by Kaylea Cross
COVERT VENGEANCE
Vengeance Series
Kaylea Cross
COVERT VENGEANCE
Copyright © 2019 Kaylea Cross
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Cover Art: Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
Developmental edits: Deborah Nemeth
Line Edits: Joan Nichols
Digital Formatting: LK Campbell
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
ISBN: 978-1-928044-34-5
Table Of Contents
ABOUT THE BOOK
DEDICATION
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Excerpt from Explosive Vengeance
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COMPLETE BOOKLIST
ABOUT THE BOOK
Revenge came at a heavy price.
Valkyrie hacker Amber Brown is deadly in her own right, but her preferred weapon is a keyboard. So after her teammates left her for dead, she took her revenge the way she was trained to—swiftly and brutally. Except one of her targets might be innocent. To right that wrong, Amber vows to rescue the at-risk Valkyrie no matter the cost, and this time she’s working alone. So when a sexy stranger shows up in the middle of a firefight and announces he’s been sent by her sister, it’s going to take a whole lot more than his word to make her trust him.
Chasing redemption may prove deadly.
Elite gun for hire Jesse Cordova lives on the edge of the law. When a new job offer sets off warning bells, he digs deeper and finds the startling truth. The woman he’s been tasked with capturing is a secret government assassin, and Amber Brown is unlike any target he’s gone after before. But bringing her in opens them up to a whole new level of danger, pitting them against one of the most ruthless assassins in the world. Now that the sexy Valkyrie has stolen his heart, Jesse will risk everything to see their mission through—knowing that the only way this ends is with one of them dying.
DEDICATION
For Katie Reus, who is not only an amazing human being and friend, but a million times more tech savvy than I will ever be. Amber and I love you!
xo
AUTHOR’S NOTE
If you’ve read Stealing Vengeance, then you know Amber has gotten herself in quite the predicament. It’s hard for a Valkyrie to trust others, especially after being burned in the past, so risking her heart is going to be as difficult for Amber as making it through her mission alive.
Happy reading,
Kaylea
Chapter One
The bitterness of betrayal was still as fresh as the healing bullet scar on her left side, but Amber had to overcome that if she was going to get this done. People were depending on her. Family, by blood and creed—and having blood family at all was still an unexpected gift she was coming to terms with.
She pulled the edges of her headscarf tighter around her face and adjusted her sunglasses as she left the bus station on the outskirts of Damascus. Hot, arid air blasted her, the September sun beating down on her as she moved through the crowd of passengers toward the rental car facility.
The latest intel indicated that her target was here. Whether or not she was still alive, Amber wasn’t sure. Given the people involved with the woman’s capture several days ago, that chance dwindled with each passing hour. Amber had to act fast.
She stayed alert as she moved, on the lookout for any threat that might have managed to follow her here despite all her precautions. She was deep in enemy territory now, and her technological expertise was a double-edged sword. It allowed her to find those who wanted to stay hidden—while it also made her a target.
She was the hunter for now, but she was also prey. There were so many unknowns, and every time she made a move, she wore a target on her back.
Her rental vehicle was waiting for her, attained with fake ID under a new alias. She checked it with a critical eye, subtly looking for any signs of tampering before hiding her equipment in various spots in the interior and sliding behind the wheel to crank up the air conditioning. She’d managed to stay off the grid and evade everyone looking for her thus far. Now the most dangerous part of her journey began.
Amber prayed she wasn’t too late. If she was responsible for the capture—and much worse—of an innocent fellow Valkyrie, then she was honor bound to do whatever it took to try to rescue her. Up to and including giving her own life. It was the only way she could clear her conscience.
The roads were crowded, especially on the approach to the city center. Security was tight. She breezed through the first checkpoint in a matter of minutes. At the second, right on the edge of the old capital, the way the armed soldiers looked at her put her instantly on edge.
The soldier at her window checked her passport with the computer in his booth, then turned to stare at her for a moment too long. Unease crackled along her nerve endings.
“Get out of the car,” he commanded in clipped Arabic, adjusting his grip on his rifle.
Did they somehow know who she was? She kept her expression impassive. Running the checkpoint wasn’t an option if she wanted to live. So she had no choice but to comply.
She stepped out into the midday heat, posture and expression relaxed but her hands ready to dive for the pistol or blade strapped to her ankles, hidden beneath the loose lower legs of her cargo pants. A few men watched with interest from outside a nearby café. The slight bulges beneath their shirts told her some of them were armed.
The first soldier stared at her while his partner searched her vehicle. She didn’t move, didn’t react even when the second tossed her bag into the dirt and began rifling through it. She’d come prepared for this. Anything sensitive or mission critical was hidden in the vehicle or on her person somewhere.
Not finding anything of interest, the guard left her clothing and toiletries lying in the dust and shook his head at the first man. Amber held his stare as he approached, his expression hard. She tensed and shifted her stance slightly, mentally choosing an escape route that might allow her to flee on foot because if this asshole thought he was going to perform a body search, that wasn’t happening.
The soldier stopped a foot from her, tall enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “What are you doing in Damascus?” he growled.
None of your fucking business.
If her picture had triggered something in his database, he would have tried to arrest her by now. Key word, tried. Because she wasn’t going to prison.
“Visiting family,” she answered in Arabic. He was hassling her because she was a single female traveling alone and thought she was easy prey. But if he thought he and his friend might make a victim out of her, they wouldn’t live long
enough to see how wrong they were.
The soldier sneered before raking his cold, black gaze over the length of her and back up again. “You’re lying.”
Amber refused to cower or look away. Bullies thrived on fear and weakness. He would find neither in her.
Try me, asshole. She’d killed men a lot scarier than him in the line of duty.
Taking him out would cause major hassle because she’d have to kill the other soldier too, but if he tried to attack her it would almost be worth it to put a bullet in his ego-inflated head.
Seeming frustrated that he hadn’t elicited the reaction he’d hoped for, he stepped back with a disgusted sound. “Get out of here,” he snarled.
With pleasure.
She knelt to gather up her strewn belongings, aware of exactly where both men were positioned in case they tried anything. Even as she drove off she kept her eye on the first guard in her side mirror, prepared to react in case he decided to take a parting shot at her. He was on his radio, gaze locked on her vehicle as he spoke to someone.
They would have eyes on her in the city now. Adding more pressure to this high-stakes mission.
Her shoulders relaxed a little when she put a safe distance between her and the checkpoint. Traffic was light, yet it was hard to say if anyone had followed her. She focused on her surroundings, heading for the apartment she had secured. This area of Damascus was still very much a warzone.
Several buildings were nothing but piles of rubble. Others were marked with scars from shells and bullets, windows blown out and several floors destroyed. Unsupervised children ran through the streets chasing one another or playing soccer while mostly male adults stood around talking.
Curious, somewhat unfriendly stares followed Amber as she drove to the small apartment building and parked around back. Given the security situation at the moment, a single female traveling alone made her both a curiosity and a target.
It took time to ensure she wasn’t being followed and get into the unit. Once she swept the interior, she set up a handful of micro cameras to give her a view of the hallway and streets below. Finally, she was able to get to work.
Her custom laptop, Lady Ada, looked ordinary enough. Nondescript, thin, black, with no decals or any other decoration. But just as with Amber herself, looks could be deceiving.
Ada was far more than she seemed, and right now, the laptop allowed Amber to access what she needed, including CCTV footage from outside the old palace she was interested in. Word had it that the people she was looking for were using it as temporary headquarters.
This organization specialized in running weapons and people, and had ties to both the military and a powerful terrorist group operating in Syria. They were also mostly old school and shied away from a lot of modern technology, preventing her from being able to remotely hack into their security systems, and everyone was afraid of them because they were ruthless and rich and powerful. They could buy off whoever they wanted, and kill anyone who wouldn’t take the money or got in their way.
Her hacking and technological wizardry wasn’t much of an advantage here, but thanks to her training Amber could also do old school when necessary. On screen she watched the handful of armed men moving about the building, looking for familiar faces, patterns that would allow her to penetrate the target. She needed to get inside to see if there was any sign of Hannah.
Sitting around made her antsy. After several hours without gaining any new insight the need to keep moving pricked at her.
Time for some eyes-on recon.
She put on a headscarf, set two stacked glasses behind the edge of the door, and strung a piece of thread from it the top to the adjacent wall on her way out. If anyone came in while she was gone, she would know.
She left the building on foot, a shopping bag over one shoulder as she made her way down the sidewalk and blended in with the locals on her route. Less than twenty paces in, a niggling awareness warned her she was being watched.
Her gaze snagged on someone across the street. A man. Around her height, but heavyset. He wore a full beard but the tops of his cheeks were exposed.
Showing the curved scar snaking down the right one.
Recognition hit. He’d been watching her from the café at the second checkpoint. The soldier must have sent him after her, either to keep tabs or…something worse.
She glanced away and kept walking, that warning buzz growing stronger in the pit of her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the scarred man step away from the building and follow.
She walked faster. Turned left at the next corner, using her mental map of the area to keep her bearings in the tangle of ancient streets. At this point she needed to avoid a confrontation at all cost. There was enough heat on her already without adding more.
In her peripheral she caught the moment the man broke into a jog and crossed the street, coming after her.
Amber broke into a run, scanning for a place where she could lose him. Getting in a shootout in the middle of the street meant disaster for her and the mission.
She found an alley a block up and darted into it just as running footsteps sounded behind her. The old cobbled surface was narrow and deserted. The only cover was a wooden wagon near the other end, offering only partial concealment.
The heavy treads behind her kept coming, and the end of the alley was less than thirty yards away. She’d wanted to avoid this, but there was no other choice. If she was going to do this, it had to be here and now. The wagon would have to do.
She darted under it, stretched out on her belly and reached down to grab the pistol from her ankle holster. Then she waited, weapon ready.
The man raced around the corner of the alley a second later. Stopped, then ran toward her, a pistol in his grip.
Amber fired two rapid shots.
Surprise and pain twisted the man’s features as the bullets struck his lower legs. He dropped to his knees, blood spreading across the cobbles, and raised his arm to fire at her.
Nope.
Amber fired twice more, this time center mass.
The man toppled sideways with a painful groan and arched his back, his weapon now lying on the shadowy ground as he tore feebly at the front of his shirt. He would be dead in moments.
Glancing behind her to make sure no one else had seen her yet, she scooted out from beneath the wagon and hurried toward him, pistol aimed at his head this time. He lay unmoving, only his eyes shifting, rolling toward her as she approached.
She kicked his pistol out of reach, then crouched down and quickly went through his pockets. No ID, but she took his phone. Once she was safe, she would use it to find out who he was and who he worked for.
Amber ran for the end of the alley, tucking her weapon in her waistband. The gunshots would bring unwanted attention. When someone came to investigate, she couldn’t be anywhere near the body.
She scrapped her plan to conduct recon of the palace and headed back to the apartment, ready to go back on the offensive if someone else came after her. The dead man meant more danger for her. Everything was moving faster now, time slipping away too quickly and increasing the chance that she wouldn’t live long enough to complete her mission.
That didn’t frighten her. Risk and pressure came with the territory, and constantly watching her back was nothing new. She’d lived most of her life that way. Had learned long ago not to fear death, because death came for everyone eventually.
Except now… Now she had something worth living for.
An image of her sister’s face flashed in her mind. Eighteen months younger, taken from her when they’d been little, now a Valkyrie operative who specialized in stealing critical things from impossible places.
Megan had smiled at her while handing Amber the small duffel of cash and other supplies she’d needed to leave the country after Megan had helped her escape the holding facility in London two weeks ago. “You’re coming back, right?”
“If I can.”
Megan had scowled and shoved
Amber’s shoulder gently. “Well, then, make sure you can.”
“I’ll try,” she’d promised.
After this was over, she wanted to return to England and see Megan again. Wanted to spend time with her and help with the search for the other missing Valkyries. But the only way that was happening was if Amber completed this mission.
She shook her head. Wishing for things, making future plans, was dangerous. She couldn’t afford to think about Megan, or dreams that would probably never come true. All that mattered for now was righting the wrong she’d done.
And if she was really lucky, one day she might even get to live a real life for a little while. Maybe even spend some of it getting to know her little sister again. Begin to heal the bond that had been severed by the people who had turned Amber and the others from young, frightened orphans into lethal weapons.
She pushed that from her mind and hurried toward the apartment where she could hack into the phone and dig into the dead man’s identity. Rescuing Hannah was priority one.
Someone had sent that hired thug after her. Amber hoped it was the guard at the checkpoint and not a wider network somehow aware of her presence. Either way, she had to change locations.
One threat had been eliminated. God only knew how many more were coming.
****
Traffic noise and conversation surrounded Jesse as he sipped a fresh cappuccino at a table outside the busy Paris café and read an actual newspaper. It was the first time in weeks he had nothing to do and could let his guard down a little.
Damn, he loved this city. There were plenty of things to do and see, the food was great, and it wasn’t a bad place to kick back for a while. He’d been here for three days now, a sort of “holiday” after his last job.
