by Kaylea Cross
“Megan, I need you to step outside,” the raven-haired, blue-eyed woman said.
Megan.
Carly look-alike shot the woman a cold glare. “I’m not leaving until I get an answer.”
“We’ll figure all this out soon. Just…” The black-haired one looked at the man. “Ty, will you take her?”
Ty reached for Megan’s arm. Megan wrenched it away and nailed Amber with a look so full of anguish it pierced through the armor plating around her hardened heart. “This isn’t over,” she hissed before spinning and stalking out.
No, it wasn’t. And Amber didn’t think it ever would be.
Chapter Fourteen
Her sister.
Standing at the window of the modern skyscraper gazing out over the London skyline hours later, Megan bit the inside of her lip and fought the burn of tears. It angered and embarrassed her that she was nearing the edge of her emotional control. But nothing in all her extensive training had ever prepared her for something like this.
The shock had barely begun to fade. She might as well have dropped a bomb into their midst when she’d said it on the plane. The others had been just as stunned as her, the prisoner included.
Amber. The hacker suspect was apparently her biological sister, and her name was Amber. Trinity had told her.
That fragmented Christmas memory of Megan’s lost family remained the only one she’d managed to hold onto from her childhood. All the others were missing so far.
How was that possible? How had she forgotten everything else, and how had the people behind the Valkyrie Program been able to get away with such a thing?
The burner phone in her pocket vibrated. Marcus, calling after she’d texted him earlier. “Hey,” she answered quietly. There were ears and eyes everywhere in a place like this.
“Y’alright, love?” His tone was urgent, his Yorkshire accent more clipped than normal.
The mere sound of his voice almost pushed her to tears. “Yeah, I’m okay. There’s just been… A lot’s happened since I saw you last.”
“Do you need me t’ come down there?”
She loved that he’d offered. Could picture him halfway to his Land Rover, keys in hand, cane in the other. “No. But thanks.”
He grunted. “You don’t sound alright.”
She rubbed at her tired eyes. “I found out some things this morning. Things I’m not sure what to do with.”
“Like what?”
“Like I have an older sister.”
His stunned silence filled the line. “How is that possible?”
“It’s a long story I’ll tell you all about over a brew when I get back.” If I get back. “To top it off, she was the primary target we captured this morning. We think she’s the hacker.”
“Fuckin’ ‘ell, Meg.” She could clearly visualize the deep frown on his face as he spoke. “You sure you don’t want me to come down? I could be there in just over two hours.”
“I appreciate it, but no. I’ve got Tyler here.”
Another beat of silence. “Tyler, the bloke you hated?”
The insane urge to laugh struck her. “That’s the one. Turns out I don’t hate him.” Just the opposite. “I like having him around.”
A pause. “Are you under duress? I need an ID check. Which is your favorite horse in my stable?”
She smiled. “Rollo.”
He grunted. “Alright. I’m looking forward to that proper brew when you get here.”
“Me too. Not sure when I’ll be back, though.”
“Let me know if you need anything, won’t you?”
God, she wanted to hug him so bad. “I will.” She swallowed, hanging onto her rapidly dwindling control. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Good to hear yours. Remember, I’m here if you need me.”
She loved him dearly for that. “Thanks. I’d better go.”
“All right. Tarra, love.”
“Bye.” She ended the call and slipped her phone back into her pocket, staring down at the busy city below. All those people, all with their own stories. They had families. Friends. Pasts, and the memories that came with them. They knew who they were.
Her past had been erased. She only knew who she was now. And who she hoped to become one day.
Amber—or whatever her real name used to be—had been the only family member Megan had left after their parents died. And yet the powers that be within the program had taken them away from each other.
Had she blocked it out because it had been so horribly painful? Now her big sister was her enemy, locked up in an interrogation room at this secure holding facility where enemies of the British government were held. Megan had no clue what would happen now.
Tyler walked into the room, took one look at her and closed the door behind him. She straightened and composed her expression into a calm mask, but too late. He’d already seen the heartbreak in her face.
Without a word he walked straight over to her and drew her into his arms. She went into them willingly, winding her own around his back and rested her cheek on his chest. She needed the comfort. Needed to know that at least this was real. That he truly cared about her.
“You hanging in there?” he asked quietly, his deep voice as soothing as his embrace.
She nodded, even though she wasn’t sure. “It’s been…hard to digest.”
“I know.” He kissed her temple, ran a soothing hand over her back.
“The pieces were there. I just didn’t put them together before.” God, how surreal.
“You can’t blame yourself for not knowing.”
She exhaled a ragged breath, fighting to control the torrent of emotions raging inside her. “How could they do it?” Split them up and erase them from each other’s memories. She didn’t remember any of it, obviously, but she must have asked about her sister. And they’d lied to her. “She was all I had left.”
“I don’t know. But if the public ever found out about some of the things we’ve uncovered so far, the people responsible would be crucified.”
Megan was in the mood to personally pound a few nails into the people responsible. Whoever had dreamed up and implemented the Valkyrie Program had covered their tracks well. The public knew only minor details about the program, due to the fallout from the Balducci case. Hell, Megan and the others were only scratching the surface of what had really gone on.
“I barely remember her,” she said. “Little flashes, that’s all. The clearest is that Christmas morning. I can see our parents standing in the living room doorway, smiling at us. But that’s it. I don’t have anything else about them.”
Tyler gathered her closer and just hugged her. “I bet more will come with time.”
She closed her eyes and leaned into him, grateful for his comfort. “I don’t know if I can face her again.”
“It doesn’t have to be today. Give yourself some time to adjust.” He stroked a hand over her hair, pushing her closer to tears.
She’d always put on a brave front no matter what. With Tyler she was tempted to let everything go. Though it went against what she’d been taught, she trusted him that much.
“It’s been a long week,” he continued. “Why don’t we go to the townhouse and you can sleep on it? It’s not like she’s going anywhere.”
Maybe she was, though. Maybe Rycroft was pulling some legal strings to have Amber extradited back to the States as they stood there. “We need answers. It can’t wait. If Hannah and Chloe are still alive, we need to find them.” It didn’t matter that she didn’t know Hannah Miller. She wanted to find all the surviving Valkyries and bring them in before it was too late.
Except forcing Amber to give them the intel was impossible if she didn’t want to cooperate. Megan hoped Rycroft’s hacker analysts were one-tenth as skilled as Amber, otherwise the rest of this whole operation was pretty much screwed.
A tap came at the door. Megan pulled away from Tyler just as Trinity pushed the door open. Trinity studied her for a moment, as if asse
ssing her emotional state. “The medical team is done treating her and she’s being fed. You want to see her?”
Megan lifted her chin. “Yes.”
Trinity nodded. “Right this way.”
Tyler caught her arm, making her look up at him. His handsome face was full of concern. “You sure about this? Say the word and I’ll get you out of here to the townhouse. I’ll get you the biggest bowl of ramen London has to offer and you can just relax for the night. Decompress, get some sleep and I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.”
Because he would personally stand guard and watch over her.
A sharp pain pierced her heart. “Can I get a rain check for that? I need to do this now.”
He nodded once, not looking too happy about it. “All right.”
Leaving him behind, she followed Trinity down two floors to a brightly-lit corridor filled with locked doors. Her heart rate picked up when Trinity stopped at one halfway down. “This is it.”
Megan nodded, bracing for the coming confrontation. “Did you get anything else out of her earlier?”
“Not really. She’s denying that she had anything to do with the others disappearing or winding up dead.”
Well, of course. She wasn’t going to admit anything, and was skilled enough to cover her tracks. They all knew Amber had done it. They’d found the encrypted files on her, and if she wasn’t talking, she had to be guilty. The burden was proving it so that they had enough evidence to hold her.
Trinity reached for the knob. “Ready?”
“Yes.” Disguising her anxiety as best she could, she put on a calm mask and entered the sterile room.
Her sister sat at a rectangular table with her hands cuffed in front of her, dressed in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit. Her cool green gaze never wavered from Megan as she walked over to sit in the chair on the opposite side of the table.
For several long heartbeats they stared at each other. “I didn’t remember you until this morning,” Megan finally said, unable to stop studying Amber’s face. They did look alike in some ways. The bone structure and hair. Like their mother. “Do you remember me?”
To her surprise, Amber nodded. “Not until a few months ago, though.”
“What do you mean?”
Amber held her gaze.
“Tell me, dammit. If you know something more about our past, about us and our parents, then I want to know.” She deserved to know.
Her sister raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
“Yes,” she responded through gritted teeth.
“All right.” Amber consented with a nod. “The night my handler killed himself, he sent me a message just beforehand. He’d saved some things for me that I never knew existed. So I went to get them before anyone else found out and tried to beat me to it.”
Megan was too surprised to answer for a moment. How much of this could she believe? Was any of it true? Or was Amber just spewing lies to fuck with her head?
“And that’s when I learned the truth.”
The way she said the last two words sent a warning prickle down Megan’s spine. “Which is?”
“That I’d had a little sister. That it wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me all these years.”
Something sharp like grief sliced through her. “So what…” She swallowed, fought for control. “What happened?”
Amber peered at her more intently, frowning. “You really don’t remember anything?”
“Just a bit from one Christmas morning. I was wearing a pink flannel nightgown, and you had on a matching purple one.”
Her sister looked almost disappointed. “I guess that’s to be expected. You were even younger than me when our parents died.”
The curiosity was killing her. “Do you remember what happened?” she couldn’t help asking. She was desperate for answers, and prepared to listen even if Amber fed her lies. She could dig on her own later with help from maybe Rycroft’s people and sort fact from fiction.
“Not really. But I remember when our aunt came for us.”
She blinked. “Our aunt?”
“Our mom’s sister, a few years older than her. She was our guardian.”
It triggered nothing but a blank screen in her mind. “Then what happened? Why didn’t she keep us?”
“She was too busy with her job, traveling all the time. We went into foster care.”
Foster care. God, she didn’t remember any of this. Was it true? “For how long?”
“Little over a year.” She gave Megan a funny look. “You don’t even remember when they came to take us to that special boarding school?”
“No.”
“I was almost seven. You would have been five. But it wasn’t really a boarding school, was it,” she finished bitterly.
Her heart beat faster. Her life had changed so much. Maybe with all the trauma she’d blocked it all out to save her sanity. “What was it?”
She gave Megan a pitying look. “It was a cover for the program. They split us up shortly after we got there.”
Megan shook her head, struggling to absorb it all. “How do you know all this? Why should I believe anything you say?”
Amber looked her dead in the eye. “Because I hacked all the classified files from their system before they could wipe them out when they shut the program down. Including our sealed backgrounds. It was all in there.”
Holy. Shit.
Amber leaned forward to rest her bound wrists on the table, her expression earnest. “They separated us almost immediately, Megan. We were orphans. We were both scared and lonely and they separated us to sever the family bond between us. They put us into different training facilities on the opposite side of the damn country. They lied about it all and made us both forget what really happened.” Her eyes burned with hatred. “They made us forget everything to turn us into what we are now.”
“A thief, and a hacker willing to sell the others out for money,” Megan responded, her voice flat.
Amber’s mouth thinned and she sat back in her chair. “Anything I did, I did because I had to.”
“Really. You had to betray the rest of us by selling us out to the highest bidder and watch us all get killed one by one by our enemies?”
“That’s hearsay. No one can prove anything. And whatever I did do, was out of necessity.” The steel in her voice was enough to make Megan’s skin crawl.
“Wrong. Revenge isn’t the same as necessity. Goddammit, you were wrong to do what you did, and you’re my sister.” She shot out of the chair, unable to sit there and look at her sibling one second longer.
She didn’t care that the others were standing on the other side of the two-way mirror, watching. Didn’t care that Tyler was hearing about her past and witnessing her coming unraveled.
This hurt. Hurt so much she couldn’t breathe. If Amber was telling the truth about their past, then most of Megan’s life had been a lie. She’d been manipulated to suit someone else’s agenda and put her life at risk to do their dirty work. And so had the rest of them.
“They left me to die.”
The softly spoken words pierced the building storm of anxiety and grief. She looked back at her sister. “Who did? What are you talking about?”
“My enemies.” She wasn’t looking at Megan. She was staring straight at the mirror, talking to Trinity. “They sold me out and left me to die so they could get away and keep all the money for themselves. But I got out and kept all the proof of what they’d done. Then my handler left me that message and blew his brains out, and I learned the truth. The whole, ugly, blackened and rotten truth. And I’m not going to be anyone’s pawn anymore.” Her gaze sliced to Megan. “It had to stop.”
Megan gaped at her. It wasn’t an admission of guilt. It was a mission statement. A cryptic message for Trinity and the others to decipher if they could. But Megan knew in her gut that no matter how long and how hard they searched, they’d never find any hard evidence linking Amber to the disappearances and deaths of the other Valkyries. They woul
d only get that if Amber chose to give it to them.
Drawing a deep breath, Megan shook her head, trying to absorb it all. Amber had given her a lot to think about. Maybe her sister’s kills hadn’t been so evil or black-and-white after all.
She drew herself up straighter. Time to get real and put her personal problems aside. They had a mission to complete, and time was running out. “Where’s Hannah? Is she still alive? And what about Chloe?”
“I have no idea, and I don’t know Chloe.” She said it with a straight face, not so much as a flicker of emotion to betray her. Talking to her any longer was a complete waste of goddamn time.
Fuck this. Megan had heard enough.
She turned and strode for the door.
“Megan.”
Her feet halted without her permission just as she reached for the door handle, that voice freezing her in place.
“It’s…good to see you again. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Still facing the door, she squeezed her eyes shut. Don’t listen to her. Don’t trust her.
But she wanted to. She’d never wanted anything so badly in her life than to reconnect with her sister, except maybe being free to finally live her own life…and a future that would allow her a chance at happiness.
Maybe even with Tyler.
The missing Valkyries were still in grave danger, even with Amber behind bars. Megan might not remember what it felt like to have a family, but Chloe had become a kind of “found family” to her.
Don’t wish for something you can never have.
Inhaling a painful breath, Megan reached for the handle and walked out of the room. Trinity and Tyler were there, along with Georgia, and Alex Rycroft.
Tyler took a step toward her, his eyes worried but she warned him off with a tight shake of her head. “You heard everything,” she said to them all. “I’ve got nothing else to say.”
“Megan,” Trinity began.
Megan whirled on her. “No. I’m leaving.” She stalked past them down the hallway, blinking back tears, relief swamping her when she heard the rapid footsteps coming behind her. She knew it was Tyler without looking.
