by Morgan Black
“Is that your sister?”
She shook her head as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.
I turned and started toward door number three, scared of what we would find. Each door got worse as we went along. The sex of the slave changed a couple times but the age stayed very close to twenty. It was sick and disturbing but I thanked God for that. I didn’t need to see a small child in the arms of a grown man. There are things you cannot drink away.
We cleared a whole hallway without any interruptions. That made me suspicious. So I put them all into a room, the sobbing and traumatized mess they were and told them to wait for me—I would come back, no matter what.
Not a single one believed me.
I snuck down another corridor until I reached a large area. Men were laughing and playing cards. I could see them through the slight crack in the open doorway. Servario was one of them. Guns sat on the table as they laughed and joked.
My heart was racing, imagining the worst of him. He wasn't in trouble. He wasn't scared. He was drinking scotch and smoking a cigar. He was fine and I was a mess.
I turned, certain he had a reason for staying and laughing while the driver sexually assaulted me and everyone who knew about the place sexually assaulted teenagers down the hall. Whatever that reason was though, I didn't give a flying fuck.
I stalked back to the room I had left them in, opening the door slowly. One of the boys jumped at me but I caught his weak arm in my hand. I lifted a finger to my lips. They gripped to one another and followed me back to the green door. We slipped out onto the road, each of them crying and sobbing and wanting to kiss the ground but I shook my head. “Kiss American soil when we get home. Right now, we gotta go.” I started to run, a light jog, back to the car with the dead driver. I grabbed my cell phone from my clutch in the backseat and dialed 9-1-1.
“JESUS CHRIST, EVIE! WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU?” Coop was calmer than I imagined he would be.
“Running back to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.”
“OH THANK GOD, YOU’RE STILL HERE! YOU SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME! WHERE ARE YOU, I WILL COME AND GET YOU!”
“Just stop freaking out. I can meet you on the beach by the hotel. Bring a boat that can take about fifteen teenagers in bad shape.” I clicked the phone off and continued running. I opened my Google Maps and put the hotel into the link. We ran through the side streets and across main intersections. They were dressed in sheets and blankets and not one person stopped for us.
No one cared about the group of people who were clearly injured. Not that it would have done a fucking bit of good. I would have killed anyone who stopped as it was.
When we made the beach I almost started crying too. The sand and rocks on my feet were soothing and amazing, like a sign that I might actually make it back alive with the kids. The kids I couldn't turn and look back at. The kids I didn't want to attach to, regardless of the desire I had to do it. I just couldn't. The horrors in my mind, lurking behind my eyes were too fresh. I needed a minute and a drink.
But I didn't get that. I turned and pointed at the seawall along the beach. “Sit there and talk to no one. Unless I come, you are a shipwrecked group of sailing kids who are awaiting your parent chaperones. That's your story.”
One of the boys nodded, giving me a look. “Who are you?”
“Someone who can sneak you in and out of countries without telling anyone. That's all you need to know.” It wasn't even the truth. If I was honest I would have hugged them all and cried about their wounds and made them a tea. That was more who I was. The bitch who killed all those men, that bitch wasn't me. She was a trained assassin who came out when I needed her.
It had taken us half an hour to get to the beach so I had to pray that Coop would hurry and arrive any second before the most dangerous men in Dubai figured out I had stolen their precious imports.
I paced the beach, repositioning the guns in the back of my dress and attempting to flush images that were burned into my retinas.
I forced myself to look at them, all of them. They were a straggly looking bunch of teenagers. It was the horror movie version of an Abercrombie and Fitch commercial. I could have cried but I didn't. I focused on the fact they were alive. Yes, the worst things people can do to you had been done to them, but they were alive.
The girl I had rescued first was sitting on the far edge. She had a look on her face that told me I hadn’t found her sister in the group. I flinched when I thought about the plan forming in my head but when a boat came along the harbor, I knew I had to go back. I had to. Coop and Luce hit the wharf with intensity, running down the beach. The kids behind me cowered but I ran to the two people racing for us. Jack stayed with the boat, talking on the radio. Luce and Coop both wrapped themselves around me, hugging hard. Luce trembled when she spoke, “Quite the find, Evie.”
I glanced back at them. “You have to get them out. They need to be taken back to US soil, now. You guys need to go, before they find out they’re gone.”
Coop gripped to me, trying to get me to look at him. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “No. I will be when they’re gone and there is no chance of them going back. They’re kids.”
Coop lifted my chin, holding my face and staring deeply into my eyes. “Get in the boat. I will find Servario. Or better yet, we leave him behind and let him sort this out on his own. He has connections enough to get out.”
I almost nod, almost taking the path of least resistance, but the idea that I left the dead driver in the car made me shake my head. “I have to go back. I sprung a trap and left him there to be blamed for it all.”
Coop rolled his beautiful blue eyes. “He has hung you out to dry tons of times. You owe him. Let’s go.”
I stepped back. “But that's not me. I wouldn't ever leave someone behind.” I turned and ran back into the dark toward the kids. “Go to the boat. These are American agents. They will take you back.” I fled, hearing footsteps behind me on the sidewalk when I got back up there. My feet burned and ached from running barefoot but I had endured worse pain than that before. At least I had worn a comfortable dress. I stopped at a busy streetlight, the one we had gotten lucky with on the way to the beach. Luce caught up with me. She huffed next to me, making me feel better about my fitness level as I wheezed and waited for the light.
“So, what was that?”
I glanced up at her, marveling at how pretty and yet totally badass she was. “Which part could you possibly be referring to?”
“The whole ditching Coop, flying away with Servario again, and then deciding to leave Coop on a beach with a bunch of teenagers.”
I nodded, crossing when the light went. “Right, that part.” I passed a gun toward her when we got to the other side of the street. “Servario told me we were meeting you, Jack, and Coop in Dubai. Then we got here and he said we were meeting you guys in Europe. He had a plan, we went to a club and I killed the driver, and now I’m here.”
She glanced back at the beach. “You freed those kids from a brothel?”
I nodded. “And left Servario in there with them, after killing our driver. I left him in a trap that's about to be sprung.”
I followed the map on my phone backward to the car. When we got to the Mercedes I stopped and looked in the window at the dead man on the floor of the car. It was hard to see him with the bright lights of the city shining in, but when I leaned over and let my shadow cover the window I could see him perfectly.
Luce leaned over the window with me and I had to admit having her there made me feel better. “Creepy. The car hasn't been towed or noticed. How’d you do it?”
“Stabbed him in the temple with my hairpin.”
She snorted, “Nice.”
We turned and I pointed at the alley. “This way.”
We hurried along the alley to the large building. I was scared they had discovered their dead guard but he still lay there as dead as before.
“You are getting very badass, Evie. Very badass,” she mut
tered as we crept inside and down the long corridor. When we got to the porn room I handed her a handgun.
“Is that a grenade in your tits?”
I nodded and snuck around the corner to the long hall with the doors. Each one was still closed, concealing a dead man or woman inside. When we got to the room with the cards and guns, I lifted a finger to my lips and nodded. Men chuckled, sounding more drunk since I was here an hour or so ago.
I glanced in the doorway, catching a glimpse of three men and Servario. The Harry guy was gone though.
Luce lifted her gun, sneaking a peek. She took a deep breath and snuck into the room, holding her gun out. I aimed at the man to Servario’s right as she shot the man to the left and the man in the middle. Servario was up, grabbing Luce until he saw her face. He swayed slightly, stumbling a bit. He was drunk. He smiled when he saw me, holding a finger out to my face. “Did you find your way back to young Cooper?”
I grabbed his hand, feeling a sickening rage coming over me and dragged him from the room. He tried to pull me into him and he tried to be funny. He slurred and joked as we stumbled down the hallway. He was too loud and too crazy. Luce cleared the room behind us and the hallway as we walked out. When we stepped out over the dead man, Servario burst out laughing. He pointed at the dead man, laughing and stumbling like a fool. I passed my boob grenade to Luce. “Make it rain.”
She ran back inside. I hurried away from the building as an explosion ripped into the night.
When we were past the car with the dead driver in it, we slowed down. Dragging Servario’s drunken ass was crazy. “He’s lost his fucking mind,” Luce mumbled as we staggered down the road.
He wrapped his arms around us both, holding us and staggering. “You fucking idiots. You fucking stupid women have fucked this up and I can’t afford to lose my credibility on this. So you will stagger with me down the road until we can steal a car and get to the plane. You will shut your fucking mouths, apart from giggling like schoolgirls. Do you get me?”
We both nodded, afraid of the tone in his voice.
Chapter Five
The shaking of the plane and the lack of sleep had made me twitchy. I hadn’t eaten in ages and my strength had waned. When I got inside of the hotel room in Belgium I flopped onto the bed. It wasn't the VIP suite in the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. It was a dumpy hotel that none of us would be caught dead in, in the real world. This wasn't the real world.
This was a tired place where I had no idea if I would ever recover from. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke a man was sitting in the corner in the armchair. I sat up quickly when I realized I wasn't dreaming and there truly was a man there. The light coming in from the street lamps shone enough for me to see it wasn't the man it should have been.
“You fucked it up. You were supposed to stay in the car,” Servario muttered.
I nodded slowly. “I realize that but the driver tried to rape me.”
“What?”
“You didn't notice the dead driver in the car we walked past?”
“You killed the driver?” His tone dropped off like he was cluing in. He got up, climbing onto the bed. “I assumed my reputation would buy you safety there. I didn't know. I left you in the car like a possession, to show them who you were to me.”
I nodded again. “Look, Servario, Coop is just helping those kids and meeting me back home.”
He crawled over me, pushing me back on the bed with a light shove. “Did you truly mean what you said to me about La La Land?”
“Yeah. I truly meant I love you. I do, even if you’re complicated and you live in a disturbing world.”
“We live in the same world, Evie.”
I shook my head, staring up into his dark eyes. “No, we don't. In my world I would have saved those kids. I never could have drank down the hallway from that. You walked past it, you didn't care.” I sat up, shoving him off of me. I turned and climbed off the bed, running from the room. I didn't care that I was in my underwear and tank top. I didn't care that I had no shoes on. I didn't care. I just ran.
When I got to the elevator I pushed the button rapidly. As the door opened I went to step in but he rushed me, pushing me in with him. He spun me around and pinned me against the wall as the doors closed. The light in the shitty elevator was dim and flickering.
He seethed into my face. “I cared. I cared, goddammit. I cared in a way you can’t imagine. I sit next to those fucks, I tolerate their bullshit because I have to tell myself every single one of those kids is one soul and I have to save millions.” I could hear his voice cracking. It sounded the way my heart did. “I care. I care about you. I have loved you my whole life and I have to live with the fact you are with him. You are safe with him. Why do you think I don't fight for you, Evie?” He stripped my tank top from my body with a single tug. His face dipped, landing on my nipple with ferocity. He licked and sucked, pushing me into the wall as the elevator sat, frozen there on the same floor.
“I let him have you, I let him love you. You are his because he keeps you safe, Evie. That's one way I can keep you safe.” He dropped to his knees, dragging my underwear to the side and burying his warm mouth between my legs. He licked, sliding a finger up inside of me. The light flickered off and on and I wasn't certain if it was my eyelids or the actual lights.
His fingers slid in and out of me as his tongue flicked my clit. I gripped to the wall, clutching to the support handle.
He pulled back, pummeling his finger in and out harder, making my knees nearly buckle. “This is mine, Evie. You are mine.”
He stood, lifting me into the air while tearing my underwear off. I rested against the wall, seated on the handle. He wrestled with his buckle and pants for a moment as we explored each other’s mouths, gripping to each other with desperation.
When he released himself, he plunged into me instantly. We both moaned, filling the quiet elevator with noise. His thrusting echoed off the walls, bouncing my body. In the flashing light I caught a glimpse of our bodies writhing and bumping against each other. His hands cupped to my ass. He spun me around, holding me in the air. I planted my feet on the railing on the wall and let him rock me up and down on his cock. I gripped to him, pushing with my legs, desperate for the orgasm I had been denied for forty-eight straight hours.
“I need you, Evie. I need you in my life.” He pulled me into him, gripping and grunting into the silence.
My body riding his began to clench down as his fingers bit in. We came at the exact same moment, gripping and sweating.
He thrust harder for the last few strokes, jerking into me as I quivered over him.
He pushed the open button on the elevator and walked us back down the hall to my hotel room. The door was ajar still so he just walked in, closing it and leaning against the door. He let me slide down him, but still gripped to me. “Let’s take a shower, Evie. I adore our showers.” He led me to the bathroom, closing the door and starting the hot water so we could rinse off everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
When we got into bed he held me but even there in the safety of our La La Land, I could see their faces. I could feel the hot blood running down my fingertips. I could see all the levels of sin in the world in color. Joining that horrid imagery was the knowledge we would go back to the real world tomorrow and this would end. This bliss of true love would be over and I would have to face my feelings, my fears.
I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, letting him hold me in that place built on the lies we had told ourselves.
I woke, confused but grateful to see my room. Luce smiled at me, from the chair in the corner. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. “Hey, what happened?”
She shrugged. “What do you remember?”
I thought back to the last thing I recalled—the jet with Servario and the red dress was it. Everything else was a haze. “Oh shit, did Servario drug me? How did I get here?”
She nodded, sighing. “He took your memories with some drug. He said
it was better for both of you.”
I swallowed hard, wondering what in the hell he had talked me into that I needed to forget. I gave Luce a look. “Where’s Coop?”
She paled a little, looking down. “Dealing with the brothel you raided in Dubai.”
It hit me then, Servario and I hadn’t had sex. I had seen something he knew I needed to be rid of. I smiled at Luce, confused but oddly grateful I didn't know what she was talking about.
There were things I didn't need to remember. I had a bad feeling some of the things I did need were gone with the rubble.
But in the end I knew I would continue to be greedy, needing him and Coop. Not equally, but it didn't matter, I would let them fill the void inside of me. Because I knew I was that type of greedy—I was the worst kind, the sort of person who filled their emptiness with lies they told themselves were truths.
The End.
Don't hesitate to buy the first and second books already released in the Single Lady Spy Series.
The End of Me
The End of Games
Where to find Tara Brown
Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Tara-Brown/e/B007RS9V30
Twitter- https://twitter.com/TaraBrown22
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/TaraBrownAuthor
I am the mother of two beautiful girls who are growing up so fast, the wife of a cute guy in a uniform (my own personal hero), and a writer. My family will tell you it doesn't exactly fall into that order. Especially around dinner time when I "Cook" from a takeout menu with my face plastered to my computer. I also have two cats who I adore more than I should, like more than people I know, and a dog. He is a beagle who is naughty but just so darned cute. He gives you that little beagle face and then steals your slice of pizza. I have a busy mind and even busier fingers. I can write fast and keep track of a large cast, but I can't remember why I'm at the grocery store. I try to write lists but they always end up being notes for books or indie bands. I LOVE INDIE MUSIC! I talk to myself in the car and sing too loud for my skill level. The invention of Bluetooth has made talking in the car less awkward but if you hear me singing, run. I love writing. I love my characters like they are my friends and I am telling their version of the truth. My worst flaw is the horrid English accent which I read everything with. If I read aloud it comes too. I'm not English, so I can't even do the accent which makes it awkward for anyone who is nearby. My favourite authors are Robert Jordan and Jane Austen and Robert Mccammon and Jim Crace. I think Stephen King and Dean Koontz have the most unique imaginations. I have the hardest time not LOVING Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. I know all the serial killers have a copy but I adored that novel. It made me feel a thousand different things and one of them was more alive. (And not in the least bit serial killer-ish) When I grow up I want to be James Patterson or Nora Roberts. I aspire to be like them, always trying to hone my skills and work harder. My genres are all over the map. I have Paranormal Romance, Contemporary Romance, Science Fiction, Erotica (under Sophie Starr my porn name so my mom doesn't know), Thrillers, and even some Romantic Comedies.
