by Peiri Ann
It was a lot to take in. Rick always had some crazy shit to say. “Yep.”
“Am I right?”
“No.” I stood and headed for the door.
“Come on, Kyle. You’re going to flat out lie to me?” He followed me. “I’m not going to say anything about her. And honestly, everyone just assumes it was her because shortly before they were murdered, Hayden was in a car accident involving her parents. Nobody can prove it, but I doubt they care. You gotta let me help you out with this. And you cannot go after him. I’m not going to stop you—I won’t do anything if you do it—I’m just warning you as a friend you need to not go out there and go after him. There’s a lot riding on Melor, and you cutting him out will interfere in something bigger.”
I turned around. “Something bigger for who? The CIA, an agency, another gangster. Who?” I said, throwing my arms out to my sides.
“Everyone. After you had left Purcell, you were working for the wrong guy. And what’s fucked up about it is that you knew it. The only people who didn’t come after you were who? Us. Me. The CIA and the drug lords, the gangsters and every other enemy of the state. The only people after you are those shitty agencies. You know I’m right. Continue to have our backs. Those agencies are out to hurt you and every other person they have working for them.”
I waved him off. “You don’t know what I’m doing, you don’t know who I am. You can’t talk me into or out of doing anything.”
His face fell and he leaned against the panel of his front door. “Kyle, if you think Nixon and Purcell have your back in this, you’re mistaken. How do you think I know all of this stuff?”
“If you’re my friend and you say I can trust you… then you’ll have my back. I won’t have to worry about Nixon or Purcell having it. Right?”
He stared me down. His studious expression told me he was thinking hard about what I said. Finally, he nodded and said, “Right.” He threw up his hand and I met it. We shook and bumped fists.
“Enjoy your flight,” I told him.
“You too.” I left out his door to the walkway that led to the driveway. “And don’t take Val.”
“I won’t,” I called over my shoulder.
Janet and I waited, watching Kyle board his flight. We waited until the plane took off before we ran to the car, grabbed our bags, and came back into the airport so we wouldn’t miss our flight, which was scheduled to depart forty-five minutes after Kyle’s.
“He is going to kick our asses when he sees us in Berlin,” Janet said as we waited in line to walk through the metal detector.
“I know, right?” Kyle had told us to stay here while he and Nixon handled Melor. I hadn’t seen Kyle in action much, but he needed us. He wasn’t using his head in most situations, especially with Rick. He was hiding something from us involving Rick and Melor. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew he wasn’t telling me something and he acted like Rick’s confession wasn’t as big as it was.
“You made the reservations at the hotel, right?” Janet asked.
“Yes, and scheduled a car to pick us up at the airport. You remembered your passport, right?”
“Yeah. What about the room?”
“The room is next to Nixon’s. It was the only one available.” We moved forward with the line as we talked. Janet wasn’t acting like we were enemies anymore and I felt like things were as they had been before. I wasn’t sure; she could’ve been playing me. But I played along. If she was going to be cool, so was I.
“How are we going to do this?”
“Don’t know. He’s bound to see us. Especially when he calls you and asks about Mrs. Shultz and you can’t give him an update,” I said as the security guard waved me forward.
We arrived an hour after Kyle’s plane landed. It was bad timing because if they hadn’t left the airport yet, we risked running into them. I texted Kyle.
Me: Hey, you okay? You all made it to the hotel yet?
Kyle: No, stuck at the airport. Our car’s stuck in traffic.
Me: Oh, that sucks. How long will you be waiting?
Kyle: He said he should be pulling up in twenty minutes. I don’t know German and have to guess at what all these people are saying. So, I’m nodding and waving with no idea what is being said.
Me: They’re probably saying, excuse me, sir, you have a shit stain on your pants. And you’re confirming it with a nod.
Kyle: You might be right. I sat in chocolate on the airplane because of this badass kid whose mom couldn’t control him. Nixon whooped him and ended up getting handcuffed. He rode the entire flight on the floor of the airplane. It was a long flight. Longest fifteen hours of my life.
Me: I’m laughing, Kyle.
Kyle: Enjoy my pain, Spirit. Enjoy it.
Kyle: I miss you.
Kyle: I wish I could watch you laugh.
Me: Hmm…
Kyle: What?
Me: Nothing.
Kyle: I am going to kill you. You and Janet in that bright ass red dress. Why the hell are you all here?
Me: Oh my God! How do you see me?
I looked around me and couldn’t see him anywhere.
Kyle: I don’t see you. You just told on yourself. Dammit, Val. I asked you not to come.
“Janet, I just blew it,” I said ashamed.
“How?”
“Kyle asked me why we were here and pointed out you were wearing this red dress.”
Janet rolled her eyes and stomped her foot. “Dammit. Where is he?” She looked around us and so did I.
“I don’t know. But he doesn’t know we’re here. I just confirmed it by asking how he sees us. He doesn’t.”
“Dammit, play it off or something. Change his mind.”
Kyle: Valerie Harper. Where are you?
Me: In Texas. Where I’m supposed to be.
Kyle: You better be.
Me: I love you… ☺
Kyle: You better not be here.
Me: Kisses!
“He knows I’m lying, Janet. And he is still here at the airport.”
“Well, our car is here.”
“We are going to get so caught.”
“How do you think Kyle knows I have on a red dress?”
“Because you always wear it when you travel,” said a male voice. Janet and I froze before we slowly turned around to face Shultz. “I cannot believe you, Spirit. I asked you not to come.” His expression was flooded with disappointment, accommodating his distressed voice. “And Janet, I just knew you would listen.”
Nixon came up behind him. “See, I told you they wouldn’t listen. Do you all have a car? Ours is running late and it’s embarrassing waiting around here with Kyle and this chocolate shit stain on his pants.”
Janet and I had looked at each other before we moved to look around him.
He held us back. “Don’t look.”
We definitely had to look. We rushed around him, and right in the middle of the back of his pants was a large brown blot. It looked like he’d sat in shit. Janet and I burst out in laughter.
“Oh my God, Kyle. I thought you were kidding,” I said. “You didn’t want to change?”
“No, I’m tired.” He pulled Janet and me back in front of him. “Let us ride with you.”
“Nope. We aren’t supposed to be here. So you find your own car. We’ll see you at the hotel.” Janet turned and Kyle caught her as she pivoted.
“Hold it, Arch.” He looked at me. “We’re riding with you two. You’re not even supposed to be here. And I thought you were going to keep an eye on my mom, Arch.”
“The car is waiting, Kyle,” she sang, pulling Nixon with her.
“So since you’re here, you’re rooming with me?” Kyle asked as we walked through the golden doors of the hotel. It was big and beautiful.
“No.” Its floors were golden, matching with the doors and windows. The ceiling had murals painted on it while the walls were white. The lobbies counter was a white pearl and it was crowded with people speaking many different languages. L
uckily for me, German was my thing.
I helped get us checked in and we waited by the desk for the bellboy to show us to our rooms.
“Spirit,” Kyle whispered in my ear, sliding his hand across my back to grasp my waist. “When I get you alone… and naked… and on top of me, I want you to speak German. Say something real sexy though, like ‘Kyle, I want you to—’”
“Bell hop’s here,” I said, moving away from him. This wasn’t that type of trip and if I let Kyle get to me, whatever he was going to say would have been said in German, while I was naked, riding him like a bull.
“Val and I are in room 5586,” Janet told the young man.
He escorted us to our room first. “Thank you, kind sir. The gentlemen will tip you.” Nixon scolded Janet with a look of anguish. Janet smirked and closed the door. “Hey, at least our room is big.”
“Yes, it is. I don’t think anything is small in Berlin.”
“I hope not.” She smirked, and I knew exactly where her mind went. “But we’re here to look out for Kyle. Not other things. Like finding how not small Mr. Bellboy is. He was hot.”
I wanted to comment on how cute he was too. But I kept thinking Janet was looking for something to get me caught up in. “I’m going to lie down. We’ll keep an eye out for when they leave.”
“Did you put the tracker on his phone?”
“Yep, did it last night. You put yours in Nixon’s?”
“Yes, did it before they left.”
“Good, it should alert us when they get more than fifty feet from us.” Setting up Kyle to be monitored reminded me of when I used to watch him. It kind of turned me on. Sneaking always gave me a little rush.
“Well, they’re here now. So you can stop complaining about it. Let’s lie down for a few hours, then head out. We got a lot of work to do before tomorrow.” When Nixon is on an assignment, he’s the most mature person on the planet. He left to go to his room, through a door from mine.
I lay down and stared at the popcorn ceiling painted white and yellow. Keeping Val safe in the States was easy. But they live by a different set of rules outside of the U.S. Rick told me Denis mentioned Val’s name to Melor about killing Hayden, but because he had no one else to blame the missing cocaine on. Guess who the white dust thief was.
He told me everyone is looking for her out here. Plus she took out one of his best men. I was here on an assignment and I couldn’t look out for her. I hadn’t told her any of this stuff because I’d thought she wouldn’t come. I’d hoped she wouldn’t. But I couldn’t let her be here and not know.
Me: Meet me by the pool.
She didn’t respond.
Me: Spirit…
Me: Answer me, Spirit.
A panic attacked my stomach and I just knew the bellboy had left us, gone back to their room and offed Val and Janet.
I jumped up from my bed and raced down the hall and around a corner to their room. I banged on the door, not getting an answer. “Spirit,” I called through the door. “Spirit!” I called again.
They weren’t answering and I was ready to break the damn door down.
I’d raised my leg to kick it when it pulled open.
Spirit stood at the door, rubbing her tired, red eyes. “What, Kyle?”
I yanked her to me, hugging her. I was playing live or die with Spirit. Any moment she could be gone and I wasn’t ready for that. Seeing her with all that blood on her and thinking she was about to die when Rick’s crib got shot up was enough for me. I couldn’t take any more of those near-death experiences.
I kissed her cheek. “Spirit, wake up,” I calmly told her, hugging her a little tighter.
“I’m awake now, thanks to you banging on the door. What’s wrong?”
“I thought the bellboy killed you.”
“What?” She pushed me back, eyeing me. “Why would the bellboy want to kill me?”
“Everybody wants to kill you. Come with me, let’s talk. I have something to tell you.”
She stepped back. “Okay, Kyle. Just to let you know, I hate it when you have something you have to tell me. It’s never good.”
We sat by the pool and she was quiet for a while.
“Kyle, while you’re teaching me honesty, I’m going to teach you how to tell people important stuff that will change their lives and decisions they make.” She forced her hands through her hair, grunting and rolling her eyes.
I pulled her chair closer to me. “If I had told you back home would you still have come?”
“Yes,” she told me in an obvious tone.
My brows pulled together and my eyes narrowed. “Then what does it matter if I tell you or not?”
“Because I would have come more prepared.” She leaned back on the lounge chair, throwing her hands in her face.
I looked around us, spotting two men in black suits. They looked over at Val and me as they talked. We were seated outside, around the pool of the hotel. Everyone was either in their swimsuits or in street clothes like Spirit and me.
“Over your shoulder. Don’t look yet. We’re being watched.”
Spirit pulled out her phone, turning on the camera. She looked through it like she was taking a picture of herself. “I see them. Another just walked up, right?”
“Yep. Let’s move, see if they follow us.”
“Okay.”
Spirit and I got up and walked through a door that led to a hallway heading toward the hotel’s lobby. A few feet into our walk down the hall, the same door opened.
“Don’t look yet,” she said.
I looked to my left at the window; it reflected the hall and the three men were leisurely following behind us. “Let’s leave. We don’t want to lead them back to our rooms.”
“Okay. Let’s go to the lobby and get a car.”
“No, let’s head out and catch a cab.”
She nodded and we quickened our pace through the lobby to the revolving doors. It was packed out here with people walking around, lounging about the hotel, talking in a language I didn’t understand.
Luckily, an available cab was waiting outside the hotel when we walked out. Spirit spoke German to our cab driver and he drove away from the hotel. The three men got into a silver car and got on our tail, two cars behind us.
Spirit spoke to the cab driver, giving him directions. I realized that because after a few words he took a turn, nodding.
“Yeah, they’re definitely following us,” she said.
No shit. “See, this is why I said stay back there. I’m out here on business and now running through the streets of Berlin with you when I’m supposed to be taking a nap.”
“Shut up, Kyle.” She looked out the back window. “We need to lose them.”
Duh. “Tell the driver to take us to somewhere heavily crowded with people.”
She spoke to the driver and he nodded, saying something back with a smile.
“I told him to take us to Kurfürstendamm. There will be a lot of people there.”
“Good. Ask him to hurry up.”
“I told him that too.”
We rode through the city, avoiding traffic. It was a thirty-minute ride to where Spirit told the driver to go, and the silver car stayed with us the entire way. When we arrived, we jumped out into a crowd.
“You see them get out?” she asked.
I looked behind me, spotting them getting out of their silver car. They wore sunglasses and tried to make it seem like they weren’t looking at us. “Yeah. Keep going. Get as deep into this crowd as you can.”
“Good idea.” Spirit looked behind us, and her face lit with shock. “Shit.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me. “They’re running.”
“Dammit.” I grabbed her hand and we ran through the thick mass. Everything could’ve been copacetic. We probably could’ve made it out of the crowd to a subway tunnel or something. But no… they started shooting.
“Why do people insist on endangering innocent people?” she shouted as we ducked along with all the other people trying to avo
id catching a bullet.
Everyone was shouting, running and crawling on the sidewalk trying to find cover. I was unarmed, she was unarmed. Our only choice was to run. If we hid, they’d come upon us. “Spirit, we have to make a run for it.”
She looked up and around us as we ducked behind a brick wall. “Okay. Ready?”
“Which way?”
“Subway tunnel,” she said, pointing to our left.
“Got it.” I spotted the three men standing in the crowd, looking around for us. “Let’s move.”
We broke out into a sprint, heading for the subway tunnel. Gunshots blared as we ran. Over them one of the men yelled, “Got them!”
We cleared the stairs, jumping over railings and the pay ports. The doors of the train were sliding closed and we jumped in before they could. The people crowding the train car stared at us. “Hi,” I said.
They grumbled, scolding us with disapproving scowls and gibberish.
Spirit moved through the train cars and I followed behind her.
She found us some empty seats and I all but threw myself into one, finally able to catch my breath.
“That was fun, right?”
Kyle gave me a serious look. “No. We don’t even know where we’re headed.”
“You’re headed east,” an older man informed us, looking up from his newspaper.
“Is that toward Luxus Rückzug, or away?” Kyle asked.
“Away,” the man responded, German accent strong in his deep voice.
“Great, Spirit. Just great.”
“You kids here on a honeymoon?”
“Yes, sir,” Kyle responded. “But when we get home, I’m getting a divorce.”
I slapped his arm. He pinched my leg.
“Why so soon?” the man asked, folding his newspaper and placing it on his lap.
“Because sir, she doesn’t listen and we don’t have great communication.”
“Kyle, hush. Excuse him. We are happy. He’s just going through a phase. Regret and insecurity.” I smiled. “He doesn’t trust me.”
“Exactly,” Kyle seconded. “See, I asked her to do something and she did the complete opposite. Are you married?”