Shattered Lies

by Kathleen Brooks

  Their new purchases had been put away for them as Grant flipped on the television, and she’d made them lunch with the food that had been stocked in the kitchen. When all the attendants finally left, Grant flipped off the television and they ate before putting on their suits. Sadly, Grant had shaved, although he’d left enough scruff to show his wild Highland side.

  He lay next to her in a couple’s cabana with his arms under his head. A tattoo of a Celtic trinity knot, with its horizontal and vertical lines combining in the intricate design, stood out on his left shoulder. Women were noticing, to say the least, considering his shoulders and chest looked to be sculpted from granite.

  “Two o’clock,” Grant’s deep voice drew her attention from a twenty-something in a thong bikini who just dropped her sunglasses right in front of them. Val looked over at Grant and wanted to laugh. He wasn’t even looking at the woman. Instead, he was focused on a man on a lounge chair in the row behind Gene’s daughters.

  “I see him.”

  “Keep watching. Every couple minutes he looks to his left,” Grant said, putting his arm around her and pulling her against his side. The thong-clad woman huffed and sashayed away. Valeria watched the target as Grant’s hand dropped from her shoulder to fondle the top of her blue triangle bikini top. He turned his head and placed a kiss on her neck as his hand dipped into the thin material of her top.

  “Grant,” Valeria squeaked on a gasp when he pinched her nipple into a taut peak.

  “Shhh, I’m keeping our cover,” he said, kissing his way down her neck.

  Valeria chuckled as she heard a group of women sitting nearby sigh. They’d been talking about Grant for the past thirty minutes. “You’re drawing attention.”

  “Good. I want the men to know you’re off limits. Plus, it’s fun.” He pulled his hand from her top and placed it on the indentation of her hip. “Did you see it?”

  Valeria nodded as she rested her head on his chest. “The guy that’s getting up, right?”

  “Right.”

  Valeria watched the man walking off the beach and onto the private path leading to the villas. The path was obstructed from view by various palm trees and flowering bushes.

  “I’ll be right back,” Valeria said, placing a quick kiss on his cheek. She climbed off the queen-sized padded lounger and adjusted her bikini bottoms as she casually strolled after the man in the short-sleeved, salmon-colored button-up shirt that was opened to his belly button. The outline of a gun was clearly seen under his shirt and against the waist of his dark blue swim trunks.

  Valeria grabbed a fruity drink left abandoned beside one of the lounge chairs and went to cut him off. She hurried to an entrance farther down the beach and began to jog toward her target once in the privacy of the path.

  “No, the girls are oblivious,” she heard the man say in Spanish. Valeria stopped and pressed herself into the leaves. The man was around a bend, and she couldn’t tell if he was walking toward her or just standing there talking. “Tonight? Do you want it to be an accident?”

  Valeria crept forward when she noticed he wasn’t moving. She peered through the thick foliage and saw the man standing in the middle of the path and slowly circling to make sure he was alone.

  “I’ll put something in their drinks. It’ll look like alcohol poisoning. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

  Valeria stepped back as the man started walking in her direction. “Oops!” she giggled as she weaved toward him, stumbled, and sent the drink flying down his shirt.

  “Stupid drunk,” he muttered in Spanish as he picked a pineapple wedge from where it got stuck in in shirt.

  Valeria bit her lip and looked confused. “I am so sorry. I don’t speak Spanish, but let me help you.” She started brushing the drink from his chest. “Oh, dear. I have club soda in my room,” she gestured behind her and then frowned before laughing. “But you don’t speak English so you probably have no idea what I’m saying.”

  “I speak Inglés.”

  “Oh good!” Valeria tittered and felt stupid for doing so. She sent a slow look from his head to his crotch and then looked back up in embarrassment. “I’m here with my girlfriends this week, and they’re all down at the beach.”

  It didn’t take long for the man to realize what she was insinuating, just like it didn’t take long for Valeria to notice the tattoo above his heart showing him to be a member of Hermanos de Sangre.

  “You have something to clean it, yes?” he asked, his voice dipping lower.

  Valeria bit her lip and nodded. “Right this way.” She reached out and took his hand in hers. He didn’t even question it when she led him behind the villas and into the overgrown lushness surrounding the resort. Not when she reached behind her as she walked and unlaced her string bikini top. And not when she turned and jabbed her fingers into his Adam’s apple. Not even when she spun behind him as he bent over gasping and slipped her string bikini around his neck and pulled.

  He struggled, but she put her foot on his back and pulled until he fell lifelessly to the ground. Letting out a deep breath, Valeria tied her bathing suit back on, picked up his gun, and dug around his pockets for his key and cell phone. She dragged him off the path and tossed the gun into the dumpster behind the villas before making her way back to Grant.

  “Shall we go for a swim?” he asked when she stopped in front of the cabana and tossed him the phone and key.

  “I’ve been dying to.”

  “Then let’s go.” Grant took her hand in his as they walked down toward the water. The girls were swimming and the man was nearby watching. He kept looking back at the path, then out to where the girls were.

  “Everything go okay?” Grant asked.

  “It’s been taken care of,” Valeria told him as she submerged herself under the water.

  Grant dove under and came up behind her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to sit on his leg. Valeria leaned back, and they floated there for a moment in complete silence, watching the two sisters splash in the water.

  “Do you ever remember being that innocent?” Valeria asked quietly from behind her shades.

  “Aye. I grew up like that. It wasn’t until I was active duty that I saw the evil of the world. I knew evil existed, but I had never seen it in person. I threw up after my first bad mission. Dalton was with me. It changed my life forever. That was years ago now. Now I’m no longer surprised by evil. I only hope to rid the world of as much of it as possible before my time is up.”

  “I’ve thought about walking away. It used to bother me to kill someone. It doesn’t anymore. What if I’m becoming just as evil as those I kill?” Valeria asked, tears welling in her eyes as she admitted her biggest fear.

  Grant tightened his hold on her, pulling her against his chest. “There’s a difference between doing bad things for a bad reason and doing bad things for a good reason. Stopping Mollia Domini, stopping Hermanos de Sangre, those are good reasons.”

  Valeria nodded as she broke apart in the middle of the ocean. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks and plinked into the water. While killing didn’t bother her like it used to, what Grant said resonated. She wanted to do good. She wanted to make the world a better and safer place. And she would see this to the end, knowing she was doing what was necessary to keep good people safe.

  * * *

  Grant kept Valeria in his arms as they continued to watch the young women smiling and laughing while they swam in the ocean. However, when the man watching the women got up and headed for the path to the villas, Grant had to make his move.

  “Why don’t you sun for a while? Rest, order us some drinks, and I’ll be right back.” Grant placed a long kiss to her temple before letting her feet touch the soft sand beneath them.

  “I can do it,” Valeria said stubbornly, and Grant knew she wasn’t talking about ordering drinks.

  “I never thought you couldn’t.” Grant winked and waded out of the ocean. He didn’t look back. He didn’t want Valeria taking that as a sign th
at she could kill the last target. It wasn’t that Grant wanted to either. But feeling Valeria cry silently almost broke him. And while she said it didn’t bother her, she was wrong. Otherwise she wouldn’t be crying into the Pacific.

  Grant grabbed the key to the men’s room and the towel with the gun wrapped inside the folds. What they did wasn’t easy. It wasn’t supposed to be. But they were here because they could do what wasn’t easy. Lizzy, Dalton, Valeria, all of them. They were involved because of a deep drive to protect innocence. To protect vulnerability. To protect those who didn’t know they needed it.

  As he put the key into the door, kicked it open, and fired, he knew no one would know he saved two young women that day. No one would know these wicked men would never kill anyone ever again. They wouldn’t be able to sell drugs to children or the weak and desperate. They wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again. And he was fine with that because two women could now live out their lives free from danger. They may go on to save others’ lives, invent the cure for cancer, teach children, or simply raise families of more good people.

  * * *

  Valeria was waiting for him in their suite. Her tears were dried, but the look she sent him said she understood. When you lived in the shadows, when you saw evil, you needed light. And she was his light. Valeria stood, her back to the large tinted windows and held out her arms.

  Grant came to her, starving. Starving to clear the memory of death, starving for life, compassion, and understanding that Valeria held. Grant might be a stubborn Scot, but he knew when he had something special in Valeria.

  Their kiss was hard and hot as he pushed her against the windows. His hips pressed against hers as she ran her hands over shoulders and down his chest. She shoved his trunks to the floor, and he kicked them away as his mouth broke from her lips and traveled down her neck, across her collarbone, and to her breast. He reached behind her and with two quick tugs tossed the bikini top to the side. His tongue circled her puckered nipple before latching on and sucking until Valeria tossed her head back and cried out with pleasure.

  * * *

  Valeria held Grant’s head to her breast as he fell to his knees before her. Heat radiated from his body as the cold glass pressed against her back. She raked her fingers through his dark auburn hair as he moved his other hand to strip her of her bikini bottoms.

  Grant moved lower, kissing his way down her stomach, and circling her navel with his tongue before sliding his tongue and fingers between her legs. A wave of heat flashed through Valeria as she felt her body coil and then snap with release.

  Breathing heavily, Valeria leaned against the window, now seeking its coolness. Her body was flushed with her pleasure as Grant reached for the package of condoms she’d picked up on the way back to the room. His eyes had turned dark green with anticipation, but Grant paused.

  “Lass?”

  Val nodded once and saw the flare in his eyes as she silently told him to take her. And he did. In one quick motion, he had her against the window with her legs wrapped around his waist. Grant lifted her, tilting her hips toward him, and slid into her. Valeria let go. She let go of the past and the future. Instead, all that remained was the present, being in Grant’s arms. The sensations curled her toes and made her dig her heels into his lower back. An aching feeling fell on her as the walls crumbled from around her heart. Before she knew it, she tumbled over the edge screaming out his name.

  19

  Dalton knew it couldn’t be good when Alex met them at the airport. He stood in baggy olive-green cargo shorts, shifting from side to side on his untied tennis shoes that had to be worth more than any kid had the right to spend on shoes. He shoved back his unkempt hair as he scanned the crowd.

  “Dude!” he called out as soon as he saw them and frantically began to wave them over.

  Dalton had slept hard and long on the plane ride home, but he was still exhausted, and Alex’s puppyish exuberance only annoyed him right now. “What is it?” he asked with dread as Alex’s bouncing increased.

  “Sebastian is arriving in a private jet in ten minutes. Humphrey is meeting him, but—”

  “But you’re worried Humphrey won’t be able to handle it,” Dalton finished for Alex as he opened the door for Lizzy.

  “Yeah. I mean, he’s an old dude,” Alex shrugged.

  “Then let’s go,” Dalton sighed as he lowered himself into the sedan.

  Alex hurried around the hood of the car and leapt in. “Oh, and I need to take you to talk to Jason. I can drop you off there and take Lizzy back to her place before picking you back up. That is, as long as Humphrey can get Sebastian to go with him.”

  Alex tore out of the arrivals line and sped toward the private hangars. They wouldn’t be able to waltz right in, but they would be able to watch to make sure Humphrey had Sebastian in hand. If not, then Dalton would go to Plan B.

  They saw Humphrey’s car before they saw his head. He was leaning against the side of the car with his arms crossed. Dalton and Lizzy peered out the windshield and through the chain-link fence, watching him.

  “I don’t see any agents with him,” Lizzy said, scanning the area.

  “Nope, and here comes Sebastian,” Dalton replied, his eyes never leaving Sebastian’s tall frame as he walked down the stairs of his jet. “He doesn’t seem surprised to see Humphrey.”

  “Sebastian would never show if he was. That’s part of his image,” Lizzy answered.

  Humphrey walked over to Sebastian and shook his hand. He gestured to the car. Sebastian nodded and said something. Humphrey nodded then and pulled out his phone. Lizzy’s phone rang and Alex jumped. “Dude, weird.”

  “Hello?” Lizzy put the phone on speaker.

  “It’s Humphrey. I’m at the airport with Sebastian. He wants to talk to you.”

  Lizzy looked at Dalton, and he instantly knew what she was asking. He gave a single nod of his head. “Then turn around. We’re in the sedan.”

  Humphrey spun as Lizzy and Dalton opened their doors. Lizzy still had the dress from the party on, but it was now covered with a black T-shirt. Sebastian was in the same suit as well. Sebastian and Humphrey got into his car and drove through the guarded gates toward them.

  “What do you think he wants?” Alex wondered. Lizzy and Dalton didn’t answer. They spread out to cover the car as it came to a stop next to them. Sebastian and Humphrey got out and Dalton tensed, ready for anything.

  “I’m glad you’re alive,” Sebastian said, not sounding all too glad.

  “I could say the same, but I don’t know if it’s true yet,” Lizzy shot back in the same nonchalant voice Sebastian had used as she patted him down for a wire. “How are your new friends?”

  Sebastian seemed amused, and Dalton fought against punching him. “Roland isn’t the head of Mollia Domini.”

  “I guess you’d know this since you joined them. At least that’s what it appears when you wire a million dollars to Roland Westwood right after you disappear with them,” Alex chimed in.

  Dalton blinked at Alex’s statement. First, Alex was standing up to Sebastian. Second, a million dollars?

  “You paid them?” Lizzy asked, her voice soft and deadly.

  The moment of shock that had registered and then quickly passed over Sebastian’s hard features was masked with elitist indifference once again. “A million is nothing. You know that. It was enough to learn that Roland isn’t the leader. Isn’t that worth a million dollars?”

  “At what cost?” Lizzy asked. “The cost of you now being an enemy of the country? What did they need that money for? To try to kill your supposed best friend again?”

  “Again, again,” Alex mumbled.

  “What?” Sebastian snapped.

  Alex began to shuffle his feet again. “Someone tried to kill the president again overnight.”

  Sebastian didn’t react. Instead he turned to Humphrey. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait,” Lizzy ordered. “What else did you learn?”

  “I’m an enemy of the state, rememb
er? If you want to know what I know, then I need a favor.”

  “So much for no strings,” Lizzy spat. Dalton could tell she was close to letting her temper fly.

  “I’ve put a lot on the line to get you information on Roland. Now I need something in return. It’s a simple quid pro quo,” Sebastian shrugged.

  “What do you want?” Lizzy asked between gritted teeth.

  “Nothing from you, love. I want Alex, or whoever discovered I’d wired that money so quickly, to get me all of Bertie Geofferies’s financials, private emails, text messages, everything.”

  “Why?” Dalton asked.

  “Bertie is my rival, and we all know knowledge is power. I’m helping you, you help me, and I continue to feed you information on Mollia Domini.”

  Lizzy shook her head. “No. I won’t let him. You’re not in control here, Sebastian.”

  Sebastian raised one eyebrow over his cement-gray eyes. “We’ll just see what Birch has to say about it. Speaking of my friend, let’s go, Humphrey.” Sebastian slid into the back seat as if Humphrey were his chauffeur and closed the door.

  “I’ll let you know everything,” Humphrey promised before getting in and driving away.

  “What an arrogant ass,” Dalton muttered as they all got back into their car.

  “I can’t tell with him. Is he on our side or not?” Lizzy asked as Alex drove out of the airport.

  “He’s on his own side.” Dalton sighed, exhaustion rolling over him, knowing he still had a full day before he could get some shut-eye.