Текст книги "Blowback"

Автор книги: Emmy Curtis

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 12 страниц)

She leapt up. David was standing, barely. He was slumped as if he couldn’t stand up anymore. Victoria lay on the floor, one of her legs pointing in a very unnatural direction, unconscious. Maybe dead.

She got to David just in time to put her hands on him before he fell to the ground. She managed to brace his fall. “You were awesome,” she said. “You saved us.” She kissed the side of his head and held him, doing little more than rocking in relief. Her brain went fuzzy, and she closed her eyes, just wanting to be anywhere but here.

She roused herself to untie David’s wrists, and then her own when David just groaned. “We have to go. Can you stand?” she asked. The fight must have really taken it out of him. She pulled herself to her feet leaning on the table. She leaned down to pull David up, and for the first time, saw blood on the floor. Sticky dark blood. A pool.

She sank to her knees. “David? Are you hurt?” She tried to check him, but it wasn’t until she held him that she realized he was bleeding from his side.

“Go, sweetheart. They want you. You have to run. Go to the embassy. Ask them to call Sadie Walker. She’s a friend of Harry and Matt’s. Tell her everything. Everything you haven’t told me. She’s…” his voice faded.

“Fuck that all to hell. I’m not leaving here without you.” Suddenly immune to her own injuries, she looked around for something to help him.

Victoria’s case. She opened it. Torture devices? It was the suitcase she’d arrived with. Just freaking clothes, a wallet and…an iPad. She frantically rifled through her wallet and plucked out a credit card and pressed it against his wound to make the gaping hole airtight. She grabbed one of Victoria’s silk shirts and wrapped it around him, tying the arms around his waist to hold it in place.

He was barely conscious now, and as adrenaline pumped through her she knew she needed to get him away from the warehouse before the Russian came back with the water Victoria had requested. Otherwise David wouldn’t get the help he needed.

She was about to lift David on to his feet, when her brain registered a ringing sound. “Can you stand?” she asked. He waved his hand at her, in what would be a convincing shoo-away if it hadn’t been for the table he was leaning against scraping back on the concrete floor.

Victoria stirred at the sound of the phone, but didn’t come to. Thank God. Molly wasn’t sure if she could knock her out, although she was fairly certain she could outrun her. She made sure David was upright and likely to stay that way for a second, and went back to Victoria’s things. Phone. She had a phone. Where the hell was it?

She looked through the whole bag, and then started on the zipper pockets. There. Front pocket, along with a gun. She took the phone and left the gun.

A car door slammed outside, and without hesitating she went for the gun, tucked it into David’s back pocket, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Gotta walk now, okay? Come on.”

She half dragged him to the opposite side of the warehouse, behind some large wooden crates, to a window. Shit. There was water out there. She sat David down on the concrete, “Shhh.” She laid her fingers across his mouth and felt him nod beneath her hand.

She took the phone and dialed the only number she knew by heart. Her boss’s—Harry’s.

Harry picked up the phone immediately. “Hello?”

“Harry, it’s me,” she whispered.

“Who? I can’t hear.”

Molly looked at the phone. It had all the bars.

“Molly,” she ground out, peeking through the crates. The Russian was in the building now. And the whole place suddenly seemed like one big echo chamber. She hung up the phone, and texted Harry instead.

It’s Molly. Kidnapped by Russians with David Church in warehouse by the sea in Athens.

God, she hoped they were still in Athens.

He’s injured, but told me to get Sadie Walker on it?

She waited for a reply, and then realized that the text notifying ring would echo all around the warehouse basically identifying where they were. She fumbled for the settings, but it was too late.

Shit. She stuffed the phone into her pocket without reading the reply and looked for somewhere to run. She considered pushing David out of the window, but worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay afloat without her there. They sat in silence as the minutes ticked by. She was worried if she waited much longer to make a decision he’d bleed out in front of her.

She made her decision. She would leave David there, and give the Russian what he wanted, and try to buy some time. She held her hands up and stepped out from behind the row of shipping crates.

What?

The Russian was gone.

So was Victoria, and the broken chair, and her suitcase. It was like nothing had happened there. Even the pool of David’s blood had gone. Had she imagined the whole thing?

A noise came from behind her, she turned to find David, holding a gun out, leaning against one of the crates.

“They’ve gone,” she said.

He slumped, and she ran the few short paces to his side and slipped his arm around her shoulders again. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

It took forever to cross the warehouse with David barely able to stumble, let alone walk. Every step that echoed around the building worried Molly that someone would come out of the shadows and kill them. She didn’t care so much about herself, but she needed to get David to safety. Get him a doctor.

After about ten minutes, her own legs started wobbling under both their weight. She was sweating hard. She hoped it was a side effect of the drug she’d been jabbed with, but the exertion was killing her. At least that’s how it felt. She was cold, sweaty and shaky. Just a few more steps to get out.

Just a few more steps.

Just a few…

She reached for the door handle, but it was farther away than she thought.

A few more steps. Her fingertips scraped the metal of the door. She pulled it open with the rest of her energy.

Daylight.

And the metal-on-metal cocking of a lot of weapons.

“Hold it.”

“Hands up!”

“Show me your hands.”

She slumped to the ground, her last action was to try to make sure David fell on her, and not the hard ground. He did.

She didn’t care about the guns. Relief was the last emotion her consciousness registered.

They had American accents.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

She came to in the back of an ambulance. The only other occupants were a paramedic and a woman in a HELLO KITTY T-shirt. Molly had an oxygen mask over her face and a drip in her arm.

“Where’s David?” she asked, her voice muffled by the mask.

Hello Kitty looked at the paramedic, who nodded and lowered the mask.

“I’m sorry, honey?”

“Where’s David?” Molly noticed there were straps holding her to the bed. She struggled against them, trying to understand what was going on.

Hello Kitty undid one of the restraining bands. “You’re not a prisoner. We’re transporting you to the medical center at the embassy. I’m Sadie. Harry’s friend.”

Molly wanted to feel fear, or hope, or relief, but there was no emotion inside her. Like at all.

“I know you’re feeling strange, but that’s the chemical we’re giving you to combat the drug that you had in your system. We don’t know what it is, so we’re giving you a generic drug that will counter the effects of most sedatives. The only side effect is that you’ll feel weird for a while. It’s artificially equalizing all the hormones and chemicals inside you.

Molly nodded. “Sadie?”

“I’m glad I found you. I think Harry might have killed me if I hadn’t.” She gave a rueful smile. “Is there anything you can tell me about what happened to you?”

Molly told her what had happened to her since the assassination.

“We can’t find any evidence of the kidnapping in the warehouse, Molly. I’m sorry. So that means we don’t have anything actionable to take to the Russians. Or to the United Nations. It’s just a wash right now.” Sadie stared out of the side window, with a frown.

And then she realized that Sadie hadn’t told her what had happened to David. Her brain knew that was wrong. Something was wrong. But her body couldn’t process the feeling. Well her brain was going to have to do the job of her heart too. “Where’s David?”

Sadie looked at her watch. “I’m waiting for an update. He’d lost a lot of blood, I’m afraid. But they’re doing their best. Harry and Matt told me he was a strong guy. We’re just hoping he’s strong enough. You did a good job with the credit card and the bandage, by the way.” She smiled and checked her watch again.

“The credit card,” Molly said. “I took it from Victoria Ruskin’s purse. There must be some way you can trace her with that?”

Sadie held her gaze for a moment. “We also have the gun that was in David’s possession. With the credit card, maybe eventually we’ll be able to make something stick. But it’s not much.

Molly made a decision. “If you take me to David, I’ll give you two other things that might help you. One thing I’ll give you now. The other thing, later.”

She handed Sadie the notes that had started everything.

Molly sat by David’s bed. There was no freaking way she was going to let him walk away from her again. Mission or no mission. Injury or no injury. As long as she had eyes on him she felt…nothing. Dammit. Enough with this antidote or whatever it was.

She traced the tube of the IV attached to her wheelchair and found the plastic tap, and turned it off. Then she took out the needle from the back of her hand. It hurt. On TV, the tough guys yank it out like it’s nothing, but it hurt like hell. Turns out nothing is really like it is on television.

Her eyes flickered to the small screen attached to the wall in the corner of the room. No one was talking about the assassination anymore. A scientist had conclusively—he said—proved that fracking will kill the planet’s infrastructure within fifty years. So that had been the main headline since she’d got to the hospital. Some people believed him, some didn’t. So she suspected after all the furor, things would go back to normal. But meantime, the 3D hologram of the collapse of the planet that he’d shown at his presentation was on every channel. She watched the implosion on the TV for about the tenth time.

“Is the world ending?” A hoarse voice came from the bed.

“David!”

“So that’s a yes?” he said, trying to reach for a glass of water.

“Stop! Don’t…pull anything. You have more stitches than the curtains there. Just let me bring it to you. She struggled with her wheelchair for a second, and smiled at her own attempts to get out without putting the brake on.

“Jesus. Why are you in that wheelchair? What happened?” He winced as he tried to move.

“Don’t do that either. Let me adjust the bed so you can see that I’m fine. They put me in it because of the drugs Victoria gave me. A lot, apparently.”

She sat on the bed and held the water to his lips. He sipped and cleared his throat.

“They didn’t take you out of the country?” he asked, concern etched across his face.

Molly looked down at the bed. “They wanted to, but I made a deal with them to stay.”

“And why would you have done that?” He frowned.

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t die. But now I know you’re okay, I’ll be off. Nice knowing you…” She got up to leave, brushing imaginary lint from her jeans.

“I don’t blame you, sweetheart. I let you down back there. I’m so…”

“What? Are you kidding me? You never let me down. Not once.” She was taken aback that he’d thought that for a moment.

He frowned again. “You left. I figured you’d had enough of me leading you into danger,” he half choked out, half whispered.

Her stomach contorted at the thought that he’d been carrying this. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. It never occurred to me that you’d think that. I left because I hated myself that I’d got you involved in the mess I was in. I just wanted you to have…what do they call it? Plausible deniability? I didn’t want you to go to jail for helping me. I wanted you safe. You’d already been through so much…that was all it was.” Tears leaked out of her eyes as she stood up.

He grabbed her hand. “Not so fast, sweetheart. I’m not letting anyone debrief you except me. Last time you were debriefed we all ended up here. What happened to Peterson, by the way?”

“Being raked over the coals by the embassy staff, I heard,” Molly said. “Anyway, before I make up my mind to stay or go…what kind of debriefing did you have in mind? Because, I should tell you now. I’m not wearing any.”

“I’m planning on debriefing you for a long, long time. Just…as soon as I can move without morphine.”

Joy flooded her veins with such power that tears started falling. “I’m sorry, it’s not you, it’s the drug.” She swiped at her tears and held tissues to her nose. She wasn’t really sure that was true.

“It had better be me.” He pressed the button on his remote control, and slowly, very, very slowly, the bed slid upright, so his lips were inches away from hers.

“I guess…it was always you,” she breathed, as she leaned forward to claim her future.

EPILOGUE

David checked into the hotel again, this time under a fake name, getting an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. The receptionist handed him a key and a letter, sealed in an envelope. He extended the handle of his suitcase and headed toward the elevator. Once away from the desk, he opened the letter.

A grin spread across his face, and a tiny sliver of unease. He hoped she wasn’t going to do to him what he’d done to her the year before. He looked around the lobby and spotted her, ostensibly reading an Athens newspaper upside-down while waiting in line for the receptionist. He tried not to laugh. He leaned against the pillar where he had checked his email on his phone that morning after the cocktail party. Whatever happened to Mal? He couldn’t wait to find out what mess he’d gotten himself into. Bound to be a good story. All he knew was that Baston was furious with him. So that warmed the cockles.

“I simply must have the same room I was in before. I loved it so much. You understand. A girl wants what a girl wants. Can you see if it’s available? It was number 1214? I’m only staying for the one night.” He could hear Molly chatting up the receptionist from where he was. She played the demanding guest to a T.

She was also quite demanding with him too. Thinking about the unique physical therapy she’d been threatening him with had sped up his healing to no end. And today was the first day they’d been able to finish the mission. The leadership conference started in ten days, and the hotel was emptying out in preparation. They already knew that room 1214 was empty now.

“Thank you so much,” Molly said, as she pulled her suitcase toward the elevators. He joined her, and they stared at the elevator doors pretending not to know each other. They stepped back as other guests got off the elevator, and then got on. Just as the doors were about to close, a hand snaked around them, making them open again.

Sadie. “If you think I trust you two alone in a hotel room while I’m waiting patiently downstairs, you’re very mistaken.

David didn’t reply, but Molly giggled. He still couldn’t believe she’d kept this secret from him, and from Victoria. But he would exact his punishment. Again, and again.

They all got off on the twelfth floor, and Molly led the way to the room. She opened the door, and David and Sadie followed.

“Okay. Wait here,” Molly said. She went into the bathroom and stood on the side of the bath. David shook his head in disbelief as they both watched her through the doorway. How would an archaeologist come up with this shit?

She popped a ceiling tile and felt around. An expression of victory lit up her lovely face. “Got it!”

She handed it over with a solemn, “Use this only for good,” and Sadie took it, rolling her eyes. They all looked at it in her palm. It was a key with a website address scratched on its leather fob.

“Doubrov slipped it to me as soon as he saw me. I don’t think he had any idea that I was also trying to slip him something, which is why he froze. I guess we both did. I didn’t know what it was, so I hid it in the bathroom. I didn’t mention it, because I didn’t know who I could trust.” Molly looked at David. “I do now.”

“I’ll give it to the station director and see if he can figure out what it is.” Sadie said, tucking it into her pocket. “It was nice meeting you both, but remember what you signed. You can’t talk about what happened here to anyone. Not about Doubrov, the key, the note…and especially about me. Clear?”

“Absolutely,” Molly said.

“Crystal.” David replied. He’d signed so many of those documents during his time in the military that he barely even thought about it.

“Good luck to you,” Sadie said to David, as she opened the door. “You might need to handcuff her to something to keep her out of trouble. You know what to do now.” The door slammed and she was gone.

“She has good ideas, that woman,” David said taking out a cotton handkerchief.

“What? What do you know what to do?” Molly said, hand on hips.

“You in handcuffs.” He started to wipe down every surface they had touched. The bathroom door, the wall that Molly had braced herself against to climb up to the ceiling, and the ceiling tile itself, not that it held fingerprints well, but you couldn’t be too careful. “Now let’s go, and we can talk about how Doubrov gave you something that you failed to tell me about.” He basically knew what had happened, but he wanted her to admit that she’d done it to keep him safe. Crazy, stupid, amazing woman.

He nodded her toward the door, wiping down everything she touched, until they were outside the door. He grabbed her hand and led her down the corridor and around the corner to room 1256, which he’d been given.

The door had barely closed before he told her to strip.

“What? No foreplay?” She quirked a coquettish eyebrow at him before kicking off one shoe and then the other.

“I just need to know that the archaeologist-spy isn’t hiding anything else from me.” He pulled out the desk chair and sat, unwilling to admit that he was tired. “Everything. Maybe you’re wearing a wire?”

She started to unbutton her blouse, unable to hide a grin. “I’ve given all that up. I’m never accepting a meeting from a government official ever again. It’s hazardous to my health.”

“Good. I’m happy to hear you’ve learned your lesson.

She dropped her blouse, revealing a lilac bra, the lace of which only barely covered her nipples, and her skirt, which she was already unzipping. His dick hardened at the sight of her, as it did annoyingly often. The skirt also fell to the floor.

She was wearing matching tiny, lilac lace shorts and hold-up stockings. Holding her arms up and slowly turning, she said, “See? No wires. Is there anything else you’d like to check me for?”

“Take the rest of it off.” He tried to keep his face stern, and it wasn’t too much of a challenge, because the box in his pocket was poking at his stitches. “Come on, quickly. I have something I want you to wear for me.”

“Oh, exciting,” she said, eyeing his suitcase. “What did you bring?”

He looked meaningfully at her and folded his arms across his chest.

She moved closer to him so that their knees touched. She unhooked her bra at the front, and let her lush breasts go free. She bent over slightly, and he couldn’t stop himself from stroking her soft skin. She let him touch her for a couple of seconds, and then shimmied away a few inches. She turned around, bending at the waist as she took her panties off. As she did, his eyes didn’t leave her lush ass. As she swept down her stockings, he could see all of her. He stroked her ass and felt her pussy. She shivered and moved back closer to him. This had gotten totally off topic, but he couldn’t resist her wetness and the whimper that came from her throat as he touched her clit.

His dick strained against his pants, and reminded him of his own mission. Pulling her onto his lap, he brought her head down so that he could kiss her.

“What did you bring for me to wear?” she asked, breathless.

He produced the box and flipped it open with one hand. Sadie had helped him choose the ring.

“What?” she said eyes wide and disbelieving.

“I know it’s sudden, and I won’t want us to rush into anything. But I want you in my life forever. And I don’t want you to ever think that I won’t come back for you. But if you wear this, it also means that you have to come back to me too. We’re both going to be traveling a lot with our jobs, and this is my promise to you that when you’re ready, we’ll put down roots somewhere and spend the rest of our lives together. Will you wear it?”

Tears spilled from her eyes. “Yes. Yes of course. And you better always come for me. And you better not leave me for a year.” She narrowed her watery eyes at him.

“No more than a week or so, ever again.” He slipped the ring on her finger and as it reached its resting place, he said, “maybe no more than a few days.” He stroked her thigh. “Maybe no more than a few hours.”

She leaned in. “That sounds about right.” Her lips touched his, and he lost himself in her once again.