The End of Games

by Tara Brown

  "STOP!" I shuddered, "Okay… God. I don’t want to know. Fine, so he likes grown women in schoolgirl uniforms getting molested on buses?"

  He nodded again, "And trains."

  "Jack!"

  "Right, sorry. The other sites are all equally as dirty."

  I rubbed my eyes, "I can’t say I never saw this coming." I also couldn’t say that I was okay with it all.

  Jack looked mystified, "Did you think he would need to go to the sites a couple times a day? His history has him on these sites several times a day, for prolonged periods."

  I waved my hand, "Moving on."

  Jack looked like he might get sick, "The other thing is, he has your mom on speed dial, but the number is one none of us have. I dialed it, she answered with some crazy code, but I knew it was her voice, instantly. I hung up before she figured out it was me."

  I sighed into my hands, "For fuck's sake. Is anyone ever just going to give me the whole story? Just one story, all at once? Like really, this is annoying. This is some shit. Give me the phone."

  He gave me a hesitant look, "Maybe we should wait for Coop?"

  I snarled, "Dial the number, Jack."

  He jumped, pressing a button, and handing the phone over to me. I sat there with it up to my ear.

  "4475293-Nightingales and butterflies have it in common?"

  "MOM?"

  She paused, "Evie? Was that you who called earlier? How did you get this phone? Oh God, Evie, what have you done?"

  "Jesus, Mom. What the hell? You've been calling Servario? You have a nightingale code with him? What the hell? Are you guys friends?"

  She sighed, "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 gave Jack a look, "I don't know. Servario had it."

  "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?"

  I nodded, hanging up, "Jack, are you sure this is Servario's phone?"

  He looked funny, "You took it off of him?"

  I couldn’t cut my emotions off. I felt sick, "What if he took it off of 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!"

  My hands started to shake, "I know!" He got up and ran to the room.

  I sat there in shock.

  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."

  I sighed, "American Embassy is the safest place I can think of."

  He nodded, "Agreed."

  Jack walked out of the room looking sickened, "We came as Canadian, we have to take her to the Canadian one. What do you mean, she and James?"

  I shook my head, "We won’t know anything until she is 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 look 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 turned and walked back into the room.

  Coop winced, "I didn’t know he was right there."

  I shook my head, "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 know."

  I walked past him into the room and listened to Jack make the call.

  "Yes, she is 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 is all gone and her jewelry." He paused, listening to what was being said, Yes, Canadian, female, twenty-two, Julia Scottsburg from Toronto." He paused again, nodding, "Yes." He smiled, "Thank you." He hung up, "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."

  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 had been any other team, she would have been left for dead."

  I looked at Coop in the doorway, he nodded.

  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.

  Jack looked over the note again. It seemed like maybe his eyes were more focused on the blood stains than the words.

  I spoke softly, "So we have to go to the Vatican?"

  Coop gave me a look, "What?"

  I nodded, "The Curia, it's in the Vatican."

  Coop nodded, "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 400 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."

  Jack nodded, "Yes, great."

  I sighed, "I can’t even imagine how this is going to work, let alone how my mother is going to keep the kids safe and bring Steve. Mitch isn’t stupid. The things I've told him will lead him to start to question other things. He's going to figure out that we are in major shit."

  Jack winced, "I think he already has. I've been monitoring his web usage and the things he's been looking up have been a bit intense. Very conspiracy-theory based but whatever."

  "Great."

  Coop ran his hands through his hair, looking around at the park and the city behind us. Watching his steely-blue eyes, I could almost watch the ideas form and fade away as he contemplated it all. He looked at me after several minutes, "You're going back."

  I scowled, "Home?"

  He laughed in my face, "To Servario." The grin on his face made my stomach sink.

  "Why?"

  He nodded, "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 emailed 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 gave me a weird look, shook his head and pressed send, "I saw you as more of a Melanie."

  I laughed, "You've seen Gone With the Wind?"

  He scoffed, "Please, in the real world I have four sisters. My fav is obviously Austen, Persuasion I think."

  I sighed, "Jack, why couldn’t you be my age?"

  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 was laughing but I gave him a grim look, "Okay, time for Mammy to do her pa
rt."

  He nodded, "Be good at this, Mammy."

  I swatted him, "It's not as fun when you say it."

  Jack interrupted us, "She woke up. They are driving her to the Canadian Embassy now."

  I sighed but Coop looked upset. He bit his lip and followed me across the grass, even though we were meant to separate. "What if she and James had been together? What if she isn’t on our side?"

  I grabbed his arms, "We can’t let this separate us. What if James thought the room was bugged, or he knew I was there? She might not have even known him, it might have been fake."

  He gave me a look, "I trust you, Evie. In this whole fucking thing, I trust you and that is it."

  I nodded, "Me too, Coop."

  He brushed my hair to the side, looking down on me. I could see the weight of the world in his eyes. I lifted to my tiptoes and softly brushed my lips against his. There was something about kissing him that I couldn’t shake, even if he built emotional walls the size of the Great Wall and used meanness to keep me at a distance. His fingers dug into my sides, pulling me in. He kissed me back with fervor and then pushed off, walking in the direction he was supposed to go.

  I turned and walked away, gently touching my lips and thinking a thousand things I shouldn’t have.

  Chapter Eleven

  The End of You

  I walked into the hotel and pressed the button for the elevator. My feet were aching and my heart was vibrating from it's attempt at closing itself off. When I got off the elevator, Servario was standing there, looking down on me with a smug grin, "Missed me?"

  I nodded, "Something like that."

  His right eye twitched, "I would ask if you wanted to come in, but I think you are here to lure me to my death."

  My eyes narrowed, "What?"

  He folded his huge arms across his chest, "You want to come inside and make me want you, then you'll poison me or trick me into something, and I will 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, "I need you."

  I watched the war inside of him through his eyes. Finally, he pulled me off the elevator, wrapping himself around me. He kissed the top of my head, "You will be the end of me, Evie."

  I nodded, "I know. I don’t want to be, but you never let me in on anything so it is inevitable I will cause both our deaths."

  He chuckled, "I'm still not telling you anything."

  I slapped his chest, "I need your help. Isn't that enough?"

  He pulled me back, "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.

  Without batting an eyelash, I nodded, "I need your cock."

  He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me into the suite, "I really want you to try deep throating again."

  I shook my head, "No. You can pay someone for that. I'm not even bothered. 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."

  He laughed, "I think I love you most days, and then you say something like that, and I know." He grabbed my face, holding it up so I could see his green eyes, "I love you, a lot. I always have."

  I nodded, "I know. My dad told me."

  He shook his head, "This is a problem for me."

  I nodded again, "I know." I didn’t really; I just didn’t want him to think I was that naïve, but I was.

  His eyes were pleading with mine, "Evie, I can't love you. I just can't. You have to not love me back. You have to promise you could never love someone like me."

  Tears filled my eyes without warning. I nodded and lied the least-convincing lie ever, "I will never love you, Gustavo, never."

  He nodded, "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 got you for boot camp?"

  I laughed, "No. Luce stole it." I felt my tears drifting away rapidly, "How do you know how to do it?"

  He shrugged, "I've seen it done loads of times."

  I grimaced, "Oh gross. I think we need to talk about my hemorrhoids a few times before we get busy."

  He shook his head, "I want to take a shower. We can talk about whatever you want in there."

  I followed him into the bathroom and started stripping my clothes off. My stomach was in knots, but I climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash over me until he climbed in and stole it all. He leaned down on me, "Did you find what I wanted you to on that phone?"

  I nodded.

  He smiled, "Your mother's boss is James' boss."

  I swallowed hard, "My mom is bad?"

  He shook his head, "No. The head of MI6 is. I switched phones a while back. I suspect Steve is working for them. His number was in the phone because they have called him. I changed it to make it look like it’s me calling from my other number so Steve isn’t suspicious."

  I shook my head, "You really need to improve your background checks on people. Roxy and Steve?"

  He sighed, "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?"

  I made a face, "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."

  He backed away from me, "You thought that was mine?"

  I laughed at how insulted he was, "You are a sex addict."

  He looked outraged. The green in his eyes was dark from the furrow of his brow, "Evie, I'm not a bloody pedo, and I don’t watch non-consent anything. I have a very strict consent rule, in fact." His accent had thickened considerably.

  I put my hands on his chest, "I'm sorry. We just assumed."

  He gave me a desperate look, "Is Jack out there in the world believing me capable of that?"

  I bit my lip. He growled. I laughed, "I will straighten it out, right away." His look didn’t improve. I rolled my eyes, "Well, who knew you had such morals, Mister Drugs and Arms Dealer."

  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 the children. Always."

  I stood on my tiptoes, kissing him softly, "Okay. I'm glad to hear it."

  But the mood was over. He was done. Whatever I had said had 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 to joining your father and the Burrow. I wanted to end his 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. He shook his head, "Some things you see, and no matter how many wrongs you right in the world, God still 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."

  My eyebrows pulled together, "I'm sorry, Gustavo."

  He shook his head, "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."

  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, even when they scare me."

  He laughed, "We will always have the shower, Evie." Something was different with his kiss. I could fe
el 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 bodies slipped and slid against each other under the spray of the water. 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 held 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, still moving at a perfect pace to continue my convulsions and suckling my breasts, flicking my nipples and biting them. The sound, I only ever made for him, slipped from my lips.

  He kissed and sucked my bottom lip as I moaned, "I lied. 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."

  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. I felt his orgasm fill me as he groaned into my ears. Finally calm, he nodded, whispering. "Take it back."

  I shook my head against his again, "I can't."

  "You have to." He looked down on me through his long bangs with water pouring off of him, 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.

  Chapter Twelve

  The End of Fear, okay I wish

  Servario gave me an uncertain look as we rode down in the elevator, "You sure?"

  I nodded, "I am." I wasn’t, but I didn't know what else to do.