The End of Games (10 page)

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 feel 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.

He shook his head, "There is no going back."

A slow smile crossed my lips, "That ship's sailed, my friend. I'm in it to win it, and thanks to James, I'm balls deep already."

He winced, "That’s a disturbing image."

My smile widened, "I need you to promise me, you are on my side or at least the side of good."

His green eyes were alive with something I told myself was love, "I have always been on the side of good, Evie."

I noticed that he didn’t say my side. It made my chest feel like it weighed a ton but I nodded, "Okay, let's do this."

When the elevator landed, he grabbed my arm a bit harshly and pulled me through the lobby to the waiting car. The driver opened the door, hardly giving me a look. I didn’t know him.

Servario shoved me into the seat and sat next to me. I looked out over the city as it was blanketed in the fading light of the fall sun and tried not to throw up. Servario's body pressed against mine making me shiver.

None of us spoke. Not me, not Servario, and not the guard or driver. The drive was smooth and silent. The driver struck me as an actual professional, not a Steve.

The people of Rome were oblivious to the bad things going on in their city. They smiled as they walked along the streets gracefully or rode their bikes. They looked like the images from a famous photographer I had once seen in a coffee-table book. People of every shape and size just going about life in a harmonious state of oblivion.

All the while they walked in the crisp air of fall, I rode to the possible death of myself and the man next to me. The man who owned my body and soul.

I looked out over the city and smiled; I had come to terms with something and it was a relief to have the outspokenness of it off of my chest.

I loved him. It was final. There was no disputing my feelings for him. My fear of him would never be as large as my love for him. But my love was never going to be enough to save him from the life he had chosen.

The love of him was not the thing that had weighed upon my chest. No. It was the fact we would never be together. That was what I had refused to say out loud. I had refused to acknowledge. But in his arms, wrapped in sheets and blankets and his body, we admitted it. In a random hotel, in an ancient city where my love would not be the first to perish before it even started, we admitted it.

We would never be together.

Once it was spoken aloud, I felt the relief of the agony. I felt free of him in a way that I never wanted. My heart was broken, but it was the cost of everything else.

The driver stopped in front of what I had to assume was the ruins of Caesar's Curia. Servario got out of the car abruptly, dragging me with him. He didn’t put on a show. His anger and pain were real. He had begged me to run and I had refused. Coop was right, fighting was the only real way to end it. No, Servario's hatred of me was real. He hated how much he loved me, it made the thin line between the love and hate blur for him. He could hate me, he could hate the fate we faced. But I still only loved him.

As we stormed up to the Curia, I tripped but his hand didn’t relent. He squeezed my arm, dragging me through the ruins and the shadows. I wondered how many people had been dragged through such an ancient area. How many people had lost their lives in that place.

When I saw him through the doorway, my stomach clenched. When his eyes met mine, James started to laugh instantly. "You are so predictable, Evie. You always were. I knew you would find your way to Rome to help poor Servario. When I saw Luce at the Casino, I never imagined I could get that lucky. You not only come back to Rome, but you bring someone I know." He laughed at his own brilliance. He was like a showy peacock. He strutted about shaking his head and chuckling. It was sickening to see him so satisfied with himself. His eyes landed on me again, "I couldn’t believe when I got the call from the front desk of the hotel that the beautiful girl I was looking for was staying there." He pointed at Servario, "It's lucky you got Evie here strung out on you so she endangered her friends and came looking for you. I got to pay lovely Luce back for something that I have wanted to for a while."

I snarled but something happened we hadn’t planned on, Servario struck me, hard. Instantly my mouth filled with blood. He dropped me to the stone floor as the door behind me closed. The light was dim, making shadows everywhere around me. I started to panic. We had talked about that happening, but I was still scared.

James dropped to his knee with the help of his cane. He grabbed my face in his hands, squeezing my cheeks, "You always were so easily led. Easily convinced to quit CI for the sake of our kids. Easily convinced to move to an area we couldn’t afford so I had to take all the overtime I could. So easy to lead about." His eyes were haunting and his smile was a cruel thin line. He was not the man I had married. I almost had no feelings, not even hatred for him. He was so detached and unfeeling. I thought about my kids and my father and forced my rage.

I smiled through his grip on my face, "What did you expect, James? A decade of your tiny cock? Of course I would jump at the first chance to be properly fucked."

His grip tightened as he shoved my face back, "Back at you, baby."

I laughed, spitting blood to the cold floor. I imagined it was not the first time the ancient stone tiles had seen blood spilled upon them.

He stepped backward, limping and giving Servario a nod, "I never imagined for a second, you were really the cold bastard they always said you were. I always believed there was a small amount of something good inside of you. The way you freed those girls last year had me worried."

Servario shook his head, "I like to be that unknown variable. Now you have her, give me what I want."

James put his hand in his pocket. When he pulled it out, he handed a phone to Servario. The way he grabbed it made me uneasy. He was desperate for it. Whatever the information was on the phone, he wanted it more than anything. He sighed, seeing whatever was on the screen. He put a hand out for James, "I had better not see my name brought into anything else again, my friend. You name me as part of the Burrow again, and I won't be as lenient as I was. You've ruined all sorts of deals for me, cost me millions."

James laughed, "You can count on me leaving you alone, Servario." There was something in his eyes when he said it. Like he was laughing at his own joke again. The flash in his eyes was gone when he suddenly realized Servario was leaving with whatever was on that phone. "After you give me my money—Servario? I know it was you who took it."

Servario grinned, "What money, James? You mean the money you lost when you reneged on our deal to find the Burrow together?"

James looked like he might snap, "I want my money. The deal was her for the…"

Servario put a hand up, cutting him off. "The original deal was you and I find the Burrow. You use your supposed CI and MI6 contacts and get me the weapons. The deal was never you double-crossing me with that bitch Roxy. Now you have the audacity to talk about the deal? The deal changed when you let your cock do the decision making for you. I let you live, that’s the new deal." He winked at me, "Ask Evie where the money is. You're damned right I stole it, and I gave it to her as payment for a fun week. She was very obliging. You're lucky I never shot you like I did Roxy."

I didn’t know what game we were playing. I didn’t have all of the money. Servario had kept it in trust mostly, invested for me. Either way, James was playing at something else. Something was up. Something Servario wasn’t seeing. I shook my head, "He's betrayed you, Servario. He used Roxy to try to kill you and tried to use you to lure the Master Key. You can't leave me with him."

James' eyes darted at me. He swung his leg, striking me in the face. I fell back, hearing a crunching sound in my nose. The blood gush was instant. I moaned but pressed my hand against it as I pointed at James, "I saw it in his eyes just there. He has betrayed you again. There is something he isn’t telling you."

James looked at me, "Face it, Evie. No one cares what you have to say. You'd do anything to save your skin."

Servario's eyes darted between us. "I'm tired of this." He gave me a subtle lip twitch of a grin, "Go easy on her, James. She is the mother of your children."

James laughed and gave me a sideways look, "She does look pretty, bleeding like that, doesn’t she?" Servario ignored him, waving and walking from the massive doors, "Take care, Evie."

I wasn’t certain it was part of the plan or if he had just betrayed me. His acting was amazing and he was a very straightforward man, or I was a blind woman. We had discussed it but the feeling of him leaving me was worse than I had imagined it would be. I had to do my damnedest to not cry when I thought about it. I gave James a desperate look, "James, please don’t hurt me. I don’t even know why you care if I live or die."

He grabbed me by the hair, lifting me into the air almost, "I just want my money, Evie."

I shook my head, "I don’t have it, I swear I don’t. Servario never gave it to me. He gave me a small amount to buy a house. That’s it."

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

He tossed me back to the ground, kicking again but in the stomach instead of the face. I grunted, pressing my face into the hard floor and realizing there was no way Servario was coming back.

He grabbed my face, "Where is it?"

I winced, "It's in Servario's trust. He has it in trust."

His grip on my hair didn’t relent, "You fucking bitch. You're such shit in the sack, you couldn’t even use your pussy to get our money from a guy who could't care less about it?"

I sobbed, "Please, stop. I don’t have it. You betrayed him, what did you think was going to happen?" Weak and sad Evie was such an easy act. I sniffled and blubbered and let him believe he had the upper hand. I was convinced of it.

He dragged me to my feet, pulling me to the doors, "Well, I guess we will go to where he is going. I was going to head straight to Croatia with you, but maybe Mary can get the truth out of you."

His guards opened the doors for him. He dragged me to the parking lot and tossed me into a black car. He climbed in next to me. My blood had started to thicken and coat my face. A guard got into the front seat and the driver pulled away. I could see two cars following us. It almost made me excited as I imagined at least one was my real ride.

James relaxed into the seat. He started looking like old James again. I took my chance to get some answers. I looked down at my feet, "How long did you fuck Luce for?"

He chuckled, "Caught that one, did ya? Were you in the hotel room when I went to see her? My informant told me she was alone and that the man she had been with was out. I guess it doesn’t matter. Luce and I worked together for about a month or so. She was new to CI and worked under me in Turkey, in more than one way."

I shook my head, "Did you ever love me?"

I turned my head a little to see his eyes. He shook his head, "Let's not do this, Evie."

I started to cry, ashamed of the fact the tears were real, "What about the kids?"

His eyes hardened, "I have always seen you as part of my cover."

There was no answer to that. We were part of his cover. He never loved any of us. I nodded, "Fair enough. Where are we going?"

He nodded, "I'm taking you to the place Servario is going. He and I are going to have another little chat about that money, before I drop you off with the people who want you. I think Mary being there might help sway him and I know he is on his way to see her."

My insides tightened. Servario never told me we were leaving Rome, but I could see the city was far behind us. Was this Servario's plan? Is that why he told James I had the money? I knew I wasn’t going to get any answers unless I pressed James, but I had to be nonchalant about it.

I gave James a confused look as the words 'want you' floated about in my mind next to the possibilities. "Okay, but where are we going? Who would want me?"

He laughed, "Well, you are supposed to go to someone who wants you, but I am taking you to see someone else first. Trust me, you won't float her boat, so to speak, of the person we are going to see first." He looked out the window laughing some more, "This person has a thing for Asian girls so you're safe. Middle-aged women who have been ridden hard already aren’t really the type I normally help smuggle abroad or into hotel rooms."

My hate for him burned. I wanted to kill him then and there, but I realized suddenly, who he was talking about. I nodded, "Good to know." He was taking me to MI6.

He smiled, "Don’t get too excited. It doesn’t mean you won't be used nicely. The first place has a lot of guards who probably aren’t picky about where they put it. But the second place, oh Evie, let me tell you, you are really going to hate the second place. Servario must have really hated you. He's asked that you go to live a long life in the place he's going, Evie. It’s a gift to your father for murdering his."

My mouth hung open. I had no response for what he was saying. He nodded, "The second person we are meeting owns a few places; I think you'll fit in nicely."