by Tara Brown
“No.” She exhaled deeply. “This is my secure line, Evie. This is how I am put back into active duty by my boss. Whose phone is this?”
My stomach dropped. “You don’t know?”
“Whose phone is it?”
“I don't know. Servario had it,” I said softly as I stared Jack down.
“Hang up now and never call me again. We won't be here when you get home. We'll be safe. Don’t worry about the kids, honey. Too many phone calls in one day. I'm out but don’t worry. Okay, love?”
“Okay.” I pressed the phone to end the call. “Jack, are you sure this is Servario's phone?”
He looked funny. “You took it off him?”
“Right but”—I couldn’t wrap my head around it all—“what if he took it off someone else? What if he left it there for me to take? What if it was a bait phone? Oh shit.”
Jack's face paled. “I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD WAIT FOR COOP!”
“Oh my God.” My hands started to shake. “I know!”
“Dammit, Evie.” He got up and ran to the room.
I sat in shock, barely able to hear Jack telling Coop about the phone.
Coop came out. “We gotta move her. If someone besides Servario had that phone and Luce has been humping James, we need to move her to keep her safe.”
“Where?” I questioned. “The American Embassy is the safest place I can think of.”
“Agreed.”
Jack left the room looking sickened. “We came as Canadian; we have to take her to the Canadian one. What do you mean, she and James?”
“We won’t know anything until she’s awake.” His face didn’t improve. I gave him a smile. “James tried to kill her—I'm sure they didn’t have anything going on, and if they did, it was a long time ago.”
His expression changed but not for the better. He looked like Coop, stoic and indifferent and cut off. “We need to move her, she's stable. I'll call the order in like it's from the embassy.” He spoke softly, “She goes to the Canadians though. I don't trust Americans right now.” Jack went into the room.
“Oh shit.” Coop winced. “I didn’t know he was right there.”
“It doesn't matter,” I offered. “We shouldn’t keep any secrets. If we have secrets, they have ammo. Look at my mom and the phone—who knows why Servario has the leader of MI6's phone. But whatever the reason, we need to find out." I walked past him into the room and listened to Jack make the call.
“Yes, she’s a Canadian citizen who has been attacked in a hotel here in Rome. We think it was a robbery attempt but she fought back. They never got her passport or other identification, but her money has been stolen and her jewelry.” He paused, listening to what was being said. “Yes, Canadian, female, twenty-two, Julia Scottsburg from Toronto.” He paused again before continuing, “Yes.” He smiled. “Thank you.” He hung up and spoke, still not making eye contact with me, “The ambulance has been instructed to bring her to the Canadian Embassy the minute she is able. Canadian military officials are sending over two guards. It's the best we can do. They won’t let her go there until she is completely awake and stable.”
“Oh.” I winced. “I wish we could guarantee her safety.”
Jack's face was void of emotion. “We have to continue on with the mission, Evie. It's the way it works. If it was any other team, she would’ve been left for dead.”
Coop nodded from the doorway.
We walked out of the hospital, leaving her identification and passport with her. I gave the doctor the number of one of the pay-as-you-go phones I had bought. I wouldn’t use it for anything but Luce.
In the car Coop stole, we drove to a park and sat out in the cool air, surrounded by the beauty of the ancient Roman buildings. All of it was lost on us.
Jack studied the note again. Maybe his eyes were more focused on the bloodstains than the words.
“Time to get a move on.” I spoke softly, “So we have to go to the Vatican?”
“What?” Coop asked.
“The Curia, it's in the Vatican.”
“Oh right, yeah. I remember that from The Da Vinci Code.”
Jack looked at both of us blankly. “Are you two kidding? Did you not pay any attention in school? Caesar's Curia is the Curia Julia. Julius Caesar wasn't a Roman Catholic. The first ruler in Rome to be a Catholic was Constantine. Caesar died almost four hundred years before Constantine became a Catholic on his deathbed. Caesar's Curia became a church for a while.” His voice trailed off as he grabbed his phone and started to Google. “Yes, it was a church for some time before it was restored. According to the articles, it was taken back from the church and restored. The Curia is across from the Basilica. It's all ruins and ancient grounds. I can’t see it being open to the public at dusk.”
Coop frowned. “That's probably what they're counting on, no one being there to witness our deaths.”
“Great.”
“Oh yeah.” Jack nodded. “Great.”
“I can’t imagine how this is going to work, let alone how my mother will keep the kids safe and bring Steve. Mitch isn’t stupid. The things I've told him will lead him to question other things. He’ll figure out we’re in major shit.”
Jack winced. “I think he already has. I've been monitoring his web usage and the things he's searching are a bit intense. Very conspiracy-theory based but whatever.”
“Great.”
Coop ran his hands through his hair, scanning the park and the city behind us. Watching his steely blue eyes, I could almost see the ideas form and fade away as he contemplated it all. After several minutes he turned to me. “You're going back.”
“Home?”
“No.” He laughed in my face. “To Servario.” His grin made my stomach sink.
“Why?”
“I have a plan.”
We huddled like it was football practice and he ran us through his idea. I had to admit it would work.
Jack typed out the email as I spoke the words to him, “My dearest Rhett, I have missed you and seeing you last week reminded me of our time in Italy where we ate a Caesar salad and you made the funny jokes about the Basilica. It made me miss Scarlett more than I can bear. I wish she were with us again at Tara. Love and miss you all, Mammy!”
Jack scowled and sent the message. “I saw you as more of a Melanie.”
“You've seen Gone with the Wind?”
“Please, in the real world I have four sisters. My fave is obviously Austen. Persuasion I think.”
“Jack, why couldn’t you be my age?”
“Uhm.” He swallowed hard. “I don’t have a response for that so I'm going to walk that way and see you all at the spot later.”
Coop laughed but I moved on in the conversation. “Okay, time for Mammy to do her part.”
“Yes, it is,” he agreed. “Be good at this, Mammy.”
“It's not as fun when you say it.”
Jack interrupted us, “She woke up. They’re driving her to the Canadian Embassy now.”
Coop bit his lip and followed me across the grass, though we were meant to separate. “What if she and James were together? What if she isn’t on our side?”
“What can we do?” I grabbed his arms. “We can’t let this divide us. What if James thought the room was bugged, or he knew I was there? She might not even know him, maybe it was fake.”
“I trust you, Evie. In this whole fucking thing, I trust you and that’s it.”
“Me too, Coop.” My eyes darted to Jack. “And I trust him too.”
“Of course him.” He brushed my hair to the side as he looked down on me, the weight of the world in his eyes. I lifted to my tiptoes and softly brushed my lips against his cheek. I spent half a second there before I shoved off and walked away.
11
The End of You
I strolled into the fancy hotel and pressed the button for the elevator. My feet ached and my heart vibrated from its attempt at closing itself off. When I got off the elevator, Servario was standing there, with a smug grin.
“Missed me?”
“Something like that.”
His right eye twitched. “I would ask you in, but I fear you’re here to lure me to my death.”
“What?” My eyes narrowed. “Why?”
He folded his huge arms across his chest. “You want to come inside and seduce me, only then you'll poison me or trick me into something, and I’ll agree because I would give you the world on a platter. So let's save me a small measure of humility and pride. Just tell me why you are here.”
My lower lip trembled, stuck on the ‘world on a platter’ part. “I need you.”
A war inside him was fought in his eyes. Finally, he pulled me away from the elevator, wrapping himself around me. He kissed the top of my head. “You will be the end of me, Evie.”
“I know. I don’t want to be, but you never let me in on anything so it’s inevitable I will cause both our deaths.”
He chuckled. “I'm still not telling you anything.”
“I need your help. Isn't that enough?”
“No. I want you to tell me you need my cock.” He said it so matter-of-factly I had to laugh at his boldness. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me into the suite. “I really want you to try deep throating again.”
“No. You can pay someone for that, I'm not even bothered by the thought of it. If we ever ended up dating, and we were committed to each other, I still wouldn’t care if you paid someone for that. I'd pay for it for you.”
“I think I love you most days, and then you say something like that, and I know.” He grabbed my face, holding it up for me to see his green eyes. “I love you, a lot. I always have.” His confession ripped through me.
“My dad told me something about that.”
“He did? Then you see how this is a problem for me.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I know.” I didn’t really; I just didn’t want to let on I was that naïve, but I was.
His eyes pleaded with mine. “Evie, I can't love you. I just can't. You must not love me back. You have to promise you could never love someone like me.”
Tears filled my eyes without warning. I lied the least convincing lie ever, “I will never love you, Gustavo. Never.”
“Now, we deep throat.”
I shoved him back. “You going to try first?”
He winked. “I'd be happy to show you how it's done. Did you bring the gift I apparently got you for boot camp?”
“No. Luce stole it.” My tears sank back down my throat. “How do you know how to do it?”
“I've seen it done loads of times.”
I grimaced. “Oh gross. I think we need to talk about my hemorrhoids a few more times to balance the level of gross in your life.”
“I don't care. I want to take a shower. We can talk about whatever you want in there.”
“You kind of ruin it when you just let me talk about it. I like it better when you fight.” I followed him into the bathroom and started to strip off my clothes. My stomach was in knots, but I climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash over me until he came in and stole it all. He leaned down on me. “Did you find what I wanted you to on that phone?”
“I think so.” I almost sighed in relief as he spoke.
“So you realize your mother's boss is James' boss?”
“Wait—what?” I swallowed hard. “My mom is bad?”
“What?” He acted confused. “No. The head of MI6 is. I switched phones a while back. I suspected Steve was working for them. His number was in the phone because they’ve called him. I changed it to make it look like it’s me calling from my other number so Steve isn’t suspicious.”
“Seriously?” I questioned. “You really need to improve your background checks on people. Roxy and Steve?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
My eyes lit up. “Wait, so the Asian girls getting molested on the buses, that’s not you?”
He scowled. “What?”
“Jack found all kinds of really pervy sites on the phone. Dirty ones with old guys fucking Asian women dressed like teenagers on buses, sort of a non-consent fetish site.”
“Non-consent fetish porn?” He backed away from me. “And you thought that was mine?”
I laughed at how insulted he was. “You are a drug dealing, arms smuggling, sex addict.”
He was outraged. The green in his eyes was dark from the furrow of his brow. “Evie, I'm not a bloody pedo, and I have a strict consent rule, in fact. And I’m not a sex addict. I have a very healthy sex life.” His accent had thickened considerably.
I put my hands on his chest. “I'm sorry. We just assumed.”
“We?” He gave me a desperate look. “So Jack is out there in the world, believing me capable of that?” I bit my lip. He growled, “Evie?”
“I’ll straighten it out, right away.”
His look didn’t improve.
“Well, who knew you had such morals, Mr. Drug and Arms Dealer?”
“That's not funny.” He gripped my arms. “I have a very strict rule about children.” His voice lowered as if we were being watched. “I always kill anyone who tries to sell kids, and then free them. Always.”
“Okay.” I stood on my tiptoes, kissing him softly. “I'm glad to hear it.”
But the mood was over. He was done. Whatever I’d said hit home for him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about that. I watched his eyes as I realized he was going to tell me, “My father let his men have whatever they wanted. Age was never an issue. It was my deciding factor in joining your father and the Burrow. I wanted to end my father’s life and the lives of anyone who agreed. I came to the warehouse where he was having a party once. A shipment had come in. He had a boatload of young girls from Thailand. They were young, maybe fourteen.”
He closed his eyes for a second, chasing away the memories. “Some things you see, and no matter how many wrongs you right in the world, God doesn’t take the vision of those things away. You cannot unsee those things because God wants you to remember always what the cost of a soul is.”
His words and the impact the images had on him broke my heart. My eyes watered. “I'm sorry, Gustavo.”
“Don’t be. I regret nothing.” His eyes found mine again. “Except seeing you. I wish to God I had never seen you. I have never been in as much danger as I am with you.”
“You shouldn't regret it.” I ran my hands down his cheeks, pulling his face with them. “I don’t regret anything.”
His lips twitched before they landed on mine. The heat from them was intense, even compared to the water coming down on us. He lifted me up into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist.
I smiled into our kiss. “I like our shower talks, though sometimes they scare me.”
“We will always have the shower, Evie.” Something was different with his kiss. I could sense it. It was passionate and desperate. He was kissing me the way Jack kissed Luce. He was eager and needy for me. His hands and arms held me like I was fragile. There was no fucking, taking, or hurting to get pleasure. He stroked my body, kissing and touching in appreciation of me. It felt like worship.
Our skin slipped and slid against each other’s under the spray of the water. He grabbed a condom from the counter, putting it on as we kissed and touched, softly rubbing against one another, until finally his body entered mine with a gentle push. I lowered myself onto him completely as he pinned me against the shower wall. I rested my feet in the soap holders and rocked against him. He moved fluidly in and out of me, like a boat on the waves. His lips pressed into my neck and collarbone as his hands massaged my ass. I was nearly drowning in pleasure when I climaxed. The buildup was slow and steady, something he and I never really did. I wrapped around him tightly, gripping his meaty body with mine as the orgasm overwhelmed me and crashed. I cried out, almost slipping but he held me up, maintaining a perfect pace to continue my convulsions, suckling my breasts, flicking my nipples and biting them. The sound, I only made for him, slipped from my lips.
He kissed
and sucked my bottom lip as I moaned, “I lied. I love you, Gustavo. I have loved you all along. You scare me, but I love it.”
He started to pound into me. “Take it back.”
"No." I shook my head against his face. He pushed my back against the shower hard. His balls began slapping against my asshole. I dug my feet into the soap holders and let him ravish me. His body pumped against and into mine, stretching and bending every part of me. His orgasm filled me as he groaned into my ears. Finally calm, he whispered, “Take it back.”
I pressed my face against his again. “I can't.”
“You have to.” He peered down at me through his long bangs, water pouring off his body, and I took a mental picture of him. I would always see him as vulnerable and desperate. I loved him. No matter how much I hated him or feared him, I loved him.
Maybe I was foolish for it but it didn't matter. The broken pieces of him and me made a whole when we were together.
12
The End of Fear—okay, I wish
Servario gave me an uncertain look as we rode down in the elevator. “You sure?”
“I am.” I wasn’t, but I didn't know what else to do.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “There’s no going back.”
A slow smile crossed my lips. “That ship's sailed, my friend. I'm in it to win it, and thanks to James, I'm balls deep in the enemy’s ass.”
“Wow.” He winced. “That’s disturbing.”
My smile widened. “I need you to promise me, you’re on my side or at least the side of good.”
His green eyes were alive with something I told myself was love. “I have always been on the side of good, Evie.”
I noticed he didn’t say my side. It made my chest feel like it weighed a ton, but I pretended I was fine. “Okay, let's do this.”
When the elevator landed he grabbed my arm a bit harshly and pulled me through the lobby to the waiting car. The driver opened the door, hardly giving me any notice. I didn’t recognize him.