Page 26 of No More Spies

Yep, this was going to be an ass kicking. And she’d alreadygotten such a heinous one. This op sucked. “I went to the hotel where theassets were staying.” She didn’t need to mention that the assets had been hercousin, Carys Taggart, and Aidan O’Donnell, one of her fiancés. Tristan was theother. They’d gotten involved in the seemingly never-ending mission to proveDr. Emmanuel Huisman was the head of an international terrorist organizationdevoted to burning down the world. Carys and Aidan were doctors, and Aidan hadbeen invited to a conference by Huisman himself. “The comms units we were usinghad gone out, and the big boss decided to send a couple of us there to ensureeverything was all right.”

The comms units had been turned off because the threesomehad been having a knock-down, drag-out fight that led to some serious sex.She’d been in the audience for a bunch of the fight but had definitely beenhappy to leave before the sex.

Sex. Even the word was hard to deal with. It had been oddlyeasy to ignore sex for years, but then Cooper McKay had come back into herlife, and now it was on her brain again.

“You were acting as a bodyguard?”

Kala nodded. “Yes, but you should understand I didn’t leavemy charge without protection. She was with Tristan the whole time.”

“And you were in the bar.” Lena managed to put a lot ofjudgment into those words.

Kala sighed. “Yes, and that is where Tasha and Zach foundme. Carys joined me while Tasha and Zach went up to the hotel room to deal withthe comms units. We talked for a while, and then I realized the drink I’d beenwatching the bartender pour was somehow drugged. I watched him open it, so hemust have had the sedative already in the bottle.”

“All right. I won’t go into why you shouldn’t be drinking onthe job.”

“It could have been water,” Kala argued. “I wasn’t drunk,and let me say if you want spies to not drink… Well, you’re not going to haveany spies.”

Lena’s lips actually quirked up. “Truth. So the bartenderdrugged your drink and you and Carys were taken to Toronto.”

They’d been taken to hell. Absolute fucking hell.

She thought she’d gotten over what that asshole Dimitryhad—or hadn’t—done to her. Well, she thought she’d come to terms with it. Ifshe’d gotten over it, maybe she wouldn’t be a twenty-seven-year-old… Shecouldn’t even think the word. It was pathetic. It was easier when she couldconvince herself she wasn’t a sexual being. Not everyone was.

“Yes. I woke up bound to an exam table,” she said, her tonebland. “Dr. Huisman was there. He intended to use Carys to get Tristan to tellhim where he could find the bombmaker he’s been looking for.”

“And he brought you along for the ride?”

“The idiots he hired mistook me for Tasha. All they’d beentold was to pick up Carys and Tasha. I was with her. They thought I was her.”She kept telling herself she was lucky because if they hadn’t thought she wasTash, she would likely be dead.

But she could still remember what happened next, and therehad been moments during that time with Huisman that death would have beenacceptable.

“Why would they want Tasha?” Lena asked.

“Because Huisman knew Zach worked with Tristan on The Jesterproject. Tristan had been working a long-range undercover project. He took overthe identity of an arms dealer known as The Jester. Zach worked with him. Therumor on the Dark Web was that The Jester knew how to contact the bombmakerHuisman wants to work with. I don’t know why the dude doesn’t like give outcards or have an Etsy shop or something. He’s not a great businessman. Hedoesn’t know how important discoverability is.”

“So why Tasha?”

Her humor was utterly lost on this woman. “Because somehowhe knew Zach had feelings for her once. He thought he would have Tristan’sgirlfriend and Zach’s one true love.”

Luckily the fucker hadn’t been completely up to date sinceZach had made a serious connection with her cousin Devi Taggart before he’ddecided to go AWOL.

Or he’d played her. He hadn’t been able to get close to oneTaggart so he found another.

She hated the suspicions playing through her head. She’dtrusted Zach. She’d gotten close to him. Zach had been the one to coax her tojoin him and Cooper many times. The last few Devi had joined in on, and it hadfelt like…like a stupid double date. Like they were all normal people havingfun with their significant others and their friends and family.

It was one more lie the world told her.

Lena nodded as though pleased with the answer. Probablybecause everyone had given her the same one. “Did you talk to Dr. Huisman?”

“Yes. He monologued like a motherfucker. I mean it. Thatdude likes to listen to the sound of his own voice.”

“Was this before or after he tortured you?”

She hadn’t been able to move. She’d woken up on the tableand been in the exact same place she’d been when she was fifteen. Wonderingwhat had been done to her body while she’d been completely helpless. She’dsought out knowledge, trying to figure out where she ached, and she hadn’t beenable to move at all. “He used an experimental paralytic on me. I believe theguys in R&D got my blood work from the hospital later on. They were hopingthere would be traces of the drugs he used on me.”

“Drugs? You’re referring to the sedative and the paralytic?”

“I’m talking about the torture drug,” Kala said, keeping hertone as no-nonsense as possible. “He told me it’s supposed to make it feel likemy body was on fire from the inside out. The paralytic meant I couldn’t fight,and he didn’t need to hold me down.”

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