Page 148 of Lethal Obsession

“Done.” I deposit her in the shower and kiss her again, lingering until she moans under my mouth. I nearly take her there and then, mud be damned.

“Go.” She steps back, pushing me away, and her soft laugh is the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.

“Fine.” I take a last look at her. “Even covered in mud and stinking like a sewer,” I say, “you’re still the most gorgeous fucking sight I’ve ever seen.”

“Now that’s some dirty talk right there.” Her laugh is still shaky, but to my relief, her shock seems to be fading. “No pun intended.”

I shake my head. “Not even kidnapping and a close encounter with death can make your jokes any better.”

She throws a sponge at me. “Get out and let me get clean.”

I close the door, catching a glimpse of myself in the opposite mirror that makes me stop.

How long, I think, staring at my reflection, has it been since I’ve caught myself smiling?

For that matter, when was the last time I felt happy enough to truly smile? For so long, happiness has been a fleeting thing, something I capture for a moment, a day here and there. Even during the week Ofelia was here, my happiness was undercut by the knowledge that sooner or later she would leave.

But this time she won’t.

I know it in my soul. And knowing how wrong that might be, by every metric there is, doesn’t lessen how ridiculously fucking happy I am.

Hearing the shower start in the bathroom, I head downstairs briefly to meet with the Red 24 team.

“Thank you.” I shake David’s hand. “Was there any trouble?”

“None.” He raises his beer to me. “Easiest extraction we’ve done in a long while. Didn’t even qualify for the title, in fact. It was just a taxi run with standard evasion. And thanks for the generous tip.” He nods at me. “The boys are still staring at their Mercura accounts in shock.”

“You earned it.”

“Hardly.” David tilts his head upstairs. “Your girl there did the hard work. She walked over three kilometers through a rat-infested sewer, did she tell you that?”

“I knew she used a tunnel to get away from the river.”

Mak left out the part about it being a rat-infested sewer.

Although given the rather imaginative ways I mentioned wanting to torture Seline when he told me his team had picked the girl up, I’m not surprised he left out the more lurid details.

“Her sandals came off during the escape, so she walked barefoot through the tunnels, and for another seven clicks along back alleys. She did a good job, too. Checked her back the entire way.” David looks at me over his beer. “She wouldn’t let me take off from Granada until we were absolutely certain nobody had followed her. She even told me I had to double-check, because she wasn’t going to risk leading anyone to you.”

Finding myself unable to speak for the second time since Ofelia’s arrival, I pour a large shot of vodka instead and swallow it.

“Are you all clear on your end?” I say when I can trust my voice again. “No awkward questions?”

He shakes his head. “The Spaniards are very good about letting us operate out of their bases. Not least because we’ve helped them out more than once.” He gives me a sideways look. “There’s only one minor issue I should probably warn you about.”

I knew this was coming.

“Luke Macarthur,” I say flatly.

David grins wryly. “Red 24 is his company, mate. Which means I had to fully brief him the moment we activated—including showing him the photograph of our passenger.”

I nod resignedly. “I guess I’d better give him a call.”

“Going by the look on his face when he saw that picture, I’d take that call somewhere private—and soundproofed.”

I make Ofelia a large gin and tonic and order some food, but when I get back up to the cabin, the shower is still running. Taking a guess that she’ll be in there for a while, I head back down to the cyber room. I draw in a deep breath, then fire up the secure line. Bracing myself for impact, I hit Luke Macarthur’s number.

He answers on the first ring, his good-natured face as grim as I’ve ever seen it. “Talk,” he says curtly.