Single Lady Spy 01 - The End of Me

run after all this, if they don’t like that you ran away from Servario.”
    I looked at him, “I had to. He wanted me to kill again and he… he was…” How did I explain what he was?
    "Want to talk about it?" Coop asked. I looked at him and noticed his knuckles were cut and bruised. I reached over and ran my fingertips across them, "What's that?"
    He smirked and gave me a look, "So no then?"
    I shook my head.
    He lifted his hand and straightened it, "That is a bar brawl, at a biker bar last night."
    I frowned, "Why?"
    He shook his head slowly and kept his eyes on the road, "Just needed to blow off some steam."
    I smirked back, "Teenage girls can rile you up like that. When you get older and date women, it gets easier, I promise."
    His jaw clenched and he turned and gave me a stoic look, "It was a woman that caused this."
    “If you say so.” I rolled my eyes.
    He opened the garage and drove in slowly. He closed it before we got out.
    "Did he hurt you?" he asked.
    I shook my head, "No more than I hurt him."
    He winced, "Did you…? Forget it. I don’t wanna know." He made a weird face and climbed out of the car. He stormed inside , leaving me feeling conflicted . I wasn’t really sure what it was that we were about to discuss. Was he going to get angry because I said yes to everything, like he and my libido asked me to?
    I walked inside to see Luce smiling at me. She crossed her arms and tilted her head, "Leaves the Bellagio in a robe? You are going down in history, my friend." She put her knuckles out for me. I patted them again, awkwardly. She laughed at me, “You are a crazy woman.”
    I laughed, "A crazy woman who could go for a shower and some clothes, and maybe some oatmeal, or a protein shake. Are any of those things possible? Maybe some therapy?" I asked.
    She nodded and pointed at the kitchen to my right, "Fully stocked, except for the therapist. Jack, you remember Evie?"
    I looked into the kitchen to see the young man who was always on the phone. I smiled, but he gave me a look and nodded, "Good afternoon, Mrs. Evans." He walked past me. I looked back at Luce. She shook her head and walked into the kitchen with me. She leaned against the counter as I rifled the cupboards for food, real food.
    "He's BFF's with Coop. He's pissy ‘cause Coop went scary psycho yesterday and got drunk and started a fight in a biker bar."
    I noticed the tinge of blue under her eye and winced, "Because of me being on a mission?" I whispered back.
    She nodded, "We were all upset. We figured you would be in and out of the hotel. We didn’t get told you were staying there until the day after the fat man. After the first two days Coop went a little snaky."
    I sighed, "Join the club."
    She folded her arms, "We wanted to evac you two days ago but upstairs wouldn’t hear of it. Coop made the call and they said we were not to interfere. They were letting it ride. You were not to leave under any circumstances. Coop’s gonna make the call and tell them we had no choice."
    I felt the horrified look creep across my face, "They risked me out like that? I don’t even work for them."
    She nodded, "Coop was pissed. He went off; almost lost the mission to someone who could remain detached. You being there had no bearing on the mission."
    I leaned on the counter, "They left me in there on purpose? They made me stay there for three days? It had no bearing on the mission? I don’t even understand why they made me do any of it. Servario doesn’t trust me, and he sure as shit doesn’t have anything on me. What was the fucking point?" My voice rose above a whisper.
    She nodded, "Precisely." She leaned in and barely spoke when she whispered, "He thinks they're working with Servario. He thinks you were Servario’s demand all along."
    My stomach dropped. My voice dropped low, "I just got whored out by the fucking military to the arms dealer, who is being blamed for my husband’s fake death?"
    She nodded against my face, "Oh good, at least you know that no one thinks James is dead. We think he’s still working with Servario. Or maybe even CI. We’re starting to think, the shit has been piled on us. Like the mission was a fake too. Something to appease Servario."
    My skin tingled and my brain worked overtime. Had my husband just agreed to let a criminal have his way with me? Had he let that same criminal take everything away from our family? His children’s food and money? I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin and go in every