Page 34 of More Than A Feeling

I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Send her in."

The door opened, and a woman I didn't know at all walked into my office. She was tall and athletic, with a no-nonsense demeanor. She wore a pair of jeans, army-style boots, a T-shirt, and a bomber jacket. I was certain she was former or current military.

I rose and introduced myself. We shook hands.

"I don't know who you are," I stated as I sat back down on my desk chair, and she sat across from me in a comfortable leather chair.

"I know that you don't know," she said, her gray eyes and dark face giving absolutely nothing away. "I'm Anya Burke, and I work with Fleur Landry at BRT Systems."

My heart skipped a beat at the mention of her name. "Is Fleur okay?"

Anya licked her lips. "I'm not supposed to be here. In fact, I'm not here."

I arched an eyebrow. "Is Fleur okay?" I repeated.

She sighed. "Fleur is my boss. We're a four-person programming team that works on military projects for BRT Systems."

My heart started to hammer. "Military? What does that mean?"

"Can't tell you," she said softly, looking me straight in the eye. "Three days ago, Fleur and another teammate went to an undisclosed location and something went wrong."

"Is Fleur okay?" I repeated, barely getting those words out because I was afraid of the answer, frightened that this woman was here to tell me that my girl wasn't alright.

"Don't know." She tapped her fingers on the desk. "We lost contact with her and Orion, our teammate twenty-two hours ago."

The room seemed to tilt for a moment. I gripped the edge of my desk, trying to steady myself. "What do you mean, missing? Is she—"

"We don't know," Anya cut in. "All communication from their end is silent."

"What the fuck? Is she military? CIA? What?"

"She's a programmer like I am. We work for a private contractor."

"Why didn't she tell me about this?" I demanded, a mix of anger and fear rising in my chest.

Anya's eyes softened slightly. "She couldn't, Callum. It's classified. I shouldn't even be telling you this much, but my teammate and I thought you deserved to know. Fleur wanted you to get a message in case she doesn't make it back."

I felt a lump in my throat. "What message?"

Anya reached into her jacket and pulled out her phone. She set it on the table and pushed some buttons.

Fleur's voice filled the room.

"Tell Callum…tell him that I love him…really, really love him. I forgive him. I've always loved him since the start. Hell, Viper, I hope I get to see him again. But if I don't, do me this favor and let him know. Okay?"

I lost my shit, and tears were rolling down my cheeks.

"I can't believe this. How could she be involved in something so dangerous? She's a coder, not a soldier."

"She was doing her job," Anya said quietly. "And she's damn good at it."

"What's being done to find her?" I asked, desperation creeping into my voice.

"A team is on their way," Anya said, but she didn't look hopeful.

"You came here because you don't think she's alive…or that she won't make it."

Anya shrugged. "I came here because she wanted me to. She left that message, hoping it would get through, and it did. It's the last we heard from them. So, yeah, I came. Rune is the fourth person on our team. He's still tracking, and we're all…. Fuck! I don't know, Callum, if she's alive, if Orion is alive. We just…."She flung her hands in the air. "I'm ex-military, and so is Orion, so we know our shit, but Rune and Wraith, they're—"

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