Read Online Dying Commitment (Lucky Thirteen) by S.M. Butler - Free Book Online

here,” she croaked out and rolled to her side.
    “Why? Because you drugged me and left me cuffed to the bed?” I was a little indignant with that, but come on. She cuffed me to the bed and left me there. It was only fair that I got to harbor some kind of grudge.
    “Yes,” she snapped. She turned to her side, her eyes slowly focusing on the nightstand. “Is that water for me?”
    I nodded. “Yes.” I picked up the glass as she struggled to her elbows. Her head was obviously hurting, from the frown across her brows. She took the glass from me and drank about half the glass down before she handed it back to me.
    “What are you doing here?” She seemed more perplexed than angry.
    “Taking care of you at the moment,” I replied. I set the glass back on the nightstand. “You took a good blow to the head.”
    “Fucker sucker punched me.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Where are we now?”
    “Hotel. You’ve been sleeping for hours.”
    She sat up the rest of the way, fighting against the pain she was feeling. She glanced around. “My bag? Where’s my bag?”
    “Over in the corner, with your gun and your jacket.”
    “Good… and my laptop? Did you get my laptop?”
    I shook my head. “Gone. The dude at the shop grabbed it.”
    “And you let him leave with it?” She sat up quickly, wavering like she was going to fall, but she didn’t stop. She stumbled out of the bed and over to her backpack.
    “He grabbed it and ran, Cady. Bulldozed right over me. I went outside after him, but he disappeared into the crowd.”
    “Shit!” She grabbed her backpack, wrenching it open, and rummaging through the contents. “Why didn’t he take anything else? It doesn’t make any sense.”
    “What’s on the laptop, Cadence?” I asked, still sitting on the bed. She swayed a little, but when I started to get up, she shot me the I-Will-Kill-You-Look, so I sat back on the bed. I wasn’t entirely sure that she wouldn’t.
    “That one? Not much that they can crack.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “I’m very good at what I do, Bambi.” She poured herself another glass of water and downed it in two gulps and then started getting dressed.
    “What are you doing?”
    “What does it look like? I’m leaving.”
    “No, you’re not.” I said. “You have a head injury. You need to take a day or two and let yourself heal.”
    “I don’t have a day or two, especially if they manage to crack my laptop.”
    “You just said they won’t. So what’s the harm in a couple of days?”
    “I can’t…” She swallowed, and for a second, she let some emotion leak through her expression before she recovered. “I can’t stay here. I have to get to Va—” She stopped and cleared her throat, but I’d already caught it.
    “Valonia. That’s where you’re going. That’s all the way on the other side of France.”
    “Well, the cruise line was going to Barcelona, and then I was going to take a train, but—”
    “Because of me, you got off early.”
    “Yes,” she replied flatly. “I came to Funchal to get my stuff from Afonso and then I was going to get back on the ship and take it to Spain.”
    “A plane would have been faster. Thirteen could have—”
    “I didn’t want Thirteen involved. This is a personal matter. And Jack would have expected me to fly straight into Valonia. Or so I thought.”
    “He anticipated you going to see Afonso.”
    “Looks like. Jack can definitely pay more than I can. I guess he had Afonso steal my laptop, maybe to find out what we know about Giroux Enterprises now that Alex is in charge. But I’ve improved my encryption programs since Jack. He knew my old ones pretty well, but I trashed those as soon as he left.” She paused, obviously thinking of her old partner. I couldn’t fathom one of my teammates betraying me like Allen did to her. I’d have been devastated, and probably going on a hunt a lot like she was.
    “So Jack is working for Alex?”
    “That’s what I hear,”