17. Chapter 17
seventeen
Barcelona, Spain
“ W e should go,” Lina said to Curtis as he pulled her through an aisle of Le Mercat de la Boqueria .
“We just got here. Relax. We’re just a couple of tourists, remember?” he argued.
Wearing the fake glasses she’d gotten him and a knit hat over his hair, plus a few days’ worth of stubble around his jaw, Curtis didn’t quite look like his usual self. But people recognized celebrities in disguises all the time.
After their dinner the other night, Curtis had stayed cooped up in the apartment during the day with Lina. But tonight she was allowing a brief evening excursion: They had agreed to a walk to the market to get some food.
But Lina’s internal radar was pinging. The crowd wasn’t too thick in the market on a Monday night, and from what she could see, nothing was particularly concerning. Besides the vendors and local shoppers, small groups of tourists were still walking about, though it was almost closing time.
As if Marcus had picked up her thoughts, Lina’s phone buzzed. She quickly answered her boss’ call as she kept following Curtis.
“You need to get out of Barcelona.” Marcus’ voice was urgent. “We confirmed the same Stiletto people we led away from Paris to Amsterdam arriving at the Sants station about an hour ago.”
“How did they know where we are? Did you figure out the mole?”
There was an edge to Marcus’ voice. “No. You and our boy have been caught by several fans. The cyber unit discovered a crowdsourcing game by an unknown individual we believe is connected to the Stilettos.”
“A game?” she questioned.
“The individual created a type of ‘Where’s Waldo’ game with a $10K prize to spot Curtis in Barcelona.”
Lina’s blood froze. She looked around with fresh eyes. Anybody with a phone could be as dangerous as a Stiletto henchman.
“He was spotted at a restaurant by Catalina Beach two nights ago. That was the starting point. There were thousands of entries yesterday alone, and just about the same today, but ninety-nine percent of them were wrong.”
“They only needed that one percent to be right,” Lina concluded.
“Are you on La Rambla ?” Marcus asked. His voice was disapproving. “Someone just entered his picture.”
“I gotta go.” Lina ended the call.
She’d rehash the regret over her decisions later. For now, she needed to focus on getting them out of there with no one else snapping their picture.
Lina pulled the oblivious Curtis in a different direction with fewer people.
“Hey, what’s going on?” He looked at her hard face and stopped asking.
“Walk normal,” she ordered as they moved quickly toward the nearest exit without looking rushed.
A group of young people walked through the door leading outside. They were talking among themselves in Catalan. Lina didn’t have to understand them to catch Curtis’ name. Swiftly, she pushed Curtis to the left, where a ham vendor had hung merchandise from the ceiling of their stand, giving her and Curtis a cover from the incoming group.
“Put your hood up,” Lina told Curtis. “And hunch a bit.”
Being tall and fit didn’t help him blend in easily. However nerdy she tried making him look, he was still eye-catching. And someone had already caught a picture of him this evening.
We have to change his looks.
But there was nothing she could do about it in the middle of a food market.
“We need to get out of here,” she said under her breath as she kept them moving away from the group she’d seen earlier.
“Are the Stilettos’ people here?” Curtis asked.
“No.” She hadn’t spotted one, but if they’d seen the last game entry and were nearby, they could be on top of them soon.
“So why are we—”
“I’ll explain later.” There was no questioning her tone.
Some chatter in Mandarin perked Lina’s ears, and she made a snap decision.
“This way.” Pulling Curtis behind her, they followed a group of Chinese tourists who were busy talking among themselves while heading to the Placa Gardunya .
More Chinese tourists flocked toward the exit. Lina saw a small flag being waved by a young woman. It must be a Chinese tour group guide, and she was calling her group back to their bus.
“Blend in with the group,” Lina whispered to Curtis, and started speaking in Mandarin about what a great place the market was. Curtis, to his credit, started nodding in agreement with her. Keeping their heads low, they used the tour group as a shield.
Though most of his fans were probably aware of Curtis’ mixed ethnicity, he’d always been an American first. In this setting, unexpecting eyes wouldn’t see him as more than a Chinese tourist.
As they followed the tourist group, Lina checked past Curtis’ back and saw the young Catalans had dispersed. One of them walked past the tourists without even a glance. They cleared the market into the plaza without being caught, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more Curtis hunters out there.
“We stick with these guys,” Lina said and continued following them.
Lina’s phone buzzed. It was a link to the game and Lina opened it. There were numerous entries coming from all over the city of men who might pass as Curtis. But the one at La Rambla was a pretty good frontal picture of him with her beside him, except she was looking away.
If anyone ran a facial recognition, they’d know it was him. She couldn’t allow anyone to steal a picture again. She’d slacked off.
“ Pāizhào shíjiān! ” A young woman in the group in front of them lifted a phone up to capture a selfie of their smaller group and announced it was picture time.
Shit.
Since Curtis and she had attached themselves to these ladies, they were in close enough proximity to be captured in the photo.
No facial pictures .
With less than a second to avoid the picture, Lina threw her arms around Curtis’ neck and covered his face with hers in a kiss.
What the hell is going on?
Curtis kept his questions to himself and followed Lina’s instructions. Ducking his head as low as he could, he walked next to her and they followed a group of chatting Chinese tourists.
She ’ s brilliant.
He looked around and, though he was taller than most of the group, if he hunched forward, he didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. He stood out anywhere, but at least with the tourists, he and Lina shared features that helped them blend in.
Suddenly, the group in front of them moved closer and made a unison finger gesture for a group selfie. Because of his habit of photo-bombing people, Curtis, without thinking, was about to make a face behind them.
Instead, Lina’s suddenly pressed her lips to his. Out of reflex, he grabbed her waist for balance and pulled her to him. But before he could make sense of what was happening or even enjoy the kiss, she pulled away slightly.
Still pressed intimately to him, Lina peeked from behind his hood toward the group that was taking a picture.
“Clear.” She pushed away.
“What’s going on?” Curtis couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Avoid pictures. They know we’re here.” Lina scanned their surroundings. “Come on. We need to get back and get moving.”
“To where?”
“Not now.” Lina took his hand and broke away from the group as they emerged on the next main road.
Curtis followed Lina to hike up another street. He had no idea where they were. They’d walked down La Rambla to the market, and after being turned around, he couldn’t tell which way was north.
He looked up at the sky and tried to spot the North Star. Something from his youthful stargazing time with his sister and Brandon had stuck somehow. But the city light made it hard to see anything.
Lina pulled out her phone and read whatever message had come through. Maybe she’d tell him what was going on now. The residential street they were on wasn’t exactly empty, but it seemed pretty quiet.
“Is that Marcus?” Curtis asked.
Lina nodded as she typed in a brief message. “They tracked us. They’re more cunning than we expected. They used your fans to look for you.”
“My fans? How?” His forehead wrinkled in confusion.
“It must be that guy in the restaurant,” Lina spoke as if to herself. “Goddammit! I shouldn’t have let you out of the apartment.”
“Lina. How did they find us?” he asked again.
“They haven’t found us yet, but they know we’re here. They put up a prize for anyone who can spot you in Barcelona and post pictures of you onto social media with a hashtag #FindCurtis.”
“What?”
“People think it’s a game. They’re speculating if Canis Major is planning a secret concert here.”
“Fuck,” Curtis said under his breath.
“Most of the pictures aren’t you, but there was one from a half-hour ago just before we got to the market.”
Curtis blew a breath. “Double fuck.”
“Hey, we’re okay.” Lina stopped and turned to him. “We’re still ahead of the Stilettos’ people. We just need to keep moving.”
“But how do we stop them from finding me?” Curtis demanded. “Wherever we go, someone could spot me.”
“We’ll go somewhere they won’t suspect,” Lina said. “Ken’s cyber team is working on stopping the game. We just need to focus on the now. You’re with me?”
Curtis looked at her determined face and swallowed, though his mouth felt dry. A glint of light made him look up from her face, and he almost had a heart attack. Instinct took over within a split second.
“Watch out!” He shoved Lina to the side and charged forward. An assailant wielding a knife had silently come out of nowhere and was almost on top of them. Catching the man’s knife hand by the wrist, Curtis used all of his body weight and momentum to try to bring the attacker down. But the man was built like a fucking bull and barely budged.
“Curtis!” Lina’s voice fell away as another assailant accosted her from the side.
He didn’t see what Lina did to her assailant as he was trying to keep the big guy from turning the knife toward him. Curtis might’ve been fast at stopping him from stabbing Lina in the back, but when it came to muscle power, the bull outmatched him.
Think, Curtis. You ’ ve trained for this kinda shit!
But before his brain came up with an idea to get out of his situation, a blur went past him and snapped the man’s wrist the wrong way, making him drop the knife with a scream. And before the knife even touched the pavement, Lina leapt and landed her heel forcefully on the back of the man’s knee.
A crack of a bone breaking followed by a pained howl filled the night. The man fell to his knees heavily and cried even harder.
Curtis stumbled back and fell against the wall of a building. Under the dim light of a nearby street lamp, he watched as Lina spun and executed a flawless round kick to the bull’s head. The man went down with a thump.
Breathing hard, he thought his eyes must’ve dilated fully because everything seemed so bright. An unmoving body lay face-planted on the sidewalk in front of him. Another knife—a stiletto—lay near Curtis’ feet.
His blood pumping hard, he could hear it rushing in his ears and nothing else. His muscles were rigid from the shock.
“Curtis, get up!” Lina’s sharp command snapped him to attention. Her eyes, full of fire, bore into him like a tractor beam. “Now!”
Scrambling to his feet, Curtis came up running, keeping up with Lina, without looking back at the two unconscious people who’d just tried to kill them.