Page 29 of Covert Vengeance

“Which is probably how he found me in Damascus.” She blew out a breath, shook her head. She didn’t seem alarmed, more annoyed. He had to admire her bravery. “Then I can’t go where the others are. I’ll get off the plane in Germany and disappear. You’ll have to take Kiyomi to England to meet the others.”

“No.” He put a hand on her forearm, bringing that pretty green gaze back to his. She wasn’t beautiful in a classical sense, but she had a power all her own that he found mesmerizing. He also felt protective of her, something that she would surely hate. “You’ll be an easier target on your own. If you want to stay alive you need to stick close to me and the others.”

Her jaw firmed, the stubborn lift of her chin enchanting him. “I’m not bringing more danger to the others. They’ve been through way too much already, and the mission is more important than me or my safety. There are people hunting us other than Stanislav. People in the government trying to cover their asses by eliminating us. The team has to get the rest of the Valkyries out of harm’s way before it’s too late.”

Jesse shook his head, everything in him rebelling at the idea of her sacrificing herself for the greater good. There was no way he was budging on this. He was invested now, wanted to ensure she was safe. The force of his protectiveness toward her might not make sense, but it was there regardless. “We’ll go to the base Rycroft’s set up for us in England together, then figure the rest of it out as a team.”

Amber eyed him warily, and though he didn’t know her well yet he swore he could hear her thoughts. She was still planning to take off and mitigate the threat against the others, maybe even by making herself bait to do it. “I’m not endangering anyone ever again. Least of all my sister.”

Her loyalty spoke volumes about her character. Damn, she was something. A trained killer with a moral compass that was still functioning. That was a rarity in their line of work.

He knew the pain of losing a sibling and would do whatever he could to make sure Amber never suffered it again. “We’ll protect them all. Together.”

It had been a damn long time since Jesse had been part of a team. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it. Or how long it had been since he’d had something real to fight for.

So if Yury wanted to kill Amber, that fucker would have to go through him first.

Chapter Nine

Far below the plane, the English countryside spread out beneath them like a neat patchwork quilt—thousands of tidy squares and rectangles in different shades of green covering the gently rolling hills.

Next to Amber, Cordova opened his eyes and checked his watch. He hadn’t left her side once. He’d been a quiet, intense presence through their stop in Germany, standing guard while she’d accompanied Kiyomi to the base hospital. Then he’d slept on the flight across the Channel, giving her way too much time to study him in secret, and way too much time to enjoy what she saw.

In spite of herself, her gaze dropped to his forearm as he looked at his watch, taking in the way the muscles in his forearm flexed. “Should be on the ground in under ten minutes,” he said in that low, sexy voice that had fantasies spinning in her head. Was he strong and take charge in bed too?

“Yep.” Then she’d finally be able to get some distance from him. That was a good thing. Even asleep he kept drawing her attention, while she was supposed to be finding where Stanislav was.

She put aside Lady Ada. “I’ll go wake Kiyomi.”

A team of military doctors and nurses had assessed and treated her at Landstuhl hours earlier. She hadn’t suffered internal damage or concussion, but two of her ribs were cracked and she was battling an infection. Amber and Cordova had put her on the bed in the rear cabin to let her sleep for the flight here, helped along with a dose of morphine from the hospital.

Amber stood. Cordova did too. She stopped, her gaze shooting to his as another frisson of awareness rocketed through her. “Excuse me.” She didn’t want him touching her again. It threw her off balance.

Stepping into the aisle, he lurched when they hit an air pocket, throwing out a hand as the plane dropped suddenly.

A strong arm locked across her back, pulling her to a hard, muscled chest. She had only a second to absorb the shock of it and how good it felt before pulling away as the plane stabilized once again. “Thanks,” she blurted, willfully ignoring her body’s reaction.

“Anytime.”

She slanted him a sideways glance at the underlying heat in his tone, and was taken aback by the blatant male interest in his eyes. He wasn’t even trying to dampen or hide it.

Wrenching her attention from his face, she pulled free of his grasp, pinpoints of heat streaking across her skin where her body brushed his.

Holy.

She pushed her body’s intense reaction to him from her mind and went to wake Kiyomi, glad for the reprieve. Her friend was now wearing a set of lavender hospital scrubs, sound asleep on the bed, stretched out on her stomach to keep off the freshly stitched wounds in her back.

“Kiyomi,” she murmured, reaching out to touch her friend’s shoulder lightly.

Kiyomi stirred, seemed to struggle to summon the strength to force one eye open. The swelling was still as bad as it had been hours ago, the bruising on her face now turning from deep blue to purple. “We there?”

“Almost.” She stayed beside Kiyomi while they landed, then carefully coiled an arm around her friend’s waist and helped her from the cabin. Kiyomi leaned on her as they made their way up the aisle, a clear sign of her pain and fatigue.

Cordova rose and came toward them, reached to take Kiyomi from her, but Kiyomi shrank back and shook her head with a low, “No.” Cordova immediately dropped his hands and stepped back but stayed close enough to help if need be.

Amber glanced out a window on the left side near the cockpit. Excitement and anticipation built as the jet came to a gentle stop near the small terminal building. Two vehicles were parked just beyond the terminal, and she could see silhouettes moving in the windows of the building.

She reached down for her backpack and helped Kiyomi to the cabin door. Cordova opened it and deployed the stairs, revealing Megan and Tyler coming toward them.

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