Scumbag terrorist was starting to bug me. I snapped, “It’s our freedom, Coop. Them or us. That's how we have to see it now. We are in hiding and not doing our actual jobs and not living because of this one place filled with people who could ruin tomorrow. Is that what you want to die for? The end of tomorrow? I want to live. I want my life back.”
“Our jobs have always been to take out the threat. I just have a hard time feeling threatened by these people. Maybe if we knew what they were guilty of. What the threats were.” His back hair was obviously getting riled up as well.
Luce shrugged, visibly not caring about getting fired up. “I want my life back too. I don't care what they did. I don't mind dying for a cause but this isn’t one. This is a fucking mistake is what it is. Sticking all those weapons in one place is ridiculous, but to have so many people know about it is even worse. We’re correcting a problem.”
Jack glanced at us all in the rearview. “I’m with you guys. While I agree it would be nice to have a real life again, the idea that they positioned that magnitude of weapons and scientists in one place is baffling. It was my first thought when we saw it. And this hiding all the time is terrible. It’s one thing being CI. That involves being careful and secretive and living off the grid for a while. This is a whole other thing.”
Coop looked at us all and lifted his hands in defeat. “All right. If we do this, then we do it so all four of us walk away. No one dies and no one gets caught. If Servario gets the codes for the bots then we might stand a chance, right?” He looked directly at Jack.
“I want to say yes, but I need a plan. What will we do in the meantime?”
“I have an idea.” I lifted the paper Servario gave me. “But it has nothing to do with the Burrow, but I think it will feel like the old CI days.”
Jack drove and I explained.
What’s a bit of pissing and kissing between old lovers?
The rumble of the plane had relaxed me until we landed in Blackpool. The airfield to the south of the city was much smaller than I had expected and the bumpy landing wasn't the end of the long day I had anticipated.
Dragging my carry-on off the plane, I didn't have to work at looking annoyed with life. Being a mom traveling to a foreign country for work wasn't a stretch for me. I was annoyed and tired and impatient.
When I got to the car, my driver, Luce in a driver’s uniform, offered me a hateful look as she got my bags. She didn't get the door for me and looked miserable. It was pretty perfect.
When she started the car and drove out of the airport I spoke, “Did Jack find everyone?”
“Yeah. The address is actually a taxi company, not black cab drivers but all foreigners. The British black cab drivers hate them. Bit of a rivalry. The guys who own it also own the kebab restaurant where they say the girl was ground into the meat.” She shuddered and gave me a look in the rearview. “This whole thing is making me fucking sick. I have seen a lot of dodgy shit these last two weeks.”
“It’s making me sick too.” I turned my head and watched as we drove past the industrial part of the city. “Do they own anything else?”
“An apartment building. The girls are brought there and it’s run brothel-style. You get the room for the hour a couple of nights a week and it comes with a girl. It can change or be the same girl, whatever you like. By girl, I mean girl. These are fifteen- to nineteen-year-olds. I am going to cut some dicks off. I can feel it.” She had spent two weeks here with Jack, doing surveillance and lifting up the rocks to see what kind of underworld came crawling out. She was visibly disturbed by what she had seen.
“So they have a monthly payment plan then?” My skin crawled, but I had to keep it business.
“Yeah. They have a lease agreement. It’s all on the up and up as far as paperwork goes.”
“Smart.” My brain didn't allow me to substitute my own children in the visuals I was building; it actually wouldn't allow for that imagery to take place, but it couldn’t have made me any more disgusted about it all. The rage and fire I built were cold. I was ice. My blood could have frozen in my veins I was so detached. For me that icy detachment was the worst sort of rage. I went to the darkest place in my mind with it.
I handed her a twenty when she came to a stop. With my change she gave me a package with my earpiece and contact cam. I slipped the contact in, blinking and then put the earpiece in, listening for Coop and Jack.
“Testing?”
“Got you,” Jack answered first. “Eyes and ears.”
“Yup,” Coop whispered.
Luce nodded her head at the street. “This is Cheapside. Go to the corner of Abingdon and Clifton. Coop will meet you by the takeaway place.” Her face was pale but the fury beneath threatened to flush her cheeks. “See ya in there.”
I left my bag with her and climbed out, thanking the gods I wore my Hush Puppies again. I had a disturbing love for the high heels they made, especially when it came to killing people. I walked past a bank and a crepe place, hating the smells in the alleys and narrow streets. It almost reminded me of the nasty stench in Taiwan where the stinky tofu was prepared. It mixed with the pollution and other foods and created a fog that stole your breath.
My heels clicked on the cement as I rounded the corner to Abingdon. I saw the flashy takeaway sign as I neared Clifton. It didn't take long to spot Coop. He was the most handsome man on the street. Other girls eyed him up, nodding and blowing kisses.
“Classy,” I muttered into the radio.
His eyes lifted the moment I spoke. He didn't even try to fight the grin on his lips. “Jealous?”
“They don't call it Cheapside for nothing, Coop.” I shook my head and folded my arms, waiting for a break in traffic so I could jaywalk.
“Nice. One point—Evie.” Luce laughed in our ears.
Grinning, I hurried across and followed him as he walked past a market and a bar, taking a right on Talbot. He kept his pace as he strode by businesses all looking a little past their prime. The whole area was rundown but hope was sprouting in the form of a few scattered small shops and tapas bars opening. They each had new windows and clean storefronts with eye-catching signs.
He hurried over another block to the left and entered an alley. I followed him, picking my pace up as well. He walked behind a building and entered what appeared to be a laundry or utility room with steam coming out the small roof above it. I caught the door just as it was closing and stepped into the dank room. The flickering lights reminded me of Janice’s building, but the wicked grin from the man in the corner did not.
He gave me an up-down. “Ya looking for something?” He grabbed the crotch of his jogging pants.
“Yeah.” I said as I walked to him, trying to keep his stare on my eyes. As he reached for me I grabbed his hand, spun him around and smashed his face into the brick wall behind him. He tightened and tried to fight it, but I bent him forward and knocked his head off the wall again. He went limp, falling to the floor.
Coop stepped out of the shadows with a sigh and a heap of disappointment. “Try keeping it in your pants, Evie.”
“He was greasy.”
“That's not actually a crime.” He shook his head but I grinned, hearing Luce chuckle into the mic again.
I stepped over the unconscious man and followed Coop to the stairs. He turned, pulling me into him, resting his lips on my throat as he whispered, “This is the front desk. Bit weird for a rental building, right?” He planted a kiss. “She is the one who finds them, according to Servario’s intel.”
My eyes closed as I leaned my head back and let him place soft kisses along my neck. I cracked one eye, almost cringing at the beautiful girl. She had lush chestnut hair in ringlets and smoky makeup around her gray-blue eyes. She was stunning like a model. It was creepy to imagine this was the girl we were seeking.
Coop’s hand slipped into mine as he pulled me through to the front door, taking us back out to the street.
We walked, hand in hand to the North Pier—one of the three famous piers in Blackpool. The massive ferris wheel at the Central Pier would have been the draw to kids as far as I would have thought, but Jack’s surveillance had proven that was wrong. The North Pier was the closest to the area where the kids were going missing or being murdered.
“Why haven’t the police ever done anything about this?” I asked as we strolled like lovers. It was the easiest thing to pretend with him. I almost wished it were awkward, but his hand felt natural around mine. Selfishly, I felt safe. Servario had just said the words marriage, and I was enjoying holding hands with Coop again. I was exactly the reason women couldn't have nice things.
“They are known for their corruption here. The police force actually ruined the case of one of the missing girls. They lied during the lawsuit and tampered with evidence and made the police services here be seen as a farce. It’s believed, but not vocalized loudly, that they actually enjoy the services of the girls.”
I furrowed my brow and turned sharply. “Wow.”
“Yeah. There was a mistrial because of the police. Absolute joke, if you ask me.” He didn't sound as emotional as he should have been.
This was no different than a Sunday stroll. As we passed a beautiful old clock tower in Talbot Square, I couldn't help but wonder if any famous people from history, like Austen or Dickens, had ever come here to the beaches. This part of the seaside was timely and retro still. As we crossed the square and entered the pier, I let him drag me to the fish and chips. He nodded at the restaurant and cocked an eyebrow. “This place has wicked food.”
“Okay.” I sat at a small table and prepared myself for the onslaught of greasy death.
“I have her. She’s on the move from the apartment,” Luce whispered in our ears. “Headed for Central Pier.”
I gave Coop a look, but he shrugged and ordered food. The way the sun was setting over the beach and the warm breeze tickled at my skin, I couldn't help but think we could be somewhere else. It didn't look or feel the way England looked or felt. It was more like South Carolina, only slightly cooler. The beach was covered in perfect sand and the walk in front of the water was touristy. It was like a resort.
Coop placed the food down, grinning at the massive plate we were going to share.
“You trying to fatten me up?”
His dark-blue stare filled with realness, something we didn't have a moment of before. “Maybe.”
He made my heart ache with the way his lips toyed with the grin on them. I regretted every choice I’d made regarding us. It was a plate of fries, fish, and the best fucking tartar sauce I had ever had, and somehow, even past breaking it off and all the awkwardness, it felt normal.
“Why?” I asked as I swallowed my fry and broke off some of the fish,
savoring the flavor of the tartar sauce. “You hate me fat,” I mocked him and licked my fingers, grabbing another fry.
He leaned in, taking my hand and lifting it close to his mouth. He wrapped his lips around my finger, eating the fry and sucking the salt off before letting me go. I struggled with pulling my hand back. Instinctively, I wanted him to take it again. I wanted to feel his lips on me again. “You are wrong, Evie. I hate you weak.” He smiled devilishly and got up, offering me his hand.
Not sure I should stand—not sure I wouldn’t piss my pants, I hesitated.
“Hurry up.” Luce growled.
I lifted my hand into his again and let him drag me away from the fish and chips we didn't finish. I felt like maybe other things were still at that table unfinished. Things I had told myself were very over.
I decided that with him, I wanted the simple things and the family life. With Servario I wanted to be ravaged and destroyed. I loved the up and down, even if I told myself I wanted calm with him, that wasn’t who he was for me. He was sexual freedom and that dish of crème brûlée I told myself I deserved.
It was a vicious cycle I had ended and didn't need to revisit.
We hurried down the beachfront, not walking long before he pointed at the massive ferris wheel in the distance. “There it is.” It was a brisk walk for a short amount of time before we finally saw Luce. She blended in with the punk English kids, smoking and laughing with a group of people. How she had found them so quickly was baffling.
I turned and sneered, offering judgment of the group of them just in time to see her wrap her arms around one of the kids with a mohawk and pull him in, planting a huge kiss on his lips.
Coop winced, but I lowered my eyes so Jack wouldn't see Coop’s reaction.
We hurried onto the pier.
The girl from the apartment was near the ferris wheel, talking to a kid who looked young. She was small, but I could see she was late teens by the lack of puberty in her face. She didn't have any roundness left in her cheeks.
She laughed and took a smoke from the package the brunette had offered her. The brunette lit it and tilted her head, like she was genuinely listening to whatever the little girl was saying.
“She convinces them to come with her. She can hook them up with a room and some food. It’s light work she says.” Jack whispered in my ear, “She listens when they tell her about their terrible home lives, and she’s so pretty they want to be with her. Humans are so daft they actually believe the lies that come from an attractive face because of the packaging. If it looks good it must be true.”
“Like a poisonous flower that draws you in with vibrant colors.” I furrowed my brow.
Coop turned my face to his, smiling and speaking, only not to me, “Who is she?”
“Sierra is the first name. I can’t find a record of her anywhere. Luce stole her prints the other day and nothing, no match. She only looks about twenty so we ran her in the differing systems to find out if she was a missing girl, but she doesn't match any of them. They all just call her Sierra.”
My gaze strayed from the handsome face in front of mine and found its way back to the brunette. She nudged the girl next to her playfully and the two of them walked away from the ferris wheel and the amusements.
All the lights were turning on and getting brighter as the sun faded away. The wind grew cool.
Everything we did was lost in the crowd and shadowy darkness. I glanced away, letting Coop drag me into a corner. “Luce, she’s coming back to you,” Coop whispered as he looked down on me, dazzling me with his smile. “Ready to go?” he asked, but I could tell he wanted me to shake my head. I bit my lip, honestly conflicted, as he turned abruptly, pulling me down past the fried food and arcade-like games.
His hand gripping mine was all business again.
We hurried down the strip, taking a different crossing than the two girls we were following.
Luce stayed behind them, but we rushed down the beach walk back to the apartment. He walked around the back block, again entering through the utilities room. The unconscious man was gone, but the stink and dank air were still there. The back room was darker than before with no light from outside getting in now through the small window above the door. The orange glow of the streetlamps did nothing to brighten it up.