The Single Lady Spy Series Boxset

by Tara Brown

  And I was.

  But I wanted this to be more. I wanted to be hung up on him and maybe comfortable in the fact he was equally hung up on me. Enough that he didn't need other women and that he was honestly trying to be a man who could fit into my world.

  It was akin to dressing a beast up for a ball, but I didn't care. I loved him, and I was willing to give it a chance if he could prove himself.

  The sun was setting when I walked through the orange glow of the lanterns on the cobblestone path between the castle wings and around the back of the building. I found a small alcove and sat down on the brick steps, sighing and staring at the beautiful scenery. It was more than I could take in.

  I leaned against the wall and imagined how it might have all been different. My father agreeing to Gustavo Servario asking me out. Me falling madly in love with him. Us having a life, maybe free of the Burrow.

  None of it ever made my children possible so it wasn't worth daydreaming about. James was the way it had to work out so I could have them. At least he was dead and I was free and they were all mine. That was one small thing in my corner.

  Without the memory drug I didn't know what to do about Janice. She was a tricky situation.

  I pulled off my ballet flats and examined the bottoms of my feet, stunned by how much they had healed. I was ready to find some comfortable runners and finish off Drusack. That was one more piece of the puzzle solved.

  Pushing on the wall, I rose like a geriatric might have and staggered away from it.

  “Don't leave.”

  I froze when I heard him. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I have to. If I don't make a stand and demand respect, I won’t ever get it.”

  “I respect you.”

  “Liar.” I turned and smiled at the grin on his face. His eyes were filled with sadness. “I am going to kill him tomorrow. Just so you know.”

  “I figured.”

  “Did you?”

  “Of course. I came here before you wrote the stupid ad in the newspaper. I actually paid them to cancel the ad. It was much too obvious.”

  “You were here already?” My insides tightened.

  “Yes. I wanted to be here in case you needed me. It won’t be easy, but I have Drusack’s entire mansion mapped out. I could send it to Jack.” He took a brave step toward me.

  I stepped back. “Don't.”

  “There is only you. There has been only you from the moment we met.”

  “Don't.” I wrinkled my nose. “Don't lie to me.”

  He paused. “I don't lie to you. There has not been one single woman in my company since the moment CI sent you as my prize. The rest has been an act.”

  “You are lying. The hookers in the casino in Rome all told me they had fucked you, and I saw you at a gala not too long ago. You had a blonde on your arm. She was young and beautiful. She stayed with you the entire night.”

  “The hookers—I forgot about them. You were dating young Cooper then.” He grinned. “You were watching me at the gala? I wondered if you had.” He paused and that weird look hit his eyes again. It was joy and it was strange to see on his face. “That blonde girl is the daughter of a friend. She isn’t part of this world. She was my escort because she was desperate to see a young man that night, and she is forbidden to see him. Call me a fool, but I can’t help but favor a plight such as that.”

  “Forbidden?”

  “Yes. He is a young man who has not yet made his stars. Her father told her if she wanted to go to the party she could be my escort, knowing I wouldn't”—he flinched as if there were more to the story than he was telling—"I wouldn't try to seduce her. Her father was there the whole night so she stayed with me and made it look like she had left with me when I left early. But they actually took my car back to the hotel and I went to the airport. I caught a flight and came to see you. I watched you all the next day. You ran in the woods with young Cooper. You worked out like I have not seen you do in a very long time. You played with Jules at the park and played goalie for Mitch and his friend to take shots on. The friend hit you with a puck in the neck. I didn't like that part. I don't understand how your neck was visible.”

  A cheesy and ridiculous grin crossed my lips. “I was so mad at you for being with that blonde girl, I almost told Coop I was cool with booty calls.”

  “It has been you and you alone for a very long time, minus the hooker in Rome, and it was a blow job, the kind you don't like giving. So really, I did you a favor.” He laughed.

  “That's not a favor.”

  “It was a bad joke. I was with James and he was watching my every move.” He was serious again as he took a step closer and I didn't back away. I didn't want to fall for his lies but I was. I knew they were lies, and yet I nodded along like a puppet. “Evie.” The way he whispered my name as he stroked the side of my face made my legs turn to jelly, but I stepped back, exhaling one of those intense and awkward sounds that seemed to own the moment.

  “No.” I shook my head, gathering my wits. “You are lying. I know you have been with women, and I don't even care about them. I care that you’re lying. I was with Coop. I don't care about the girls—I care about the commitment. That's the only thing I really want from you. Not fancy words and definitely not lies.” I turned and ran, regardless of my feet begging me not to.

  I hurried around the long side of the castle to the front where the hillside overlooked the town below.

  I stopped, sensing I might throw up. My ribs and feet were nowhere near where they needed to be to fight to the death tonight. And maybe not even tomorrow.

  Hearing a sound, I turned to see him walk out the front door. He wasn’t winded or so much as breathing hard. He had apparently bounced back from being strangled like a champ, whereas I was still in agony a week later.

  “You will wait and you will listen.” He pointed, making me freeze. I tried whispering I wasn't scared of him, but that was a lie. I was scared when he got that fury in his eyes.

  He marched to me, snatching my hand and shoving the most ridiculous ring onto my ring finger. He scraped the skin, making me wince.

  “Are you happy? You ruined my fucking surprise—big shocker. You always have to go and be a regular girl and not the version I have of you in my head.”

  “What is it?” Panic filled me a little.

  “A ruby from Harry Winston.” He was still pissed off, but he was softening.

  “Holy shit!” I gazed down at the beautiful oval ring, slightly confused and extremely overwhelmed. “Why?”

  “Because I fucking love you! I was trying to tell you that in the room when you laughed at me, and I was trying to tell you in the courtyard when you brought up the hookers. I love you! Jesus!”

  “I don't understand.”

  He dropped to his knees, holding my hand in his and peered up into my eyes with that weird expression, not matching his personality at all. It was pure bliss and absolute joy. He sparkled like a child did on Christmas. “It’s my heart, Evie. I am giving it to you. I know you have kids and your mother is a little extreme, and the Burrow will take all my life to root out all the small branches to destroy, and the Organization must be stopped no matter how I feel about it.” He sucked his breath and started again, “But I want to find a way. I want to be the man you deserve and the love that you need. I want to find a way.”

  “Are you asking me to marry you?” I didn't even know how to say no to him. I could barely stop staring at the mound of red jewelry overtaking my finger.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I wouldn't do you the dishonor of saying something so repulsive.”

  I had clearly hurt his feelings by laughing in his face, but he had surprised me. I dropped to my knees too, wincing when I landed but not caring. I slipped the ring off my finger and handed it back to him. “Give it to me when we stand a chance.”

  “No.” He clenched his jaw, shaking his head in small twitches. “Take it.”

  “I can’t. I may not seem like it, but deep down I daydream about having a
real proposal and a real wedding and a real marriage. And I have already waited fifteen years for you, Gustavo. I will wait another fifteen.” Tears streamed my cheeks as I leaned in and brushed my lips against his. “I love you with all my heart.”

  His hand trembled in mine but we didn't move. We just rested our foreheads against each other for several moments as the castle behind us lit up and the sun set completely. It was magical. Even if it couldn't last and we were stuck being us, it was magical for the moment we managed to freeze time.

  21

  What the actual f^&*?

  I clicked on the earpiece and whispered, “You got me?”

  “Yup. Go to the right. The map shows a cellar that comes out near the woods where you are, in the backyard by the gate and the garage.”

  I blinked the contact in my eye until I found a comfortable spot for it and pulled down my balaclava. Coop glared. It wasn't nearly as hostile as it had been on the car ride over.

  No matter what, he wasn't going to be easy to deal with, but we had to work together so we had to learn to behave. He ran in first.

  “Keep up, Evie!” he murmured over the radio. I wanted to remind him that my feet were a hot mess and I had a broken rib or two, but I feared he might tell me how my age was slowing my healing process. I didn't want to have to kill him.

  We ran through the woods. I had to work at not noticing the lavender-colored flowers on the floor of the perfectly spaced Black Forest. The trees didn't overcrowd and the branches were high enough that the forest appeared as though it went on forever. It looked manicured, but I had to guess it grew this way. It wasn't creepy and spooky as I’d imagined it in Little Red Riding Hood.

  My mom passed me, holding her double swords. She seemed to prefer them to anything else as far as weapons were concerned. It was scary watching her fight, but she was gifted in the art of death. She lacked the obvious conscience that would have stopped most people. She was a machine. I feared the parts of her that were inherently passed down to me. The ability to detach so easily.

  “Come on, darling. You’re being slow.”

  “Seriously?” I sighed. “Everyone remembers I am injured, right?”

  “I ran through a jungle once with a broken leg and a bullet in my thigh. I didn't slow down anyone and I never complained, Evie.” Coop’s tone was not my favorite one.

  “You’re the man, Coop,” Jack cheered him on, or mocked him maybe. At least he was no longer rocking that accent. He didn't have to, as he was holed up in the office he kept in the attic where no one could get without a serious amount of effort, combined with Jack’s handprint and his eyes. Luce and Fitz were with the kids watching a movie in the home theatre. “Let's go, Evie,” he cheered me on.

  “Shut up, Jack,” I snapped. We rounded the fence that had come up out of nowhere. I ran ahead and slipped through the gate at the back acre.

  “Launch there,” Jack muttered.

  I pulled a gun that reminded me of a flare gun and shot the top of the garage. I turned and raced back toward the woods where Coop and Mom remained. The object I had shot onto the garage began blinking red. I sped up as the little machine killed all surveillance and transmitting signals to and from the residence.

  “You guys still have me?” Jack asked.

  “Yup.” Coop motioned for us to move ahead again.

  “I have no heat traces except him. He is alone in the house or he is keeping people in a bunker where you can’t trace heat,” Jack offered as he typed.

  I picked up my pace, forcing myself not to notice the aching of my body. We slid through the gate I had just been through and hurried along the garage to the cellar.

  “To your left. The cellar should be right there.”

  Coop slid on the ground, getting the door open. All three of us slipped down into the hole as Coop closed the door.

  Inside, I wrinkled my nose. The dank and dark cellar was akin to Jack’s basement.

  “You guys must have the same decorator, Jack.”

  “He at least has a proper torture cell.” Mom pointed to the far side of the cellar. I wrinkled my nose when I realized what that was.

  “Mom, that's not a torture cell.” I started to laugh. “It’s a sex swing.”

  Her gaze narrowed as Jack cackled in our ears.

  “Jesus, Vincent. He has a sex swing? He’s seventy years old for God’s sake. That's disturbing. Whom is he swinging with?”

  I waved a hand. “Oh no, stop. Gross. Please. I’m super visual.”

  Coop barked, “Stop the grab-assing and get moving. Evie, you remain on the first floor, Helena you take the second as requested, and I will take the third. Whoever finds him, we come to you.”

  “Roger that.” Mom smiled and headed out, moving like a seventeen-year-old in her leather catsuit. Coop watched her leave and gave me a pathetic look.

  I lifted my middle finger, making him grin. It was a bitter grin, but it was a start. “You know what I was going to say,” he whispered.

  “That she’s twice as hot and four times as fit and ten times the soldier.”

  He shrugged. “You said it.”

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes.

  But the joking died quickly as his eyes flashed momentary pain as he gestured at the hallway. He headed out first. I waited like he had done for Mom. We both assumed Mom would be the one to find Vincent.

  She was the better spy, but the main floor was where most people spent their time in their own houses. The basement and first floor didn't appear to be the main floor of the house. She had demanded to be the one on that floor.

  I counted to a hundred and headed out after Coop. They had cleared their way through the basement, so I hurried up the stairs at the far side of the long hallway. The first floor of the house was offices and spare bedrooms. Vincent had two home offices for some bizarre reason.

  The first one on the right at the top of the plush carpet stairs was a storage room. There were boxes of files. Each one had a name on it. When I saw Anderson on a small box, I had to go in. I lifted the lid off and started combing through pictures of my dad.

  He was young and strong and virile in them. They were black-and-whites of him in the army. A smile crested my lips when I saw Fitz standing next to him.

  There were pictures of the Vietnam War. His thick mustache and wide smile were still the same. I combed through, scowling at the pictures of my kids and me and James and even Sissy. Jules was a baby in the first few and then maybe two in the other photos. Addresses were written underneath them, even Montana was in there.

  I had to assume there were more pictures of my kids and my life. James was CI and so was my dad. But actually seeing my kids’ pictures in the house of a man who had just killed tens of thousands of innocent and sick people opened a dark part of my heart.

  Something turned on inside me.

  The detached and scary person my mother was, slipped into me, becoming a cold water in my veins. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a packet.

  “Whoa! Evie, wait! Don't do that,” Jack whispered harshly in my earpiece.

  I peered down at the pictures of my kids. “I have to.”

  “I know. But wait till you find him. That has a timer. You don't want to set it.”

  “Fine,” I growled and slipped the packet back into my pocket. “I am blowing this house up, starting with this room.”

  “Okay. But let’s wait till we accomplish the one thing we came here for.”

  I scanned the boxes and paused at with the label GS on it. My fingers itched to check inside.

  “Evie!” he warned, but I stepped forward, flipping the lid off and staring at the lone picture of me and Gustavo in Italy. We stood in the square at the Trevi Fountain. I lifted the picture, stunned to see a photo of Elise, the blonde MI6 agent, under it. They were young, maybe twenty. Maybe. They had their arms around each other and were smiling for the camera.

  Servario had two weaknesses. Me and the other female agent he had once loved. I wondered when we ha
d intertwined. When did he love me more than her and vice versa?

  “It’s weaknesses. Boxes of weaknesses in case we decided to betray them. They have everything they need to hurt us,” Jack whispered in my ear.

  “Yup.” I closed the box and directed my attention to the opposite wall where Jack and Luce both had a box.

  “Don't look in my box, Evie. Please.”

  A small piece of me wanted to look, but I had to trust him. “Okay.” The fact that he was so secretive and he didn't want me to look made me worried about him, but not more worried than I was about the house needing to explode.

  I left the room, desperately wanting to spend all my time in there, but aware it was a bad idea. Other people’s secrets weren’t my business.

  I chanted that as I headed down the hall, clearing the second office and numerous bedrooms.

  “Your mom has him. I think,” Jack whispered in my ear.

  “What?”

  “She doesn't have her gear turned on. I can’t hear her and she’s not responding to me and her camera is black, like her eye is closed.”

  “Shit! Where was she last?”

  “The balcony off the kitchen is where it went black.”

  I ran as hard as I could run without making noise. The stairs led to a great room that was level with the hill so the front door was there. I hurried into the kitchen to see my mom through the window, with Vincent on the patio. She had a sword pointed at his throat. I burst through the door. “MOM!”

  “Darling, go back inside. Vincent and I have some things to discuss.” She didn't look at me when she spoke calmly.

  “I need to ask him some questions.”

  “No!” She ordered, “Go inside.”

  Ignoring her, I walked to him, standing with my neck next to the blade pointed straight at his throat. “Did my father and Servario always know what the Burrow did? That they would use some of the experiments or inventions?”

  His eyes darted from me to my mother. I didn't need an answer. I saw the lie he was forming, based on the glare he was getting from my mother.

  “Is the Burrow the same thing as the Organization?”