by Vanessa Kier
Thankfully, Elliot didn’t push for a better answer. Ignoring her trembling legs, Jenna followed him and the rest of her teammates outside where their trainers waited to review the afternoon’s exercise. One of a handful of privately-funded special operations groups that had sprung up in recent years, the Surgical Strike Unit, or SSU, had one of the best reputations for skilled operators in the world. Which meant their trainers accepted nothing but success.
The “terrorists” and the “hostage” moved into place in the center of the assembly area, then the senior trainer read out the statistics. Jenna had killed every one of her targets. She nodded, relieved that her nerves hadn’t affected her performance and proud that she hadn’t even hesitated this time. Not like during the exercise a month ago, when seeing the victim pinned face down under her attacker had thrown Jenna back to the night she and her family had been attacked. Trapped in memories, she’d lost awareness of the action around her. When the exercise had finished and the trainers turned up the lights it took them five minutes to bring her attention back to the present.
From his position in line with the other trainers, Niko mouthed “Good job” at her. Jenna managed a slight nod in response, then looked away before he sensed the panic his continued attention caused her.
Taking slow, deep breaths, Jenna told herself Niko wasn’t a threat. Besides, she wouldn’t see him again after today. Rumor had it that he’d been pulled out of deep cover in Afghanistan when his joint mission with the DEA had been compromised, but that Niko was headed back to Afghanistan the day after tomorrow to set things right.
So, all she had to do was avoid appearing too nervous for the rest of the afternoon, and she wouldn’t have to worry about his effect on her any more. Thankfully, no one else on the team threatened to break her reputation for being impervious to emotion. After two years of struggling to keep herself together so she wouldn’t be thrown out of the training program due to psychological instability, she couldn’t afford to have her suitability as an operator questioned now. Not with only four months until graduation.
“Hey, Thompkins, you shot out my knee again, you moron,” one of the trainees jibed. “I’m your partner, not a damn terrorist, man.”
Thompkins shot his roommate a one-fingered salute. “If you’d moved your lazy ass out of the way you wouldn’t have been shot.”
The man next to Jenna snorted. “Right. That’s what? Excuse number five hundred and twelve? Face it, you’re never gonna be as good as Paterson, here. Beat by a girl.”
“Yeah, she’s accurate. When she doesn’t freeze up and get herself killed,” Thompkins groused.
There was an awkward pause as everyone’s eyes turned to Jenna. “It only happened once,” she muttered, feeling her cheeks heat at the unaccustomed attention. Her teammates didn’t usually include her in their banter. “I’m not the one who just shot his partner for the second time this week.”
Thompkins blinked in surprise over her retort. Usually she kept her mouth shut.
“Ha! Don’t mess with Jenna, boys. She’s got bite.” Tracy Wardynski, the only other female in their training class, bumped her shoulder companionably against Jenna’s.
Jenna allowed the contact, although it hinted at a camaraderie she didn’t feel. The attack on her family had destroyed her ability to connect with others. Her heart was a cold, barren place with no room for anything but vengeance. Friendship was a risk she refused to take.
Yet she had to quell an inexplicable urge to glance over at Niko.
After the trainees and role-playing agents finished their reports, the senior trainer stepped to the center of the group, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Well done, team,” the trainer said. Then he gave them a dangerous smile that had all of them groaning. “Gear up and head to these coordinates,” he barked, reading off longitude and latitude. “You have half an hour to get there. Starting…now!”
Jenna typed the coordinates into her watch, then sprinted down the trail with the rest of the trainees.
***
Vengeance is available now.
Book List
The Surgical Strike Unit Series
Undercover - Prequel
Vengeance - Book 1
Betrayal - Book 2
Retribution - Book 3
Payback - Book 3.5
Aftermath - Book 4
For more details on these books, visit Vanessa’s author page
About the Author
Vanessa Kier has been creating stories in her head since childhood. Now she writes romantic thrillers, using her worst-case scenario thinking to put her characters through the emotional wringer. When she’s not writing or listening to music, she writes the occasional Tech Talk column for her local RWA chapter's newsletter, and takes long hikes in the nearby hills.
For more about Vanessa and to sign up for her newsletter, please visit her website www.vanessakier.com.
Connect with Me Online
Twitter: http://twitter.com/vanessakier
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vanessa-Kier-Author/1395777640643440
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to Kristin Miller, Jasmine Haynes, Valerie Susan Hayward and Angela Pike for helping make this a better book. Thanks also to Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs for creating another awesome cover.
Most of all, my continuing gratitude to all the readers who have made this series a success!
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, brands, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Undercover Copyright 2013 by Vanessa Kier
ISBN: 978-0-9889147-6-6
Excerpt from Vengeance Copyright 2013 by Vanessa Kier
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express permission of Vanessa Kier.
License Notes
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