I looked around and when I saw no one waiting, I started walking into the city. I watched a flock of pigeons fly overhead, squawking from whatever had spooked them in the first place. As I strode down the sidewalk, I kept an eye on my surroundings and it didn’t take me long to realize that someone else was walking a short distance behind me. I would have thought it was nothing, but they were working to keep their footsteps aligned with mine. I sped up and they followed suit. I turned into an open alley and pressed my back against the brick wall, waiting for whoever was so keen on keeping up with me.
“Willow,” a female voice purred. I turned and a tall woman with distinctly Scandinavian features peered back at me. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, so perfect and fierce that it gave her a rather intimidating edge. Intense green eyes bored into mine and I could tell immediately that she was someone very important. She was tall. Probably somewhere close to five foot ten inches or something like that. She was a bit older, maybe in her late thirties or early forties by the way the corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled. I knew at once that even with all the experience and training I’d undertaken to get where I was in life, I would be well out of my depth with her.
For a long time, I contemplated not answering at all, but she obviously knew me and that wouldn’t solve anything to ignore her now that she’d found me.
“I’m Willow,” I answered hesitantly and her perfectly pink lips curved up into a smile that didn’t feel comforting in the slightest. Instead, it just chilled me to the bone.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” she began, and I chewed the inside of my cheek as a fully blacked-out limousine pulled up beside us. “I must insist,” she offered, and she opened the door for me. There didn’t seem to be any other option but to just get in the car.
“May I ask your name?” I asked, far too tentatively for my liking.
“The Father sent me to look after you. The people close to me call me Janet, but most people know me as the Fixer. Now get inside,” she replied, and my heart jolted in my chest.
“But I…” I blurted, and she shook her head.
“You and I will talk inside the car,” she answered and still I stood frozen. “If you don’t get in, I will signal to my sniper that you’re a lost cause and an unfortunate victim in the crossfire of an unexpected case of terrorism in Lucerne. Maybe a mugging gone wrong. Who knows? I’m very good at coming up with stories.”
I knew I had run out of time. I was going to die.
I slid into the backseat and maneuvered all the way to the other side. I didn’t even need to test the door to know that it was likely locked. When she sat down beside me, I had to control my terror as the door closed firmly behind her.
I had hoped that the Father would grant me mercy, but he’d clearly decided that I’d reached the end of my usefulness. She was here to kill me. She made problems like me go away.
As the car pulled away, she moved to sit across from me and crossed her long legs as she leaned back and appraised me with a certain coldness that made me shake with fear.
“When Father referenced my quick exit, I had hoped he wouldn’t decide that he would have me killed,” I whispered, unable to hide just how terrified I was to have her here with me.
It didn’t matter now that she knew I was afraid. She’d probably seen grown men beg for their lives time and time again. She likely expected me to be no different, but I wouldn’t go like that. Even if it hurt, and I knew it would, I would die with at least a little bit of dignity.
“He hasn’t decided to kill you, Willow,” she answered.
“You don’t have to sugarcoat this for me. I know what you do,” I replied, a certain sadness and subdued acceptance that this would be the way things were going to be.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of how the problems I can’t make go away disappear, but I doubt you’ve heard of all the ones I’ve fixed along the way. That’s what you are, Willow. You’re a problem and it’s my job to fix you and if I can’t… Well, we will talk about that if it comes to that,” she said.
“The ones you’ve fixed without killing someone?” I finally asked, narrowing my eyes at her suspiciously.
She nodded once and didn’t elaborate.
“So how do you think you’ll fix the problem that is me?”
“Perhaps you need a reminder of what’s at stake if you fail to do your job. Or maybe this rather persistent mark of yours needs to be eliminated. It’s possible you just need to have your sights set on a new mark while a protective detail looks out for you. There’s a lot to consider, which is why you and I are going to travel to Portugal together and figure that out,” she explained.
“I don’t know how he found me,” I whispered.
I wanted Daddy to hold me.
I stiffened, caught off guard by the sudden need to have his arms around me. I swallowed heavily, trying not to think about how safe his lap had felt compared to the literal clusterfuck I was in right now.
I pressed my hands against my thighs, cursing the way my palms grew sweaty like they always did for like the billionth time.
“We have people looking into that,” she answered.
“Have they found anything?”
“Not yet. If he used facial recognition software, we don’t know what kind. We’ve always been careful to place you in different locations across state lines, but if he
