Page 81 of The Gathering Storm

Two seconds later, she was at the window again, peering out into the frigid, late autumn landscape. Snow frosted the grass verging the forest surrounding the mountain cabin. Intrepid cardinals flitted through the pine, flashing hints of color among the grey-green tree trunks. The world outside was silent, serene, and entirely too rural for India’s taste.

Blessed Mother, where was he?

Her cellphone buzzed against the rustic coffee table sitting between the couch and the Navajo-patterned blanket thrown over its backrest, and the fire roaring in the woodstove. This phone was the one concession Hiro had made to her many demands for more freedom, the one lifeline she had to the outside world, but only because it led directly to him.

Sneaky bastard had wiretapped the damn thing. No matter who she called or texted, no matter what she did with it, he would know.

And that’s what she got for sleeping with a former Delta Forces Operator and current co-owner of a growing personal security business. For all she knew, he had bugs tucked into every nook and cranny of the cabin and was, even now, listening to her pacing back and forth across the oak floors in her socked feet.

The phone buzzed again, yanking her out of her growing irritation. She strode across the room and snatched it up, thumbed into the first text message she’d received, and stopped cold.

Finish it.

Satisfaction flooded into her. She deleted the message, dropped the phone onto the table. The drone of an approaching vehicle fluttered at the edge of her hearing. She crossed to the window and lifted the curtain, spotted Hiro’s SUV, and allowed herself a small smile.

Her little interlude with the Blade, and then with her rescuer, hadn’t alienated her as she’d feared. The job she’d left unfinished was waiting for her, and she fully intended to see it through, come Hell or high water, or any force that bitch Rebecca Upton chose to throw at her.

India dropped the curtain and stepped back, affecting an impatient expression for the man who had, for a brief time, been her lover.

Let the games begin.

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