Page 56 of My Super Sexy Spy
“How did you even get inside?”
“I have my ways.”
I glared at him.
“Fine. I broke into the apartment below this one and climbed up the side of the building to a window I managed to open. Easy.”
“You climbed up the building?” I asked, incredulous. “What if you had fallen?”
“I don’t fall,” he said casually. “But it’s not lost on me how much you care.”
I shook my head. “We need to get him now and move him. The whole Amex trick isn’t going to work for very long. Because you know, the only thing that Amex does…is, like, pay for stuff.”
“I’m aware.”
“It was the USB that was also in the purse that I’m pretty sure has what you’re looking for. And that’s as safe as it can be. But we’re going to need that purse.” Liam walked over and picked it up where Dmitri had dropped it after he’d extracted the credit card.
“Beth, there’s nothing in here but some euros, a padlock and a key.”
“Let’s just say that’s a pretty important key.”
Liam smiled and walked toward me. Reaching out, he cupped my face in his hands. “You’re pretty incredible, you know that?”
I smiled and let his admiration wash over me. “Did you really lose your job over me?”
He scowled and kissed my lips. “Long story. Now, let’s get a move on before The Douchebag comes back even angrier than before.”
“Oh, we don’t have to worry about him. It’s clear Marta wears the pants in that relationship.”
13
Eight Days Later
A Safe House Outside of Paris
Liam
I watchedfrom just outside the bedroom as Gino struggled to breathe. Beth sat on the end of his bed and administered a few drips of the morphine so that he might better sleep. When we first got here, I had a nurse attending him, but Beth had insisted that she could do anything the nurse could.
Outside of getting him in and out of a shower, which was my job.
These past few days he didn’t even have the strength for that. And the drip dosages, which had started at a few every few hours, were now increasing to every hour he was awake as directed by the doctor who had prescribed the drug.
Gino was slowly slipping from this world, but he was doing so in the care of his only daughter, maybe the only person he cared about on this planet. He didn’t ask what Beth did with his work.
For that matter, I didn’t either. My job was just to make sure they were both safe and secure. Beth assured me that wherever the USB was, it was not in a place where Marta or Dmitri would ever find it and for now, that was good enough for me.
Her hand over his heart, I could see how she counted out his breaths. Knowing that the time for goodbyes was soon. She kissed him on the forehead and turned out the light.
I stepped away from the door, making my way to the kitchen where I could fix her a cup of tea. Giving her some privacy while she grieved a man she barely knew as her father.
“You know, I always figured the person I would find dead would be my mother,” Beth said as she took a seat at the kitchen island and waited patiently while the mug of tea I’d pushed in front of her cooled. “This sucks. A month ago, I didn’t even know who he was and now…”
“You want more time.”
She brushed the bangs out of her eyes. “Yes, but mostly so I can rail at him more for not being around when I was growing up. It’s like…it’s like he would have been a cool dad. Smart obviously. A genius. But he’s also self-deprecating. He doesn’t care that he did this huge thing that can save so many lives. He only cares if it will make me happy. Any strength he has left he’s using it to ask me questions, instead of the other way around. Like my life is more important.”
“To him it is.”
