by Kaylea Cross
Amber sat up on her bunk as Megan entered, her face relaxing with what appeared to be a genuine smile. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
Megan spread her arms out. “And yet here I am.”
“How’s your arm?”
“It’s okay.” It ached and stung, but it didn’t hurt half as much as the pain in her chest. And the scar it would leave was nothing compared to the mark Tyler would leave on her heart.
There was a small table with two chairs in the middle of the room. She bypassed it, choosing to sit on the bunk a few feet from Amber. “I still can’t get over how eerie this all is. Every time I see you, I pick out something else in how we resemble each other.”
“Same.” Amber drew her knees up and looped her arms around them, her chocolate-brown hair draped over one shoulder. “I’ve been trying to remember everything I can from when we were little. Do you remember the tire swing in the backyard? Dad hung it from the old oak tree.”
“No.” She imagined it, though. Had they been happy? She wanted to believe that.
“We shared a room together.”
She mirrored Amber’s posture, looping her arms around her updrawn knees. “We did?”
“I had the top bunk because you were afraid of going up and down the ladder.”
Megan scowled. “I’m not afraid of heights.”
“Well, you were little,” Amber said with a grin.
Something warm and light spread through her chest. Even with the temptation of Tyler waiting upstairs, Megan couldn’t have stayed away from her sister.
Amber was her sister by blood, not just by creed or the brands on their hips. And no matter what suspicions Tyler or anyone else had about Amber, her sister had protected her today.
Megan got right to it. “What about the oath we all took?” Loyal Unto Death. “It doesn’t mean anything to you?”
Amber didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “It does. And I followed it until it was used against me.”
“And now?”
“Now my loyalty is to me and those I want to protect. Like you, and the remaining Valkyries. I get to choose my own path now. The government doesn’t own me anymore.”
The fierceness in her tone and the somber expression in her eyes squeezed at Megan’s heart. “Maybe we can be part of an extended family one day. With the others we save.”
Amber inclined her head. “Maybe.” She shifted, resting her head against the cinderblock wall. “So, what’s the scoop with you and Tyler?”
Megan blinked at the abrupt change in subject, and couldn’t help but grin. Until the cautious conversation with Trinity on the way down here, she’d never had a girl talk before. It felt so great to be able to talk to another woman about certain things.
She wanted to be able to open up and share thoughts and hopes and dreams and… Even fears and insecurities she wasn’t supposed to have. It would be amazing to do all of that with Amber. To be real sisters and not just in name or by shared genetics.
Though the vulnerability made her heart pound, she womaned-up and took the risk. “He’s leaving in the morning.”
Amber frowned. “So you two aren’t…involved?”
She hated the warmth that rushed into her cheeks, but she couldn’t help it. “We kind of are.”
Her sister raised her eyebrows. “Kind of? You either are, or you aren’t. And you definitely look like you are.”
“Okay, yeah, we are.” She picked at the edge of her front hip pocket rather than at her fingers. “But I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Ah.”
Megan was insanely curious about her. “Have you ever…gotten involved with someone?”
“Once. A few years ago.” Amber’s eyes took on a faraway look. “It didn’t end well. But that was my fault, not his.”
“What happened?”
“I got cold feet and took off. It didn’t feel right, and I told myself I was protecting him by leaving.”
“Oh.” Wow, that sounded familiar. “Did you love him?”
Amber’s smile was sad. “I thought I did, but the truth is, I’m not sure what love even looks like.” She paused, searching Megan’s eyes for a long moment. “Do you ever wonder if you’re… broken?”
Megan swallowed. “Yeah, all the time.”
“Me too.”
She exhaled, a smile tugging at her lips. “Glad it’s not just me.” Amber smiled back, and Megan felt the first link in the long lost bond between them join back together.
“God knows I’ve made a lot of mistakes.” Amber’s gaze turned intense. “I want to find and recover Hannah and the others.”
“What if Hannah’s not innocent?”
“Then I turn over my evidence against her and let Rycroft handle the rest.”
Good answer.
“I want to be part of getting them to safety and helping set them free to live the lives we’ve all secretly dreamed of and never believed we’d get the chance to have. And after that…”
Megan leaned forward, hanging on every word. “What?” she whispered.
Her sister’s green eyes hardened like shards of jade. “I want to find out who started the Valkyrie Program and bring them and that entire inner circle down.”
Megan held her breath, her heart racing. God, she wanted those things too. The need for vengeance pulsed inside her, demanding she bring those responsible for so many others’ suffering to justice. And if meting out that justice meant killing…
So be it. We are the choosers of the slain.
Amber’s gaze was earnest as she continued. “Look what they’ve taken from us. Look at all the lives they’ve destroyed. We’ve served our purpose and been cast aside. And now they want us all dead to cover up their sins.”
It was true. “The situation’s so much more complicated than I realized.”
“I want them to pay for what they did,” Amber said in a hard whisper.
A chill crawled across Megan’s skin at the venom in her sister’s tone. But the desire for vengeance burned the cold away. “I do too.”
Amber reached out and gripped Megan’s hand, her expression both pleading and sincere. “I can find Hannah, I swear. Do you believe me?”
“Yes.” Maybe she was crazy, but hell yeah, she believed her sister.
“But I have to act fast. You have to make them let me go.”
Megan sat there unmoving for several moments, weighing her options and the costs. She and Amber wanted the same things. They all wanted this threat hanging over them to be gone. And Amber was right. She was probably their only chance at finding Hannah before it was too late.
If it wasn’t already too late.
The plan that came to mind was risky, however. They had no clue who was watching their every move and listening to every word they said.
She squeezed her sister’s chilled fingers, decision made and a plan already in mind. Rycroft and Trinity would never let Amber go. So Amber was going to have to get out of here on her own.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Megan promised.
The way their grasped hands were positioned was close to what Megan needed but not exactly right. There were two cameras in the walls near the ceiling: one at the front of the cell and one near the back.
She maintained her grip on her sister’s hand and shifted them up a few inches, blocking any view someone might have of the pocket on her outer thigh closest to the wall.
Amber remained motionless, watching her, as if she sensed something important was about to happen.
“Tell me more about what you remember from when we were kids,” Megan said, putting on a soft smile and acting for the cameras while she held her sister’s hand.
Amber didn’t miss a beat. “We had a cat named Squishy. And he hated everyone except Dad.”
While Amber spoke, Megan used all her sleight of hand tricks and skill to reach into the outer thigh pocket for her burner phone, pulling it free. Moving only her eyes, with lightning quick glances down at the keypad and tiny motions that
gave nothing away, she typed in a brief message.
Make security cams go down @ 11.
Amber kept her gaze on Megan’s as she told more stories—whether they were real or made up, Megan didn’t know or care. All the while, Megan slowly eased the phone across the plastic-covered mattress, keeping it between the wall and her thigh, safely out of sight.
Amber’s fingers touched hers. Closed around the phone and began sliding it back toward herself as she talked about Squishy the cat and other things from their childhood that had been lost to Megan.
As soon as Amber had the phone, Megan released her sister’s hand and eased back to drape her forearms across her upturned knees, her posture and expression utterly relaxed.
They shared a smile as Amber finished her story, then her sister’s expression turned serious, her gaze delving into Megan’s. “Lima uniform delta,” she murmured, using the phonetic alphabet.
A thousand needles pricked the backs of Megan’s eyes at the acronym’s meaning. “Lima uniform delta.”
Loyal Unto Death.
Chapter Twenty
After talking with Amber, Megan stayed for another meeting with Trinity and ate dinner together after. By the time she left the building hours later it was already dark out, and Megan was extremely conscious of the time.
She had until just before twenty-three-hundred-hours to gather what she needed and get back here.
The urge to call Tyler was overwhelming. She checked her phone again for the twelfth time. There was no message or text from him. That made her a little sad, but what did she expect? He’d been dismissed, and then she’d done pretty much the same thing by choosing Amber and the mission over him.
She didn’t like the way they’d left things earlier, and wished she could go back to the townhouse to spend the rest of the night with him, but this had to take priority.
As she neared the Underground station at Vauxhall, something made her glance over her shoulder. Something that told her subconscious she was being watched. Maybe even followed.
This area was busy, full of traffic and pedestrians even after dark. She didn’t see anyone that set off her internal radar, so she dismissed it and kept going, aware as always as she loped down the stairs to catch the train. As well stocked as Marcus kept the townhouse, the equipment she needed had to be acquired elsewhere.
That niggling sense of being watched continued to follow her on the train to her first stop. She surreptitiously glanced around, but still couldn’t see anything that alarmed her. Was she just being paranoid because of the threat hanging over her and the others? There was no sense of alarm, no grinding anxiety in her gut.
The hand in her pocket curled around her new burner phone. She itched to call or at least text Tyler, but she didn’t want him involved in this. Best she could do was get this done as quick as possible, then she could return to him and spend their remaining few hours together. After everything they’d been through and shared together, they at least deserved a proper goodbye.
She hit up the bank first, making a withdrawal from an emergency fund she had under an alias. Next was a fifteen-minute train ride to a market at Covent Garden, then another ten minutes north to a military surplus store that carried the rest of what she needed.
She put everything into the backpack she carried and started back to her point of origin. As she stepped out of the last shop and walked to the nearest Underground station, the mild buzz of awareness at the back of her mind became an insistent vibration.
She paused on the sidewalk, automatically reaching for the pistol that wasn’t there. All she had with her was her blade.
Unease threaded through her. What if whoever was behind the ongoing threat had somehow discovered that they’d captured Amber? What if they knew where she was being held, and they’d had someone follow Megan?
If someone was targeting her, she had to deal with the threat alone. She wasn’t going to lead them to Amber.
On full alert, she took the Piccadilly line to Green Park Station, then changed trains to the Victoria line that would take her to Vauxhall. But she got off one stop early, at Victoria Station.
The platform was still fairly busy as she made her way up the stairs, preventing her from spotting her tail. The person was still there. Dammit. Why couldn’t she see them? If she hadn’t been able to shake them, they were damn good.
Anxiety built with each step she climbed. It was already 10:42. She needed to be at the building soon to get everything ready in time.
There was no way she would allow this person to follow here there. So her only choice was to stand and confront whoever it was.
At street level Megan turned right as she exited the station, then headed down a side street. It was quiet and dimly lit. And when she heard footfalls coming faster behind her, she whipped her blade from its scabbard and whirled to confront the threat.
She sucked in a ragged gasp when she saw his face.
“Jesus, Ty,” she breathed, the rush of relief leaving her lightheaded.
TY STOOD HIS ground while she lowered her blade. When she’d gone down to see her sister earlier, he hadn’t been able to leave. She hadn’t wanted him to stand guard outside the cell, but that didn’t mean he was leaving. He wasn’t going anywhere until he was sure she was going to be safe.
So he’d waited around the corner from the building’s main entrance until Megan had finally come out hours later wearing dark cargo pants, and a fitted, black long-sleeved shirt. She’d been wearing jeans and a different top earlier.
And yeah, he’d also waited partly because he’d been worried that she might not return to the townhouse, and he wanted the chance to talk to her after she’d had some time to process everything.
She sheathed the knife and pulled her pant leg over it, letting out a little laugh. “Why the hell didn’t you just show yourself earlier?”
“Because you’d have taken off if I had.”
Her smile faded. “I was planning to go back to the townhouse later.”
But she didn’t want him to know what she was up to. He eyed the backpack. “You’ve been busy. Doing a little last minute shopping?” She’d stopped at a bank, a food market, and a military surplus store. Whatever she was up to, it was well planned. “Going on a trip, maybe?”
She glanced around to make sure they were still alone before answering. “No. It’s not for me.”
The tightness around his ribs eased a bit. He’d been worried she’d planned to disappear on him and leave the country without a word. “So who’s it for? Everyone’s flying out tomorrow except for you. And your sister,” he added pointedly, watching her.
She huffed out a breath and shifted her feet. “Look. The less you know, the better off you’ll be.”
But she didn’t deny it. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”
She raised her chin. “Yes. And I only have a few minutes left, so—”
“So nothing.” Worried, he stepped forward until he could reach out and cup the back of her head in his hand. “Have you already forgotten that you’re a target?”
“No. But I have to…take care of this. And as soon as I’m done, I’ll meet you back at the townhouse.”
She seriously thought he was going to go wait there while she did this? He snorted. “Not a chance.”
She reached up to grasp his wrist, her expression earnest. “Tyler. You don’t want any part of this. Trust me.”
The stubborn woman was going to do this whether he liked it or not. “No, trust me. Because I’m not leaving your side. So whatever you’ve got planned, you need to read me in right now.”
Megan shook her head at him in exasperation, then a rueful grin tugged at her mouth, one dimple popping out. “You might regret this.”
“Maybe. But I’ll regret it more if I don’t help you. Now. What are you doing?”
****
The stubborn man stood to get his ass in a sling because of this, but he’d refused to budge or listen to reason, and even though he didn’t
trust Amber, he was helping her anyway.
Damn, Megan loved that about him.
Poised halfway up the rope trailing down the side of the tall building, she tuned out her awareness of him and studied her watch, counting the seconds down as the top of the hour approached.
Ten.… Seven…
Three. Two. One.
At twenty-three-hundred-hours on the dot, all the lights in the building went out right on cue.
Amber smiled to herself. Damn, Amber was good. If she could pull this off in a few hours with just a phone, imagine what she was capable of with a computer and an internet connection.
NVGs in place, she glanced back to aim a grin at Tyler, standing far below her on the street. Over his protests she’d made him promise to stay and keep watch while she executed the mission. Getting in and out of places she didn’t belong was her area of expertise. Besides, he was too big to go where she was headed.
Moving fast, ignoring the ache in her cut shoulder, she climbed the last few feet up the side of the building until she reached the large air intake grate on the wall. Using a customized power screwdriver from her toolkit, she removed the cover and let it drop into the dumpster below that Ty had opened up for her.
The inside of the heating vent was still hot, but not enough to burn as she squeezed through the opening and began crawling her way toward her target. Speed and stealth were key here. They had a limited number of minutes before everything came back online, including locks, cameras and alarm systems. She had to have Amber out of here before that happened, or they were all screwed.
Sweat beaded on her face, back and under her arms as she crawled to the first down shaft at a fast clip. Her sore shoulder pulled as she grasped the edges of the vent to lower herself down the short section to the next horizontal one below it, and descended again.
And again. All the way down to her sister’s floor, and then laterally along the ceiling.
Twenty-seven yards.
She counted them out in her head as she crawled, pausing when she neared the spot to feel around for the panel that was supposed to be there. Her gloved fingers found the edges of it, and her tools allowed her to remove the screws.
