The Export by J.K. Kelly (read along books txt) 📕

it were a normal workday for the two. “She’s got a meaner temper than I do.” Matt quickly began to put it all together. It must have been Vicki who checked into the room, and that must have been where she and Eve spent the night before Eve took the train home and left Vicki to do the dirty work. When he presented his thoughts to Eve, she smiled.

“God, you’re good. Yes – I stayed in Vicki’s room the night I first met you in the bar. We hadn’t come there to kill anyone, but when he treated me with such disrespect, he pissed me off really bad, but when I told Vicki about it, she went ballistic. I called Tilton’s suite from the train station and invited him to come to play in room 730, but only if he liked it rough.”

“Something tells me that’s not the first time either of you has been involved in a murder.” He stared at her. It was incredible that these two had been able to run around the world, leaving dead men in their wake.

“Let’s just say that we have never tolerated anyone who abused women, including Mother Earth. You might think what I did at Base Camp or what we did at the Chateau was a bit extreme, but what is it you Americans say - Go big or go home?”

“Yea, I guess that’s what some might say,” Matt responded and then took another moment to admire the view and form his next sentence.

“Okay, so I’m going to take the elevator back down and then catch the bus back to the car. From there I’ll drive to Salzburg and collect my things. Tonight’s room is already paid for, but after that, you’re on your own. I never want to hear from you again, and don’t come looking for me, neither of you, or there will be a much different outcome. Understand?” he asked.

“You’re just going to let me walk away?” she asked.

“Yes. There’s not enough physical or even circumstantial evidence to put you in the tent with that Brit or in the room where Tilton petered out, so yes, you’re free to go as far as I’m concerned. But I do have one last question. There’s more to you than you’ve shared.” He stepped closer to her.

“Why did your father get you all the self defense training, then all the extra training as you got older? What the hell brought that on? It was extreme.”

Eve stepped closer to him, close enough for an embrace, and then she told him the story.

“One night, it was near Christmas, my father came to my room and found my uncle – his brother – trying to crawl into my bed. I was scared, too terrified to scream. He pulled his brother from the room by the hair and once they were in the hallway he pulled my door closed and I heard him beat his brother again and again. Then I heard the front door open and close. An hour later, my father came into my room. I was hiding under my comforter. I was so petrified I had wet my bed.”

Matt had locked eyes with her and couldn’t take them away.

“The next morning my father sat me down at the table in the kitchen. He warned me never to trust anyone, ever. Then he made a phone call and signed me up for self defense and when I began to thrive in it, we just kept going and going.”

“And your mother, where was she through all of this?” he asked.

“She was a nurse. She worked the night shift at the local hospital. When she came home my father told her what had happened. She came into my room, changed my sheets and pajamas, and lay with me until the morning.” A tear ran down Eve’s left cheek and Matt reached to wipe it away but with lightning speed Eve stopped his hand and held it.

“And the uncle – what happened to him?” Matt questioned. Eve smiled and raised his hand to her face, wiping the tear away.

“My father buried him somewhere on our property.” She squeezed his hand goodbye and then let go. She stepped back from him. As if on cue, the atmosphere changed on the mountaintop. What was once a beautiful sunny afternoon had now fallen under cloud cover. The temperature was dropping and the sound of thunder could be heard way off in the distance.

“And then a few years later, we buried my father.” Eve looked around at the tourists, mostly couples, who would approach and then retreat.

It didn’t take long for her to agree to Matt’s demand. She could get back to town, and she could move on from there and give Vicki a heads up that they were busted. Matt gave her one last look and then headed back toward the Kehlsteinhaus and the elevator that would drop 400 feet straight down inside the mountain.

But then he turned and walked back to her, stopping just a few feet from her. “One last thing. If a guy named Baral shows up at your condo in Montreal, I’d hightail it out of there. He’s with the Nepalese police, and I’m sending him a photo of your passport the minute I get back to the hotel.”

Eve’s body language stiffened much like it had the night before in the fight with the street thugs. Matt stared at her and laughed.

“Bring friends,” he said with grin but then his face turned serious. “Don’t make me regret this Eve – because if you do it will cost you your life.” Then he turned and walked away from her for the last time.

*

He’d done as planned and was now standing at the departure desk at Salzburg’s airport. A quick call to a contact back in Washington would wash his images from Eve and Vicki’s clouds and his number, calls, and texts would be erased from her phone records. He’d booked a first-class, one-way ticket on a