Page 62 of Spy With Me

“I’m married to one and I barely speak it.” Cooper soundedaggrieved. “Way to show off, big bro.”

“Kala, if you will chill for two seconds,” Zach was saying.

“I chilled for weeks, Zach. Weeks,” Kala replied.

“She’s been talking to you and her parents,” Zach argued.

“Not good enough.” Kala threw another punch.

“This might go on for a while.” Lou holstered her gun andstarted for the barn door. “Do you have anything I can feed your brother?”

Oh, she had questions that were going to come before herbrother’s never-full gut. “Where’s Uncle Ian?”

Cooper winced. “Hopefully back in Dallas with no idea thatwe hopped a plane to here.”

“He doesn’t know you’re here?” It was inconceivable that heruncle had no idea four members of his team had gone missing.

“Well, we really did fly to the Bahamas and stayed for twowhole days to take pictures,” Lou replied with a sad sigh. “I thought it wouldbe more fun, but Kala was in full-on mission mode.”

“Why were you going on Coop and Kala’s honeymoon?” Deviasked.

“That was the funny part.” Cooper shook his head. “No onebatted an eyelash. Everyone accepted that we are weird, interconnected coupleswho sometimes end up all sleeping together without any swinging, thank theuniverse. Lou is Kala’s emotional support tech goddess. Big Tag didn’t sayanything. So we took pics to send to the family to hopefully convince themwe’re sunning ourselves in the Caribbean and hopped a plane to Cardiff.”

This was her fault. “Who told? Was it Daisy?”

“What the fuck is that?” Kala called out.

“I told you to stop bitch slapping me,” Zach replied,frustration on full display.

“Then stop being a little bitch, Zach,” Kala replied.

They might be at this for hours. Her cousin wasn’tpolitically correct. Or polite in any way.

“It was Bri,” Lou admitted. “And she doesn’t know she told.She was explaining that she was working on this story where a beautiful fashiondesigner got kidnapped by her rogue CIA agent ex and taken to Wales. So it wasa good bet you were in Wales. From there we might have sent someone to figureout where you were in Wales. It’s a small country, but you still can’t goknocking on all the doors.”

“Zach is good at avoiding CCTV, but he’s not perfect. Wecaught him on a camera in town buying, of all things, cat toys.” Cooper tiltedhis head as though studying her. “Tell me those weren’t for you.”

Well, she could probably do some kitten play, but she wasn’tgoing to admit that to Cooper. “No, they’re for the cats. And please don’tmention that to him because I’m the one who made him buy toys. They’re babies.They need to play.” She realized there was something wrong with this scenario.

“I swear I will beat you down if you use that on me,” Kalaswore.

“Well, if you didn’t want to get roped, sister, youshouldn’t have walked into my fucking barn,” Zach practically roared.

“I should go check on that,” Cooper said with a sigh as theyheard the back door sliding open. He grinned. “Zach found a lasso, and it lookslike he knows what he’s doing. Hey, when you get her wrapped up, deliver herright back here, brother. I like the whole barn thing. It’s rustic. Maybe weshould do a barn add-on at The Hideout. We have a surprising amount of cowboyswho come through.”

“You’ve been monitoring every CCTV cam in Wales?” She wasn’tgoing to blame her bestie. Brianna looked for inspiration in all realms of herlife. And it would be cool to get a book before Daisy did.

Although Daisy’s love story ended in happily ever after. Shewondered how Bri would get her hero and heroine out of the whole death v prisoninevitable outcome.

“Not exactly,” Lou hedged. “We had some help from friends ofours. You’ll meet them later, I’m sure, and we should talk about that becauseKala is going to have to act a little weird.”

Her cousin was acting weird right now. She was cussing up astorm. Not weird for her, but some people might find the mix of languages odd.

“Zach, don’t do it,” Kala warned.

Devi looked back, and the big barn doors to the south of thebuilding were wide open and Zach had a lariat in his hand. Oh, it was a lassoin Texas, but she was doing the Wales thing now. Welsh.

“Are you going to be reasonable? Are you going to sit downand talk this out?” Zach asked, but not in his reasonable voice. He was usingthe voice that came out when he was a bit overstimulated.