The End of You: A Single Lady Spy Series Novella (The Single Lady Spy Series Book 3) (6 page)

“JESUS
CHRIST, EVIE! WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU?” Coop was calmer than I imagined
he would be.

“Running
back to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.”

“OH
THANK GOD, YOU’RE STILL HERE! YOU SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME! WHERE ARE YOU, I
WILL COME AND GET YOU!”

“Just
stop freaking out. I can meet you on the beach by the hotel. Bring a boat that
can take about fifteen teenagers in bad shape.” I clicked the phone off and
continued running. I opened my Google Maps and put the hotel into the link. We
ran through the side streets and across main intersections. They were dressed
in sheets and blankets and not one person stopped for us.

No
one cared about the group of people who were clearly injured. Not that it would
have done a fucking bit of good. I would have killed anyone who stopped as it
was.

When
we made the beach I almost started crying too. The sand and rocks on my feet
were soothing and amazing, like a sign that I might actually make it back alive
with the kids. The kids I couldn't turn and look back at. The kids I didn't
want to attach to, regardless of the desire I had to do it. I just couldn't.
The horrors in my mind, lurking behind my eyes were too fresh. I needed a
minute and a drink.

But
I didn't get that. I turned and pointed at the seawall along the beach. “Sit
there and talk to no one. Unless I come, you are a shipwrecked group of sailing
kids who are awaiting your parent chaperones. That's your story.”

One
of the boys nodded, giving me a look. “Who are you?”

“Someone
who can sneak you in and out of countries without telling anyone. That's all
you need to know.” It wasn't even the truth. If I was honest I would have
hugged them all and cried about their wounds and made them a tea. That was more
who I was. The bitch who killed all those men, that bitch wasn't me. She was a
trained assassin who came out when I needed her.

It
had taken us half an hour to get to the beach so I had to pray that Coop would
hurry and arrive any second before the most dangerous men in Dubai figured out
I had stolen their precious imports.

I
paced the beach, repositioning the guns in the back of my dress and attempting
to flush images that were burned into my retinas.

I
forced myself to look at them, all of them. They were a straggly looking bunch
of teenagers. It was the horror movie version of an Abercrombie and Fitch
commercial. I could have cried but I didn't. I focused on the fact they were
alive. Yes, the worst things people can do to you had been done to them, but
they were alive.

The
girl I had rescued first was sitting on the far edge. She had a look on her
face that told me I hadn’t found her sister in the group. I flinched when I
thought about the plan forming in my head but when a boat came along the
harbor, I knew I had to go back. I had to. Coop and Luce hit the wharf with
intensity, running down the beach. The kids behind me cowered but I ran to the two
people racing for us. Jack stayed with the boat, talking on the radio. Luce and
Coop both wrapped themselves around me, hugging hard. Luce trembled when she
spoke, “Quite the find, Evie.”

I
glanced back at them. “You have to get them out. They need to be taken back to
US soil, now. You guys need to go, before they find out they’re gone.”

Coop
gripped to me, trying to get me to look at him. “Are you okay?”

I
shook my head. “No. I will be when they’re gone and there is no chance of them
going back. They’re kids.”

Coop
lifted my chin, holding my face and staring deeply into my eyes. “Get in the
boat. I will find Servario. Or better yet, we leave him behind and let him sort
this out on his own. He has connections enough to get out.”

I
almost nod, almost taking the path of least resistance, but the idea that I
left the dead driver in the car made me shake my head. “I have to go back. I
sprung a trap and left him there to be blamed for it all.”

Coop
rolled his beautiful blue eyes. “He has hung you out to dry tons of times. You
owe him. Let’s go.”

I
stepped back. “But that's not me. I wouldn't ever leave someone behind.” I
turned and ran back into the dark toward the kids. “Go to the boat. These are
American agents. They will take you back.” I fled, hearing footsteps behind me
on the sidewalk when I got back up there. My feet burned and ached from running
barefoot but I had endured worse pain than that before. At least I had worn a
comfortable dress. I stopped at a busy streetlight, the one we had gotten lucky
with on the way to the beach. Luce caught up with me. She huffed next to me, making
me feel better about my fitness level as I wheezed and waited for the light.

“So,
what was that?”

I
glanced up at her, marveling at how pretty and yet totally badass she was.
“Which part could you possibly be referring to?”

“The
whole ditching Coop, flying away with Servario again, and then deciding to
leave Coop on a beach with a bunch of teenagers.”

I
nodded, crossing when the light went. “Right, that part.” I passed a gun toward
her when we got to the other side of the street. “Servario told me we were
meeting you, Jack, and Coop in Dubai. Then we got here and he said we were
meeting you guys in Europe. He had a plan, we went to a club and I killed the
driver, and now I’m here.”

She
glanced back at the beach. “You freed those kids from a brothel?”

I
nodded. “And left Servario in there with them, after killing our driver. I left
him in a trap that's about to be sprung.”

I
followed the map on my phone backward to the car. When we got to the Mercedes I
stopped and looked in the window at the dead man on the floor of the car. It
was hard to see him with the bright lights of the city shining in, but when I
leaned over and let my shadow cover the window I could see him perfectly.

Luce
leaned over the window with me and I had to admit having her there made me feel
better. “Creepy. The car hasn't been towed or noticed. How’d you do it?”

“Stabbed
him in the temple with my hairpin.”

She
snorted, “Nice.”

We
turned and I pointed at the alley. “This way.”

We
hurried along the alley to the large building. I was scared they had discovered
their dead guard but he still lay there as dead as before.

“You
are getting very badass, Evie. Very badass,” she muttered as we crept inside
and down the long corridor. When we got to the porn room I handed her a
handgun.

“Is
that a grenade in your tits?”

I
nodded and snuck around the corner to the long hall with the doors. Each one
was still closed, concealing a dead man or woman inside. When we got to the
room with the cards and guns, I lifted a finger to my lips and nodded. Men chuckled,
sounding more drunk since I was here an hour or so ago.

I
glanced in the doorway, catching a glimpse of three men and Servario. The Harry
guy was gone though.

Luce
lifted her gun, sneaking a peek. She took a deep breath and snuck into the
room, holding her gun out. I aimed at the man to Servario’s right as she shot
the man to the left and the man in the middle. Servario was up, grabbing Luce
until he saw her face. He swayed slightly, stumbling a bit. He was drunk. He
smiled when he saw me, holding a finger out to my face. “Did you find your way
back to young Cooper?”

I
grabbed his hand, feeling a sickening rage coming over me and dragged him from
the room. He tried to pull me into him and he tried to be funny. He slurred and
joked as we stumbled down the hallway. He was too loud and too crazy. Luce
cleared the room behind us and the hallway as we walked out. When we stepped
out over the dead man, Servario burst out laughing. He pointed at the dead man,
laughing and stumbling like a fool. I passed my boob grenade to Luce. “Make it
rain.”

She
ran back inside. I hurried away from the building as an explosion ripped into
the night.

When
we were past the car with the dead driver in it, we slowed down. Dragging
Servario’s drunken ass was crazy. “He’s lost his fucking mind,” Luce mumbled as
we staggered down the road.

He
wrapped his arms around us both, holding us and staggering. “You fucking
idiots. You fucking stupid women have fucked this up and I can’t afford to lose
my credibility on this. So you will stagger with me down the road until we can
steal a car and get to the plane. You will shut your fucking mouths, apart from
giggling like schoolgirls. Do you get me?”

We
both nodded, afraid of the tone in his voice.

The
shaking of the plane and the lack of sleep had made me twitchy. I hadn’t eaten
in ages and my strength had waned. When I got inside of the hotel room in
Belgium I flopped onto the bed. It wasn't the VIP suite in the Burj Al Arab in
Dubai. It was a dumpy hotel that none of us would be caught dead in, in the
real world. This wasn't the real world.

This
was a tired place where I had no idea if I would ever recover from. I closed my
eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

When
I woke a man was sitting in the corner in the armchair. I sat up quickly when I
realized I wasn't dreaming and there truly was a man there. The light coming in
from the street lamps shone enough for me to see it wasn't the man it should
have been.

“You
fucked it up. You were supposed to stay in the car,” Servario muttered.

I
nodded slowly. “I realize that but the driver tried to rape me.”

“What?”

“You
didn't notice the dead driver in the car we walked past?”

“You
killed the driver?” His tone dropped off like he was cluing in. He got up,
climbing onto the bed. “I assumed my reputation would buy you safety there. I
didn't know. I left you in the car like a possession, to show them who you were
to me.”

I
nodded again. “Look, Servario, Coop is just helping those kids and meeting me
back home.”

He
crawled over me, pushing me back on the bed with a light shove. “Did you truly
mean what you said to me about La La Land?”

“Yeah.
I truly meant I love you. I do, even if you’re complicated and you live in a
disturbing world.”

“We
live in the same world, Evie.”

I
shook my head, staring up into his dark eyes. “No, we don't. In my world I
would have saved those kids. I never could have drank down the hallway from
that. You walked past it, you didn't care.” I sat up, shoving him off of me. I
turned and climbed off the bed, running from the room. I didn't care that I was
in my underwear and tank top. I didn't care that I had no shoes on. I didn't
care. I just ran.

When
I got to the elevator I pushed the button rapidly. As the door opened I went to
step in but he rushed me, pushing me in with him. He spun me around and pinned
me against the wall as the doors closed. The light in the shitty elevator was
dim and flickering.

He
seethed into my face. “I cared. I cared, goddammit. I cared in a way you can’t
imagine. I sit next to those fucks, I tolerate their bullshit because I have to
tell myself every single one of those kids is one soul and I have to save
millions.” I could hear his voice cracking. It sounded the way my heart did. “I
care. I care about you. I have loved you my whole life and I have to live with
the fact you are with him. You are safe with him. Why do you think I don't
fight for you, Evie?” He stripped my tank top from my body with a single tug.
His face dipped, landing on my nipple with ferocity. He licked and sucked,
pushing me into the wall as the elevator sat, frozen there on the same floor.

“I
let him have you, I let him love you. You are his because he keeps you safe,
Evie. That's one way I can keep you safe.” He dropped to his knees, dragging my
underwear to the side and burying his warm mouth between my legs. He licked,
sliding a finger up inside of me. The light flickered off and on and I wasn't
certain if it was my eyelids or the actual lights.

His
fingers slid in and out of me as his tongue flicked my clit. I gripped to the
wall, clutching to the support handle.

He
pulled back, pummeling his finger in and out harder, making my knees nearly
buckle. “This is mine, Evie. You are mine.”

He
stood, lifting me into the air while tearing my underwear off. I rested against
the wall, seated on the handle. He wrestled with his buckle and pants for a
moment as we explored each other’s mouths, gripping to each other with
desperation.

When
he released himself, he plunged into me instantly. We both moaned, filling the
quiet elevator with noise. His thrusting echoed off the walls, bouncing my
body. In the flashing light I caught a glimpse of our bodies writhing and
bumping against each other. His hands cupped to my ass. He spun me around,
holding me in the air. I planted my feet on the railing on the wall and let him
rock me up and down on his cock. I gripped to him, pushing with my legs,
desperate for the orgasm I had been denied for forty-eight straight hours.

“I
need you, Evie. I need you in my life.” He pulled me into him, gripping and grunting
into the silence.