Single Lady Spy 01 - The End of Me

over his shoulder. I took it. "For the valet," he muttered and walked away from me.
    He disappeared into the crowd of people wearing black.
    I looked down at the fifty and the card. I wished Coop were with me. That was a bad sign. He was right, I was in over my head.
    I slipped the cash and the card in my clutch and wiped my eyes, before walking back out into the wake.
    My mom came up to me, smiling weakly, "I'm taking these guys home."
    I swallowed and looked around the room. "I think they need some time away. You up for a road trip?"
    Mom frowned, "What? Honey. We can't run away from our problems."
    I shook my head. "It isn’t ours, but we may need to run anyway. We'll talk about this at home." I had so many things to tell her. Things that weren’t going to be easy. I had found forty-eight bugging devices and cameras in the house and garage. I figured Coop would be there with a team reinstalling them all.
    My nerves were shot and when I looked at the picture of James at the memorial table, I felt worse. Worse because I wished he were there to solve this for me.
    A hand reached out for mine, "I'm so sorry, Evie."
    I looked up to see our neighbor from across the way, Jeff. I smiled and let him embrace me. He held me tight, "If you need anything—anything at all, just call."
    I pulled back and nodded, "Thanks, Jeff." His wife Megan walked up and smiled compassionately.
    "Honey, I am so sorry. James was the best." She looked distraught as she covered her face and started to cry again, "I…just…am so sorry."
    I noticed the way Jeff's face tightened. He looked at me and smiled weakly, "She's been really broken up about it."
    I nodded, "Of course. I better circulate." I turned and walked away. I didn’t circulate. I ran for the exit. I was going to be sick if I saw one more, teary-eyed woman. I was either becoming that jealous psycho widow/ex-wife, or I was actually accurate in my assumption he was also fucking our neighbor.
    I drove home in a near coma. I was so out of it by the time I got in the front door, I couldn’t see straight. I slipped up the stairs and flopped on my bed. His scent wafted up into the air from his pillow. I grabbed it and threw it across the room.
    "Easy tiger."
    I jumped seeing Coop standing where I threw the pillow.
    "What are you doing here?" I asked looking around.
    He put a finger to his lips. Jules came running into the room and jumped on the bed. She curled into me and cried. Mitch wasn’t far behind her. He wrapped himself around us and joined in on the crying.
    It broke everything inside of me. Their suffering wasn’t a random accident. It was the recklessness of a philandering father. A man I would let die, even if it meant I was in danger. No matter what, they would always believe the lies. I was selling my soul to the devil to ensure it.
    I held my children to me and forgot we had an audience, until my mom came in. She stood in the doorway and smiled, "Fresh cookies on the rack downstairs cooling."
    I kissed Mitch on the cheek and smiled, "Go on." He wiped his face and shoved his ball cap down, then he stalked past his grandma like a tough guy. Jules was asleep. I nudged her, "Cookies."
    She didn’t stir. I lifted her off the bed and carried her to her room.
    When I came back in, I climbed on the bed and smiled at my mom, "Thanks for making those."
    She shook her head, "No. No thank-you needed. This is what family does, when one of theirs is hurting."
    I nodded, "You always were a good mom. You're an even better grandma."
    She laughed and sat on the bed. I glanced around, looking for Coop but he wasn’t there.
    "That’s the payment for suffering through having kids. You get grandkids," she beamed.
    I rolled my eyes, "Me and sis were easy."
    She folded her arms around her and grinned, "I never said you weren’t. But you were kids. Kids are kids."
    I put a hand on hers and saw the resemblance. We had the same hands. I had hers. I squeezed, "I need you to leave town."
    She shook her head, "No, the kids need stability."
    I pressed my lips together and took a deep breath, "They need to survive something I'm about to tell you, that you may never speak of to anyone. I am telling you, not only so you are prepared to run and raise them on your own, but so you understand what I'm doing."
    She squeezed my hand back, "Evie honey, you're scaring me."
    I looked into her green eyes and nodded, "You should be scared. James did some bad things. He betrayed the country. He sold secrets. He