Page 117 of Sweet Little Spies

He couldn’t let them ruin Carys’s hands. He would ratherdie.

“Hold on?” Huisman asked. “For what? Oh, are you under theassumption those trackers of yours are still working? No, no, no. I accountedfor them, of course. I used something to jam the signal until I could kill itentirely. They’re oddly delicate technology. I used a modified defibrillator toscramble your tracker. Think of it as a mild electromagnetic pulse. They don’twork anymore. No one’s going to save you. Well, perhaps Captain Reed will. Ah,Jean-Marc.”

Tris wasn’t sure why Zach would be the one to save him, buthe watched as Huisman put a hand on his guard’s arm.

“Let me see your gun,” Huisman commanded. “I need to make apoint to our guests.”

The guard handed Huisman his SIG Sauer without question.

Two other guards moved in behind Tris and Zach while theothers were at attention.

“Please don’t hurt her,” Tris said quietly. “I’ll give younothing if you hurt her.”

“She wasn’t the Taggart I wanted, you know,” Huismanadmitted. “I honestly thought I would have to take my time. My plan was tomonitor the so-called bodyguards coming in with Dr. O’Donnell and his fiancéeso I could figure out where the safe house was. From there I was going to takethe lovely Natasha and use her to get the intelligence I need.”

Zach went still beside him. “Tasha?”

Tris didn’t understand. He was missing something. “Why Tash?Don’t get me wrong, I would come in for her. I wouldn’t let you hurt her, butif you want me to…” Fuck. He’d been such an idiot. All along. Big Tag shouldfucking draw and quarter him. Not once in all of this discussion had Huismanmentioned Tristan as anything but someone he had to deal with. “You didn’t wantme.”

Huisman ignored him, walking up to one of the other guards.“Gervais, how did this happen? You brought me the wrong Taggart.”

Gervais seemed to understand something had gone terriblywrong. “My team was supposed to pick up the women in the bar. Pierre told us…”

Huisman brought up the gun and put a bullet in Gervais’shead before he could finish his explanation. The sound shook the big room, andhe watched as Carys jumped in her chair, tears in her eyes.

Gervais’s body hit the floor, and Huisman stepped over himlike he was a bit of trash. “From what I can tell, it was bad timing. When Irealized the captain and Natasha were at the hotel, I sent in a team to bringthem in. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, they had already gone upstairs,and then Tasha and Zach seemed to have split up. Like I said, poor timing, butthat idiot on the floor thought he’d found Tasha because Pierre referred toCarys as Ms. Taggart. They thought they were bringing me what I wanted. Nowthey understand what happens when they fail.”

“Then you don’t need Kala,” Carys tried.

“Shut your mouth, woman.” Huisman sneered her way. “Yourvoice is not required here, so don’t make me take your tongue. I explained whyKala Taggart is a delightful surprise. It doesn’t mean the failure to bring inTasha should go unpunished.”

“Baby, just do what he says,” Tristan begged, though he wasstarting to realize how bad the situation was. Huisman didn’t want him. Huismanwanted Zach.

Because Zach knew things Tristan didn’t. Because he wasinvolved in a way Tristan hadn’t caught.

“Why Tasha?” Zach asked, his voice tense. “Like Tristansaid, he would come for her, but he would come for anyone on the team.”

“He doesn’t want me.” He turned to Zach. Zach had becomeimportant to him, and now he felt the breadth of his betrayal. “Who are youworking for?”

Zach’s eyes widened. “The United States Army and the CentralIntelligence Agency. Tris, don’t let him do this.”

“I make a close study of my enemies,” Huisman explained.“The tech you work with…Tara something…she gets lonely and goes to bars whereshe happily talks to women she finds attractive. She hides her proclivitieswell, but it wasn’t hard to get her to talk. Not about classified items. Sheproved quite tight-lipped about those, but she was willing to gossip about hercoworkers. Of course she said you all worked at a bank, but it didn’t matter.She gave me what I wanted, which was how to get to Captain Zachary Reed.”

Tristan thanked the universe Tara didn’t know anything aboutDevi Taggart.

Zach’s face flushed. “I don’t… You can’t know. You can’tfucking know.”

“I assure you I can, Captain Reid.” He snapped his fingers,and two of the guards stepped forward, taking Zach’s arms.

Zach started to pull away.

Tristan felt a gun to the back of his head, heard Carys cryout.

Zach went still.

“Now we find out exactly who you are, Captain,” Huisman saidquietly, studying Zach. “I know everything now, things you don’t even know.Certainly things Taggart doesn’t. He had a snake in his midst, and he didn’teven realize it. My instinct is to tell him, but that’s ego talking. It’s morefun to think about Taggart worried about you, not knowing all the ways youbetrayed his team.”

“I didn’t.” Zach stood still, his shoulders ramrod straight.“I never betrayed the team, Tristan. I didn’t tell you everything, but I had myreasons. Dr. Huisman, I’ll go with you if you’ll let everyone go.”

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