Third, Envy by Rylie Dark

Author:Rylie Dark [Dark, Rylie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-17T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Both agents froze.

In the grey-pink light of dawn, the young woman’s face looked as hard and deadly as the blade of her knife.

In a flash, Casler drew his weapon, flicking off the safety and training his sights on the young woman. Her eyes went wide and wild like a spooked horse at the sight of the gun, but still, she remained rooted to the sidewalk.

“Drop the knife!” Casler commanded in a loud, authoritative voice, “Do it now! And keep your hands where I can see them.”

The girl – who, now that she was closer, Lexi took for no more than nineteen years old – didn’t drop the knife.

She clung to the handle so tightly her knuckles were turning white, weaving the razor-sharp point vaguely in Casler’s direction. Her lips trembled on the verge of tears, but her eyelids remained peeled back with the same crazy look in her eye as if the fright and pressure had blown a fuse in her mind. She stared dumbly at the barrel of Calser’s Heckler & Koch P7 like it was an alien object.

Lexi assessed the situation in an instant – the girl's fear, her partner’s strained exhaustion and unusual temper, and the drawn weapons. Things could shake down very ugly indeed unless she defused the tension right away.

Before she had time to second guess herself, Lexi threw her own body between the point of the girl’s blade and the barrel of the agent’s gun.

“Okay, everybody just relax,” Lexi said, speaking as calmly as she was able between the deadly weapons, “Casler, put the gun down now.”

She turned to face the frightened girl, speaking to her in gentle, friendly Spanish.

”Good morning, Miss. I’m very sorry we startled you. My name is Doctor Alexandria Quinn. I’m a Special Agent with the Interpol Global Policing Division. The man putting his gun away is my colleague, Special Agent Deitrich Casler. We are homicide investigators looking into a series of murders we believe are centered around this hotel. “

The knife fell from the girl’s hand, clattering to the pavement. She crossed herself quickly and almost looked ready to fall over.

“Dios mio,” she sighed, weak with relief, “That huge man crossed the street and yelled at me – with everything that’s been going on, I was afraid that he was going to kill me and throw me to the bulls. When he pulled out that gun, I thought I was a goner for sure.”

Lexi looked back at Casler, who hung his head heavily with guilty shame.

“What’s your name, please, Miss?” Lexi asked, turning back to the girl, who was lighting up a fresh cigarette with trembling fingers.

“Maria,” she answered through a puff of smoke, “Maria Anasazi.”

“Do you work here in the Hotel de San Cornelio?”

“Mm-hmm,” the girl nodded, “I’m an assistant to the hotel spa masseuse.”

“I see,” Lexi said, “and how long have you had that job?”

“Ever since I quit school,” she replied, “I guess that’d be about two years now.”

“Would you say you know the rest of

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