Explosive Vengeance

by Kaylea Cross

  “Not until my third try. I almost flunked out of the program because of it.”

  What program? Something black ops related, some intelligence agency. Nothing else made sense. It was driving him nuts, the little snippets she was giving him when he wanted to know the whole damn picture.

  “Megan passed the first time. I was so pissed. Good thing I liked her.”

  Heath digested that in silence. Just what had these women been trained for? How had Ty gotten involved with whatever this was?

  She glanced at him. “Sleep if you want. You have to be pretty tired by now.”

  He shot her an incredulous look. Sleep? “Nope.”

  Her grin flashed in the light from the instrument panel in the dashboard. “Don’t trust me, huh?”

  “Not so much, no.”

  She laughed, a low, sultry sound that stirred him up inside, and damned if he didn’t find himself fighting an answering smile. “I deserve that.”

  “At least tell me who you’re working for.” CIA? NSA? His inner radar was pinging like crazy.

  “Myself. And I’m sorry you got dragged into this. Your friend shouldn’t have involved you.”

  She said it like he was in way over his head, and that insulted him. “I can hold my own,” he bit out, his pride stinging.

  “No doubt. But not against this.”

  He let out a frustrated sigh. “Look. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us, and no one can overhear us. Why are you on the run?”

  She was silent so long he didn’t think she would answer. Then she relented with a sigh. “Did you see the news before you came to the train station?”

  “Briefly after I got there. Why?”

  “Anything important being televised?”

  Only one thing came to mind. “There was some kind of explosion at a house in Paris belonging to a wealthy businessman. He was missing.”

  “Because he’s dead.”

  Wait. “You killed him?” His voice rose. He was on the run with a murderess?

  She didn’t deny it, and that was answer enough. “As to who’s after me, I’m pretty sure it’s his older brother. He’s as corrupt as they come, but he covers it up with this fancy, polished veneer. He’s an evil piece of shit, same as his brother was,” she finished with a twist of her mouth.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered, running a hand down his face. “Does Ty know all this?”

  “Probably. I’m betting Megan does, so…yeah, pretty sure he does.”

  Then why the hell would Ty have sent him to do this? And not warn him what he was walking into? “Yeah, let’s not talk anymore.” He already didn’t like knowing the things he did so far. He needed to maintain as much plausible deniability as possible in case they were arrested.

  “Fair enough.”

  Heath turned on the radio, found a top forty station and left it there to fill the silence. They sped through the darkness, his mind busy dissecting everything he’d learned.

  He was going to kick Ty’s ass for this.

  The remainder of the drive to Zurich passed without a single other word spoken between them. He’d made up his mind that she was some kind of spy.

  When they were only a few kilometers away from the city, Heath’s phone buzzed with a new message. “They’re here,” he said to Chloe. “Where are we meeting them?”

  She gave him an address that he passed on, and drove them to a cottage set back from a quiet street near the freeway. “This is us,” she said as she parked along the curb.

  “What is it?”

  “A safehouse.”

  Of course it was. She apparently had a network of them at her disposal.

  He stood on the back doorstep watching for any sign of trouble while she punched the keycode into the door lock and went inside. Heath followed, and within moments he got another message. “They’re two minutes out.”

  And oh, man, it couldn’t go by fast enough.

  A brisk knock signaled the wait was over. Heath shot off the couch when Chloe checked the back door, weapon in hand. “It’s them.” She opened it, the wide smile on her face transforming her from pretty to stunning. She enveloped a shorter brunette in a giant hug, then dragged her inside. “Itchy. Oh my God.”

  The brunette—he presumed Megan—hugged her in return, holding on for a long moment. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Me either. Care to introduce me to that hunk on the doorstep?”

  They separated, and Ty walked in, shutting the door behind him. He gave Chloe a smile and held out his hand. “Chloe. Nice to meet you finally. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  She shook his hand. “I’ll bet.”

  Ty’s grin shifted to apologetic when he locked gazes with Heath. “Hey, brother. Good to see you’re still in one piece.”

  “Ha-ha.” He walked over to shake Megan’s hand, his brain going a hundred miles an hour.

  “And look, we brought you a new pair of jeans without any knife holes in them.” Ty pulled them out of his backpack, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

  Heath swiped them from him. “Thanks. Now start talking before I lose my shit.”

  Ty and Megan shared a look, then she took Chloe by the arm and started leading her away. “You guys go ahead and talk while we catch up elsewhere.” They disappeared into the bedroom and shut the door.

  Alone, Heath faced his buddy and raised his eyebrows. “Well?” It looked like Ty was trying not to laugh, but if he did Heath might deck him. “Did you know she killed a guy? It was all over the news.”

  Ty opened his mouth to respond but Heath stabbed a finger at his chest before he could answer. “You made me believe I was doing you a favor by looking after a woman in trouble. I assumed she was a civilian, because you didn’t say otherwise. But she damn near neutered me during our first meeting, then I find myself on the run from the National Police because she’s some spy or whatever who’d just killed a powerful and wealthy French businessman in his own house. What the hell, Ty?”

  Ty held up his hands. “I know, I know, and I’m sorry for all that. I’ll explain everything. Let’s sit down.”

  “I don’t wanna sit,” he growled. “Just tell me.”

  Ty’s expression was as serious as Heath had ever seen it. Then he tipped his head toward the closed bedroom door. “They’re Valkyries,” he said.

  Heath squinted at him. “Huh?”

  “Megan and Chloe. They’re government-trained assassins.”

  Heath barely kept his mouth from falling open. He’d heard about this a while back, but he’d never…. “You mean they were part of that program that was all over the media a few months ago? The one nobody knew about beforehand?”

  Ty nodded. “The Valkyrie Program was dreamed up by the CIA. They shut it down after it was exposed when one of its members went to trial—Will Balducci.”

  “I remember.” He’d followed the story for weeks afterward.

  “But it was still running up until a few months ago, and now someone’s gunning for these women. They’ve got a lot of enemies, as you can imagine. But whoever’s targeting them is doing it from the inside.”

  Heath changed his mind. “I’m gonna sit down.”

  He walked to the couch, sank down on it and put his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. This was crazy. And his best buddy had landed him right in the middle of it. “I was on vacation.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry about that. How long until you go back?”

  “Little over two weeks. But I guess my holiday’s over now, huh? There’s a chance someone spotted me with her. So whoever’s after her might target me too.”

  Ty sank down next to him. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I was hoping this wouldn’t happen. But you know I wouldn’t have involved you unless it was important.”

  Heath nodded, took a breath and sat up. “How the hell did you get involved in all of this?”

  “I got a call out of the blue from Alex Rycroft.”

  Heath knew the name. A former SF officer
who had gone on to become a star with the NSA. “I thought he was retired.”

  “Technically he is. But then he got wind from a former Valkyrie he’s close to about how the rest of these women are being systematically hunted down and eliminated. He formed a small taskforce and pulled some strings to get some funding, then called to bring me on board.”

  “Why you?”

  Ty’s slate blue gaze was somber. “Remember that story I told you about that girl who escaped during SERE school and scared the hell out of me by showing up at my campsite one night while I was a temporary instructor?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That was Megan.”

  “Oh.” His eyes widened as it sank in. “Whoa.”

  “Yep. Rycroft told me she was in danger and asked me to be part of the team to help find whoever was selling the Valkyries out to their enemies. After what happened between us, I owed it to her to help if I could.”

  “And she was okay with that?”

  “Not at first. But there were other former Valkyries involved, and long story short, the villain in that scenario turned out to be her sister.”

  This was getting worse by the moment. “Her sister was selling them out to their enemies?”

  “Some of them. The ones who’d crossed her on a team op and left her to die. She survived and went after them. Her name’s Amber, by the way, and she’s the reason we found Chloe in the first place. But Valkyries are still dying, and that has nothing to do with Amber now. We’ve been trying to locate the remaining operatives, but as you’ve seen, they’re not easy to pin down.”

  He huffed out a humorless laugh. “No shit.”

  “Amber’s a hacker. She and the others—”

  “Others. How many of them are working with you?”

  “Five so far. We’re hoping Chloe will make six. The team’s been monitoring various sources and contacts, trying to find the rest. Each Valkyrie has a specific skill set. They’re cross-trained in various things, but they all have a certain area they specialize in. For instance, Megan’s an expert at breaking into places and stealing things.”

  “And Chloe?” Though given something she’d said and how that guy in Paris had died, Heath was afraid he already knew.

  “She’s an explosives and demolitions expert.”

  But my favorite thing is blowing shit up. “Oh, shit…” The answer had startled him at the time, but he’d had no idea what he’d been dealing with. Now that he did… “She told me about Dubois on the way here, but I didn’t put it all together.” He rubbed his jaw, trying to make sense of everything, and grappling with the knowledge that he was now smack in the middle of it. “How did you even find her in the first place?”

  “There was enough evidence to make us think she might be behind a string of professional hits over the past few months. Each target was a high-level criminal killed in a controlled explosion. Each explosion had different chemical signatures, but they were small and precise, killing only the target and no one else. Given all that, it seemed like it could be her.”

  “Who were the targets?”

  “Human traffickers selling women into the skin trade.”

  Heath curled his lip, secretly impressed by Chloe’s guts. People who did evil shit like that deserved to die. “Like this Dubois guy?”

  Ty nodded. “Amber had picked up a potential lead on Chloe in St. Petersburg a while back. But last night in Paris was the most solid lead we’ve had since, and we were too far away to do anything in time. Because of the high-security level of the people after the Valkyries, I couldn’t tell you any of this over an unsecured phone line. But if you hadn’t stepped in, we’d have lost her, and might never have found her again.” He set a hand on Heath’s shoulder, squeezed tight. “I owe you, brother. We all do.”

  Heath didn’t know what to say.

  Ty nudged his shoulder. “You wanna punch me a couple times? I’ll give you two free shots, but not to my face because Megan likes it the way it is.”

  Heath grunted. “I kinda do, yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair, rubbed the back of his neck. This had been one hell of a night so far. “So what happens now?”

  Ty was silent a moment, watching him. “We could use another member on the team, even if it’s only temporary. A solid operator I trust with my life, and can handle himself when shit goes sideways. Even better if he’s an elite combat medic. Know anyone like that?”

  Ah, hell. It was impossible to stay mad at the guy, even if he’d landed Heath in the middle of this shit storm. But Heath couldn’t ignore this or walk away now. Like it or not, he was at risk, and so was Ty. He had to help his friend—and the Valkyries in the other room. “Maybe.”

  Ty grinned. “Yeah?”

  He would never turn his back on Ty. And now that he understood what was going on, he wanted to help protect the women at risk too—including Chloe.

  So there was only one answer he could give. Dammit. “Yeah. I’m in.”

  Chapter Eight

  Sitting cross-legged on the bed with Megan, Chloe smiled at her old friend, hardly able to believe this was happening. “You look amazing.” All grown up, but still Itch.

  “You too.”

  She nodded pointedly at the ring on Megan’s finger. “So you and Ty are pretty serious then, I gather?” It surprised her that any Valkyrie could make that kind of promise and commitment after it had been drilled into them to never get romantically—or emotionally—attached.

  “Yep.” Megan practically bounced on the bed in excitement. “Oh, man, I’ve got so much to tell you, I don’t even know where to start.”

  “How about you start with your sister?”

  Megan’s smile fell a little. “I didn’t even know she existed. I had a few memories of her, but I wasn’t sure if she was just a friend or a neighbor, or even an imaginary friend. We were so young when we were separated, after our parents were killed in a car accident. My mom’s younger sister was named our guardian but she couldn’t take us so we landed up on foster care, and then a boarding school.”

  “Which led to the Program.”

  “Right.”

  Megan went on to explain about how she and Ty had been recruited along with three other former Valkyries several months ago to find the person responsible for having Valkyries killed. And that the target had turned out to be her older sister, who had eliminated fellow female operatives on her kill list because they’d betrayed her and left her to die.

  “To sever our bond completely, they told Amber I was dead soon after we were separated. Of course she believed them. She was too young to ever think they would lie about something like that.”

  “Wow.” Chloe shook her head. “I knew the Program blurred the lines when it came to the law, but I never considered something like that.”

  “Yeah, it was a hard thing to hear, and we’re still learning more things every day. Part of me always knew I was a tool to them. A weapon.” She shrugged. “I guess I told myself otherwise because I wanted to believe we were more than that.”

  “I used to believe that too, until everything was shut down and they left us to rot, cut off and alone.” Chloe hated that they had all been used, then discarded.

  “I know. But I never would have found Amber otherwise.” Her smile returned. “It’s been a bit of a process, getting to know each other again and building trust after everything that’s happened, but she’s awesome. Her hacking skills and financial brain have been a huge help to the team already,” Megan said with pride. “You’ll love her.”

  “And what’s the team doing?”

  “We’re trying to find and bring in any other Valkyries out there before it’s too late, because someone’s hunting us. Once the others are brought in, we’re going to set everyone up with our own WITSEC-like program. We’ve got various funds socked away from previous ops that Amber invested for us. She and Trinity—she’s the eldest of us, and kind of Rycroft’s right-hand in all this—are working on it. Kiyomi and I’ve been helping too.”

&
nbsp; The implications of all that made Chloe’s head spin. Someone was actively hunting them… “Do you know who’s targeting us?”

  “Not yet. Amber and Rycroft’s handpicked analysts back in the States are working on it. But from what we can gather, it has to be someone who was involved with the Program.”

  Chloe frowned. “You think maybe someone from the inside leaked intel on me to Guillaume Dubois’ network? Because it had to be him. The cops in Strasbourg—if they really were cops—found me way too fast.” For all she knew, that team had been sent to kill her, not capture her.

  “Maybe. Amber’s searching for any chatter about it.”

  Something worse occurred to her. “Do you think he knows what I am?”

  “It’s possible. Amber and the others are on it, so if that’s what happened, we’ll find out and deal with it.”

  She hoped so. “How many of us are left?”

  “Besides us and Amber, there’s Trinity, Georgia, Briar, Kiyomi, and possibly four or five others out there. Once we locate the missing ones, we move to intercept and bring them to our base in the UK. After everyone’s accounted for and safe, we each enter our specialized identity program and start new lives without having targets on our backs.”

  “But to do that, you’ll need to find out who’s been targeting us from the inside and end them.”

  “Exactly.”

  It was a bold mission, and Chloe approved. “I might have a potential lead on another Valkyrie.”

  Megan’s expression sharpened with interest. “Who is she?”

  “I don’t know her real name. I was last in contact with her online about a group of women being smuggled from Algiers to southern France, about a month ago. She apparently got a tip about it and reached out to a friend of mine, who helps rescue female human trafficking victims. That’s how we got in touch, and the way she handled everything was so slick, I wondered if she was one of us. But I can’t prove it, and I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

  “Can you reach out to her?”