Page 52 of Shadow Lies

Figuring the performance would be over, she’d just texted Kane. She’d sent him her room number along with a pretty flirty invite for him to come join her here.

She had good reason other than the fact she wanted him there with her and in her bed again. She also wanted a report. She needed to know if he’d observed anything at the banquet.

He hadn’t responded to her text. But judging by the loud hard knock on her door it sounded as if he’d decided to just come over instead.

Perfect. That was fine with her. She liked a man who took action both in the bedroom and out of it.

She and Kane were a perfect match…she just had to get him to see that. The sexy little lace top beneath her suit jacket was one way to convince him.

When they saved Wei and exposed the bad people really behind the reeducation camps, he’d have to see they were better together than apart. Better for the safety of the world at large, and for them personally in their own little worlds.

Fueled with determination and joy, she flung open the door, only to be greeted by two men. They were wearing hotel uniforms but they didn’t look like the hotel employees she’d seen since checking in. They were large. Built like linebackers. And they looked American.

Her sixth sense was screaming at her to run. She realized her mistake immediately and attempted to slam the door closed with both hands.

She was too late. One man extended one beefy hand and held the door wide, foiling her attempt to shut them out as he said to the other, “Grab her.”

The other man did just that. Grabbing her around the neck while covering her mouth with his other hand, he pushed her backward into the room.

They closed and locked the door with them inside with her and her fear doubled. Her heart pounded hard enough to make the lights in the room flash as she fought passing out.

Then she felt the needle prick her neck.

As her racing heart sent the sedative coursing through her bloodstream no amount of effort on her part could fight back the darkness from taking over.

Her mouth and throat were so dry, her first attempt at swallowing failed.

Her eyelids felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds and were glued to her eyeballs.

Once that inventory of her limited senses was complete the memories began to return—trickling back slowly and then flooding her all at once.

Fear—outright panic—gripped her.

She’d been kidnapped. Taken.

To where? And by whom?

Her heart began to pound, which didn’t help the dull headache or the accompanying nausea.

“Good afternoon, Alexis.”

That voice had her eyes flying open in spite of how shitty she felt and how the bright overhead lights in the room felt like a knife cutting through her brain.

“Charley,” she managed to croak out, hating her voice wasn’t stronger. More assertive.

She wanted this bitch to know that this wasnotokay.

Alexis swallowed again and hoped for a better result as she said, “If you wanted a meeting, you could have just called.”

The woman smiled but there was an icy chill to it.

Charley looked pretty much as Alexis had expected her to, having had only her voice and her demeanor to go on prior.

She could be cast in any James Bond movie as the villainous femme fatale. The woman that 007 would inevitably sleep with only to have her attempt to kill him immediately afterward.

Tall with almost painfully thin limbs, she was attractive—in a harsh, mean girl kind of way.

Her shoulder-length, devil-red hair suited her. It contrasted perfectly with flawless skin so porcelain pale it had an ethereal quality. As if Charley never left her underground lair so her skin had never been exposed to the harshness of the sun.

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