Sugar Plum Spies by Jennifer Estep

Author:Jennifer Estep [Jennifer Estep]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jennifer Estep
Published: 2022-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

DESMOND

Gun in hand, I hurried out of the ballroom and moved down the corridor, keeping an eye out for more mercs. I glanced up at a security camera in the ceiling, wondering if someone was watching me on the feed and sending men to gun me down. No way to know for sure, and it was a risk I would just have to take.

I would take any risk for Charlotte.

The deeper I moved into the castle, the quieter it became. The muffled sobs and nervous chatter from the ballroom had vanished, and I didn’t hear anyone else moving through the corridors, not the softest squeak of a shoe on the slick marble floor. Katarina’s mercs had probably killed all the other security guards, both outside and inside the castle, before they had stormed into the ballroom.

With any luck, Charlotte had copied Elsa’s files and gotten out of the office without being discovered, but if there was one thing working for Section 47 had taught me, it was that luck was mostly bad, especially when you were a spy.

If Charlotte hadn’t escaped from the office, if Katarina and Vlad found her, then they would kill her.

Fresh worry churned in my gut like razors slowly slicing me to ribbons. I could easily put myself in the line of fire. I’d done it often enough as a cleaner, including in the ballroom just a few minutes ago. And I’d lost people along the way, colleagues—friends—who had just been doing their jobs for Section 47 and trying to make the world a little safer for everyone, mortal and paramortal alike.

But watching Graham die on the beach, watching the light fade from his eyes, and realizing that I couldn’t save him—and that I was going to have to snuff out what little life he had left in order to save myself—had been one of the most horrific experiences of my life. It had changed me in ways I didn’t fully understand yet, but I knew one thing for certain.

I had already lost my best friend, and I wasn’t going to lose Charlotte too.

Guilt burned in my heart, even hotter and stronger than the sharp worry slicing through my gut. Charlotte and I both wanted answers from Henrika Hyde, but I was the one who’d pushed to come to Germany, to infiltrate Elsa Eisen’s holiday party and see what leads we could find. Us being here tonight was largely my fault, and if something happened to Charlotte . . . well, I would never forgive myself.

It continually surprised and amazed me just how much I had come to care about her in such a short time. As a Section cleaner, I had been trained to see people as targets to eliminate. Nothing more, nothing less. And then, of course, my father, the General, viewed others as either assets to use to his advantage or obstacles to be coldly, ruthlessly swept out of his way.

Given all that, I hadn’t thought I was capable of such intense

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