Euan
For a few seconds, I was too stunned to speak.
“Can I come in?” Elsie asked as she stood glaring at me on my front porch.
“Do I need to search you for weapons?”
Her lips twitched with humour, but the rage still filled her eyes. “Oh, believe me, if I were going to kill you, I’d have done it by now.”
“Well, that sounds optimistic.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped inside when I opened the door fully for her.
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Whisky, neat,” she stated. “I’d get one for yourself too if I were you.”
“Now that doesn’t sound optimistic.”
She perched herself right on the very edge of the sofa as if touching one of my possessions would poison her, while I fixed us both a drink.
Passing it to her, I took the space beside her. “So, what’s this about?”
She looked like she was having trouble voicing whatever had brought her knocking on my door. I hated that she hated me. I had hurt her, so much, yet I didn’t know what to do to make it right; if I could do anything at all. I knew how much I had put her at risk and I despised myself for that.
“I, uh, I need your help.”
Okay, that wasn’t something I was expecting. “Of course.”
She licked her dry lips then took a long gulp of whisky. “My future at Three Blades is insecure because of the danger I brought to the whole establishment by trusting you.”
I flinched at the fury behind each of her words.
“However,” she continued. “Frank wants us to work together to bring Peter down.”
I hesitated, but not because I didn’t want to work with her. “You do realise how dangerous this is, Elsie?”
She laughed bitterly and slowly turned her glare to me. “I can take care of myself, Euan.”
“Oh, I’m not saying that. I already know that. But Peter is hell-bent on taking you down. He could expose everything relating to Three Blades if he knows you’re involved in his downfall.”
“That’s a risk I seem to be taking a lot lately.”
My gut ached at the hurt in her voice. “Look, Elsie. It’s like I said, I won’t bring you down. According to my report, I was instructed to find you. I found you and delivered you to Peter to get a way in and plant the hacking device. My boss doesn’t need to know anything else; it doesn’t concern the case anyway.”
She looked at me dubiously. “But you still lied, Euan. If you’d have been honest from the off…”
“You’d have either taken me out or I wouldn’t have seen you for the dust.”
She snatched her hand away when I tried to take it. “We need to get one thing clear; I’m only here for my redemption, Euan.”
I froze, puzzled. “Redemption?”
“Frank has every right to terminate me for this. I breached everything by trusting you and allowing you to have access to us. Do you not get that, Euan? Your lies may have killed me.”
“But that’s crazy. You didn’t know!”
“But it doesn’t matter. I still allowed you in. You were my assignment for fuck’s sake. I was supposed to take you out! And I didn’t!” She hiccupped. “I allowed you in, and not just Three Blades,” she finished quietly.
“Elsie,” I tried to take her hand, but she shook me off.
“No. This is hard enough for me as it is. Do you give permission for me to work with you, or shall I go back to my employer and tell him that you have declined?”
My eyes widened at her tone, her detachment hurting me more than it should.
“Of course I’ll work with you, I wouldn’t ever risk your life…”
She scoffed and finished the rest of her drink.
Leaning back into the cushion, I stared at her, a small smile on my lips with what I was about to give her.
“I found her, Elsie.”
Her head shot around, and her eyes fixed on me with excitement. “Felicity?”
“Yes. I did try calling you, I even emailed you and texted you. I’m surprised you didn’t get them.”
She blinked and stated stiffly, “I have a new number.”
Chuckling at her lie, I just nodded. “Sure you have, but I guess you can still be reached on the old one.”
Giving me a look of indifference, she shrugged. “Mm-hmm.”
“I managed to trace her through some correspondence between her and Peter. I locked down her location from the emails she sent him. It’s an address in London, but I wanted to wait for you before I went to check it out.”
“Get your coat,” she stated, shooting up from the sofa.
“Have I pulled?” I chuckled as I slipped into my jacket.
She blew out a long breath, and on her way out I swear she mumbled, “It might be less painful just to terminate myself.”
***
“You think she’s in there?” I asked Elsie when we pulled up outside the house, out of sight.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and brought up the radar. Three red dots blinked inside the zone she designated with a touch of her finger. “Along with two others.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” I posed.
“No, but we don’t know the set up in there, Euan. Are they hostiles or civilians? They could just be innocent people she’s holed up with. We have to be careful how we go in.”
“You want to find a hotel then come back when it’s dark?”
“Might be best, but I have another idea. Can you send an email that Felicity would think is from Peter?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can masquerade it, so it looks like it’s sent from Peter. If I explicitly send it via his account, he may be able to trace it, no matter how much I try and conceal it. So, it would be safer all round if I mimicked his IP, making it look like it’s from him.”
She nodded, still keeping watch on the house, or rather pretending to so she didn’t have to look at me.
“What are you thinking?”
“Bring her out. Get her to meet us, except make it so she thinks she’s meeting Peter.”
“Okay. You think Felicity will fall for it?”
Shrugging, she clicked her tongue, a habit she had when she concentrated hard. “I can’t see why not. After all, she is working for him now. Give her a bit of incentive, dangle a sausage in front of her.”
I smirked. “Thirty K should do it.”
Sorrow seeped from her, and she sighed heavily. “Why didn’t she just come to me?” She spoke quietly, and I wasn’t even sure if she was asking herself or me.
“Because sometimes it’s just that little bit too hard to face up to your demons, Elsie. Not everyone is as closed off as you; some people do actually struggle and feel fear.”
Slowly she turned her head and glowered at me. “I didn’t know what fear was until I met you, you arsehole. So, don’t you dare fucking lecture me on feelings! Not when you’re the cause for them.”
Deciding to quit before she stabbed me with something sharp, I kept my mouth shut and drove away.