Stealing Vengeance

by Kaylea Cross

  “Yes.”

  He grunted as he washed his hands in the sink. “And I’m guessing you won’t take pain meds?”

  “I will if it’ll make you feel better.”

  “I want you to feel better.” Some bastard had fucking knifed her. If the blade had hit her jugular or carotid or punctured a major organ, she might have bled out and died on that cell floor before anyone could stop the bleeding.

  He pushed out a hard breath, bracing his hands on either side of the sink, then looked up into the mirror when her arms came around him from behind.

  Megan pressed her soft, warm weight to his back and just leaned on him, her head resting between his shoulder blades. “I’m sorry I left without telling you. I’m not…used to having anyone else to consider. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  Worry him? He’d woken up alone and immediately assumed she’d taken off for good. Then he’d calmed down a little because he’d decided there was no way she would leave London while Amber was being held here, so he could still find and see her again. Then that text from Trinity had sent his blood pressure plummeting.

  He hadn’t been able to get out of the townhouse fast enough. He’d jumped in front of the first cab he’d spotted, nearly got run over in the process but all he’d cared about was getting to Megan as fast as possible.

  “Were you coming back?” he asked quietly.

  She tensed slightly. “Yes. Even before the guard attacked I wanted to come straight back here and tell you everything.”

  That small reassurance eased something inside him. Made him think that last night might have meant something to her too. “Thank you.”

  She wrapped her good arm around him and hugged him tighter. “Ty…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

  He straightened and turned around to face her, curving his hands around her hips. “Here? Or with me?”

  She held his gaze. “Us. I shouldn’t have slept with you while we were on a job—”

  “The job was done when we landed in London. So you’re off the hook there.”

  “You know what I mean.” She shook her head slightly. “I never meant for this to happen. I didn’t want to care about you, and now I…” She looked away.

  Nuh-uh. He needed to hear this.

  He caught her chin between his thumb and fingers and tipped her face up until she met his gaze. “Now you what?” It felt like he was standing at the edge of a precipice. Her next words would either pull him back from the brink or shove him over the edge to the rocks below.

  She made an exasperated sound and pulled free of his grip. “Now we’re both going to get hurt.”

  His gut tightened. “You sound pretty sure about that.”

  “How can we not?” She turned away and retreated to lean her uninjured shoulder against the doorjamb. “Your life is back in the States. Mine—such as it is—is here for now, and who the hell knows where I’ll end up in the future, or even if I’ll survive? I just discovered I’ve got a sister, I’ve got a target on my back, and so does anyone close to me.”

  “Including Marcus. Yet you’re okay living at his house.”

  She paused, her expression closing, becoming wary. “Marcus and I have an understanding.”

  “What kind of an understanding? What’s the story with you two?”

  For a moment he didn’t think she would answer. Then, “I was on a job in Aleppo. I heard rumors of British military hostages in the area. I found where they were being held. By the time I was able to infiltrate, Marcus was the only one left alive, but barely. He was in bad shape. I wasn’t sure if he’d make it.”

  Ty absorbed that in silence. He imagined it all in his head, even as his mind rebelled against the idea of Megan being in such a deadly place.

  “I…dragged him out. He didn’t want to be saved. I didn’t listen. And a few days later, we got pinned down in a bad spot as we tried to escape the city. He saved us both. Together we managed to hold off the enemy until his command sent in a team to get us on a helo.”

  Okay, Ty hadn’t expected all that. “So you and Marcus have been through hell together, and that’s why you stay with him.”

  “He knows the risks and accepts them.”

  He laughed shortly. “And I don’t?” What, was his green beret not as worthy as Marcus’s beige one in her eyes or something?

  She exhaled. “My current options are to live underground or on the run. I can’t give you anything more than I already have. Even if I wanted to, I can’t be in a relationship.”

  Bullshit. “And do you want to?”

  The question hung in the air between them. This was the heart of the matter.

  Her eyes remained steady on his. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

  “Yes, it fucking does, Megan.” He ran a hand through his hair, battling the frustration and the sharp edge of his temper she was bumping up against. He had a long fuse but he was reaching his limit with this. “You make the decisions about your life now. No one else. Just like I make them for my own.”

  “Like I said, I’ve only got two options right now.”

  He stopped and faced her, hands on hips. “Do you want to be with me, or not?”

  She shook her head, her eyes filled with a disappointment that made his gut clench. “It’s not that simple and you know it.”

  “It is that simple. I’m a big boy, and as you said, I can handle myself. So yes or no?”

  Even as he issued the ultimatum he was aware of the warning buzzer going off in his head. He was pushing her to a place she clearly didn’t want to go, and he might well not like the answer she gave him.

  Well, fuck it. He needed to know where he stood with her and refused to pretend he was okay with this ending with her just walking away. Not after everything they’d been through.

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Everything.”

  Shock flared in her eyes as his meaning sunk in. “You can’t mean that.”

  She said it as though she couldn’t fathom why any guy would want to be with her. “The hell I can’t.”

  “Tyler, you barely even know me.”

  “I know everything I need to know. I want you. I care about you. I want to be with you. I’m not walking away.”

  “You think that now because of everything that’s happened since the start of this mission. It’s new and exciting, but what happens weeks or months from now when I’m still off the grid or on the run? That’s not a life.”

  He stepped toward her. Stopped just shy of touching her. This went way deeper than her current security situation. The woman read romance novels and secretly craved affection, though she tried to hide both. She wanted what he was offering, but she was afraid to risk going after it.

  “You don’t trust anyone to stay because everyone you’ve ever loved has disappeared.”

  She paled and spun around to leave.

  He gently caught her good shoulder, stepped up close to slide his other arm around her waist and held her, his lips next to her ear. “I’d stay. Through everything.”

  Megan bowed her head. “You can’t promise that.”

  “Yes, I can. I’m doing it right now.”

  “You have a life back home. A family that loves you.”

  “My family will understand. If you don’t want to be with me, then that’s your choice. I’m standing right in front of you, telling you I want to be with you, that I want to make this work. If you walk away from us, that’s on you. You’re not doing it for my own good. You’re doing it because you’re fucking scared.”

  She turned toward him, and this time she let him see the torment in her eyes. Anger and confusion and…fear. “I don’t…”

  She was going to turn him down. He could see it in her face. That she desperately wished things were different and thought they never could be.

  To stop her, Ty took her face in his hands and kissed her. Slow and soft at first, rubbing his fingers along her scalp.


  He licked at her lower lip, delved inside gently to stroke her tongue. She moaned softly and leaned into him, her hands pressed to his chest. Softening. Melting.

  The ring of a cell phone blared from the kitchen.

  Megan broke away. “That’s Trin.”

  Ty let her go, exhaling a deep breath. He was so fucking lost over her it wasn’t even funny, and yet the tighter he held on, the faster she slipped through his fingers. Like grains of sand through an hourglass, he could feel their time spilling faster and faster and he didn’t know how to stop it.

  She answered the phone, listened for a moment and looked up at him. “Okay. We’ll be there.” She lowered the phone. “She’s got Amber in a new location. She wants to have a meeting with all of us. We’re supposed to be there in forty minutes.”

  At least he was being included this time. “Okay.”

  The meeting amounted to a stay of execution for their budding relationship. He’d take it, because it gave Megan the bit of space she clearly needed right now, and it gave him the chance to work on a strategy.

  Because if Megan was only saying no to protect him, then he wasn’t taking no for an answer. This was a different type of mission for him, one he had no experience with, but he would win at all costs.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tyler was quiet on the drive to the meeting and Megan was glad. He was still upset with her because she hadn’t told him what he wanted to hear, but telling him they could have a relationship would be a lie because that was impossible. Even if it was exactly what she wanted.

  Except the thought of walking away and never seeing him again tore her up inside. And that’s exactly what would happen when Rycroft cut him loose, probably anytime now that they had Amber in custody.

  It was for the best, she told herself, no matter how much it hurt. To keep him with her would be selfish. In the end, he would see she was right and be glad to be rid of her.

  Megan mentally shook herself. She and Tyler had created a hell of a mess for themselves in a short amount of time. It was exactly why she’d avoided getting her heart involved with the handful of guys in her past.

  He made that impossible, however. Even if she did the right thing and walked away after this mission was complete, after what they’d shared it was far too late for her to move on unscathed.

  She shoved that down into her internal vault as well. She couldn’t deal with the thought of losing him right now. She would face that when the time came. Until then, she would make the most of the time they had left.

  The new holding facility was near the MI6 headquarters near Vauxhall Cross on the south side of the river. They walked to the front door together, Ty’s hand warm against the small of her back. It was little things like that, his natural protectiveness and the way he touched her that she would miss the most.

  Inside the lobby, a tall, well-built man with graying hair and wearing a blue dress shirt and black slacks was talking on his cell phone near the reception desk. When his gaze landed on them, he stilled, then said something to whomever he was speaking with and ended the call.

  “It’s Rycroft,” she murmured, surprised. If he was here, this meeting was a bigger deal than she’d expected.

  “Megan,” Rycroft said with a smile that warmed the cool silver of his eyes. “You got your arm taken care of?”

  “Yes, sir. Nice to meet you.”

  “Call me Alex.” He switched his attention to Tyler. “Bergstrom. Good to meet you in person finally.”

  Tyler shook his hand. “You too.”

  Rycroft tipped his head toward the elevators. “Shall we? Everyone else is already upstairs.”

  They followed him into the elevator and rode in silence several floors down in the basement. As they walked down the narrow hallway past a series of closed doors, he spoke.

  “The guard who attacked you is a former British Army sergeant who did security contracting. As far as we can tell this was his first attempted hit. We don’t know who hired him yet but we’re looking into all possible suspects.” He entered a code into a keypad outside a door at the end of the hall that opened into a larger office.

  Two guards stood beside the door to an interior room, its windows frosted over to prevent anyone from seeing inside. Rycroft paused at the door to place his palm on the biometric scanner.

  Inside, Trinity sat on one side of a large conference table. Georgia was beside her. Amber sat at the far end, and Megan was pleased to see her sister without handcuffs and wearing street clothes rather than an orange prison jumpsuit. And at the other end…

  A startled smile broke over Megan’s face when she saw Marcus. “Hey.” She was so damn glad to see him. What was he doing here?

  He inclined his head, gave her the slightest hint of a smile before running a concerned gaze over her. “Meg.”

  Pulling her attention from him, she focused on the newcomer opposite Trinity and Georgia.

  “I believe you’ve met everyone here except for Briar,” Rycroft said, indicating the dusky-skinned, dark-haired woman.

  Megan nodded at her. “Nice to put a face to your name.”

  Briar nodded back, her liquid-espresso eyes watchful. A sniper’s eyes. “Likewise.”

  “Officially she’s on maternity leave, so while she won’t physically be participating on any ops, we’ll be using her in other capacities,” Rycroft said. “Now. I’ve brought all of you here because we’ve got some important decisions to make going forward. This entire effort is being conducted off the books and with little funding, so we’ve got limited resources and have to make the most of all of your skill sets.”

  He walked to the head of the table opposite Amber and sat, leaning back in his chair in a posture that radiated power and command. A man completely at ease in his role as leader, and given his reputation in both his military and government service, it was no wonder why the entire intelligence community respected him so much.

  Megan sat beside Amber, Tyler next to her. Megan shared a tentative smile with her sister.

  “So. First things first,” Rycroft continued. “Given the attacks in Prague, Vienna and this morning, all of you are considered possible targets. Which means you’re going to have to stay vigilant until we can pinpoint where the ongoing threat is stemming from and neutralize it. While we try to find out who’s behind all this, our first priority has to be keeping all of you safe as we locate and extract all remaining Valkyries. Starting with Hannah Miller. If she’s still alive.”

  “I can find her.”

  All eyes swung to Amber.

  “How?” Rycroft said, his voice and expression calm.

  “Any intel you have on her is too old now. You know about my skills as a hacker. I’ve already got information I can use to find her, but I need to start fresh and I can’t do that from in here. You need to let me out, and either let me operate on my own, or give me a computer and bring me fully on board as a member of the team.”

  Trinity let out a humorless laugh. “Not a chance in hell.”

  “In light of recent events, everyone’s safer with you in here,” Rycroft said in a flat tone. “If we decide to bring you on board at some point in the future, you can work while in protective custody.”

  “You can’t find her without me, and you know it.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve got some of the best cryptologists in the world working on cracking your files.”

  “They won’t crack them,” she said, her expression and tone teetering on the razor’s edge of arrogant.

  Rycroft’s silver eyes remained focused on her, his laser-like gaze no doubt intimidating to most people. But Amber wasn’t most people. Valkyries didn’t do intimidated. Unless it came to matters of the heart.

  “They might. And if they find anything incriminating in them, you’ll be heading somewhere a lot less cozy than this place.” He paused before continuing. “You’re in protective custody right now because I’m allowing it. If you won’t give us what we need to find Hannah Miller, I can m
ake things a whole lot worse.”

  Amber’s chin came up, and Megan was once again startled by the resemblance between them. She did that same move when challenged. “As I’ve already told you and Trinity, I’m no longer a threat to any of the remaining Valkyries.”

  Megan got the feeling Amber said it aloud to fill her in. And Megan also was pretty sure that Amber was no longer a threat because she’d already eliminated all the dirty Valkyries on her list. Except for Hannah. Hopefully not Hannah.

  “I’m committed to finding Hannah and the others and getting them out of harm’s way. I have leads I can follow—”

  “Which you won’t give us because you know they’ll incriminate you.”

  Amber sliced him a look and kept going. “And given everything that’s come to light so far, I’m sure you can understand why I’d want to regain my freedom and reclaim my life. I now have a sister I’d like to get to know again.” She glanced at Megan, the quiet yearning in her eyes hitting Megan like a punch to the chest. “It’s my fault Hannah’s at risk. Considering that and the ongoing threat from an unknown source, I should be the one to undo this.”

  “Then prove you’re serious,” Rycroft answered. “Give us access to all the files, prove your innocence and help us recover Hannah and the others. Then we’ll let you go.”

  Amber’s expression closed up. Her eyes hardened like steel. “I’ve already given you the evidence you need to show what really happened on that op, and who was guilty.”

  Streamers of anxiety flickered in the pit of Megan’s stomach. Amber might be lying to cover her ass, but she was also right. With her hacking ability and insider knowledge of whoever she sold Hannah’s information to, she was the best shot they had at finding her.

  Unconsciously Megan began picking at her cuticles. Peeling at the healing skin around her nails. This new threat confronting them all added another layer of risk to the mission.

  She kept thinking about what Amber had said to her earlier. If it was someone from within the government, someone with insider knowledge and connections to the people within the Valkyrie Program who had cause to want her and the others killed, then the danger was formidable.