End Game (Will Robie #5)(84)

“Valerie.”

Robie silently groaned. “Is something wrong?”

“Can I come in?”

He opened the door, expecting to see her dressed in some sexy number and holding a bottle of gin.

She was still in uniform.

“What’s up?” asked Robie, as he stepped aside to allow her to pass into the room. He closed the door and turned to her.

The pistol was pointed at his chest.

“Is there a problem?” Robie said calmly, even as he thought about how he would disarm her.

She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it across to him.

He reached out for the paper, gripped her wrist instead, spun her around, ripped the gun from her other hand, and deftly pushed her back on the bed.

He slipped the gun into his waistband and held up the paper.

“What the hell are you doing?” he said quietly.

“Read the paper, you bastard. And tell me if it’s true or not.”

He could see tears sliding down her cheeks. He glanced at the paper, already fairly confident about what would be on it.

He unfolded it and read, Your sister is dead. Ask the Feds. They were there.

He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

Malloy sat up on the bed. “Is it true?”

Robie didn’t answer.

She stood. “Is it true?” she said in a louder voice.

Robie still didn’t answer.

“So it is true,” said Malloy, her voice smaller, weaker.

She sat back down on the bed and looked at the floor.

Robie pulled up a chair and sat across from her.

He leaned in and said, “Dolph killed Luke. And he killed your sister. And we were there, as Dolph’s prisoners.”

“But you escaped. Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Robie sat back. “It wouldn’t have changed what happened to Holly. And we’re going to get Dolph for this.”

“How? He’s probably out of the country by now.”

“He’s not out of the country, although he’s lying low. He knows that we have him for murder. But we have eyes on him, Valerie. He’s not going to get away.”

“What eyes?”

“You have to trust me on that one.”

“Trust you! You’ve done nothing but lie to me.”

“I’ve told you everything I could tell you.”

“We slept together, Will. And you screwed me knowing that my sister was dead. Knowing that I was worried about her? You let me believe she was okay.”

“That was not how I wanted to handle it, trust me. But it was very complicated. We were caught between a rock and a hard place and we had to make a decision. And maybe we made the wrong one. I’m sorry. I never wanted this to happen.”

She gave a hollow laugh. “Oh, great, that makes everything just fine.”

“I know you’re upset and you have every right to be. But this was the only way we could play this out. Or at least we thought it was.”

“Play it out? So my sister being murdered by that dick is just a game to you?”

“None of this is a game. You know that. We’ve been nearly killed a handful of times since we’ve been here. Hell, it was safer in Iraq.”

She started to say something and then paused. “You were in Iraq?”

“I’ve been in a lot of places.”

She slowly nodded. “How did she die? How did Dolph kill my sister?”

“I can’t think of one good reason for you to know the particulars.”

“Tell me, Robie. You at least owe me that.”

He drew a long breath and said tersely, “Gunshot to the head. She died instantly.”

Malloy suddenly turned green. “Oh, God, I’m going to be sick.”

He helped her up and half-carried her to the bathroom. He shut the door and heard her vomiting.

He sat back down in the chair and waited, his mind reeling with all that had happened in the last five minutes.

Robie was good at many things.

But I’m not good at this. Lying to people who don’t deserve it. Trying to comfort people when I’ve spent most of my adult life training hard and planning meticulously to take the lives of others.

“Shit,” he muttered, putting his face in his hands and rocking back and forth in the chair.

Five minutes later he heard the toilet flush and the sink tap turn on.

He sat up and wiped his face and tried to clear his mind.

A couple minutes after that the door opened and Malloy walked unsteadily out. She sat heavily down on the bed and wouldn’t look at him.

“Who sent you the note?” asked Robie.

“I don’t know. It was shoved under the door to the station. Why?”

“I’d just like to know.”

“I thought Holly and Luke were on their way out of the state,” she finally said. “You said you put them on a bus.”

“We thought we did too. She had it all planned out. Reel and I were helping them, like we told you.”

“Why?”

Robie didn’t answer right away. “Everybody deserves a second chance.”

She looked up at him. “I think you’re telling the truth for once.”

“But later we got ambushed again by Dolph’s goons. And they had Holly. They used her as a bargaining chip to make us come quietly. They took us to Dolph’s compound. There they showed us a picture of Luke, minus his head.”