Page 3 of Fast Vengeance

An expertly placed forearm whipped out to block it at the last moment. “Good. Very good, you didn’t even hesitate this time.”

Straightening, Victoria looked at the other woman. “Guess I must have a good teacher, huh?”

Briar DeLuca grinned, her teeth startling white against her dusky skin tone. “Well, you could do worse.”

“She could do way worse.” Trinity rose from her chair on the other side of the room, cup of coffee in hand. She was sensuality personified as she walked toward them in her red wrap-style dress that came to just below her knees and hugged every curve.

But that magnetic sensuality hid a darker edge.

Underneath all the sleek glamor and sex appeal, Trinity was deadly. Victoria didn’t know the details, but both Trinity and Briar had been part of something called The Valkyrie program, a top-secret group run by the government that was now disbanded.

Unlike Briar, who used a sniper rifle for her kills, Victoria got the sense that Trinity had made a career of eliminating her targets by far more…up close and personal means. Both women were fascinating. And they were both survivors themselves, which made Victoria feel more comfortable with them.

“You two done yet?” Trinity asked. “Because there’s a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge, and it’s been calling my name for the past three hours. You’re both lucky it’s still in there.”

Wearing yoga pants and a tank top that showed off her strong arms, Briar arched a dark eyebrow at Victoria. “Well? Your call.”

She nodded and swiped a forearm across her sweaty forehead. They’d been working for nearly an hour at this point. “I’m done.”

“Wine it is,” Briar announced, spinning around and heading for Trinity’s fridge.

“Make yourself at home,” Trinity said dryly, following her.

“Always do.” She plucked the wine from the fridge. “Oooh, and you’ve made food for us too?”

“A few nibbles,” Trinity answered, bumping her aside with a hip to take out a couple of platters.

Victoria moaned as she took a seat on one of the stools at the island. “Cream puffs?” A whole plate of them, each the size of a golf ball, and all of them covered in dark chocolate.

“And strawberries,” Trinity was quick to add. “Also dipped in chocolate, but whatever. Because we all need five to ten servings of fruits and veggies a day, after all.” She popped a puff into her mouth, her pretty blue eyes sparkling as she chewed it.

Victoria grabbed one in each hand, eyeing the berries. She could easily demolish the entire plate.

“Ooh, doubling down right out of the gate. I like it,” Briar said, sliding Victoria a glass of wine across the island. “Just make sure you save some for me.”

“Not promising anything,” Victoria mumbled around her second creampuff, taking the wine.

She was so much more comfortable with these women now than she had been at first. Even to the point that she no longer felt the need to keep the scars around her neck covered. The ones on her wrists and ankles, others scattered over her body didn’t bother her as much as the ones on her neck. They were healed but deep in places and ugly. No one looking at them could misunderstand what had caused them.

She resisted the urge to pull her hair forward to hide them. Briar and Trinity knew she was a rape victim who had escaped the Veneno cartel. They didn’t look at her with pity or treat her like she was fragile. Instead, they had taught her how to fight back.

Victoria had been working out with them once a week for several months now, learning self-defense techniques and basic hand-to-hand combat tactics. Enough for her to feel confident about her ability to defend herself if necessary moving forward. Just one of the ways she was preparing for the next life transition that lay ahead of her when she left the WITSEC facility, looming closer every day. When it would hit exactly she didn’t know, but she needed to be prepared for when it did.

Because no matter what her future held, she would never be a victim again.

Taking a final sip, Briar glanced at her empty wineglass for a second, then at her watch. “Eh, we’ve got time,” she announced, and poured herself another glass. “I love how anal your security team is about time. I could set my watch by them,” she said to Victoria. “I know the Marshals Service are the best when it comes to personal protection, but it’s been truly impressive to see little bits of how they work.”

WITSEC was no joke. “They don’t mess around, that’s for sure.” Yet as good as they were, even the marshals weren’t impervious to threats from the Venenos. Only a few months back, the marshals had lost a key government asset in the ongoing fight against the cartel. Since that day, they’d tightened measures even more.

“So, where are we meeting next week?” Trinity asked before taking a sip of wine.

“Not sure yet.” Today they were at Trinity’s place, a high-end, secure penthouse condo where she lived with Brody Colebrook, a sniper for the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team.

“We could do it at my place. Matt would love to meet you,” Briar said with a grin. She was married to the HRT commander.

“I’d like to meet him too,” Victoria said. Their sessions had only ever involved the three of them, so she hadn’t met their significant others. “I’ll have to run it past my security detail, see what the boss says.” The Marshals Service had only allowed these weekly training sessions in amongst the rest of her scheduled activities because of Trinity’s and Briar’s backgrounds and security clearances. Well, and because Victoria had an insider champion of sorts.

DEA Supervisory Special Agent Brock Hamilton, the team leader for FAST Bravo. He’d set this whole thing up for her, to help give her more confidence and a sense of security while she tried to put the pieces of her life back together.

---