Page 20 of Alex

Chapter Ten

As he layon his back in his enormous king sized bed, hands tucked behind his head, sheet pulled just over his hips, Alex replayed the day’s events in his head. Taking Evelyn to meet Delphine and Thomas had been something he’d hoped for but never really believed would happen. He had seen the light touch Delphine’s eyes when he’d introduced Evelyn.

He had told the older couple about the woman he had loved—still loved—and lost a few years ago when he had got roaring drunk and spilt his guts to them. Delphine mothered him having lost her only son when he was a teen. He let her, knowing the pain of loss well although he couldn’t comprehend losing a child. Seeing the light come into Evelyn’s eyes as she had taken in the Patisserie had made his chest ache for all the smiles he had missed. Hearing the moans of ecstasy coming from her when she tasted the Rum Baba was too much and the desire to kiss her to swallow those moans, to taste the sweet treat on her tongue, had hit him like a wall of heat. Seeing the same look of desire in Evelyn’s eyes he had reacted, not thinking about the future nor caring about the past.

The damn call from Jack had woken him up, made him see that he needed to take his time with this. He wasn’t playing for a quick fuck with Evelyn—he was playing for keeps. But first he had to figure out how to get her to open up to him. Damn attacks from gun-wielding sisters of past missions didn’t fucking help.

Alex knew that Michaela finding them was bad. He had indeed killed her brother—child trafficking piece of scum that he was. The mission had been last summer. It had been to break up a smuggling ring that was removing kidnapped children from immigration camps. They then sold them to sick individuals who did heinous things to them before they likely ended up dead in a shallow grave.

So yes, he had shot Jonathan Kirk and he would do it again in a heartbeat. That didn’t mean that every life he took didn’t steal a tiny bit of his soul—his peace he realised. It took a small bit of his inner peace from him. So even when he was happy and carefree, content even, low down in the pit of his stomach was a knot of tension that dug at him like a burr.

Pushing that thought aside he concentrated on the conversation with Jack. Michaela finding them meant that someone knew where they were. The only way that could happen was if they had a leak. Alex had flat out refused to consider it but had realised to his dismay they were right after a long conversation with Jack and Will earlier. They worked so low in the underbelly of Black Ops that nobody was even sure they were real. Michaela finding his private residence could only mean one thing. Jack was right—they had a leak.

Glancing at the clock he saw it read 01:00 but his body was wide awake. The apartment was silent as he turned his thoughts to the woman who had been the focus of his dreams and sometimes even his nightmares for almost his entire life and sighed. Lili at least was going to be okay. Roz had called Evelyn after she’d beaten him at their fifth game of Scabby Queen.

His lips tipped into a smile at the smug and ridiculously cute look she had given him before helping him finish the dumplings for the Irish Stew he had been cooking in the crock-pot all day. She’d marvelled at his kitchen, even relaxed enough to tease him about being precious over his kitchen knives. That had surprised him especially as he had been a complete asshole and hurt her with his comment about her leaving him.

Alex froze, his body locking as he listened to what he thought was the cry of a wounded animal. In less than a second, he was on his feet and running in just his boxer shorts towards Evelyn’s room as the cry became a scream that tore his heart to shreds.

Slamming open the door he saw Evelyn lying in the middle of the bed. Her body curled in a foetal position as her legs kicked at an invisible attacker. Her screams mixed with whimpers made bile churn through his gut.

He moved to the bed, pulling her to him so that she was cradled against his chest. She fought him, her screams becoming louder but he held on.

“Evelyn, it’s me it’s Alex. Wake up for me, baby, please,” he whispered as he settled himself on the bed against the headboard, her body across him, her ass in his lap. Her screams eased a little turning into gut-wrenching whimpers.

“Mi nena, come back to me. I have you. I have you.” He repeated the words over and over until her whimpers became silent, bone wracking sobs. Her tears soaked his skin as he rocked her, holding her safe, promising her he would keep her safe until her body gave one last shudder and stilled. Her breathing evened but he knew she was awake. He had sat with Evelyn so many times and the memory came rushing back to him. How she would snuggle her head under his chin like she was now, her knees bent and leaning towards him. The scent of her hair tickling his nose. So many things were the same and yet everything was different, and those changes almost broke him.

He wanted to rage, to pound the person who had caused his Evelyn to know this kind of fear. But he couldn’t so he held her and did what he could to give her some peace in a world where there was so very little of that.

How long they lay like that he didn’t know but after a while she looked at him. He felt his body tense as if some animal instinct in him knew that the blow that she was about to deliver would leave him wounded and bleeding.

Her voice was almost a whisper, the sound scratchy from the screaming and the tears as she started to speak. “The weekend you went to Paris to secure digs,” she began, “I was missing you like crazy. Nothing felt the same without you. The sun wasn’t as bright, and I had a dull ache in my heart all day from not hearing your voice.”

His instinct was right, this was killing him already and she had only just begun. “Minena, you don’t have to tell me.” He couldn’t bear the pain he heard in her voice. Suddenly the need to know didn’t seem important anymore. All he needed was to ease her pain.

“No, please. I need to get this out.” Her voice was stronger as her head lifted. Her eyes met his in a look so full of pain and quiet determination that he knew he would endure whatever he had to.

“Okay, Evelyn,” he replied kissing her forehead.

Evelyn settled against him again. He mourned the loss of her eyes on him but understood she needed to do this her way. He squeezed her gently to tell her to go on.

“I went down to our river. I always felt close to you there in our place. The place where all our happy things happened. I stayed for about two hours before I heard a car pull up to the bridge.”

He remembered how they would lay a blanket under the bank of the small bridge and lie there for hours. She would read and he would listen to her sweet voice wondering what he had done to make him so lucky that she loved him.

“It was dark and late, so I stayed quiet and out of sight. I heard the engine stop and two car doors slam. Two men were talking in hushed whispers then I heard a boot close. I knew deep down… I knew it wasn’t good, so I stayed silent but peeked out to see what was happening. I saw two men lift something heavy over the railing and then it splashed into the river. I was frozen. I had no idea what to do. I almost screamed when the second louder splash came. Then they walked away, and I heard the two car doors shut before the car started and they drove away.”

Alex was afraid to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue and she didn’t make him.

“I waited for about twenty minutes and then waded into the water and pulled the object to the bank. I think even then my hindbrain knew what I would find.” Her voice had gone low and Alex could hear the fear that even now gripped her as if she had been pulled back to that time.

“Anyway, I pulled at the plastic and tape until it came away. What I saw will haunt me every day until I die. A little girl was inside. God, Alex, her eyes were wide open and unseeing. Her blonde hair was matted to the side of her head with blood and her mouth, her sweet cupids bow mouth, was wide open as if she’d been surprised when it happened.”

Alex held her tighter his jaw clenched hard as she dragged in a shuddering breath. He was struggling to keep himself together at the pain in her voice.

“I ran all the way to the police station. I was running so fast I nearly ran into someone. A man that saved me. He was a detective, standing outside having a smoke. He asked what was wrong and I told him. He wouldn’t let me into the police station, said there were men inside who would hurt me. He took me straight to a safe house and had a man from Witsec and the DA’s office take my statement there. Within two hours I had seen a dead body and been taken into protective custody. The men I had seen dump the bodies worked for Omar Fuentes.”

Alex sucked in a breath as he heard the name of the man who had ruled the Cuban drug trade for almost forty years before his death in jail six years ago.