Sin and Sacrifice (22 page)

Shoving the emotion down,
she watched several little quaint chapels flicker past the window
of the taxi, the spires lit up like the faux stained glass arching
against the walls. The driver didn't have to compete with quite as
much traffic as he might have four hours earlier and for that
Evelyn was thankful. He pulled into the parking lot of the Venetian
and angled up to drop her off before the front doors. Tipping him
with a bit of the cash she had on her, Evelyn got out with only her
bag over a shoulder.

People of all walks of life
came in and out the doors, one of which she caught to hold open for
herself. Entering, a cool touch of air hit her skin and the distant
sound of chinging slot machines greeted her ears. Sweeping the hat
off, feeling safe and obscure here so far from that gloomy alley a
half world away, she stuffed it down into the large bag and headed
to the front desk. The décor was charming and fitting for the
theme, the lady at the counter helpful and smiling.

Evelyn used the stolen
identification again and paid cash for a room for one night. She
didn't trust to stay too long in one place and planned to move from
one casino to another every few days. In the meantime, she would
try to make contact with her sisters and get them on planes out of
the middle east. If she couldn't contact them here, it wasn't
likely that she would have been able to contact them in Egypt
either.

She took the sobering
thought with her to the elevators, rubbing her eyelids with her
fingertips. The whoosh of the cab took her up to the third floor
where she got off and made her way down the hall.

It reminded her of the
hotel in Port Said.

It reminded her of the
bastard Rhett. Damn him.

Emotionally drained, she
used the key card in the slot and opened the door. Like everything
else about the newer hotel, the furnishings were crisp and clean
and well appointed. Swags in yellow-gold material hung over the
broad windows and a separate sitting area boasted two elegant
stuffed chairs with matching ottomans. The baroque details and warm
red patterned comforter made the room feel like home.

Engaging all the locks and
even the chain, she dropped the bag on the ground near the bathroom
doorway and went straight to the queen sized bed. Flopping onto the
mattress, she stretched out with an exhausted sigh and finally
allowed herself to relax for a second.

For the first time since
she'd seen the blasted tattoo on Rhett's back, Evelyn felt like she
could actually breathe without worrying someone would crash through
the door. Not for long, but long enough to just take stock of what
had happened. The ceiling blurred out of focus and she closed her
eyes.

Only for a moment, she
promised herself. Only for a moment.

A sharp rap on her door
startled Evelyn awake. Her body had that heavy sensation of deep
sleep dragging down her limbs even while she struggled to sit up.
Disoriented, she realized more time than she'd thought had passed.
Confused and panicked, it all came rushing back as another sharp
knock penetrated the haze.

They couldn't have found
her already. Impossible. She had no weapons, nothing to protect
herself from them. Scrambling off the bed, she lurched for the
phone on the nightstand, ready to dial the hotel operator and
scream for assistance. Her hands took on a palsied shake from being
woken up in such a startling way.

“
Hello, room service.”
Another rap of knuckles on the door.

Evelyn exhaled and set the
handset back in the cradle.

Not the Templars at all.
Just room service.

“
Nothing right now, thank
you,” she called toward the door. Even her voice shook.

No knocks
followed.

Tonight she needed to
remember to put the
Do not disturb
sign on her knob.

Making her way into the
bathroom, she took care of business, washed her hands and splashed
cold water on her face.

The reflection that peered
back at her looked pale and drawn. Her eyes had a jaded quality,
mouth turned down at the corners. She felt older, as if the strain
of the last week had added twenty years to her life.

Even the tan she'd acquired
in Greece didn't help.

“
What now, Evelyn?” she
asked herself. There were no easy answers, even here, alone in a
hotel room thousands of miles away from the chaos her life had
become.

Her first priority was to
buy a few clothes and to find another internet cafe to check for
messages from her sisters. By now, if the girls were on the run and
not captive, they would have found a way to leave her an
email.

Rinsing her mouth, she spat
into the sink and patted her face dry. Out into the bedroom, she
went to the window and pushed the blackout drapes back. Squinting
against the bright glare of the sun, she realized by the slant of
it in the sky that it was much later than she thought.

Twisting a look to the
nightstand, she saw the digital readout:
11:16.

She couldn't believe she'd
slept that long. Gathering up the purse, she double checked that
she had her key card and wallet. Putting the hat on her head, she
exited the room.

Her first stop was to grab
a bagel from the deli. Stuffing it down into the purse, she
navigated the classy interior of the Venetian and stepped out
through the double glass doors into the heat of the Nevada day.
People bustled along the sidewalk and cars clogged the Strip.
Keeping a wary eye on anyone that looked suspicious, she started
walking. There were so many more businesses lining the street that
Evelyn was momentarily taken aback. Not just enormous hotels but
restaurants and shops. She ate the bagel on the way, giving her
flagging energy a much needed boost.

A few blocks down, she
caught sight of a store front off the main drag that boasted an
internet cafe. Inside, small tables had been set up with computers
across from each other. A long bar sat against a floor to ceiling
window with stools lined up for customers to sit on. Airy and
clean, pale blue with silver accents, it had an almost fifties
feeling to it.

Purchasing a fifteen minute
block of time, she chose a table in the corner with a computer that
faced away from the crowd. Setting her bag on the floor near her
ankle, she glanced over the faces in the cafe before putting her
fingers on the keys.

No one looked familiar. Not
that she'd expected anyone to. Still, she was too wary not to keep
a constant eye out for anything suspicious. It only took her a
minute to log into their shared internet account. She clicked the
folder for new mail and held her breath.

Nothing.

No new mail. A sharp stab
of disappointment turned into a fresh round of fear. Anger at the
Templars surfaced as well. Debating the wisdom of leaving her
whereabouts, she decided that ultimately she had no
choice.

Except she did so in a
language long dead that no one else would be able to decipher. Even
the most proficient code breaker would find it impossible to
translate. Evelyn made obscure references to her location in any
case. In her mind's eye, she recalled the skill the Templars had in
torture and wasn't sure one of her sisters wouldn't give up the
email account information no matter how strong willed or
determined.

With her fifteen minutes
up, Evelyn closed out the window and erased the history before
leaving the cafe altogether. Deep in thought, she walked back to
the Venetian with the city coming alive as the lunch hour
arrived.

She knew she couldn't go
back to Pacific Palisades. Couldn't go home. Didn't really want to
with her sisters in a possibly precarious position. Even when they
had lived in separate countries all those years ago, Evelyn hadn't
felt this alone and unsure of herself. It was like she could feel
the Templars breathing down her neck, waiting for the right time to
strike.

Evelyn glanced over her
shoulder. There were too many faces, too many people to tell
whether any particular person had a specific interest in
her.

Without warning, she
bounced off a hard wall of muscle, a man's chest, and gasped when
strong hands grasped her by the elbows.

“
Should watch where you're
walking, Miss,” the man said.

Evelyn, about to scream and
fight back, met a pair of casual brown eyes that belonged to a man
in a business suit. He released her right after that.

“
Sorry. I thought I heard
someone call my name,” she fibbed, standing where he left her. If
the man had been a Templar, she would doubtless already be hustled
into a car waiting at the curb.

He smiled and walked on,
whistling to himself as he went.

Trying to calm her racing
heart, Evelyn marched along the sidewalk, unsettled by the contact
more than she wanted to admit.

Curls of steam permeated
the hotel bathroom while Evelyn took a shower. She inhaled the hot
mist to soothe her dry throat, scrubbing hours of travel from her
skin. The shampoo the hotel provided smelled like it came from an
upscale salon. Evelyn washed her hair twice and finally turned the
water off. Stepping out, she toweled herself dry and then wrapped
it around her head swami style. Using the side of her hand, she
smeared the fog away from the mirror and stared at her reflection
again.

She thought she looked
tired. Distressed. Usually hot baths and showers did wonders for
her morale. Today she felt like someone had strapped an anvil to
her back.

Three hours of shopping
replenished her clothing enough to get her by for several days.
Jeans, tee shirts, one sundress, sandals, socks and
undergarments.

She felt a strong urge to
be
doing
something to help the girls but she wasn't sure what. Being
born in the Garden of Eden didn't give them any special magical
skills other than an innate ability to heal and the gift of
immortality. Evelyn couldn't look into a crystal ball for answers
or make images appear on water. They shared no mental telepathy or
any other extreme intuition that might have helped her understand
their fate.

Frustrated, she left the
bathroom and drew on one of the pairs of jeans, a plain tee shirt
of dove gray and new running shoes.

Evelyn didn't think she
would ever be able to sleep again without being fully clothed. Not
for the first time, she didn't feel comfortable unless she was
ready to move at a moment's notice.

Pulling a fat toothed comb
through her damp hair, she glanced at the nightstand clock:
3:30 p.m.

She didn't know what to do
with herself, couldn't decide whether to stay in the room or
investigate the casino. Money was too precious a commodity to throw
away on gambling right now. Using the stolen credit card would just
lead them to her faster when the woman reported it missing. Too
restless to pace up here for the next however many hours until she
could fall asleep, she used the complimentary hair dryer to make
herself somewhat presentable and filled the pockets of the jeans
with money, identification and the key card.

Evelyn left the hotel room
for the second time that day and took the elevator down to the main
floor. Busier than it had been earlier, the casino buzzed with
bodies, the clang of machines and a whoop of someone who'd hit a
minor jackpot.

To be so
carefree.

She wove through bodies in
search of something to eat, preferring the sit down deli rather
than a restaurant where she would feel too confined and trapped by
booths and walls. Sitting at a small table for one, she ate an
early dinner consisting of a hoagie and an orange, people watching
while she did so. No one seemed to be paying any special attention
to her barring one man who smiled broadly on his way by for
something to eat.

Probably harmless, like the
business man she'd bumped into, but she wouldn't give him anymore
than a vague smile in return to discourage him from coming over to
talk. While she ate, she plotted what to do about their houses back
in Pacific Palisades. She was sure they were being watched. It
pained her to think that they wouldn't be able to get any of their
things out.

Evelyn, in fact all of her
sisters, had emergency accounts in foreign banks and countries with
new identification, new lives and money to see them safely
relocated in case something like this happened. The problem was
that they needed to get to the stash in the city or country. Evelyn
had tried to get to France, where there was one such stash and had
to abort the idea when that security guard made her nervous. There
was another safe deposit box in Los Angeles, one in New York,
Japan, and several other locations that were more obscure. If she
didn't hear from her sisters or if they didn't show up here in Las
Vegas within three days, she decided she would choose one of those
locations to retrieve more money and new ID.

Washing down the food with
a swallow of water, she rested her back against the seat and was
about to take a second drink when her gaze landed on a pair of pale
green eyes. She jerked in surprise.

Rhett.
Oh shit.