The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy, Malone, Nana [inspiring books for teens txt] 📗

something. "You know, one of these days we're going to sit down and have a very long conversation about just what the Elite does."

His smile was slow and sexy as he lowered his gun and handed me my magazine. "The Elite is an organization of men who are power brokers in essence. We also have specialized training in our individual areas of interest."

"And your areas of interest include handguns?"

He nodded. "If I hadn't had the Elite, I might have gone into Foreign Service or Intelligence Services or something."

I nodded. "We have to redo every conversation we've ever had. You know that, right?"

He nodded. "Yep, got it. In the meantime, let's take our positions. I have already contacted the police for help. And not to worry, Nyla, you won't get in trouble. I've been licensed for every single one of these weapons."

Pietro grinned. "Yes ma’am."

"Right." I nodded and then crouched down by the window. "What are we going to do?"

"We have some surprises, but hopefully it won't come to that. In the meantime, Pietro will take care of the car."

Pietro nodded and then went to another one of the cupboards, took some kind of spray solution out, and started spraying down the Mercedes. The blue looked like it was being stripped off or blasted off somehow. The outcome revealed a silvery green color, and my mouth hung open. "I thought I was badass, but you're clearly in a whole other league."

"Let's just say I have some cool friends."

Whatever it was that Pietro was washing onto the car, it sprayed down the drain in the floor, and he cleaned up. East kept his eyes glued outside. The dark gray SUV that had been following us was driving slowly down the lane, as if not buying our whole facade of nothing special happening here. My stomach flipped and flopped as my heart did its best to learn the salsa all on its own.

I wanted to look out the window again, but East shook his head at me. Instead, he handed me his tablet so I could see what was coming. They parked the car. "Jesus Christ, how did they find us?”

He shook his head. "I don't know, but we're going to be okay. Help is on the way."

"You sound so certain of that."

"Well, let's just say I have some people who owe me some favors."

The two men parked and exited the SUV, and they were carrying guns. Big ones. Those were semi-automatics. "What are they doing with things like that?"

"Well, I think the general idea is to kill us dead."

"As opposed to killing us just a little?" I raised a brow.

He chortled. "Okay, testy-testy. It's just a little joke."

"You are surprisingly calm. Why are you so calm?"

"Because my girlfriend is badass. And I have a badass special op bloke with me. And I'm pretty good with a gun. And I have some toys that are going to make these guys very disappointed that they fucked with us. So please, give me some credit."

And then I realized the whole time that I'd been acting like I was the badass, it really was East. Yes, he was a badass in the art world and power brokering and being a billionaire, whatever the hell they did. But he really excelled when it came to safety and security, not just the hacking thing.

The two guys outside essentially tried to check out our hiding spot. They checked the windows only to find a whole lot of nothing. And then they tried the doors. When one of them raised his gun up to the lock as if he was going to attempt to shoot his way in, I held my gun in my hand, keeping it trained on the door, ready and looming to do battle.

And then on the tablet, we saw flashing lights coming down the same way that we came, veering off toward the town like we had.

"The cavalry is here," East whispered.

The two men outside ran for their SUV, quickly forgetting us. And it was only then that East relaxed, his back against the wall. He exhaled a long breath.

"Why do you look so relieved?" I asked him.

"Because I had no idea if that was going to work or not. But we live to fight another day."

I stared at him. "So, you were bluffing? You had no idea if this was going to work?"

He shook his head. "I had high hopes. I don't like you being in danger."

"Something tells me that I am in far less danger with you than I have ever been in my entire life."

"And that's all I want. Now, let's lose the guns and get to the hotel."

Chapter Seven Nyla

"Stick with me babe, and I'll take you to all the best places." East twirled around the tiny office we'd been given with the boxes and boxes of files from the spring of thirty years ago.

"You did promise me that," I said, rolling my eyes.

He laughed as he shook his head. "I'm sorry. I promise, as soon as we find what we need, we'll go tour the city. After all, I did also promise you Milan."

I rolled my shoulders, still wincing a little with the ache where I’d been shot. His eyes grew cloudy then as he watched me. "Oh, stop it. It's fine. It aches a little bit, but I'm okay. Besides, you saved my life, so I can forgive your little shit decisions."

He nodded solemnly, and I could tell that he wanted to argue. But at least we didn't have to go down that road today. "Okay, so I will take this stack,” he said. “These are all the missing persons reports.”

"Okay, I will look at the hospital records for that year. Anyone that didn't have a passport, or went unclaimed, or died in surgery or something." There couldn’t be that many. At least I hoped not.

“It’s so sexy when you talk about hospitals and make lists."

I flashed him a grin as I pulled my hair back off my face