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Krakow, Poland
Thursday, 28 January, 10:00 p.m.
––––––––
With Kelly's face covering mine, and wearing one of Ivana's dresses and boots, I sat across from Rowan in a booth towards the back of the bar. The dress and high heel boots part of my Kelly identity. The liquid Walker burned its way down my throat as we waited for Kuhn to arrive. Behind my back the bar teemed with people, Rowan kept a watchful eye. I hated not having a view of the room.
"Are you still upset because Aidan didn't agree to your extraction plan?" Rowan asked, his face devoid of the laughter visible in his eyes.
"No. Liam can do it the boring way. If I went, it would've been much more fun. Like I said, we can shoot the guards with tranquillisers, but no." I exaggerated no for as long as I could but needed to take a breath.
Rowan tilted his head to the right and studied the Kelly face. "It's remarkable how well you and Quinn can pull off that face. She just doesn't fidget when wearing a dress."
Over the course of the preceding days, I had come to the realisation that my normal black cargo pants, dark jeans, and black shirts, or tops wouldn't cut it doing undercover work. As I waited for my brain to construct a clever reply, I wondered if Aidan would allow the mother of his child to continue working in the field. Most of Fortius' operations didn't involve serial killers or paedophile rings. The latter would be something I put more focus on. Without red tape, we can hunt them down much faster than through official channels.
"Are you sure Liam will be okay?" Rowan asked before I could ask him when last he and Quinn had 'bumped uglies', as my sister had called it when we were much younger. It had been the only question or attempt at a comeback I could think of, and I'm glad I didn't ask. The killer still breathed. For now.
"Yes, he and I had a heart to whatever pumps my blood. His head is in the war now, and I'm excited to see him execute Aidan's plan." I drained the rest of the liquid Walker and placed the tumbler on the coaster. "Admit it, Aidan's plan is boring."
Rowan laughed. "Yes, it is, but it's by far the safest option with the least probable chance of casualties on either end. The guards aren't our enemy."
I rolled my eyes at Rowan. In my ear, Aidan cleared his throat. "I hate it when you do that."
"Can we at least do something fun before I return to being a full-time mother?"
"We will discuss your working hours and the operations I'll allow you to work on once we get back to HQ."
Again, I rolled my eyes. This time Aidan laughed. "Our home is HQ. Come on, Walker, I want to do something fun. You can't deny my extraction plan will be the most fun thing we've done so far?"
"If not for the roof over their caged in exercise area, I might've considered it. I tell you what, next time we need to break someone out of prison we'll give your strategy a go."
Rowan reached across the table and covered my hand with his. "Game time. You should consider making this your permanent hair colour."
I forced a laugh and added what I thought would make it sound seductive. "Darling, blondes have the most fun."
Rowan stood and held out his hand to a middle-aged bald guy. Günter Kuhn looked like anyone's dad or accountant. Which might explain how he had stayed in the shadows until now. "Granger, Rob Granger."
Kuhn shook the wanna-be spy's hand and said, "You can call me, K."
I took a deep breath, desperate not to laugh. In this little scenario, who would I be? Just another woman who ends up in the spy's bed? Uhm, no. Correction – hell no. To be polite, I offered my hand as Kuhn sat down next to me, perhaps thinking he was safer next to a woman. Can't say I blamed him. I looked feminine, not lethal. Little did he know of the dangers hidden underneath the dress.
Kuhn ordered a Scotch from the waitress and turned to me. "I didn't catch your name."
I smiled the way I thought a red-headed woman would, not that smiles can differ, but this undercover work thing was new to me. "Kelly. No last name."
Even in the dim lighting, the recognition in Kuhn's eyes was unmistakable.
"I take it you've heard of me?" Quinn sure had a strange life, with all of her undercover assignments. I wondered how many people she killed for the name Kelly to be this recognisable.
Kuhn nodded and turned to Rob Granger, whose hair hung past his shoulders. "You brought an assassin to our first meeting?"
I patted Kuhn's scrawny thigh. "Sweetie, I'm his lover. Besides, Rob doesn't need me to clean up for him. He has a thing for explosives, I prefer adding a dash and a splash of femininity to my kills." A needle pierced through his pants and into the muscle. I kept my eyes on his as I pressed the syringe down.
Kuhn cursed in German and tried to get out of the booth.
I grabbed his arm. "Sit, sweetie, the poison will spread slower if you don't move."
His breathing increased and I patted his back. Anything not to laugh. I don't know why it delights me so much to play with the human monsters of this world, perhaps because their demise won't be a terrible thing. The world will be a better and safer place without them in it. Kuhn just didn't realise yet, but what coursed through his veins couldn't kill anything.
Rob Granger rested his arms on the table and leaned forward. Not a speck of Rowan remained in the man sitting across from Kuhn. "She'll give you the antidote if you answer my questions."
I nodded and winked when Kuhn glanced at me.
"You led me here thinking we would discuss business now that Theo's no longer trying to take over the market in Hungary. Instead, you're killing me?"
"Sweetie, we don't want to kill you. Just be a good boy and answer Robbie's questions."
Rob Granger glared at me. "What did I tell you about calling me Robbie?"
"Not to do it outside the bedroom." I forced out my bottom lip. "You can remind me about the rules later, Robster. For now, we need to hurry if you want dead-man-sitting to answer your questions before the poison eats away chunks of his brain."
"That's not how poisons work," Aidan said in my ear.
Kuhn worked the top button of his shirt loose. "How long do I have?"
"Sweetie, there are so many variables to consider. Things like your health, when last you ate, any underlying heart conditions, your erectile functioning. I'm no expert, but I guess fifteen minutes, at most." I threw my head back and laughed. "Oh, silly me, I am an expert in death. We've been talking about nothing for quite some time now, so let's say you have five minutes left."
I grabbed Kuhn's face with both hands and attempted my best puppy eyes. "You don't want to spend the rest of your life confined to a bed, consuming every meal through a tube inserted into your stomach. Answer Rob's questions and I'll give you the antidote. Don't do anything stupid." I glanced down at my bare wrist. "Oops, I guess we better hurry."
Rowan listed the names of the victims in Malta, Budapest, Vienna, and Zurich. Kuhn dropped his head forward and didn't even thank the waitress when she placed the Scotch down in front of him. He drank it in one big gulp and met Granger's stare. "I will rather die than give you his name."
"You knew what he planned to do to them?" Granger leaned further forward across the table.
Kuhn moved back as far as the back rest allowed. "No, but even if I had known, I would've done it."
The pressure of the Ka-Bar TDI's blade pressing against his manhood yanked his focus to me. "You're one of them, aren't you? The elite little club of predators who prey on children. I tell you what, sweetie, I'll give you the antidote. And then, I'm going to make you suffer."
"I've never laid a hand on a child." He glanced down at the knife between his legs. "I swear."
"You're the go-to guy, the concierge for whatever anyone desires. How many children did you deliver to them?"
Kuhn closed his eyes. "One. Just once."
"Who contacted you? Where did you deliver the child to? But the most important question – what's the child's name?" The tip of the blade twisted against him.
"A man who called himself Volkov contacted me, gave me the child's name and address, and told me to deliver the child to a location in Bergia."
I grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his face against the table. Other patrons turned to us. Rowan spoke in Polish, and I guess he told them our friend had a bit too much to drink, as they nodded, smiled, and continued their festivities.
"Günter, the child's name?" The hair on the back of my neck stirred. Something about this didn't feel right. All children are precious, but why this specific one?
"Abigail Davis." Kuhn used his sleeve to wipe the blood from his nose. "I did the job they paid me for and that's it."
"No, it wasn't, because someone else either blackmailed you in to supplying the victims, or you're part of their sick circle." I wished I had injected more than vitamin B into his blood.
Aidan relayed information regarding the circumstances of Abigail Davis' abduction, and her father's employer to Rowan and me. I closed my eyes, listening to Aidan's every word. Kuhn wouldn't die from the injection but this would be his last night alive.
Rowan rolled his shoulders. A predatory sneer consumed his face, and I saw first-hand why people feared Rob Granger. "Were you aware her father worked for Interpol? The day after Abigail's disappearance he committed suicide, according to his death certificate. A murder-suicide according to the official police report, but we both know he didn't kill his wife. Or himself. They killed him because he was closing in on them. Abigail paid the price for her father's work, his dedication to rid the world of the very people who raped and murdered his daughter and sent him a video of it. Get up. Now!"
Kuhn got to his feet. Rowan steered him through the crowd and into the dark alley next to the bar. It smelled of stale beer, urine, and Kuhn's fear.
Rage coiled inside me. I wanted to rip Kuhn to pieces with my bare hands. "You knew what they were going to do to Abigail. She was fourteen-years-old, and you took money for it." My fists continued talking for me because words failed me.
Rowan pulled me off Kuhn and held me against his chest until my breathing calmed. "You in control again?" he asked.
I nodded. Rowan turned his focus on Kuhn but kept his hand on my shoulder. "Günter, we know who the paedophiles are. Who is the man responsible for the deaths of five people?"
"I'm already dying, I won't give you his name. Don't you get it? If he knows about Abigail, what is there he doesn't? You have no idea how powerful he is. You're in over your head, Granger." Kuhn used the wall to ease himself back up to his feet.
I hoped Ivana didn't mind that I tore her dress. "You have two options, Herr Kuhn. One, give us his name and you'll die a quick, and painless death. Two, I will do this to you, and I promise you, by the time I get to the fourth rib you'll talk." I held out my mobile phone towards him and flicked through the photos. "You might not recognise them; the head is Lieutenant General Volkov and the man whose lungs you saw is Max Jefferson, aka Oleg Petrov."
Kuhn licked at the blood coming from the cut on his bottom lip. "You're lying. They're untouchable."
Laughter bellowed out of the tar-stained pits of my soul. "No one is untouchable. Soon they'll all end up like their friends did. In case you haven't figured it out yet, your fear of him is nothing compared to the horror I will inflict on you. You claim you only handed Abigail to them; I don't believe you."
"I swear." Kuhn wiped the blood from his nose and mouth with his sleeve.
"Sweetie, before the reaper comes for you, I'll make you pay for every sin you ever committed. It won't be fast; it won't be pain free. For Abigail's rape and murder, I'll make you suffer until you beg for mercy. Spoiler alert! I don't have any for paedophiles or traffickers."
A van came to a stop at the alley's entrance. Rowan grabbed Kuhn by the back of his coat and threw him inside.