Page 69 of Covert Vengeance

That didn’t matter now. By the time they figured that out, the op would be over, and Yury would have a Valkyrie hacker in his possession. “But the drone’s still operational?”

“Yes. I’m monitoring you now with it. The cloud cover’s obscuring some visibility but the infrared mitigates that. There are two armored vehicles parked inside the gate. I’m not getting a thermal reading from either of them, but that’s likely because of the thickness of the armor. The second one just pulled in there fifteen minutes ago. No one’s gotten in or out of either of them.”

“Which one is the woman in?”

“I can’t tell.”

Yury wasn’t worried. Not with the firepower he had at his disposal. He was going to kill everyone he encountered regardless. “I’m cutting comms. Only break radio silence from now on if it’s critical.”

“Understood.”

He slid his phone into his jeans pocket and drew his weapon as the SUVs came within sight of the gate. It was wide open, as specified. “Go,” Yury ordered the driver in the vehicle ahead of him.

He owned Amber now, and no one was going to take her from him. After he got his money back he was going to let his men have her before he finally got down to the business of paying her back for the pain Zoya had suffered in her final few hours.

He’d made himself read the autopsy report. He knew exactly what had been done to her, and it wasn’t hard to imagine how. Torture didn’t bother him; it was a means to an end in his world. But knowing the woman he loved had been subjected to it filled him with visceral rage and grief.

All Amber Brown’s fault. That bitch had turned his and Zoya’s enemies against Zoya, knowing full well what would happen. Now it was her turn to see how it felt.

The lead SUV pulled through the gate and approached the armored trucks. A man jumped out of the one on the left.

Yury’s gaze locked on him, his whole body tensing, ready to spring. Cordova?

The first SUV’s headlights illuminated the man as it drew closer. Yury cursed under his breath when he realized it wasn’t Cordova and immediately looked around for threats. His hacker said he hadn’t seen any activity, but he might have missed something.

What have you got up your sleeve, asshole?he thought, thinking of Cordova.

Ahead of them, the man hurried around to the back of the second armored vehicle. He opened the rear door, revealing the woman in the cargo area.

Yury leaned forward, scrutinizing the hair color, the size and build, and triumph pulsed through him.

Amber.

She was seated on the floor in the back, blindfolded, her hands bound behind her. A heartbeat later the unknown man slammed the rear door shut and hurried back to the driver’s side of the other armored van. Its tires spun as he started the engine, cranked the wheel and turned in a sharp hairpin turn to race past the lead SUV.

“Go after him,” Yury ordered, all his focus on the remaining van. His men could deal with the male driver and use him to find out where Cordova was.

In the meantime, Yury would take the bitch and worry about sorting everything else out later. He wasn’t going to walk away now.

The SUV behind him peeled away and raced after the armored van. Yury’s vehicle stopped beside the first, directly behind the van Amber was in. His hacker hadn’t broken radio silence to report anything, and their drone was top of the line. Yury couldn’t afford to sit here and waste time being overly cautious.

He waved a hand, signaling the men in his vehicle to get out. They exited the SUV and surrounded the van, weapons aimed at the doors, forming a protective circle for him.

Nothing happened.

When the acting leader of his security gave the all clear, Yury got out, pistol in hand, and approached the rear door. One of his men threw it open.

Shock jolted through him as he stared at the empty cargo area. “What the hell,” he muttered in Russian, jumping inside to look around. Had she slipped into the front seat through a secret panel?

But there was nothing.

“Where the fuck is she?” he snarled, his heart beating faster. He’d just seen her sitting here, she hadn’t been a damn hologram. There was no way for her to get through the steel bulkhead between the cargo area and the cab, but she couldn’t have disappeared into thin air—

He stopped and spun around, reaching for the edge of the rubber matting covering the floor. With a vicious yank he wrenched it aside…

To reveal a neatly cut circle in the steel floor.

“God dammit,” he bit out, staring at the closed manhole beneath him.

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