“But I promise you, I have nothing to do with the coins. I wouldn’t know a Krugerrand if it hit me over the head.”

Alfie sighed, and she knew he believed her completely, thank God. But that didn’t help her position.

“I was terrified. And when I got a glimpse of one of the captors, Randy decided to get rid of me. So Hunter—God, do
I
even understand what I’m saying—called Shane and secretly agreed to return me.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“It was so dark down there, at the bottom of the river, and I tried to resist and wait for Shane to come and get me. My hands were tied, but even if they hadn’t been, I couldn’t swim. But I knew Shane wouldn’t let me die.”

Alfie groaned.

* * *

Hunter was just getting home when he got there, too angry to speak so he grabbed her arm instead.

“Jesus Christ, Shane, you want me to die of a heart attack or something?” she hissed as she opened her front door. “What the hell are you doing here? You know Randy could come here any minute.”

Her eyes, her temper, so similar in a way to Olivia’s. Or was he imagining it, simply because he couldn’t let go of Olivia’s memory?

“Fuck Randy. I needed to see you.”

“What for? You’re clearly done with me after our fuck weekend in Devon.”

Shane took a step closer to her. “Stop it. You know why I’m here.”

Hunter looked up into his eyes, and for a moment her tough facade faded. Something passed through them, something Shane couldn’t get his head around, but there she was, standing opposite him, her eyes on his. Christ, he was in deep, deep shit if he couldn’t stand next to her without wanting to crush her mouth under his. But then his gaze caught a familiar object in the corner behind her.

“What the fuck are you doing with my wife’s cello case?” he demanded, and she stared at him blankly, then at the case that lay in the corner.

He swallowed hard. “This is where I put the ransom money.”

“What?”

“Please tell me you were hired to fish out the gold from the river and that you had no idea where it came from. Tell me, and I swear I’ll believe you, Hunter.”

She shook her head, her eyes wide. “No…I didn’t kidnap her. Jimmy Port did. I tried to save her, Shane.”

“Sweet Lord,” he swore hotly, feeling his whole world spinning, lopsided, the way it had been doing before he met Hunter. “I can’t believe it. You wanted the money all for yourself, that’s why you called me. Your greed killed my wife!”

“I
am
your wife!” she bellowed, her chest heaving, her face red, her eyes on fire.

He backed away. “No…stop it. Stop it now.”

His mobile phone rang and he ignored it, unable to peel his eyes off her, in a state he’d never seen before, yet she reminded him so much of Olivia when she was upset. Could it possibly be? Could he really believe that this woman standing before him now was his Olivia?

Hunter had the same reactions, the same look in her eyes when she was hurt or frustrated. Yet the similarities ended there. Where Olivia was sweet and balanced, Hunter was a maverick, throwing herself into all kinds of picaresque adventures. And the sex—it went without saying.

A strange, strangled sound reached his ears and the strange chanting had returned to haunt him.

“Answer your phone, I’m
done
,” she whispered as she dried her eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Five

As Olivia watched, Shane fished his mobile phone out of his pocket, his eyes red, his face drawn, ten years added to him in one single moment.

“Alfie, what is it? Are you sure?” Shane sank into an armchair and listened, rubbing his face, which had paled instantly. “No. I need to do this. Thank you. I’m on my way.”

“Shane, what is it? What’s wrong?”

He turned to her in a daze, as if he’d forgotten she was there. Forgotten about the cello case that had mysteriously made its way to her flat. He swallowed and turned away, and Olivia could hear the tremor in his voice. “Some…bones have recently been fished out of the sea. The police think it may be Olivia. I have to go…”

Olivia’s heart lurched. Her body! “I’ll come with you.”

Shane studied her, his voice weak. “Yes, you will. I want you to see what you’ve done to my wife. And maybe then you’ll have the decency to stop playing with people’s lives.”

* * *

Alfie was waiting at the door.

He took them down a flight of stairs and into a colorless room that smelled like death. Everything was gray and cold. Like the drawers containing the corpses.

The medical examiner pulled on a handle and extracted a drawer containing a heap covered with a sheet. “There’s not much to see, unfortunately,” he said. “The sea and the fish have…well, when you’re ready…”

He and Alfie looked at Shane, whose jaw clenched for a moment before he nodded.

Away came the sheet and gasps filled the room. Alfie put his hand over his mouth and turned away with a weak moan. Shane’s eyes shut, his jaw twitched, and the sound of his teeth grinding filled the room.