by Kaylea Cross
The only way to end this was to find the nest, and destroy it. Because if they found him first, there was no place on earth he could hide from the wrath of the Valkyries.
****
Zack took the rifle Ty offered him and loaded in a full magazine, ready to unleash some of his frustration by putting a pile of rounds into the target downrange. The guys had invited him out to the private shooting range located in a pasture over a mile from the manor house, and he was only too happy to join them. It was bordered by a farmer’s field, and apparently Marcus’s neighbors were all aware of the range so no one would be concerned or call the cops when they heard shots.
“Ready to do some damage?” Ty asked.
“Oh yeah.” Eden had made a point of avoiding him since the meeting that morning, because of their kiss last night, and it was driving him crazy.
She still wanted him, whether she liked it or not. He’d made her lose control for a moment, and she hated that.
Zack understood it, but he still wasn’t sorry. He’d never be sorry for it, because finally being able to hold her and kiss her after so many months without her had made him feel more alive than ever.
“So, you’re with Eden, huh?” Heath asked, handing Zack a pair of earmuffs.
“Not with her.”
Heath and Ty looked at each other, then back at Zack. “No?” Ty said.
Zack shook his head. “Used to be. Not anymore.” Not in the way he wanted to be. He wanted it to be the way it used to, minus the lies or secrets between them. No holds barred, everything out in the open so they could start fresh and take a stab at something real. “How does this all work, anyway? With the ladies. Are we their backup, or…?”
“We’re whatever we’re told to be,” Heath answered with a wry smirk.
“Pretty much.” Ty laughed and clapped Zack on the back. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”
“I mean, it’s not like I have a problem answering to women, of course,” Zack added quickly, wanting to make that point clear. “But I’ve never worked with a team like this one before.”
“Brother, we know just how you feel,” Ty said. “What’s the story with you two, anyway? You didn’t know what she did when you were together?”
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
“Not a single clue.” It still amazed him how she’d hidden everything from him for that long. She was one hell of a liar. And an actress. Though of course he’d lied too, by omission.
“Must have been eye-opening for you when you found out.” Heath’s blue eyes gleamed with humor.
“Yeah. She dove out of my car as I was driving her away from the place where she’d just murdered the guest of honor in front of everyone.” He’d never forget it. “I got out to run after her, and she doubled back and stole the damn thing while my back was turned. Left me standing there on the sidewalk like a dumbass.”
Ty hooted, rocking back on his heels. “That’s awesome.”
Zack couldn’t help but grin, because it was kinda funny. Now. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Don’t feel bad, we’ve all been there.”
“Yeah? What happened with you?”
“Megan escaped her cell during SERE training and scared the shit out of me by showing up unannounced at my campsite in the middle of the forest one night,” Ty answered.
“Holy shit.” Having seen and learned what he had about the women so far, that wasn’t a stretch. “What about you?” he asked Heath.
Heath grimaced. “Chloe cornered me outside a train station and put a knife to my junk.”
Zack’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
Heath lifted a shoulder. “She only nicked me a little, just to make a point—pun intended. Wasn’t the greatest start, but it left an impression.”
“I’ll bet. Hell, sounds like I got off easy,” Zack said.
“Are we shooting here, or just shooting the shit?” Jesse strode over from his ATV with a rifle in his arms.
“Tell him what Amber did to you on that highway outside Damascus,” Ty said to him.
Jesse shot him a frown. “Why?”
“Because, we’re comparing notes about how badly we underestimated the ladies when we first met.”
Jesse turned his gaze on Zack, a fond look on his face. “It was a motorcycle chase. We were on a highway, and I couldn’t catch her. Came around a bend going full tilt, and there she was standing in the middle of the road pointing a weapon at me.”
Yeah, Eden had let him off easy compared to the others. “What did you do?”
“Dumped my bike. Wound up like road kill on the side of the road. She drove off and left me lying there all beat to hell and feeling sorry for myself. Bike was completely trashed, so I had to hitch a ride back into the city and start hunting for her all over again.”
Zack shook his head, impressed and glad he’d only been drugged and left behind. “You can bet I won’t underestimate any of them ever again.”
Jesse nodded. “Smart man. Each of them are incredible in their own right. But together?” He whistled, his expression saying it all. Their enemies were in deep shit.
“I can imagine.” It was sexy, though. Knowing Eden was that capable in so many different areas. What other secrets had she hid from him?
“So, we doing this, or what?” Jesse said.
“Always busting our balls,” Ty said, smirking as he put on his earmuffs.
The four of them shot until they were out of ammo, then loaded back onto the ATVs and started back for the manor house. Testosterone got the better of them, and turned the journey back into a race approximately six seconds in.
Ty shot out in front initially, pursued by Jesse. Always game to be part of the group, Zack gunned his ATV to catch up, only to be cut off by a rooster tail of dirt kicked up by Heath.
They jockeyed back and forth on a different and longer route back, trying to cut each other off in their quest to come in first. A quarter mile from the outbuilding where the ATVs were kept, Zack saw his chance and took it, flooring it up an incline to the top of a hill, then veering sharp left toward the others.
Ty jerked his ATV out of the way just in time to avoid a near collision. Zack whooped as he flew past, holding a fist up with his middle finger extended.
“In your dreams, cheating bastard!” Ty called after him, but Zack was too busy laughing to reply.
His laughter died a quick death, his smile vanishing when he spotted the lone figure leaning up against the side of the stone shed in the distance.
Eden pushed away from the wall when he slowed nearby, standing with her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket while she watched him. None of the other women were here, just her. Had she come to see him?
He quickly parked the ATV inside and came back out. “Hey,” he said, testing the waters.
“Hi. You guys have fun?”
“Yup. I won.” Winning was way more fun than losing, and he intended to win Eden no matter what it took.
“He didn’t. I let him,” Ty said on his way past into the shed.
Zack grinned at Eden. “I totally won.”
Her lips quirked, her amber eyes steady on his. “Feel like taking a walk?”
“Absolutely.”
He fell in step with her as she headed across the field, ignoring the telltale grins he got from the guys. “Everything okay?” he asked when they were out of earshot.
“Fine. I’ve just been thinking a lot about what you said.”
“Which part?”
“All of it. If we’re going to be teammates, then we have to be able to trust each other.”
He nodded. “Agreed.” Though he didn’t want to be just teammates.
“It’s not easy for me to do, especially since you’re still involved with the Agency.”
“I’m not—”
“You’re still connected to your handler. So yeah, you are.” She leveled a look at him. “Are you really from Indiana?”
“Born and br
ed. You?”
She looked back out over the fields. They were covered with a light mist in the distance. “Amber says I’m from coastal Georgia originally. It’s in the file she compiled for me from the ones she hacked off the Agency’s servers.”
Amber’s abilities with that laptop of hers were insane. He hoped they would help uncover who was responsible for John’s death. “But you don’t remember?”
She shook her head. “I only have bits and pieces of memories from before.”
Before she’d entered the Program. “Do you remember your family?”
A fond smile softened her face. “My grandma. My dad’s mom. According to my file, my parents died in an accident with a logging truck when I was three. My grandma raised me after that until she got too sick to take care of me, and then I went into foster care. Do you still have family back in Indiana?”
“My dad and his wife. They’ve been together for almost thirty years now. Both of them have been breathing down my neck about coming home for a visit. I haven’t been home in almost seven months. I need to make it happen sooner rather than later.”
“And your mom?”
“I don’t really see her much. She’s in Wyoming with her fourth husband. Never really was into family.”
She absorbed that with a nod. “Tell me one thing I don’t know about you.”
“Okay. I’m actually an introvert.”
She shot him a disbelieving look. “Please. I’ve never seen anyone work a room like you can.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s the truth. I prefer quiet alone time to social gatherings and events.”
“You come across as the opposite.”
“I have to, for my job. It’s a learned skill. My dad’s a huge socializer, always has been, because of his business. He dragged me to all kinds of functions growing up, trying to force me out of my shell, and then made me take drama in high school. Guess it worked to some extent.”
“Huh. Interesting. I think I used to be more outgoing than I am now. It was trained out of me. They wanted us to be solo operators, never forming any kind of bonds and whatever.”
“They wanted you all to stay isolated.”
“Made us easier to control,” she said with a surprising lack of bitterness.
He decided to change the subject. “Okay, your turn. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you.”
She thought about it a moment. “I used to love to garden. When I was a kid my grandma taught me all about gardening in her yard. We had flowers and a vegetable patch. I’ve always wanted to take it up again, but I’m never in one place long enough to bother.”
It was such an interesting and unexpected layer to her. “You left me a flower that day.”
“Mmhmm.”
Since she didn’t offer anything more, he shifted gears, though he was more curious now than ever. If she loved flowers so much, then it must have had some kind of meaning. Or maybe he was overthinking it. “What kind of garden do you want?”
“A poison garden,” she said without pause.
The answer and the smile on her face made him do a double take. “What?”
“A garden full of poisonous plants.”
“Why?”
“Because toxins are my specialty, and some of the most toxic plants remind me of my grandma’s garden. Foxgloves, nightshade, oleander… I’ve learned about so many others since then. I think it would be cool to have a garden that everyone sees as beautiful, without realizing everything in it’s deadly.”
“Wait. I just remembered something. The night we stayed up watching that nature documentary together while eating dessert. You went off on tangents telling me all about the different venomous creatures. You knew way too much about the venom of puffer fish and the blue-ringed octopus. I thought you were just a giant nerd, but there was more to it, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.” She smiled a little. “I’m what you’d call a font of knowledge about all things toxic to the human body. What different substances will do, the symptoms they can elicit. What concentration and dosage to give, and various ways to administer them in order to get the effect I want.”
Zack stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. She’d given him a major clue about what she was, and he’d been clueless. “You are something else.”
Eden grinned at him, seeming pleased by the compliment, and he saw a flash of the woman she’d been with him before. “Cool idea with the garden, no?”
“Yeah, as long as it wouldn’t kill anyone by touching something they shouldn’t.”
“Touching? Nah, nothing that severe. Maybe hives and a rash, or some vomiting.”
“You sound way too excited about that,” he said in amusement.
A shrill whistle sounded behind them just as Eden pulled her phone from her pocket. Zack looked over his shoulder to see Ty waving them back.
“It’s Amber,” she said. “There’s a meeting at the house in ten minutes, because Trinity’s gotta go somewhere.”
Zack turned around to face the house and gave her a playful nudge with his elbow. “Race you.”
Eden grinned. “No.”
He arched an eyebrow. “You afraid of losing?”
“To you? Nope.” She took off.
Zack tried to go after her, but his foot slipped. He stumbled, his heel coming out of his shoe.
Eden darted away from him with a throaty laugh that told him she’d stepped on the back of his shoe on purpose. It was the second time she’d left him in the dust. “I don’t think so!” he shouted, shoving his foot back into his shoe to race after her.
She was fast, and fit. He had to go all out to catch up with her, reaching her just as they crested the final hill before the manor. By the time they got to it, they were both laughing, and it felt fantastic.
They slowed before the gravel path leading around the side of the house into the back garden, and his heart was beating faster from more than the run. He liked this Eden even more than the previous one, and seeing her laugh and have fun with him gave him hope that he was beginning to earn her trust. That they still had a chance together.
Trinity was waiting at the back door for them. “There you guys are. Come on, we’re all waiting.”
Zack and Eden followed Trinity into the library. He stood off to the side with Eden while everyone waited for Trinity to start.
“Okay, I just got off a call with Rycroft,” Trinity began. “He met with former CIA Deputy Director Glenn Bennett less than an hour ago. You’ll recognize him as being on the list of possible suspects we’re looking at, verified by the thumb drive Eden’s handler gave her.”
Zack had read up on him last night in the files Amber had showed him, to keep abreast of the current investigative work she was working on, and to take his mind off that kiss with Eden.
Bennett had retired two years ago, and most of what he’d done during his tenure with the Agency had been buried deep. Some of it so deep it appeared to have vanished altogether. Amber and the team of analysts back in the States were still digging, but it seemed like Bennett might have been involved with the Valkyrie Program somehow.
“Rycroft thinks he’s dirty, but we don’t know if he’s directly involved with us in the past or present, and he’s definitely not the Architect we’ve seen mentioned in several memos Amber has from her original hack of the system,” Trinity continued.
Zack had seen that term mentioned several times in various places in the files Amber had shared with him. The Architect could be anyone, but whoever it was, it was someone with influence and authority. Almost certainly a man, given the nature of the Valkyrie Program, and likely former military—maybe intel or SOF. Someone who had clout in the upper hierarchy of the CIA’s leadership.
“Bennett’s on the move. An encrypted phone called his wife’s cell number shortly after the meeting with Rycroft. The message he left for her said he had to go out of town for something—we think because Rycroft spooked him. We think he might be involved with the murder of Eden’s handler, and
subsequent hit on Zack’s friend. We’re not sure where Bennett is going yet, but I’m taking a team to D.C. in anticipation of getting a location on him. I want all of you to go with me, except Kiyomi, who will stay and monitor things here.”
Zack glanced at Eden, who didn’t react to the announcement, watching Trinity intently.
“Once we get Bennett’s location, we’re going to capture him and extract the intel we need. If he’s dirty, we turn him over to Rycroft to deal with. Any questions?” Trinity finished. When no one spoke, she continued. “Good. Everybody go pack a bag and meet me out front in ten. Kiyomi, keep working the intel on the other suspects.”
“You got it,” Kiyomi answered.
Everyone dispersed to get to work. Zack followed Eden up to the third floor, stopping her before she could reach her room. Going after the former Deputy Director of the CIA wasn’t an average op, even by Valkyrie standards. “You ready for this?”
“Of course. You?” She studied his face. “Because you don’t have to do this.”
“I’m going with you,” he said firmly. He was staying as close to her as possible to make sure she was safe, and fighting for her. For them. “I want to find out whoever’s behind all this shit and make them pay.”
A little smile teased the corners of her mouth. “Never saw this side of you before. I like it.”
Zack cupped her cheek in his hand and bent to kiss her, but she blocked him with a solid hand on his chest, taking a step back. “No. That’s off the table for now,” she told him. “We’re teammates, and there will be no blurring of the boundaries.”
Holding back a growl of denial, he stared down into her eyes. For now meant there was hope. He would just have to wear her down. “I won’t give up on us.”
She held his gaze for a few heartbeats. “We need to keep our heads on straight,” she warned. “It’s the only way we’re going to come out of this alive.”
With that she disappeared into her room, her defensive shields stronger than ever, and all he wanted to do was to rip them down.
Chapter Twelve
“Hey, there’s my girl!” Trinity beamed and crouched down to hold out her arms as little Rosie toddled precariously toward her.
