Page 80 of Spy With Me
“Tequila?” Kala asked as she set down her bag. “He doesn’teven like tequila.”
Lucy tossed her bag down as well and turned on Kala. “Well,I had to do something since you took him in the barn and fucked him sosenseless he walked in looking like a recently used sex doll.”
Kala growled. “How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t checkhimself in a damn mirror? You are trying to get me to think you slept with myhusband.”
“Well, he wasn’t your husband at the time,” Lucy taunted.
So much drama. She moved to Zach. Despite everything shesaid earlier, she wanted to be close to him. She threaded her fingers throughhis and tilted her chin up. “Do you think there’s a place for them to spar?”
He gave her a halfhearted smile. “It’s a surprisingly bigplace for the city, but I don’t think they have a room dedicated to fightclub.”
The Hideout did.
The train trip to Liverpool had been surprisingly short. Shedidn’t know a lot about Welsh geography, so she hadn’t known they were in thenorth and close to Liverpool. Lucy and Henry had taken the Jeep and managed tomake it to the station just as their train pulled in.
There had been a lot of planning in that hour-long trainride. Mostly from Kala about where she was going to bury Lucy’s body.
“I’m praying there’s still some whiskey.” Henry seemed readyto throw his hands up. “Luce, I love you. I will honor all the wishes you havefor your own funeral.”
“Dad, I told you why I did it,” she said with a frown,obviously unused to her father being upset with her.
“You have been poking that particular bear since before sheeven got here,” Henry shot back, walking down the long hall.
“I’m not sure they won’t kill each other right here,” Zachadmitted.
“She’s not killing anyone.” Lou had her hands on ahalf-asleep TJ, as though she had to maneuver him to bed. “I still have thewater bottle ready.”
TJ yawned. “Yeah, Lucy explained why she decided to makeherself Cooper’s girlfriend. Now Parker definitely doesn’t think you’retogether. What else has she done? I think it was all for the op.”
“For the op? Yeah, who is the donkey named after?” Kalacracked her knuckles. “You named all of those animals after someone you knew.”
“And I saved the worst for the most stubborn ass I’ve evermet. The Fabulous Miss K,” Lucy nearly hissed.
She heard Henry say something about thanking god and someonecreated this mess and then she heard the dulcet tones of her uncle.
“Well, it’s good to know nothing changes.” Ian Taggart stoodat the end of the hall, hands in fists at his hips as he looked the group over.“Cooper, you ever do Lucy?”
“I didn’t even know she existed before a couple of weeksago.” Cooper looked utterly relieved to see a man who was definitely going toyell at him. “But Lucy is right. I screwed up. I was late to the debrief anddidn’t check myself. I wish she’d come up with something different, but atleast now Parker does believe Kara and I are not together.”
“Ben?” A bubblegum-colored head popped around the corner.“Ben is here? Hey, Devi. How are you after all the torture and shit?”
Ben might not be here but the gang sure was. “The evildoctor torture or what Zach did to my asshole in a barn twelve hours ago?”
Zach started coughing.
Her uncle groaned. “And if Ben was here maybe you shouldn’tbe bouncing in. You’ll give him a heart attack.”
“Yeah, well you said you would talk about letting Ben in ifhe proved sufficiently loyal. I would say this should prove his loyalty. He waswilling to risk his job to do something crazy Kala came up with.” Kenzie turnedback to the room she’d walked out of. “So much gossip. Tash, Devi’s doing Zachagain. You were right. It didn’t take long.”
“Hey, I held out for weeks,” Devi argued.
“Uhm, no. I held out for weeks,” Zach countered.
Evil man. Couldn’t he give her one thing? She moved past heruncle, who had a hand on his stomach like he might throw up. There stood hercousin. Tasha Taggart was the epitome of modern femininity. She was petite,with lush, dark hair and a figure most men would die to get their hands on. Shewas curvy and gorgeous, and the energy that surrounded her was calm, as thoughthe very air understood her competence at…well, everything.
And she was loving and kind and completelyunhateablebecause Devi remembered all the times Tashastepped in when she needed a big sister. She went and hugged her cousin. “Hey.”
Tasha’s arms wound around her, pulling her in. “Are youokay? I know everyone’s talked to you, and Zach has been open about taking careof you, but are you honestly okay?”
