21. Chapter 21
twenty-one
Unknown location
C urtis paced the floor of the room he’d slept in. His socks didn’t make a sound as he created a deep tread on the fluffy Turkish carpet. He didn’t really know if the carpet was Turkish, but it looked like what he thought a Turkish carpet might.
What the hell does it matter where the carpet is from? his brain shouted. Because it distracted you from wondering where Lina is.
Last night, or whatever the fuck the time had been, they’d landed on another private airstrip. Raul had pulled out a Jeep from a sketchy looking building and drove them to this house.
It was actually a nice, enormous house, with wooded property surrounding it. Now that it was daylight, he could see nothing but trees outside. Raul just told them they were outside of Madrid. Or maybe that was just what he’d told Curtis. He’d probably been more specific with Lina.
Lina . Where the hell is she?
Curtis hadn’t seen her since she’d walked him to his room, told him to get some sleep and that she’d checked on him in the morning. He hadn’t asked her where she would sleep. He had too much pride to ask her to stay with him.
Did she go to Raul last night?
Curtis shook the unwanted images from his mind.
His stomach growled. He hadn’t had any appetite when Raul had offered food after they’d arrived at the house. But now he was both anxious and hangry.
Quickly, Curtis pulled on his sneakers and a sweatshirt over his T-shirt. He opened the heavy wood door and checked the quiet hallway. He made his way down the stairs and tried to remember where the kitchen was. Several hallways led to different parts of the house. It was like a maze.
They’d entered from the back, then they’d stopped at the gigantic kitchen. Curtis eyed the hallway directly opposite from the front door and decided that must lead to the rear of the house. He was heading that way when he heard grunting and panting from somewhere in the hallway to his right.
He tensed as he listened to more echoing grunting and recognized who it came from.
“Son of a bitch!” Curtis cursed under his breath.
Turning abruptly to the right hallway, he followed the sound without thinking. The only thing that governed him at that second was anger. At who? Lina? Or himself for being stupid, thinking she actually cared for him?
A double door stood ajar between him and the room where Lina and Raul were. He didn’t stop to think what he’d do when he found them together. He stormed in. And stopped dead.
In the middle of the humongous room, Lina, gleaming in sweat, stood facing the equally sweaty Raul, who watched her with a predator-like grin on his face.
“Come on, Lina. You gonna come and get me, or what?” Raul gestured in invitation.
“You talk too much, Raul.” She slid to her right. “Girls prefer the silent type.”
Mirroring Lina’s movement, Raul laughed. “Like your boy upstairs? He didn’t seem your type.”
“Stop calling him that.” Her eyes never wavered from the big man. Then suddenly, her eyes went past Raul’s shoulder straight at Curtis and widened as if in alarm.
Raul, who was watching Lina’s body language, reacted immediately. “What?” he said as he turned toward Curtis.
At that second, Curtis witnessed the most beautiful takedown of an almost three-hundred pound pure-muscle of a man by a woman. Lina had taken advantage of Raul’s distraction to run to him, stepped on his trunk-like leg to push her off into a leap. She locked her legs around Raul’s thick neck, threw her upper body in the opposite direction and used the momentum and her body weight to bring the big guy down. Once Raul was caught by gravity, he couldn’t fight it.
Raul hit the bouncy floor with a terrific thud, while Lina flew away from him and landed in a low lunge position. A satisfied smirk was on her face as she watched Raul curse in Spanish.
“You cheat!” Raul spat as he got up.
Lina laughed as she straightened out. “You use whatever advantage you have.”
Curtis finally found his legs again and approached the ring in the middle of what looked like a ballroom. There were punching bags hanging on one side, several weight machines, free weights, and other gym equipment.
Curtis’ hands itched to do some punching himself.
Raul turned to Curtis as he grabbed a towel to wipe off his sweat. He threw one to Lina, who caught it deftly.
“Good morning. Were you comfortable last night?” Raul greeted.
Curtis nodded as he looked around. “What is this place?”
“What does it look like?” Raul retorted.
“This is Raul’s house. He brought us here to lie low for a day or two while we figured out a way to get you out of Spain, maybe even Europe,” Lina explained.
“This is your house?” Curtis’ eyes bugged out. “Man, the Spanish army pays a lot more than ours, huh?”
“No, amigo .” Raul grinned. “My family is what you call…loaded.”
“Why were you in the army then?”
“More action,” Raul answered flippantly.
Lina got out of the ring and walked to Curtis. “How are you feeling?”
Curtis shrugged. “Fine. I was wondering where you were.”
“In the room next to yours,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep much, so I decided to put Raul’s gym to use.”
“Feel free. As the saying goes, Mi casa es su casa .” Raul walked toward the door. “I’m heading to the shower. That was fun, Lina. I haven’t had a sparring partner like you for a long time.”
Lina threw their host a smile as he disappeared into the hall.
“Where was he last night?” Curtis asked.
She’d told him where she’d slept, but he still didn’t know if Raul had shared that room with her.
Lina narrowed her eyes at him and answered flatly, “In his room.”
She then turned her back on him, walked to a corner of the ring, and picked up a sweatshirt.
“I’m gonna get cleaned up,” she said. Her tone didn’t improve. “Go hit a bag or something.”
She started walking away. “Maybe you’ll stop being a dick when I see you next.”
Lina ate alone at the kitchen table. Bread, cheese, ham, and coffee were the offering. Good thing she always had some bags of tea in her go-bag. Sometimes, she didn’t know where she was heading next, and it was always good to be prepared, which included tea.
Raul had left as soon as he finished his meal. He was Lina’s eyes, ears, and feet for now. They’d briefly agreed on what needed to be done, and he’d accomplish some of that for her. She’d keep Marcus and the U.S. office in the dark until they could figure out how the Stilettos were getting information.
That crowdsourcing game was a pretty genius move .
Lina mulled over that information. It meant the Stilettos had some pretty sophisticated cyber capabilities. The question was, how good was the Stilettos’ person or team? She knew Ken and his team would already be all over this. She’d feel much better when they could figure out what they were dealing with.
For the time being, Lina also took the battery out of her cellphone in case the Stilettos might track it. She wasn’t taking any more risks. They were now off the grid, with only Raul as their lifeline. And for Curtis’ sake, she hoped Raul would deliver some good news when he returned.
Footsteps came toward the kitchen. Lina looked up to see Curtis walk in as if he didn’t know where he was going.
“Coffee’s still warm,” Lina announced, getting his attention.
His face brightened when he saw her. He beelined to the table and sat down. “I got fucking lost. This place is enormous.”
Well, he seems to be in a better mood.
Lina noted his hair was wet, and he’d changed clothes. Maybe he’d taken her suggestion and used the gym to release some aggression.
“We’re gonna be here for a couple of days,” she informed him.
“Where’s GI Jose?” he asked as he poured a cup of coffee.
Lina almost ruined her expressionless face with a smile, but she clamped her lips together tightly before he turned his eyes on her.
“Raul left to get some stuff done for us,” she said.
“I appreciate him opening his house to us, but I’m not going anywhere with him,” he said stubbornly.
“I heard you the first five times you told me,” Lina exaggerated.
Curtis made an open sandwich of bread, butter, ham, and cheese and took a bite. “I’m fucking starving,” he said when he halfway done chewing his first mouthful.
“Last night was hectic,” she rationalized. “We…uh, exerted a lot of energy.”
Lina cleared her suddenly scratchy throat. “I can make you a bigger breakfast, if you want. The fridge is well stocked.”
“I can make myself something if I need to. You’re not my fucking servant, Lina.”
Nope . He isn ’ t done being pissed .
Lina said nothing else. She understood he was mad at her for last night, but she wasn’t about to apologize for deciding what she’d felt was right.
Curtis ate quietly for a few minutes before he said anything. The food seemed to help his disposition. He was calmer when he spoke next.
“I don’t appreciate you springing Raul on me without even discussing it first,” he said.
“It wasn’t your decision to make.” Lina sighed. “When it comes to your safety, I make the call. I knew if I told you I was handing you over to another handler, you would refuse.”
“Damn right I would,” he retorted. “I don’t know him. I don’t trust him. I barely met the guy for five minutes, the next thing I know I was being shot at.”
“We don’t know yet if that was Raul’s fault,” she argued.
“Whatever. You thought I’d be safer with him, but obviously that’s not true.”
Lina shook her head, not wanting to debate about what had happened. “It doesn’t matter. We’re good here for now. I'll decide what to do next when Raul comes back with information.”
“This is my life, Lina.” Curtis looked her straight in the eye. “I get a say who I trust it to.” Curtis didn’t get serious too often, but when he was, he didn’t back down.
“Fair enough,” Lina agreed albeit reluctantly.
Satisfied with her answer, Curtis continued eating. Now that the argument was out of the way, he seemed more his usual self.
“What you did earlier…” He swallowed his food. “…to Raul. That was beautiful. How did you do that? You’re like a third of his weight.”
Lina chuckled at how fast his demeanor changed.
“Most women can’t win a fight on brawn alone,” she answered. “I used what he thought was his leverage on me to my advantage.”
Awe replaced the stink-eye he’d given her all morning.
“I saw that,” he said. “But the way you moved, twisting yourself in the air like that. That was incredible. Watching the Spanish juggernaut hit the ground was very satisfying.”
“Raul is a good man, Curtis. And he’s very good at his job.” Though amused by the nicknames he gave Raul, Lina felt the need to defend her friend.
“Sure. Good-looking, ripped, and incredibly rich. He’s probably good in the sack, too.”
She studied Curtis. “What if I told you he’s gay?”
“He is?” His eyes rounded in shock and maybe a tad too much excitement.
“No. But why does it matter?” Lina let a small smile emerge at the corner of her lips. “Are you jealous? You’re a freaking famous, good-looking, sexy rock star, Curtis.”
“That’s not why I’m jealous,” he replied. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
Lina sighed. “Curtis, we shouldn’t do this. We were jacked up on adrenaline last night. It was amazing, but you know how it is.” She let it hang.
“What?” He pushed.
She searched her brain for how to drive her point home to him. “It’s like you after a show. At the end of the night, even though you’re tired, that energy from the music, the crowd, is still pumping hard inside you. And you need to get it out.”
Lina looked at him. “We needed to get it out last night.”
“Maybe that’s part of it,” he agreed. “But if sex was all it was, why did you feel the need to hand me off to Raul? You got it out of your system, right?”
“Because I broke protocol, Curtis. I broke too many rules for you.”
“Because you like me.”
Lina sighed. “I do like you, but—”
“That’s good. Full stop right there.” Curtis got up and took his dishes to the sink. “Does Ricardo Rich have a dishwasher?”
Lina threw her eyes to the sky at Curtis’ interruption and unsubtle change of topic. But she let it go. What did it matter, anyway? It looked like they were stuck together.