Page 30 of Covert Vengeance

A wide smile broke over Amber’s face as she watched her sister. She and Megan definitely looked related, though Megan was shorter and less curvy, with chestnut-brown hair and hazel eyes. “Hey,” she called out.

Megan grinned back from the bottom of the steps while Tyler stood next to her. “Hi. You guys made good time.” Then her grin faded as she looked to Kiyomi. “I’m Megan, and this is Tyler. Security’s been tightened. You’re safe with us.”

“Thank you,” Kiyomi said, and put on a little smile that had to hurt her cut mouth.

Together Megan and Amber got Kiyomi settled into the back of a Range Rover. Shutting the door behind the injured Valkyrie, Amber turned to face her sister, who was standing just feet from her. She drank in the sight of Megan, overwhelmed once again by the sharp ache in her chest even as she masked her emotions.

My sister. Her only remaining link to the family they’d lost.

They stared at each other for a few beats as a slightly awkward silence spread between them, then Megan grinned and held out her arms. “Come on. Bring it in.”

Laughing under her breath, Amber walked into the hug. It was fast, punctuated by a couple of light back slaps, then they separated. “You look well.”

“Do I? Thanks. Must have something to do with this guy.” She snagged Tyler around the waist and leaned into him with a contented smile.

Something close to envy pierced her at the sight. The connection between those two was undeniable. “Tyler. Good to see you.”

“You too.” His slate blue eyes glimmered with suppressed humor. “I won’t have to assist in any daring escapes this time around, will I?”

“Let’s hope not.” She introduced them to Cordova, who had watched everything in silence, then got in the back of the Rover with him, Kiyomi between them. She couldn’t help but snicker when Megan got behind the wheel and Tyler got in the passenger seat.

He swiveled around to aim a rueful smile at her. “I learned fast to pick my battles with this one. She barely ever lets me drive. Such a control freak.”

“Hey.” Megan jabbed him in the ribs with her fingers and started the engine. “This is my sister we’re escorting. I get to drive.”

“Yes, dear.”

Amber couldn’t help but notice the ring on her sister’s left hand. For some reason the sight made her strangely wistful. Women like them didn’t get to have love stories or happily ever afters, but Amber had a feeling Megan might just have beaten the odds. At least, she hoped her sister had.

Shaking that line of thinking off, she focused on the situation at hand. Kiyomi was pale and tense beside her, with Cordova radiating that silent air of power from the other side. “What’s the plan?” she asked her sister.

“We’re taking you straight to the manor,” Megan said as she steered out of the parking lot. “Trinity’s brought in more backup. You’ll meet them all when we get there.”

****

The sensor at the gate alerted him that someone was approaching. Looking up from the expense spreadsheet he’d been going over, Marcus glanced at the monitor on his desk. When the familiar gray Range Rover came into view he got up and made his way down the hall to the front door.

Technically he’d owned Laidlaw Hall for almost four years now, but he didn’t play lord of the manor well. He felt stupid and entitled standing there on the step waiting to welcome his new guests, but he couldn’t very well hide in his study for the next few months—or however long this arrangement lasted.

As the vehicle pulled through the gate and started up the crushed gravel drive, he walked to the bottom on the front steps, his left hand resting on the top of his cane, Karas beside him. “Here are our new guests,” he said to her, absently stroking the top of her furry head with his right hand. His new beard itched slightly, but at least it covered some of the worst scarring on his face and neck. It couldn’t cover the swirling, puckered skin around his eye, however, or disguise the limp from his hip injury.

It was entirely possible this would prove to be a huge mistake on his part in the end. For certain it threatened the peaceful existence he’d made for himself out here, his private refuge and place of healing about to be inundated with more strangers. But given everything that had happened, what choice had he had except to offer his home for this cause?

He was solitary by nature, and a hundred times more so since that last op in Syria. Yet having Megan come to live with him a few months ago when she’d needed a safe place to go to ground had been one of the best decisions he’d ever made.

She’d brought life to this old mausoleum. And him.

He’d gone from feeling obliged to her to being fond of her, then become outright attached to her. Not to mention protective. She meant the world to him. So when danger had stalked her once again and brought her and her sister back together, he’d offered his home as a safe haven for them and the other Valkyries they were able to bring in.

“What have we got ourselves into this time, eh, girl?” he murmured.

Karas tipped her head back to gaze up at him with her clear, intelligent eyes and thumped her sturdy white tail on the stone. Oblivious to the danger this would put them all in. Although she was no stranger to danger. She’d been just weaned from her mother when he’d found her as a pup in the shelled-out rubble of a building outside Damascus, abandoned, hungry and ridden with fleas.

Down the drive, the Range Rover kicked a faint trail of dust out from under its tires, and he was conscious of a mild sinking sensation in his gut. With Megan and Tyler now living in the gatehouse, the only remaining rooms for guests were in the main house, with him. He was about to be surrounded by strangers.

Megan jumped out with Tyler just as both back doors popped open. A tall, well-built man with a military bearing and a penetrating gaze stepped out of one side. On the other, Amber emerged, helping another woman from the back seat.

Amber straightened and turned to face him, her arm around her injured friend.

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