Page 68 of Covert Vengeance

Amber was worth it, whether she believed that or not. Helping her in her cause was worth it. Because she mattered to him.

This was anything but a job to Jesse. Not when it involved Amber. So if it came down to it, he was prepared to give up his life to save hers.

“You ready for this?” she asked as he checked his rifle one last time.

The glare from the monitors illuminated her face in a pale blue wash that made her eyes glow. She’d made it clear before leaving for London that she didn’t like him risking his life for her, but too damn bad. Heloathedher risking her life to nail a piece of shit like Stanislav, yet here they were.

“Yeah. You?” She was deep under his skin at this point, and he was pretty sure that went both ways.

Once this was all over, he was going to whisk her away to have a solid stretch of time with her—alone. He wanted to fall asleep beside her and wake up with her in the morning. Wanted to learn more about her quirks and interests, how her sexy mind worked.

He wanted her to behis.

She shifted in her chair and focused on her laptop screen. “I’m good to go.” She was armed too, just in case, but her greatest weapon was her brain and her fingers on the keyboard.

So very hot, and she didn’t even realize it.

For the past several hours he’d witnessed her working her electronic wizardry when he’d been in and out of here in between recon trips and helping set everything up. Her talent astounded him, and at this point he was just glad they were on the same side. She made one hell of a formidable enemy.

She lowered her hands to her lap, her gaze serious as it settled on him. “Promise me you’ll watch out for my sister.”

He could tell it wasn’t an easy thing for her to ask him. And her asking at all told him just how important it was to her. He inclined his head. “I will.”

“Comms check,” Trinity said through their earpieces.

Everyone checked in by team. Bautista and Georgia. Ty and Megan. Him and Amber. And Marcus and Kiyomi, back at Laidlaw Hall.

“Is everyone in position?” Amber asked.

The entire team replied in the affirmative.

“Okay, curtain’s about to go up on this show. Stand by for things to go dark. I’ll count us down.” Her fingers worked lightning fast on the keyboard, her eyes moving restlessly from one screen to the next as she checked her systems. “Ten. Nine. Eight…”

Jesse left her and took up position by the front window, rifle in his hands and his sidearm in its holster, using a tiny gap in the blinds to keep watch on the gate Stanislav should be arriving at shortly. The two armored trucks were parked nearby, Megan bound in the back of one of them.

He breathed out slowly, clearing his mind. The shortage Amber was about to create would only buy them a small window of time. For their plan to work, Stanislav had to show up pretty close to on time.

“Two. One. And… Show time,” Amber finished, hitting the enter key with a flourish.

Jesse locked his stare on the gate at the north end of the property as everything suddenly went dark and waited, ready for anything.

All right, Stanislav. Let’s do this.

Chapter Nineteen

“The whole area’s down, and it wasn’t me.”

The hacker’s words set Yury’s teeth on edge. “Down how?”

“The power’s been cut all around the meeting point. Probably all security cameras and systems as well.”

It’s a trap.

Yury chuckled softly in amusement. He would have been disappointed if Cordova hadn’t thrown a few last-minute surprises at him. But Yury wasn’t alone, and he had enough firepower to overwhelm an attack. The money he’d spent for tonight was well worth it to get both Amber and Cordova.

“Did you see any activity over the past few hours?” The hacker had been monitoring various security feeds.

“No. I don’t know who’s doing this. I can’t even find where the hack came from.”

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