Page 15 of No More Spies

Her cousin got the aggrieved expression on his face a lot ofdudes got when she pointed out simple life truths. “Yes. I’m the dummy whodecided to save your ass.”

“You can’t save my ass if you’re beside me in prison.” Sheleaned in, her voice going low. “There are only five of them. I think we cantake them.”

Now he got the shocked expression she saw a lot from thepeople around her. “No. We’re not going totakethem. We’re going tosit on our asses and wait for MaeBe to come up with a brilliant plan to saveus.”

“Or my parents to blow up enough shit that this person ofyours shoves me back out in the world and asks them to go away.” Her dad wasgoing to be mad, but…her mom. Her mom had to be so scared. “They’re going to beso pissed at me. It might be better to die.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t joke right now.”

“I’m not necessarily joking. Dad I can probably handle.He’ll try to inject me with some sort of tracker, but he’ll chill after awhile,” she explained. “My mom will never forget. Never. She’s the one whosaved me from the tracker the first time around. There was a lot of talk aboutbodily autonomy, but she will let that go now. She’ll hold my ass down and putthe collar around my neck. Or they’ll lock me in my room. Forever. I guess theyknow I ditched all their GPS devices. Like I couldn’t find that in my shoe. Iknow all their tricks. They’re going to kill me.”

The plane rolled to a stop and the goon squad started tostand, getting ready to move out. One of the guys she’d punched the nightbefore stood in front of her.

“Hope your wife’s got insurance on you because my mom isgoing to kill you,” Kala said, raising her voice.

The man turned, his dark eyes on Kala. “Keep talking. Iwould love an excuse to spend some time with you.”

Kyle hustled, getting up and putting himself between them.“You’ll go through me first.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be much of a problem.” Theman smiled but there wasn’t any humor to it.

“Do you know who the little bitch is?” A dark voice rumbledfrom behind her, a familiar deep Russian accent flowing with menace.

The guy in front of Kyle shrugged. “Don’t really care.”

“She’s a Denisovitch bitch. It took me a while to connectthe two, but she’s the second cousin of the head of the syndicate. Whateverthis woman is paying us, do you understand what the other syndicates would doto get hold of her? We could make millions selling her.”

It was good to know it wasn’t merely sexual assault theasswipe was into. Trafficking was on the menu, too. She was in for some fun,fun times.

And then Kyle was pressing her into the seat, making herevery muscle ache, and there was the sound of a world exploding. At least itsounded like it to Kala. Fear poured through her and her hands started toshake. Gunfire. He’d shot the Russian. He’d pulled his gun and put a bullet inhim, and she didn’t care the asshole was dead, except… He was the only one whocould tell her what happened.

It was her second dead body in less than twenty-four hours.

She was going to die. Tears clouded her eyes.

“And now I have to share less money, so in a way he wasright.” The American dude seemed to be talking to Kyle, but he was in front ofher so she couldn’t be sure. “Do you want to say anything? I’m going to warnyou, I’m not afraid of her father or whoever the hell her cousin is. I’mauditioning for a job, and I’m going to do it right.”

“Should I call you John?” Kyle asked like they needed toknow the dude’s name.

Only one thing was important at this point. “There’s onlyfour of them now.”

They could totally take them. And then she would kickDimitry’s dead body to make sure he was dead.

He could be lying. Why would he lie?

I’m not going to be sick. I’m not going to be sick. I’mnot going to fucking cry.

A banging sound cracked through the plane, almost as loud asthe damn gunshot had been, and it pretty much scared Kala just as much.

Another asshole walked through. So they were at least backto five.

“What the hell happened?” The new guy frowned as he lookedover the cabin of the plane. “Why did you kill the Russian?”

The pilot had stepped into the cabin and nodded the newguy’s way. So six. She blamed Kyle.

“The Russian wanted to take the little girl and sell her toone of the Russian syndicates.” The guy Kyle called John huffed out his reply.

“I’m not a little girl.” Kala whispered the words, but theymade her sick inside. She wasn’t a little girl at all, and she might have hadsomething precious taken from her.