Page 133 of The Bachelor Spy
Ears alert for the faintest sound. The softest hint.
The abandoned corridor was darker than the rest of Havensbrooke, the electric lights never installed in this unused section. Moonlight streamed through tall windows, painting silver rectangles across dusty floorboards. It was the perfect place for someone to slip away unnoticed.
The perfect place to catch them doing it.
Yet the quiet held its own warning. Shifted with a sudden … presence.
Had Evie unknowingly transformed from huntress … to hunted?
Her hand went to her knife concealed at her wrist.
And then she saw it. One unmoving silhouette by the window. The shape of a woman. Spectral in its stance.
For only a second, Evie’s blood ran cold.
“I was wondering when I’d see you again, Miss Gale.” Rivers’ voice was pleasant, almost cheerful. “Or should I say … Miss Montgomery?”
A flicker of light revealed a cigarette, illuminating the woman’s face for only a moment. The same helpful smile Rivers had worn in the hospital wards flashed alive, but her eyes? They were calculating. Narrowed.
A predator’s gaze.
Evie stilled against the look. Against this woman’s attempt at intimidation.
The satchel waited at her side. Likely with the information Evie needed, but the best choice would be to take Rivers alive. Drain every bit of information from her to help the cause. To save lives.
“I’m not letting you leave this room alive,” Evie said quietly.
A small chuckle floated through the moonlit space. “How quaint, from the woman who might be a bit out of practice.” Rivers’ lips curled. “You disappeared, I hear. Left the service.” She blew out a long stream of smoke. “Couldn’t handle the dirtiest truths of the job when they hit … too close to the heart?”
Evie drew a step closer, her attention cataloguing every detail of the woman. The shadow of a gun waited at one hip, where Evie’s own waited. She likely had a knife too, like Evie. Probably more than one.
No knowing what else.
“Your brother told me so much about you,” Rivers continued, moving away from the window with casual confidence. “Did you know he kept a journal? Detailed notes about his fellow agents. Their strengths.” Her smile sharpened. “Their weaknesses.”
Evie circled nearer, keeping her back to the wall, her attention riveted on Rivers but her ears alert to any other sounds.
Any accomplices she hadn’t accounted for.
“Said you were brilliant but soft. That you’d sacrifice the mission for sentiment every time. But you proved him wrong, didn’t you?” Rivers’ voice took a dark turn as she tilted her head, studying Evie with disturbing intensity. “Tell me, did he beg? When the water was closing over his head, when he realized his own sister—histwin—had chosen duty over family?”
Evie’s jaw tightened. “Put. The satchel. Down.”
“You know, I could have left already.” She blew out another stream of smoke. “Escaped. But you’ve gotten beneath my skin.” She shook her head in an almost pitying way. “Taken my information, destroyed one of my greatest creations when you killed your brother. And after all this time together, I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.”
So Rivers had been waiting. To kill her. “So you want a fight?”
“Or to see you retreat.” Her smile turned feline. “Your choice, but I do want to see if your heart is as soft as your brother declared, whether inside or outside of your body.”
No doubt Rivers’ superiors would have found her choice unsavory. Staying to nurse a grudge instead of escaping with the intel.
But the look in Rivers’ eyes proved the woman didn’t care.
The faintest fear quivered through Evie’s middle. She hadn’t been in active combat for months. She practiced. Kept up her skills. But there was a distinct difference between a self-imposed exercise regime and the rush of someone actually trying to kill you.
The combat was different.
She drew in a breath. Everything was different.
