“We have to retrieve the information from the local PDs, see how far it’s traveled up the chain in DTU and FBI, and then erase all of it from their records.”
Whalert barked out a laugh. “Sure, I’ll get right on that.” He shook his head. “I think this is where we say our good-byes. If you followed the advice I gave when you first joined my office, you have a few unused identities hidden in a safety deposit box somewhere. Now is a good time to use one of those.”
Luke shook his head. “I’m not joking. I know someone who can do this for us. She did cybersecurity for the nightclub, and she can hack into anything.”
“And if she gets caught?”
“She hasn’t been so far.” Luke was pretty sure Naya had rummaged through all kinds of government databases. As much credit as Whalert deserved for his efforts to keep the DTU division completely separate from FBI, it was still a small miracle she hadn’t blown Luke’s cover when she screened him as a client.
Whalert mulled that over for a moment and then nodded. “Set it up.”
Luke fished out his phone and called Naya’s number. She answered on the first ring.
“You have fifteen seconds to tell me what you’ve done to Astrid. She’s not talking to any of us. Only Leif knows what’s going on, and he’s not sharing.”
Luke cringed. “I’m a jerk, but that’s not why I’m calling.” Naya terminated the call. “Shit.” Luke smacked the table.
Whalert leaned back in his seat. “Women troubles?”
Luke shot him a dark look. “It’s not what you think.” He tapped a text message to Naya: Pine Rapids PD is following Astrid and others. She may be in danger. A long minute later, his phone rang.
“Explain,” Naya demanded.
He put her on speaker. “It’s a very long story. We need to meet.” He could hear her talking to someone in the background. Their voices became louder and then muffled, as if she put her hand over the speaker. Was she talking to Astrid? A useless twinge of hope rose in his chest. He clamped it down.
Naya came back on the line. “Picnic table at Bear Lake boat launch in two hours.” She hung up.
Luke looked at Whalert, who nodded. “Got it,” he said. “We’ll drive separately.”
* * *
Twenty miles north of Pine Rapids, Luke steered his motorcycle off the highway and onto the turnoff for the Bear Lake recreational area. The small, teardrop-shaped lake was popular with boaters and swimmers in the summer. This early in the spring, the park surrounding the lake was mostly empty. A single boat trailer sat in the parking lot, and he could see a lone fisherman out in the middle of the lake.
Luke lowered the kickstand of the Ducati and cut the engine. He removed his helmet and tugged off his gloves as he walked to the nearby picnic tables. He’d just sat down when a silver Porsche Boxster S pulled in next to his bike. Naya and Leif got out and approached the table. They slid in across from him. Naya’s eyes blazed with anger.
Leif’s glare was ice cold, his face an impenetrable mask. He put his cell phone on the table.
“So, you brought backup,” Luke said to Naya, trying to break the ice. His own backup, Whalert, had parked half a mile up the highway and was making his way cross-country to the lake. Hopefully he’d be among the trees soon, covering Luke’s ass with firepower.
“I didn’t bring him,” Naya said. “He insisted on coming.” She glared at Leif, who ignored her.
Keeping his focus on Luke, the blond giant leaned back and crossed his arms. “Put your hands where I can see them.”
Luke laid his hands on the table, palms down. “He doesn’t really blend well.” He aimed his words at Naya, avoiding Leif’s icy stare. An itchy feeling on the back of his neck told him he was being watched.
“I’ve already explained that to him,” she countered.
“Enough chitchat,” Leif bit out. “Why are the police following Astrid?”
Luke debated how much to tell and how to spin it. Better to just lay it all out there. “I work for the government—”
Naya jerked back. Leif didn’t look surprised, but he cursed under his breath. It came out as a growl.
Luke held up his hands, palms facing Leif. “We’re just talking, right?” Luke’s heart rate increased. His nostrils flared.
Leif’s eyes widened. He looked at Naya, and an unspoken message passed between them.
“Which part of the government?” Naya asked.
“It’s a covert operation within the FBI.” He launched into an explanation of how DTU was operating under more freedom. He finished by describing their mission of taking down the covert genetic labs. “I know you were involved in taking down the North Dakota lab,” he said to Naya. She nodded but didn’t volunteer any details.
Leif’s phone buzzed, and he turned it over to check his screen. “Is the guy in the woods with you?” he asked Luke. “Does he work for DTU as well?”
Damn it. How had they caught Whalert? The guy was a master in staying hidden. “Yes,” Luke gritted out between clenched teeth. “He’s my boss. My former boss.” He rubbed his face. “It’s a long story.”
Leif tapped a few keys on his phone and then put it back down. “Sten’s bringing him over.”
“When you hired me to work on your club’s security protocols, I thoroughly screened you. How did I not find your government connection?” Naya’s forehead furrowed.
“Maybe you’re not as good of a hacker as you think you are,” Luke said. Leif growled again, and Luke hastily continued. “DTU is on a completely different IT infrastructure. We have access to FBI’s information and databases, but they have no clue who we are. They think we’re just another division.”
Naya nodded, distracted. Her eyes glazed over as if she was figuring out how to break into the DTU system. Luke was okay with that. He’d probably ask her to do exactly that in a minute.
Whalert appeared at the edge of the woods and walked across the parking lot. The young blond who had heckled Ulf at the wedding followed close behind. He must be Sten. His face was much more serious and closed up than last time Luke saw him.
When they reached the table, Sten nodded to Leif and then walked over to lean against the Porsche.
Whalert looked at Sten, and then he turned to Leif. “What are you guys? SOG?”
Leif’s eyebrows rose. “Something like that.”
Naya snorted.
“What’s SOG?” Luke asked.
“Special Operations Group,” Whalert answered. “It’s a Swedish counterterrorism unit. They’ve only been operating since 2011 but are one of the most effective in the world. Think of them as a combination of Delta Force and Navy SEALs. They’re one of the most secretive military units. Nobody knows how many troops they have or their organizational structure.” He shook his head. “As soon as you told me you’d met Scandinavian military operating within the United States, I figured they must be SOG.” His voice was laced with admiration.
Luke shot a look at Leif, who returned it with an ice-cold glare of his own. Luke decided that if the SOG explanation worked for Whalert, they should stick with that. The whole “immortal warrior sent on a mission by the gods” thing would just cause a lot of headaches. He wasn’t sure he’d quite wrapped his mind around that himself.
Whalert sat down next to Luke. “What’s your target?” he asked Leif.
Naya put her hand on Leif’s arm. “To take down the genetic labs,” she answered.
“That’s ours too,” Whalert said. Luke shot him a look. His boss never shared information, not even with his operatives. All of a sudden he was Chatty Cathy. “They’re SOG,” Whalert said to Luke, as if that justified giving away secrets.
Naya and Leif exchanged a look again. “Can we get back to why the police are targeting us?” Naya asked.
Luke explained how he’d been working undercover as a nightclub owner and how h
e’d lured in Kraus once it became clear he was involved with the genetic labs. He rubbed the back of his neck. The tingling feeling he got when someone had their sights on him wouldn’t go away. “Does Astrid know you are undercover?” Naya asked.
“She does now.” He avoided looking at Leif.
“You dick,” she hissed. “Did you use her as part of your cover?”
“No,” Luke exclaimed and then scratched his chin. “Yes, maybe. I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t fake how I felt—feel—about her. I may not have told her the whole story, but everything that happened between us was real.” He met Naya’s eyes, imploring her to believe him. “I will fix this.”
Leif shifted in his seat. “You have to.” He glanced at Whalert. “For Astrid’s sake.” He must be talking about the berserker going into permanent battle fever. But didn’t that just happen when one of the bonded people died? Luke grabbed Naya’s hand, but dropped it when a low warning rumbled through Leif’s chest, vibrating the whole table. “My brother and I grew up in a lab in Northern California. I never knew my parents. As far as I know, I may have been born in that lab.”
Naya slowly shook her head. “You think you were born in a lab?”
Whalert grunted. “I knew there was a reason you were so gung ho about this mission.”
Luke ignored him. “We escaped and stayed hidden, but my brother died. The chemicals they injected us with in the lab gave him horrible nightmares and hallucinations. He couldn’t handle them. He committed suicide.”
Naya’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Leif studied Luke as if he was trying to figure out whether Luke was lying. “You know that a sappy story about a dead brother would pull on Naya’s sympathies. Before I believe you, tell us what the drugs did to you.”
Whalert tensed next to Luke. “Yeah, what did they do to you?”
“I’m a little faster and stronger than the average guy.”
“A little?” Whalert snorted. “I knew there was something weird about your skills. Your military service records are filled with incidents where you pulled off a last-minute miracle and saved the men of your unit. And you forgot to mention how your rifle always finds its target. Your shooting instructor at the academy wrote two pages in your evaluation about how he’d never seen anything like it.”
Luke decided not to mention the wolverines he’d missed when he and Astrid rescued Scott. Up to that point, he’d always hit his target. But then, he’d never met anyone who moved as fast as those freaky creatures.
Naya watched him intently. “The head scientist at the North Dakota lab told me all the soldiers of my generation were dead.”
Luke shrugged. “Well, here I am. Not dead.” He started to smile but changed his mind when he caught Leif’s icy stare. It said Luke’s alive status could be downgraded very quickly.
“So, why this meeting?” Leif said. “What do you want from Naya?”
“I need someone to hack into the Denver and Pine Rapid PDs’ systems and get rid of the video.”
Naya straightened. “And we should pull any files they may have on you or Kraus.” She fished out her phone and started tapping its keys. “I’ll get Ulf to start right away.”
Leif held his hand over hers to stop her typing. “Can we at least talk about this before you agree to help them?”
Naya shook her head. “They’re working to bring down the labs. Of course we’re going to help them.” She shook off Leif’s grip and focused on Whalert. “You should check the FBI and DTU records as well, in case the PDs have sent them information.”
Whalert shifted in his seat. “That’s going to be a problem. I’m not actually with the bureau right now.” He told them about sending in the blood sample and the fallout from that.
Leif’s gaze bore into Luke. “You sent Astrid’s blood to the FBI lab for analysis.” His voice was dangerously dark.
“I wanted to see if she was telling the truth about who she is.”
“You wanted to see if she was telling the truth?”
Luke cringed.
Naya tapped faster on her phone. “We need to see what became of that sample and erase any records.” She gave Whalert a quick smile. “And see who ordered the email to be deleted from your account.”
“You can do all that?” Whalert asked. “Won’t someone notice you dicking around in all of these databases?”
“They haven’t so far.” She shot him a cocky grin. She turned to Leif. “We should continue to unravel the money trail to this Kraus guy. If anyone is helping him financially, they’re probably behind the fertility lab.”
“Hold up,” Luke interrupted. “What fertility lab?”
Leif sighed and rolled his eyes.
“What?” Naya asked. “He would have found out eventually anyway.”
“How?” Leif threw out his hands. “They don’t have access to any information. They’re frozen out of their agency.”
“Astrid would have told him,” Naya countered. “After they made up and were back together.” She shot Luke a smile.
The cold lump that had lodged in his chest ever since Astrid left his apartment thawed a little. If Naya thought he had a chance to make it right with Astrid, maybe there was hope.
Whalert leaned in over the table. “What about this fertility lab?”
“We found a warehouse by the railroad tracks that looks like it’s an in vitro fertilization facility,” Leif said.
Luke nodded. That explained the location marked on the map found on the tablet.
Naya picked up the thread. “The abducted women we rescued were probably destined for that warehouse. There were human-size cages inside. I’m certain Kraus is connected to both the lab and the abduction.”
Luke swallowed. The thought of women imprisoned and used in genetic experiments turned his stomach. Anger rose in his chest. “Did Astrid see this lab?” She’d befriended one of the Mexican women, and knowing about the lab would have hit her hard.
“She’s the one who discovered it.” Leif’s voice was quiet.
No wonder she’d been upset when she found out he had met with Kraus. She had the image of those cages in her head when she came to confront him.
“What’s next on our action-item list?” Whalert asked. “What do you need from us?”
Naya looked at Leif expectantly and squeezed his arm.
He rolled his eyes but caressed her hand. “We’ve already started digging up information about Kraus. We know he’s financing the lab here in Pine Rapids. We want to see if he has other investors. We don’t have his address yet, but when we do, we’ll…have a conversation with him.”
“Who has jurisdiction once you arrest him?” Whalert asked. “Will he be extradited to Sweden?”
Leif turned and looked out over the lake. He gestured to the fisherman in the boat. “Sure,” he mumbled. “We’ll extradite him.”
A chill ran down Luke’s spine. Kraus would not stand trial anywhere. Once Leif and his warriors got their hands on him, he’d be exterminated, not extradited.
“I want in on the action,” Luke said. “I want to be there when you take down the lab.”
Leif quirked an eyebrow. “You’ve done enough, don’t you think? I need my warriors in top shape, and having you in the group is going to distract them. All of them. It’s not just Astrid who wants to kill you.”
Luke gritted his teeth. “Kraus thinks I’m laundering his money through the club. If I call a meeting, he’ll be there.”
Leif watched him with cold eyes but nodded once. “I’ll keep you posted.”
Luke hid the triumphant smile about to break out on his lips. He was in.
The sound of a boat engine reached them, and Luke turned to watch the fisherman approach the boat launch. “We better adjourn our meeting if we don’t want this guy to overh
ear us.” He frowned. There was something familiar about the guy.
“Yep, good plan,” Leif said and stood. He walked over to the boat and caught the line the fisherman threw him. The guy then handed Leif the fishing rod and jumped ashore holding a rifle case. He nodded at Luke, who finally recognized him as one of the wedding guests. “Meet my marksman, Per,” Leif said with a shit-eating grin.
That explained the itch on Luke’s neck. The entire meeting had taken place with a long-range rifle aimed at his head.
Leif and his warriors were not to be underestimated. He’d better remember that.
Chapter 24
Astrid watched the dark streets of Pine Rapids pass by the window of the black Escalade as they rolled toward the warehouse district. She ignored the dull headache that had plagued her for the last three days, ever since she’d stormed out of Luke’s apartment. Irja told her it was caused by Astrid’s separation from her själsfrände. That was also why a low-grade fever racked Astrid’s body. She pulled out a jar of ibuprofen and swallowed two pills with the help of a swig from her water bottle.
“That’s not going to cure your problem,” Naya said. The queen was sharing the backseat with Astrid, while Leif drove and Ulf rode shotgun. “You should talk to Luke.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” The bastard had lied to her. Used her. She closed her eyes to clamp down her restless berserker. The beast paced and shook its restraints. For the last twenty-four hours, her inner warrior had been close to the edge of running completely amok. Astrid was pretty sure the only reason she was allowed on this mission was because Leif was afraid of what would happen if he didn’t keep an eye on her. Her berserker technically had to listen to the king’s commands.
“He had a reason for what he was doing,” Naya insisted. “His brother killed himself because of what had happened in a lab. Luke couldn’t know you were on his side.”
“He should have known by the time he left Denver,” Astrid bit out.
“Did you know you could trust him by the time you left Denver?”
Astrid clenched her jaw to keep from snapping at the queen. Maybe she hadn’t trusted Luke implicitly back then, but enough to sleep with him. Enough to believe his interest in her had been real and that he’d pursued her because he wanted to be with her. What he’d wanted was information and bonus sex. She’d been played the entire time. “I don’t want to talk about Luke.”
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