I had made up that silly story about us needing an exorcism in the inn, and now the evil had arrived. He wasn’t the man I had married, he was the man who had betrayed our organization and our country, and he was gleeful as he took me in.
“Charlotte,” he said. “You should’ve given yourself up before it got to this. Do you realize how many people have been hurt because of you? How many people will be hurt because of you?”
I aimed my weapon at him. “I’ll shoot you.”
“And then what? Grant dies?” Kyle gestured lazily toward my boss. “You’re happy with that? Sacrifice his life to take mine?”
My grandmother was deathly still, her weapon trained on Jordan, who bore a similar smirk to Kyle.
Grant tried to say something against the cloth gag in his mouth. His eyes widened, and he nodded, trying to gesture to me to take the shot on Kyle.
Of course, that was what he wanted. Special Agent in Charge Grant was selfless, and he would likely blame himself for the two-faced agent being a part of the task team.
I sucked in a breath, silently assessing our options.
The easiest would be to give myself up to my ex-husband. He would likely hurt me a good deal, kill me, and then what?
No, I would never give up. And my grandmother wouldn’t allow it because a man like Kyle wouldn’t stop at getting revenge on me.
“I’m going to track down all your little friends,” Kyle said, grinning at me. “You know that, right?”
“Over my dead body.” I rose from my crouch, keeping my gun trained on him. Gamma stayed in her position.
“That can be arranged.”
Thunder rolled overhead and lightning cracked. We had kept the lights off in the inn, using our night vision contact lenses to our advantage—or so we thought. We had no advantage while Grant was being held by that agent.
“What are you going to do?” Kyle asked. “Give up your friends to safe yourself? That’s what you did with me, Charlie.”
“Shut up,” I snapped. “You don’t know me, and I’m not dumb enough to think I ever knew you, so be quiet.”
“What about you, Georgina Mission?” Kyle trained his gaze on Gamma. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Calmly, my grandmother turned, took aim and fired at the man holding Grant. She struck him in the hand, and he dropped his gun, releasing a feral cry.
All heck broke loose.
Special Agent in Charge Grant turned and pounced on the agent who had betrayed the NSIB. They fell to the ground, struggling, and I couldn’t get a clear shot on Grant’s attacked. Jordan advanced, clicking on the hall lights, removing a gun from a holster at his side and pointing it at Gamma.
Hot anger streaked through my veins, but I didn’t have time to consider their fight.
I had one of my own to deal with.
Kyle rushed toward me, not bothering to go for his gun, rage twisting his once-handsome features. He tackled me to the ground, and I brought the gun up, my finger squeezing the trigger twice.
But my ex had thrown me off balance and both shots flew wide, smacking into the chandelier overhead and raining glass down upon us.
Kyle forced my fingers off the gun and tossed it aside. “It’s over!” Kyle closing his hands around my throat.
I brought my knee up and hit him where the sun didn’t shine. He grunted, but didn’t roll off, so I shoved him with all the power in my legs, using my training and his weight against him. I scrambled up and ran for it.
Where? Go! What now?
I leaped over the table blocking the base of the stairs, sending the trinkets in every direction, and darted up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
“Get back here!” Kyle yelled, and the sound of gunfire, two sharp pops, nearly deafened me. Bullets whizzed past my ears and struck the plaster to my right.
My heart pounded, but I set a goal in my mind and went for it.
Upstairs. Another flight. That’s it. Keep running. Move, Mission, move!
I bounded up the stairs toward my floor but didn’t make a run for my room—I didn’t have a gun there anymore.
“Oh, Charlie!” Kyle yelled from the landing below. “I know you’re up there. There’s nowhere to run. What are you going to do, Charlie? Jump out of a window.”
Carefully, now. Don’t make it obvious.
I felt along the wall, searching for the button I knew was there. My fingers found it, and I pressed it, gently. A miniscule click sounded.
My ex-husband’s footsteps grew closer, and the top of his head bobbed into view, coated in a sheen of sweat.
I kept my hand on the wall, pretending to brace myself. My mind racing.
I would have only one shot at this. If I messed up, Kyle would… well, he’d do his worst, and I didn’t want to imagine what that might be.
You’ve got this.
My mind flittered to Gamma downstairs and whether she was OK, but I shoved that thought aside, ruthlessly. She could look after herself better than I could, for heaven’s sake.
Kyle stopped at the head of the stairs. “Out of breath, Charlie?” he asked, taunting me with his gaze and tone.
Lightning flashed outside, thunder rumbled again, and rain pattered down on the inn’s roof. A slow patter that would soon become a torrent.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked. “Why don’t you shoot me?”
He raised his gun and pointed it at me then pressed the trigger. A dull click sounded. “Empty,” he said. “Unfortunate.” He tossed the gun aside, offering me a wry smile. “You always liked to make things more difficult than they had to be.”
“And you always had to be an evil, rule-breaking, criminal.” I shrugged. “I know who I’d rather be.”
Kyle’s smile faded. “You sold me out.”
“You sold out your country,” I snapped at him. “I break the rules, but you’re disgusting. Vile.”
The insults were too much for him, it seemed. Kyle launched toward me, streaking down the long hall of the inn, the one that had been my home for over a year. And anger rose within me.
How dare he tar this place with his presence? How dare he threaten my friends—the only friends I’d had in a lifetime—and my home—the only place I’d truly felt alive and happy.
Kyle rushed toward me, teeth bared.
Now.
I grasped the edge of the secret door that led into a hidey hole in the walls of the inn—the same place that Jordan Ames had been hiding when we’d first found him—and ripped it open at the last second.
Kyle slammed into it face first.
The sickening crunch that followed gave me no pleasure, but my ex-husband dropped like a stone.
I scrambled around the hidden door and dragged him into the hidden wall compartment, noting that he’d broken his nose, was bleeding but still breathing.
“Nobody messed with my inn,” I whispered at his unconscious form, then shut him inside the wall. I doubted it would hold him for long, so I dragged one of my grandmother’s heavy antique chairs in front of that section of wall, followed by a table and another chair. I stacked them as best I could, my pulse racing.
Gamma. Special Agent in Charge Grant.
I had run upstairs and left them to fight their own battles. What if they were…?
The scene that greeted me downstairs was organized chaos. But it wasn’t unpleasant.
Gamma had tied up Jordan Ames using cable ties, and the agent who had attacked Grant lay unconscious and restrained in the corner. Special Agent in Charge Grant was in the dining area on the phone, likely calling in back-up.
“There you are, Charlotte,” Gamma said, casually checking her gun’s safety before holstering it. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t need my help. Where’s that lowlife ex-husband of yours?”
“Upstairs. Trapped in a wall. Remember that compartment Jordan was hiding out in when we first find him?”
“Ah. A stroke of irony, though I’m sure Turner won’t appreciate it.” She came over and drew me into
a hug.
Not one for much affection, I took the embrace and squeezed her back, enjoying every minute. “He won’t appreciate it,” I said, “because he’s out cold. I don’t know how much time we have until he wakes up, though.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Special Agent in Charge Grant said, approaching us and off the phone now. “I’ve got agents moving in as we speak. This is going to be one heck of a cleanup, but you did a good job, Mission.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said. “I tried.”
“Everything legal and illegal, in and out of the book,” Grant said, in that blustery Pitbull tone. “I can hardly fault you given that we were overwhelmed from within.” He nodded toward the man in the corner. “Took us by surprise, drugged me, killed the others. It’s shameful.”
“It worked out in the end,” I said. “What’s going to happen to them.”
“Let’s see.” Grant cleared his throat. “He’ll be charged with treason and sentenced accordingly. They’ll all be sentenced.”
“Charlie?” Brian burst out of the kitten foster center and into the inn’s foyer. “Charlie, are you—whoa. Special Agent in Charge Grant. You’re—”
“Alive, thanks to these women,” he said, nodding to my grandmother and then to me. “And this is over, at last. Kyle Turner in our grasp. Let’s go upstairs and get him. Want the honors of arresting, him Agent Mission?”
“I think I’ll stay down here,” I said, studying the interior of the inn. “I’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do.”
Gamma burst out laughing.
27
Two weeks later…
What felt like an eternity had passed since that fateful night with Kyle. I stood in front of the sink in the kitchen at the Gossip Inn, peeling potatoes for the roast lunch Lauren had decided on for our guests.
There were plenty of them. After our cover story—the exorcism—had made the rounds in Gossip and people had responded with intrigue and excitement, Gamma had decided to approach an online publication about it.
Now, articles about the once haunted inn had been shared by people all over Texas and in neighboring states, and with Halloween on the horizon—albeit distantly—Lauren had come up with the idea to host ghost hunts in the inn.
What with its amazing hidden passages, perfect for capturing rogue spies, and creaking floorboards, it was the perfect setting.
I hummed under my breath and dumped the peeled potatoes into water.
“It’s good to be back here again,” Lauren sighed, smiling at me from in front of the oven, her bright red pigtails bobbing as she turned her head.
“It’s good to have you back.”
And it was good to be free of pressure and fear, and the constant niggling worry that Kyle would find me. He was gone for good. Him and his associates, and the NSIB was undergoing an extensive audit to flush out any of his remaining allies.
Dr. Barry Briggs had been tracked down and arrested for his involvement, as well.
I was safe.
The inn was safe.
A meow from the hallway drew my gaze, and I laughed. Cocoa Puff sat in the doorway, Sunlight next to him, both kitties peering in but not daring to enter. Lauren didn’t permit cats in the kitchen.
The kittens were back in the kitten foster center, safe and sound, and I had already started the adoption process with Sunlight. Soon, he would be my kitty and another cat that lived in the inn. Thankfully, Cocoa and Sunlight seemed willing to share my bed as a napping spot.
My choice to adopt Sunlight was based on the fact that I had quit my job.
Good heavens, it felt weird to think that.
I was no longer a spy-in-hiding. I was no longer a spy at all. I was simply Charlotte Smith—after all, there might still be enemies after me or my grandmother—the live-in maid and assistant at the Gossip Inn.
And I was pretty darn happy about that.
Gamma strode into the kitchen and got an apron down from a hook behind the door. “Where do you need me, Lauren? I’ve got twenty minutes to help before I have an interview with that abhorrent Jacinta Redgrave from the paper.”
“You’re talking to her?” Lauren asked. “After all that nasty stuff they wrote in The Gossip Rag about you?”
“Definitely,” Gamma said, grimly. “I want the Gossip Inn’s exorcism to be headline news. Jessie Belle-Blue will rue the day she taunted me.”
I grinned, not bothering to hide it, carrying the washed potatoes over to the chopping board on the silver countertop. I peeked through the porthole windows on the swinging kitchen doors as I passed them. We had ages until lunch, but there were already a few guests hovering around in the dining room, chatting.
The kitchen door opened, and Smulder stood on the doorstep, wearing a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He smiled at my grandmother and Lauren, then looked at me.
“It’s time,” he said. “I’ve got to go.”
“We’ll miss you, Brian.” My grandmother’s tone was serious. “You keep safe, all right?”
“I will. I’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll walk you out,” I said, and joined Brian walking down the steps into the sunny grounds of the inn. He grabbed his suitcase and carried it down the side path toward the front of the inn, where a black sedan waited, its windows tinted so that I couldn’t make out its occupants.
“Charlie,” Brian said. “I can’t tell you how much being here has meant to me, and how… I—look, I wanted things to work out between us, but—”
“I know you did.” There wasn’t much left to say. Brian was a good man, but he wasn’t the good man for me. We were too different, and while I had finally found a home, a place I adored full of people I enjoyed spending time with, he wanted more.
“No hard feelings?” Brian asked.
I threw my arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. He patted me awkwardly on the back.
“Never,” I said. “Safe trip, Smulder. I hope your next partner is better than your last one.”
“Eh. Who needs a perfect partner when you can have one who shoots you in the butt cheek by accident?” He flashed me an impish grin then loaded his suitcase into the trunk of the sedan.
I watched the car leave, smiling, a little sad, but mostly happy.
The last thing I’d expected when I’d arrived in Gossip, wearing a lurid dress covered in gamboling cats might I add, was to fall in love.
Just not with a man.
I had fallen in love with a town, an inn, and the idea of being my own woman again.
I couldn’t wait to see what this next great adventure would bring.
Is this the end of Charlie and Gamma’s story? Turn the page to find out more about an exciting new release featuring the girls!
What’s Next for Charlie and Gamma?
Charlie’s story regarding her ex-husband may have ended, but she’s got so much more to share. Gamma and Charlie will be featured in a new series of stories, available on all retailers! The Gossip Cozy Mystery series will track Charlie’s life in Gossip and all the shenanigans she gets up to with her grandmother.
You can grab the first book, The Case of the Waffling Warrants, here!
Dear Reader,
I found writing the final installment of Charlie and Gamma’s story—at least as far as the Mission Inn-possible Series goes—difficult at best. First, it wasn’t a traditional cozy mystery, but I felt I had no choice but to write it this way so there would be a fitting conclusion to Charlie’s struggles with her husband. Second, emotionally, it was so tough to say goodbye to one character in particular.
Brian Smulder.
While he was so fun to write, and incredibly fun to use as a tool to freak out Charlie and test her strengths and weaknesses, I couldn’t help but feel that he wouldn’t want to stay in Gossip after the events of this series.
After all, he is an agent who has always taken his job seriously and “always does the right thing” as Charlie would say. Whereas our girl Charlie is a bit of a wild card. I felt
it would be best for both of them if they found people more suitable for their unique personalities.
I’ll miss Smulder, but I’m looking forward to the mischief Charlie and Gamma will get up to in the Gossip Cozy Mystery series!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the Mission Inn-possible Series, and that my friends have become yours. During this very strange time we’ve experienced over the past few years (2020-2021), they’ve given me great comfort.
I pray they’ve done the same for you.
Stay safe and healthy.
Yours,
Rosie
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Chocolate Chills (A Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mystery Book 6) Page 11