Sin and Sacrifice (21 page)

“
Your destination, ma'am?”
the girl said with a heavy accent.

“
I need something
immediately, if you have it, preferably to Spain,” Evelyn replied,
hastily choosing a spot out of Egypt and away from Athens but still
in the general area. She could travel easily enough from Spain to
Greece when she needed to.

“
I'm sorry, ma'am, but
there are no available seats until tomorrow in the
afternoon.”

“
All right, let's try
France. I can always connect with another flight there if I have
to.”

“
All seats are booked
until eleven-forty-five in the morning.”

Evelyn caught one of the
security guards watching her when she pretended to get inside the
purse for the wallet. His scrutiny panicked her, although she tried
not to show it.

Of course there were no
flights to France. It figured.

The security guard strolled
a little closer to the desk.

“
What seat do you have
available
right now?
The destination doesn't really matter. I'll just have my
sisters change their flights tomorrow.” Evelyn played at being a
bored jet setter. Ignoring the security guard became harder and
harder to do as he took up what seemed to be a casual lean against
the high counter six feet to her right. His proximity forced her
into a hasty decision to accept the very first flight out of Egypt
that she could get, no matter the destination. Timbuktu,
England--

“
There's a flight to Las
Vegas with four layovers--”

Vegas?!

“
I'll take it,” Evelyn
said, cutting the desk clerk off. She smiled to reduce any sting
and chided herself when her hands shook as she passed over the
other woman's identification and passport. The clerk didn't seem to
think anything was wrong, because she took up both items to start
punching the data in on her computer.

Vegas. Well, that was much
farther out of her way than she needed to go. Maybe it was a
blessing in disguise. If,
when
she got a hold of her sisters, she could tell
them to meet her there. It would put oceans of distance between
them and the Templars.

Out of the corner of her
eye, Evelyn saw the security guard bring a hand up and tip his
mouth toward the small radio on his shoulder.

Crap.

He was calling for backup.
He'd probably recognized her from fliers the Templars had already
sent around, guessing she'd try and flee the country. Thoughts of
escape consumed her while she watched the clerk with growing
impatience. Fear that more security guards were going to show up
escalated her heart rate.

A fine sheen of sweat
dotted her brow under the brim of the hat.

The price the clerk quoted
was more cash than she had on hand. In a quandary, Evelyn wondered
what to do. The pressure was on. She'd already stolen 'Lola's'
wallet and passport, probably putting her into a world of hurt so
far away from home. To use her credit card on top of that was just
adding insult to injury.

Did she have any choice? If
she used Galiana's card, the Templars would be alerted if they
weren't already. Survival instinct kicked in and she passed over
one of the woman's three credit cards, glancing at the name on the
front so that she wouldn't have to look like she didn't know it
when the time came to sign.

Margaret White.

Not quite a Lola after
all.

With the transaction
complete, and Evelyn about to jump out of her skin with nerves
thanks to the security guard, she accepted the passport and
identification back and stuffed them into the purse before signing
the slip.

“
If you hurry, you
can
just
make it
to the gate before final boarding, Miss White,” the clerk said,
handing her a ticket and pointing down the airport in the direction
she needed to go.

“
Thank you.” Evelyn
gathered the purse and the ticket. She didn't look at the security
guard when she veered away from the counter and took up a brisk
pace toward the departing gate. At least she had a good reason to
be moving at such a quick clip through the terminal.

Less than fifteen minutes
later, Evelyn boarded the plane without being stopped by security.
Finding her seat, she sank into the cushions and for now, left the
hat on. No one occupied the seat beside her.

All the better. Evelyn
wasn't in the mood for small talk.

“
See, the great thing
about our arrangement here, is that I don't have to wait around to
sign out. So either you remove the IV, or I will.” Rhett glared at
the doctor.

The sun had come up an hour
ago and Rhett was impatient to be on his way. Dracht and Dragar
were gone in search of the girls—the sisters?--and Rhett didn't
want Evelyn to put any more distance between them. He was sure
she'd figured out how to flee Egypt already, unless she'd decided
on the age old trick of hiding in plain sight.

It didn't matter. The
tracking device would lead him right to her.

“
But you need to rest for
another day at least. You're going to aggravate the wound and you
don't want to lose anymore blood than you already have,” the doctor
said, looking slightly nervous.

“
I don't have twenty-four
hours.” Rhett, standing next to the hospital bed, was through
screwing around with delays. His patience had a limit. He shot
Christian, who waited in the corner with his arms across his chest,
a look that said he'd better be ready to move.

The doctor showed his palms
in a sign of surrender and came over himself to remove the needle
and tape from Rhett's arm.

Rhett sneered when the
physician gave a piece of the tape an especially vicious yank.
Versed in controlling pain, he showed no other sign than that
before he brushed past the physician. The special arrangement in
place for the Templars at this, and many other hospitals around the
world, made it convenient to get their wounds treated expediently
with utmost privacy.

Already dressed in jeans
and boots, he tugged a navy blue shirt over his shoulders, careful
not to dislodge either bandage. The pain incurred from the bullet
was tolerable with the addition of the pills the doctor had given
him, and he had more tucked away in his pocket for later. It wasn't
the first time he'd been shot, or shot
at,
and he was sure it wouldn't be
the last.

“
Did you bring the
monitor?” Rhett asked Christian while he adjusted the shoulder
holster to fit around the wound. He gave the leather a few yanks
until it suited him.

“
I did. She's on the move,
somewhere over the atlantic,” Christian said.

Rhett arched a brow and
slid his arms through the sleeves of a jacket. “Where the hell does
she think she's going?”

Christian shrugged his
brows. “I have no idea. She must be pretty freaked out to leave the
area altogether.”

“
Well yeah, she shot me,”
Rhett snorted. “She probably thinks she'll be arrested if she's
caught. I wonder what she meant by calling those girls her
sisters,” he mused.

“
That's what they must be,
but I don't see how from the pictures we were able to pull up with
their information. One is clearly of oriental descent and another
African. Maybe the black haired one, but that's all,” Christian
answered. He followed Rhett from the room and out into the
hallway.

Rhett grunted, ignoring the
fawning look one of the nurses gave him. He was all business,
trying to think three steps ahead of what Evelyn might do. “Maybe
the blonde we found dead, too. I wonder why she didn't just tell me
one or two of them were her sisters.”

They exited out into the
already arid morning and Rhett squinted against the sun. Drawing
sunglasses from his jacket, he slid them over his eyes and flatly
ignored a sharp, stabbing pain through his shoulder. It felt like
someone jabbed him with a hot poker.

“
She must have something
to hide, or that she doesn't want anyone to know,” Christian said.
He too drew on sunglasses to shield his eyes.

“
Or,” Rhett said,
following Christian across the back parking lot to a waiting car.
“She's simply protecting them from whatever the Templars want. Any
news on that, by the way?”

“
Man, no one knows what's
going on. Dragar can't get any kind of leg up on all this because
too many of them are out on missions and he doesn't know who else
is involved.
Something
is going on, that's for sure though,” Christian said, using
the fob to remotely unlock the doors to the sleek, black
BMW.

Rhett almost insisted on
driving. Instead, he got into the passenger seat, scowling, and
slammed the door closed. What remained of his patience and good
mood were deteriorating rapidly.

“
There were four in the
subterranean room when I grabbed Evelyn. I'm betting there are more
than just those four who are in on it, though. This isn't like your
usual interrogation. They've got these girls mistaken with
something or someone else. Has to be. The fact that the rest of us
don't know anything about it is suspicious anyway,” Rhett said,
working out the facts in his mind. Too much of it was conflicting
and contradictory. As a Templar, he didn't know all the missions
the other Knights went on, but kidnapping and torture of innocent
victims was
never
on anyone's To-Do list.

He angled the seat belt
across his body and glanced at Christian as he backed the car out
of the slot.

“
Dragar's running an
internal investigation while they look for the girls. See if any of
the other guys crack under pressure. Someone has to know
something,” he said.

“
Pisses me off that they
killed another one. Systematically going through the ones left
alive and taking them out.” But
why.
Rhett couldn't make heads or
tails of it all. He studied the scenery as Christian accelerated
and whisked them away from the hospital. Rhett was glad to be out
of there. He hated hospitals with a passion.

“
Yeah, seriously messed
up,” Christian agreed with a low exhale. “Really vicious at the
scene. Cut her heart out.”

Rhett's mind superimposed
Genevieve's face over Evelyn's. His gut twisted at the thought of
her suffering something even worse than where he'd found her the
first time. And his own brethren were responsible. Rhett wasn't a
novice to death and even murder. Their jobs, such as they were,
forced them to commit acts most citizens wouldn't understand. They
were in the employ of the Church, acting on direction from a
liaison. But their work was always geared toward the good, not
senseless death.

And he was very sure that
the two murders the Templars had committed already were just
that.

Senseless.

“
I figure we'll just go
back to the stronghold and wait to see where she winds up,”
Christian said.

Rhett slanted him a dark
look. “Like hell we will. I'll call ahead and get the private jet
cleared. We know she's headed to the US, so we'll be on her tail
when she arrives and just keep state hopping until she gets off.
It'll help if we can find out which flight she's on.”

“
I already checked. Her
name isn't on any of the manifests. None of her 'friends' names,
either. Nothing I recognize. She's using someone else's name,
though I can't figure out how she got something that fast,”
Christian said.

“
Apparently. Let's hope
she doesn't think to check for another bug or we'll really be up
shit creek.” Rhett grunted. He wouldn't be all that surprised if
she found it and put it on someone else's luggage, leading them on
a wild goose chase that would just waste time.

Rhett had the distinct
feeling that every second they spent away from her was a second
closer to her death.

This desert felt different
on her skin. Las Vegas, with all it's glitter and shine, was not a
strange place. Evelyn had been here when the very first buildings
had gone up, when the dusty valley had taken on life. An oasis of
steel and metal sprung up from the sand, luring visitors from every
corner of the world. She'd been here when the Rat Pack played at
all the swanky hotels, and she'd been here when Elvis took the
stage. Onward, through the years, she'd watched the urban sprawl
stretch out over miles while the hotels got bigger and fancier and
more elaborate.

Her last visit had been
sometime in the eighties, before the Strip had become home to
hotels like the Venetian and Paris. As the cab cruised along the
infamous street, she marveled at just how many new and glowing
palaces changed the skyline she'd once been so familiar
with.

Two delays in the
extraordinarily long trip put her arrival in the dead of night
though like Port Said, nothing about this city slowed down just
because the witching hour was upon them. Lights raced around the
edges of the Flamingo and the MGM Grand towered like a monolith,
glowing as green as the witch's skin in the Wizard of OZ. She might
have marveled at the replication of the Eiffel tower but all Evelyn
could think was that Galiana would never see any of this again. Her
sister had a special fondness for Vegas, always had.