Side Effects

Chapter 30

"Oh my God, that's so good!" moaned Alaya as she took another bite of the supplì. We looked pretty odd. Dirty and exhausted and standing on the street with all of our luggage, and I doubted we smelled much better. As much as we'd tried to clean up on the train, and in the down times while in the terminals, I knew that Alaya and I smelled like smoke and sweat. Esme was at least lucky enough to skip the smoke. We all knew it, but right now, getting food into our bellies was the primary goal.

"I think we all needed this," I agreed while eagerly biting into my second one. I wasn't eating politely, I just wanted it in my mouth. Honestly this was how I was probably going to devour Alaya the next time we had a safe and private night. She might make a bigger mess though.

"I know I did!" Esme agreed. "So now we go see Viola?"

I nodded while chewing, just hoping not to get the meat sauce that the croquette was stuffed with on my tee shirt. "Yeah, she works over at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, so we'll take a cab to their building, and then hope that she'll see us. I just hope she isn't being petty today, because we didn't leave on the best of terms."

"She was being jealous," pointed out Alaya.

"Yeah, but you did walk out naked to rub it in her face." I leaned over to give her a tomato filled kiss, and she smirked a little at the memory.

"Damn, and I wasn't invited?" joked Esme.

"I don't share." Alaya looped her arm in mine. "You can have Viola."

"I can't unless we go there! Come on, let's eat the rest in the car." Esme stuffed the last of her second one into her mouth, and then picked up her third. Yes, we were all very hungry for real food.

I flagged us down a cab, and we stuffed it with all our luggage before hopping in. It was nice to keep all the nice clothes that we'd bought the last time we were here, but I knew they'd need some serious dry cleaning to fix all the wrinkles at this point. It seemed like a lifetime ago that we were here, but really it was just three days, and so much had changed.

When we got into the ministry building, we just headed over to the visitor counter. They weren't letting anyone in without a badge, and I was fine waiting. I didn't feel like dragging all the luggage around anyway.

"We're here to see Viola Bellia please," I told the businesslike guard. "Just tell her that it's Kian Watts."

Luckily, Viola was here, which was a worry of mine, and she didn't keep us waiting. She came out to the visitors are with a smile on her facet that fell when she saw Alaya, then her expression grew more concerned when she saw Esme and the state that we were all in. "I assume there is a reason you're here and looking like you were kicked out of your plane mid-flight?" she asked with a smirk.

"Viola, we need your help. But we need to talk somewhere completely private. It can be here, or at your villa, but we're desperate here," I told her.

"A desperate man is my favorite kind," she purred. "Let me get my driver and we'll go to the villa. I don't think we want you in the building in your disreputable condition."

"Please stop with the flirting too, this is incredibly serious, and most likely could put you in danger. But you're the only one we could think of to get help from," I explained quickly while heading out towards the parking garage.

She was silent for a minute, then looked us over once more. "Does this have anything to do with Copenhagen? Were you up there for the attacks?" Yeah, Viola wasn't just a pretty face. She may have used contacts, but she was a very sharp operator.