The Oslo Affair (Shadows of War, #2) by CW Browning (read after .txt) 📗

the man who had been reading the newspaper when they came in. Her breath caught in her throat as, instead of him, a tall man moved across the lobby towards the front desk, his eyes fixed on Anna.

Renner!

Casting a frantic look around for the other one, Evelyn knew she had to move. The footsteps were drawing closer and any minute one of the guests on the stairs could look down and see her standing there.

After a second of panicked hesitation, Evelyn moved out of the stairwell, glancing towards the desk. Anna was talking to the manager, waving her hand airily, a bright smile on her face. Herr Renner was standing a few feet behind, listening to every word, and Evelyn bit back a smile of her own. His focus was on the woman at the desk in front of him, not the lift or the stairs beside it.

She turned and moved quickly towards the back of the hotel and the long, narrow corridor that went past the porter’s lounge and out to the alley behind the hotel. While Anna was drawing the attention of Herr Renner and all his minions in the front of the hotel, the back alley would be empty except for the one man Anna heard them say was posted there.

And that was Renner’s tactical blunder. There was only one exit to the hotel that was secluded and out of sight from the harbor, leading straight to the busy street at the side of the hotel. And he’d left it attended by only one man. While she didn’t relish the idea of a run-in with a Gestapo agent in the alley, she liked her odds better there than in the lobby of the hotel.

A moment later, she emerged into the narrow alley. The height of the hotel and the building behind it combined to block what was left of the late afternoon sun and the narrow lane was cloaked in shadows. Glancing to her left, she saw the street ahead. Between her and the busy road lay half the length of the hotel. After looking to her right and finding a row of trash cans, Evelyn blanched at the smell of rotting vegetables and bad fish. She turned hurriedly towards the road, holding her breath as she moved away from the noxious fumes.

She was halfway down the alley when she saw him. He was leaning against the adjoining building in the shadows, dressed in dark clothes with a long black coat to protect him from the cold. Evelyn felt a shudder go through her, though whether from the sight of the man or from the sudden gust of wind that whipped between the buildings she wasn’t sure. He hadn’t seen her yet. He was watching the cars on the road ahead. But he would see her any moment. There was no avoiding it.

Evelyn began to mutter angrily in Spanish as she walked. Perhaps he would think she was a crazy foreigner and leave her alone. But one swift look from under her eyelashes disabused her of that hopeful thought. He had straightened up and was staring at her, trying to see her clearly in the gloom. Increasing her pace, she also increased the volume of her muttering, her voice carrying through the alley. If he knew Spanish, he was listening to a diatribe on the curse of having incompetent employees who couldn’t even have the car brought round to the right entrance of a hotel. If he didn’t know Spanish, he heard only anger in her tone. Either way, the man was watching the same performance that had fooled his counterparts inside earlier.

Lifting her head, Evelyn looked at him and pretended to have spotted him for the first time. Her step checked in surprise, then her anger increased as if she was offended by him staring at her.

“¿Quién crees que eres?” she demanded, tossing her head.

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he continued to watch her with a heavy frown on his face. His lack of response made her nervous and she took a closer look at him as she strode down the alley. He had both his hands in his coat pockets and his hat was pulled low over his forehead, casting his face into shadow. As she drew closer, he moved suddenly away from the side of the building, partially blocking her path to the road.

“Why are you back here?” he demanded in German, his voice deep and gravelly. “You shouldn’t be back here. This is no place for a lady.”

By the time he’d finished speaking, he’d blocked her path completely, pulling his hands from his pockets. Evelyn’s eyes narrowed sharply. So much for slipping by without any unpleasantness. She waited until she was within reach of him before answering softly in his own language.

“Who says I’m a lady?”

His eyes widened in surprise, but it was too late. Evelyn moved swiftly, grabbing one of his wrists and twisting it sharply. He gasped in pain, but the sound quickly turned into a cry when she used the painful angle of his wrist as leverage to spin him around, twisting his arm up behind his back. Before the cry could escalate into a full roar, she used her other hand to smash his head into the side of the hotel. A sickening crunch sounded as his nose made contact with stone and he grunted in agony. He tried to push himself back, using the wall in an attempt to turn himself towards her, but Evelyn drove her fist into his kidney, robbing him of the ability to make any noise at all. As he fell forward against the building, she released his mangled arm and sliced the edge of her palm down into the side of his neck. She stepped back as his eyes closed and he slid down the building, unconscious.

By the time he came to, or someone found him, she would be long gone.

After shooting a swift glance down the alley towards the rear door, she