Viking Warrior Rebel

by Asa Maria Bradley

  It finally came to her. Kraus had called Luke when she was at his apartment. She’d seen his name on the phone display. “How do you know this?” Her voice sounded desperate.

  Ulf’s face softened. “I was searching for footage on Kraus and came across a Denver PD video of him meeting with Holden. I then checked our local police department’s surveillance archive and found more footage. They’ve met twice. As recently as this evening.”

  Astrid went numb. “Show me.”

  Ulf looked like he wanted to protest, but she headed straight for the computer room. He followed and gestured for her to sit in the chair next to his. Rows of data scrolled on three big monitors. She had no idea what it meant. Ulf clicked a few keys, and a grainy video popped open.

  Two men sat at a table in what looked to be a diner. Despite the low resolution, she clearly recognized Luke. There was no sound, but the other man slid a folder and a thick envelope across the table to Luke. It was the right size for bills.

  “That envelope is full of money,” she whispered.

  Ulf nodded. “But we don’t know what kind of business they’re doing.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Luke would have researched this guy. He would have found out about the human trafficking, but he still decided to work with him.” Her heart raced. Luke knew where Camila and the others were. He was the one who’d told them about the refugee organization. She stood. “I have to go.”

  Ulf grabbed her hand. “I’ll come with you.”

  She shrugged him off. “This is something I have to do alone.” It was better to be alone. That way, nobody could disappoint you. Hurt you.

  She rushed out the door, ignoring Ulf shouting after her.

  She’d told Luke why she related to Camila and the others after the rescue, and he had still gone into business with Kraus. Today when she’d told him all the sordid details of her life as a thrall, he’d seemed to understand. He even seemed angry. Had that been an act? How could he meet with that scum and take his money after what she’d told him about being someone’s property?

  * * *

  Luke’s doorman was fast asleep behind his desk when Astrid ghosted by. She may not have Sten’s ninja skills, but she could be quiet enough. The elevator took forever, but it gave her time to collect herself. She forced herself to breathe deeply.

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t calm her thoughts. She should have a plan before she barged in on Luke. Let him explain why he was meeting with Kraus. There could be a reasonable explanation… She laughed out loud at how desperate she was.

  When had she become this stupid woman grasping for a reason to hold on to her lover? The only reason to be in business with scum like Kraus was that there was a lot of money to be made.

  The doors dinged open. Striding toward Luke’s door, she undid the safety of her gun but kept it holstered. She squared her shoulders and banged on the door. It took three more tries before she heard movement inside. Luke opened the door squinting. His hair stood on end, and he was wearing only a pair of navy boxer briefs.

  “Hey.” He rubbed his face and broke out into a smile. “I missed you but didn’t want to call until morning. I figured you’d get to bed late because of the party.”

  She stepped past him. “I have some questions.”

  He closed the door. “Okay.” His forehead furrowed. “About what?”

  “About Kraus.”

  His face went blank and then hardened. “How do you know about him?”

  Her heart sank. He wasn’t trying to explain himself. “This time it’s my turn to ask the questions.” She pointed at him. “It’s your turn to answer.”

  “Hey, calm down.” Luke stepped toward her and she took a step back, hand reaching for her gun. His eyes widened. “You came here carrying heat? You’re afraid of me?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not afraid of you. Just cautious, now that I’m getting a better idea of who you are.”

  “Astrid, I—” His eyes softened, but she resisted their pull. He reached for her, and she took another step back. His face turned cold. “So you have decided I’m a low-life criminal.”

  “I have no idea who you are, but I know the people you do business with are among the lowest scum of Midgard.”

  “And that makes me scum too.” It was a statement.

  “If you say so.” She had to swallow hard to get the big lump in her throat to go down.

  He jammed his hands on his hips and looked down on the floor. A tic pulsed in his jaw. “Tell me how you found out about my meeting with Kraus.”

  “It’s not important.”

  He looked up, eyes blazing. “It’s extremely important. If you found out, others can too.” He took a step toward her. “I’m not fucking around, Astrid. Tell me.”

  She pulled her Glock. “I’m not the one giving information tonight. You are.”

  Disbelief filled his eyes. “You’re pulling a gun on me?”

  She changed to a two-handed grip to keep her hands from shaking. “Tell me what your business with Kraus is. Did you tell him where Camila and the others are?”

  He shook his head. “This is what you think of me? That I could hurt women, trade them like cattle to the highest bidder?”

  She swallowed. “I don’t know what to think anymore. But the truth is, I don’t know you at all. You’ve given me nothing. I shared what had happened to me, and you still left the wedding to meet with that scum.” To her horror, she felt tears well in her eyes. She blinked them away. “You obviously know Kraus deals in human trafficking, and you’re still in business with him.”

  The tic in his jaw was back. “It’s very complicated.”

  “Uncomplicate it for me.”

  “I can’t. There’s too much at risk. You have to trust me.” He held his arms out. “Put the gun away. Tell me how you found out I was meeting with Kraus.”

  She kept the gun pointed at him. “Denver PD and the local precinct here in Pine Rapids have surveillance video of your meetings.”

  “Fuck. That’s very bad.” Holden seemed lost in thought. “I have to fix that.”

  This was an odd response. “Tell me what’s going on.” She lowered the gun but kept her double grip. “If this thing between us has any chance, you have to. I can’t—” Her voice broke. She cleared her throat. “I can’t be with someone who profits from slave trade.”

  Luke’s gaze on her was sad. “Deep down you know I’m not that guy. Trust your instincts.”

  Her heart wanted to believe he wasn’t capable of hurting Camila or the others, but her instincts obviously weren’t worth shit. The facts were: Luke was in business with Kraus, a man who made money from abducting and selling women. And she knew nothing about Luke that would make her trust him implicitly. “Explain what’s going on and maybe I’ll believe you.”

  He shook his head. “People’s lives depend on me keeping quiet.”

  She raised the gun again. “Right now, your life depends on you telling the truth.”

  “You wouldn’t shoot me.” His eyes flickered.

  “It doesn’t have to be a kill shot, but I can still make it hurt.” Her heart thumped so loudly that she was sure he could hear her, but her hands were steady.

  Luke scowled. “I’m going to humor you. Let’s sit.”

  She gestured with the gun for him to walk ahead. They took their seats across from each other in his ridiculously soft leather couches. Her mind flicked through images of what had happened the last time they’d sat here, but she kept a tight rein on her thoughts before they went down that path. “Talk,” she said.

  “For Christ’s sake. Lower your gun, Astrid.” Luke shoved his hands through his hair. “I can’t concentrate with that thing pointed at me.”

  She put the gun next to her on the couch. “Good. Then you can’t make up any lies.”

  Glaring at her, he nodded. “F
ine.” He turned toward the windows, clenching his jaw. When he faced her again, his eyes flickered with something that looked like regret. “I’m an undercover FBI agent. I have been for the last eighteen months. I’ve been surveilling Naya, you, and now the others.”

  Something cold clamped down around her heart. “That’s impossible. Naya worked for you. She would have checked you out. She would have figured out if you had a fake persona.”

  He gritted his teeth and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, but didn’t look at her. “I work for a covert operation of the FBI. We operate completely in the dark, have our own IT infrastructure, our own procedures. Not even the FBI knows who I really am.”

  “What’s your real name?” She had to know who he was. Who she’d shared a bed with.

  He looked up. “It’s still Luke, but my last name is Hager.”

  “All this time…” She sobbed but managed to turn it into a sad chuckle. “All this time you’ve targeted me. I was your in to get to Naya.” Despair filled her. She’d led danger to the fortress door. How could she be bonded to someone who lied to her? What kind of cruel joke was Freya playing?

  She couldn’t breathe.

  Luke moved forward, but she held up her hand to stop him. “Tell me why,” she croaked. “Tell me why you went through all this trouble to get me to trust you.” Her lips stretched in a bitter smile. “Tell me why you literally fucked me over.”

  He shoved a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t plan to sleep with you. That first time in the club, I didn’t even know you were affiliated with Naya. I just about freaked when you walked into the club the day I was meeting with her.”

  Astrid remembered the meeting well. She’d freaked too. Luke was supposed to be just a one-night stand. A way to calm her berserker temporarily. “Why are you so interested in Naya?”

  Luke stood, and she quickly drew the gun on him. Hurt flickered in his eyes, but she didn’t give a shit. “I’m getting something to drink,” he said. “Do you want anything?”

  “I’m fine.” He’d probably drug her. She watched him go to the kitchen area and return with a bottle of water. “Naya,” she repeated.

  With a sigh, he sat down again. “I knew Naya was somehow associated with the labs that are creating super soldiers. I just didn’t know how. The goal of my mission is to take down those labs and the people responsible for them.”

  She looked down at the gun she was holding in her lap. “So you kept sleeping with me to get to Naya.” She embraced the anger filling her chest. It was better than the cold lump forming around her heart. She looked him straight in the eye. “I took you to my house when you got sick. Endangered everyone I care about so you would get better.” She laughed bitterly. “I’m such a fool. I gave you exactly what you wanted.”

  “You don’t understand.” He cleared his throat. “I grew up in a lab just like Naya’s. I had a brother who couldn’t take the treatments. My brother died.”

  Astrid sat back. This was not what she expected. She felt bad for his brother, but he had used her for weeks. All because of a brother who was already dead. “I get the need for revenge, but don’t you care about who you hurt in the process?” People like her. She swallowed again. “Is every method justified to get your answers? Could you not have gotten close to me without screwing me?” She shook her head. “You must have pissed yourself laughing when I showed up here talking about handfasting and engagements.”

  The tic in Luke’s jaw was back. “No,” he mumbled. “I wasn’t supposed to…like you as much as I did. I couldn’t help myself. After that one night at the club, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I had to—”

  “What about Denver?” She didn’t want to hear what he had to do. “That wasn’t really a fluke meeting, was it?”

  He shook his head. “You have to understand. Nothing will stand in the way of bringing down the people who made my brother’s life so miserable that he killed himself.”

  “So to you it’s totally okay to lie to me, fuck me over, and make me a traitor to my people, all in the name of your dead brother?”

  “I didn’t think about it like that.”

  “How did you think about it?”

  “I couldn’t stay away from you. I needed you too much.” His eyes burned with regret, but she steeled herself against it.

  She stood. “Don’t try to complicate things by pretending you had feelings for me.” She holstered her gun. “We’re done.” She took the few steps leading to the door and opened it.

  “Astrid, please understand—”

  “I do understand. It’s very simple really. Your dead brother is the most important person to you.”

  He hesitated but then nodded. And there it was. It was so simple when she broke it down. There would always be people more important than her. Nobody would ever put her first.

  “I hope you find your revenge,” Astrid said. “I’m sure your brother would be very proud of everything you’ve done.”

  She stepped through the door, and it swung closed behind her as she walked down the hallway. She really did understand. He’d only used her for his own gain. A thrall could earn her freedom, but that didn’t make her important or valuable.

  The elevator took too long, so she took the stairs instead. Through blurred vision, she raced down the steps, proud of the fact that she didn’t spill a single tear until she got to the car. Once behind the tinted windows of the SUV, she allowed them to flow. As she drove off, she vowed that those were the last tears she’d shed for any man.

  Especially Luke.

  All that was left now was to confess to the king how she’d betrayed her people.

  Chapter 23

  Luke scanned the dive bar that Whalert had reluctantly agreed to meet in. It was located across the border in Idaho. The decor looked like the interior designer couldn’t decide between a hunting lodge and a biker bar. Harley-Davidson T-shirts and chrome hubcaps competed for wall space with antlers and various taxidermy.

  It was early afternoon, but three patrons were already well on their way to half drunk at the bar. Judging by how well their asses fit the indentions on the stools they sat on, they were all regulars. Whalert were nowhere to be found, so Luke chose a booth far from the bar and sat down on the slightly sticky vinyl.

  Christ, how had Whalert found this place?

  A waitress appeared and asked what he wanted to drink. Her tight T-shirt showed off the bar’s logo as well as her ample cleavage. She cocked her hip flirtatiously, but her heart wasn’t in it. Her voice came out flat, and she didn’t make eye contact. He asked for coffee, and she shuffled off toward the bar.

  Luke scratched the twenty-four-hour stubble on his jaw. He hadn’t been able to go back to sleep after his fight with Astrid. Fight was such a mild word for what had really happened. Fucking disaster fit better. He’d revealed who he truly was, completely blown his cover, and it didn’t mean anything because he’d hurt her.

  He would make things right with her. He would…

  He would stop lying to himself. She didn’t want anything to do with his sorry ass.

  He’d fucked up her life. He would never forgive himself for that.

  He needed to get his head back in the game though. If both Denver and Pine Rapids PDs had surveillance footage of him, they were most likely tailing him too. And if they were following him, they could be following Astrid. He didn’t know how far the corruption reached, but the idea of whoever wanted his boss also knowing about Astrid made his stomach turn.

  Whalert slid into the seat across the table, startling Luke. The door hadn’t opened. “Where did you come from,” he asked.

  “Back door.” Whalert aimed his thumb toward the innards of the bar. Luke didn’t bother looking. “You look like shit,” his former boss told him.

  “Haven’t slept much.”

  “You look like you have th
e flu or something.”

  Luke did feel like he was running a low-grade fever. His muscles ached and his skin was sensitive to touch, but there were too many other things to worry about right now. He looked Whalert over. His face was covered in a dingy beard, and his flannel shirt had completely lost whatever its original color was. “You don’t look so well yourself.”

  Whalert smirked, the expression little more than a twitch in his tired face. “Haven’t slept so good lately myself.”

  The waitress plopped down Luke’s coffee, and Whalert asked for one as well. He was rewarded with a big sigh and an eye roll. Whalert returned his gaze to Luke. “Why are we meeting?”

  Once Luke had figured out his boss was close by, he’d insisted on a meeting instead of talking on the phone. It was easier to persuade people in person. “Denver PD and Pine Rapids PD have footage of me meeting with Kraus.”

  “Fuck.” Whalert slumped down in the booth. “I didn’t think about scrubbing police databases.”

  Luke stirred his coffee. It smelled like it had been on the burner for a while. “I wouldn’t have either. FBI must have reached out to the police to keep tabs on Kraus. If you hadn’t had to run, we could have planned accordingly.”

  “We have to pull you,” Whalert said. “You’re compromised. I know it’s an insult to ask, but you’re sure you weren’t followed to this place?”

  “I know how to shake a tail,” Luke said. He’d been followed from his apartment, but that detail was probably still watching his car parked outside the coffee shop in which he’d changed clothes before sneaking out the back way. He’d come to the bar on the Ducati bike he kept in a storage unit, rented under yet another fake identity. “I can’t pull out though. We’ve come too far, and I’ve taken money from Kraus.” And now he owed Astrid. He had to fix all this, or at least take out Kraus.

  Whalert rubbed his forehead. “What’s the alternative?”