Page 16 of No More Spies

Something she could never talk about.

“You need to be a girl who keeps quiet.” Kyle’s low voiceheld a note of desperation. “Your bravado is going to get both of us killed.Stay behind me. We’re not going to let them separate us.”

Would they even have a choice? Kala turned slightly,wondering if she could tell where they were. The blind was down. Would theystop her if she opened it?

“He wasn’t getting with the plan,” John was saying. “Ithought I’d save you the trouble and fire him. You told me to watch out for thekid. I didn’t like the way he looked at her.”

She felt Kyle stiffen beside her and looked up to realizethey had a newbie.

Julia Ennis. Kyle’s evil ex. Proof her cousin had terribletaste in women. MaeBe was a lucky accident.

She looked normal. Long blonde hair. Fit body. There wassomething about her face that was too sharp. As though her hard edges couldn’tbe contained by mere personality. This was the woman who had dragged Kyle solow.

So low. Because she “loved” him. Because she was obsessedwith him. Because deep down it was simply what a woman like her did.

Some nasty questions played at Kala’s brain, but she shovedthem away. She didn’t have to answer them now. There was plenty of time towonder is she was even still a virgin much less ponder if she deserved all ofthis.

“And now you have one less person to share the pay with,”Julia said with a dismissive wave. “Well, he’s yours to clean up. After. Fornow I want you to take the young Miss Taggart to the limo. Don’t take your eyesoff her. She’s smarter than she looks.”

Kyle stood, putting himself between Kala and Julia. “I’m notletting you take her. You promised me I could stay with her.”

“Well, she’s not getting far, and John seems to know how tohandle anyone who doesn’t understand how I want my underaged prisonerstreated.” A long sigh came from Julia’s chest. “She’s going to go sit in thelimo so we can talk. I’m not going to send her off somewhere. I have a roomready for you at my house, and I will allow you to share it with her. Maybe youcan keep her under control. I have no idea what the Taggarts have been teachingtheir kids, but that one is practically feral.”

She might be feral from here on out. Why the hell not? Itwasn’t like she fit in when she followed her own instincts. “You shouldremember that.”

Julia glanced around Kyle’s big shoulders, looking her way.“She reminds me of me at her age. Except I was better with manners. Her fathershould beat her more.”

Reminds me of me.Reminds me of the woman who knewhow to drag a man down.

There was more conversation, but all Kala heard for a momentwas Cooper’s voice.

Sometimes when a person is drowning, they end updragging the person trying to save them down, too.

“Excellent. Why don’t you and John take Miss Taggart out tothe limo while I talk to my fiancé?”

The words jarred Kala out of the miasma of her misery. Shehad to be better than this. Maybe in this case, she had to be exactly whateveryone thought she was. Unfeeling. Uncaring. Out for herself. Unafraid.Utterly unafraid. “Oh, my god, lady. You are delusional. He’s not your fiancé.He’s practically married to MaeBe.”

Kyle’s head shook. “No, I’m not. Mae’s never going toforgive me for leaving her. We don’t have a relationship anymore.”

She was screwing up, but then wasn’t that what she did? Shetried to shake it off. “Well, if that’s true, you screwed that up. MaeBe isawesome. Kyle kind of sucks. He makes everyone in the family go to his lamefuneral and he didn’t even respect us enough to actually be dead. At least Igot an Xbox out of it.”

Julia ignored her sarcasm. “It was inevitable that anyrelationship Kyle tried would fail. He was already in the most importantrelationship of his life.”

Kala’s only refuge was sarcasm. “Yes, with his Xbox. Heloved that thing, and now it’s mine.”

She could practically hear Julia growl her way. There was adark look on the woman’s face that seemed to force Kyle to move.

“I need you to promise me she won’t be hurt and you won’tseparate us for more than a few minutes.” Kyle sounded so reasonable.

Julia put a hand on her cousin’s chest, an entirelypossessive gesture.

She put her hand on Cooper’s chest when they were alone.Like she could feel his heartbeat.

What if she was fooling herself and what seemed like lovewas mere possession? Everyone talked about how obsessively possessive she couldbe. She’d heard people talk about how she wouldn’t let anyone near Lou. How shehorded her best friend like a dragon with gold.

Dragons weren’t exactly the good guys.

“I think you want me to get her back to her parents at thefirst opportunity. But yes to everything you asked,” Julia was saying. “Shewill come to no harm unless new John here doesn’t want his job.”

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