Page 37 of Explosive Vengeance

She hurriedly tugged on her clothes—no easy feat trying to drag denim up wet legs. When she turned to Heath, he was already dressed and reaching for his jacket. But she still remembered exactly what he’d looked like with all those muscles covered in brushstrokes of moonlight.

“Hey,” she said when Megan answered, rubbing her free hand over her arm. “You calling to make sure we’re both still alive?”

“No, I feel pretty confident you two could take care of yourselves if any assassins followed you from the quaint Bavarian restaurant,” Megan answered with a laugh. “You coming back to the house soon?”

“Maybe.” She looked back at Heath, who stood watching her, wishing they could have more time alone together. This had been fun and magical. She’d never forget it. “Why?”

“I’ve been in contact with Kiyomi back at base. Thanks to a few leads we’ve been following, I think we might have a possible location on your suspected Valkyrie. Her name’s Eden. Can you come have a look at what we’ve got?”

Snapping back into operator mode, Chloe motioned for Heath to follow her and started for the path. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Chapter Twelve

Back at Laidlaw Hall, Kiyomi stood next to Amber in an upstairs bedroom recently converted into an office. A bank of computers was spread out before them on the wide desk as they talked to Trinity via a highly secure video chat on the laptop in the center.

“Is Megan bringing Chloe back here?” Amber asked.

“Not yet,” Trinity answered, only her head and shoulders visible. The former Valkyrie was back in the U.S. right now, working with “retired” NSA legend Alex Rycroft and the small team he’d put together there to help find the other Valkyries. Trinity was the eldest, and Kiyomi and the others looked up to her as the unofficial team leader. “Chloe won’t come on board until she’s rescued a shipment of women being trafficked out of North Africa into France.”

Kiyomi’s stomach clamped tight at the mention of the human trafficking, but Trinity continued.

“Megan’s feeding us details as she can. She and Ty are staying with Chloe to assist, along with Ty’s friend.”

“The former PJ,” Amber said.

“Yes. We’ve vetted him thoroughly. Everything checks out, so he’s on board with us for the time being. Now,” Trinity continued, her deep blue eyes focusing on Kiyomi through the screen. “You think Chloe may have had contact with one of our kind over the past few months?”

Kiyomi stepped a little to the right so the webcam could get a better angle on her, aware of the way Amber watched her with interest. “Yes. I think it’s Eden.” She was almost positive it was.

Trinity’s expression never changed. “Why do you think that?”

“Gut feeling. The timeline and everything Chloe said lines up with it being Eden.”

“Because?”

“Last I heard a few years ago, Eden was doing jobs in North Africa. Her appearance and fluent French would make her blend in perfectly there. If that’s where Dubois is shipping these women from, then it’s even more likely Eden knows about it and got involved with what Chloe’s been doing.”

“How do you know her?” Trinity asked.

“We were trained together in certain areas. CQB, self-defense, seduction techniques. The program cadre had already decided we were the right candidates for going after targets up close and personal. Soon after we finished that second training phase, she was moved into toxins, and I was moved into…more intimate things.”

Trinity nodded, her deep blue eyes serious and full of understanding. “Ah.”

Of all these new Valkyrie sisters they were gathering, Kiyomi had the closest bond with Trinity. As “intimate assassins” they were the rarest kind, and arguably the deadliest. None of the others knew the kind of life she’d led, except Trinity.

They also had the highest mortality rate. Most of their kind didn’t live more than a handful of years after graduating and being sent out into the field. It was a miracle that she and Trinity had both survived.

“You look exhausted,” Trinity said to her gently. “Still not sleeping much?”

No one knew they talked privately a few times a week about things in Kiyomi’s past, or that she was remotely seeing a therapist Trinity had hooked her up with. Her captivity had shifted something inside her. Rattled loose all the things she’d kept locked down before, and now she couldn’t put them back. “Better than I was.” This place and the people in it were allowing her to heal. She was finally surrounded by people who understood her, who cared about and wanted to support her. Especially Trinity.

“But not enough.”

She opened her mouth to deny it, then decided there was no point. “No. Not enough.” The bruises, lacerations and fractured ribs she’d suffered in Syria had healed within the first month she’d been here. Too bad her mind and soul hadn’t recovered nearly as well.

Sleep was a double-edged sword now. On the one hand she craved it. On the other, she feared it. Because it didn’t bring the welcome rest and oblivion it should have. It brought pain and terror.

Whenever she slipped into a deep enough sleep to allow for dreams, they turned into nightmares. Every. Single. Time. No matter how hard she pushed herself to exhaustion in the hopes that she wouldn’t dream, it still happened. Every time,heappeared. Those dark, evil eyes filled with a fanatical gleam as he leaned over her helpless form.

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