Page 40 of Explosive Vengeance

“Ah. And from what I know about Valkyries, that won’t be easy.”

“No. But nothing worthwhile ever is.”

His eyes warmed, the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “Aye.” He went back to staring out at the garden, the quiet settling around them.

“I wanted to thank you.”

That dark gaze cut back to hers. “For what?”

“For opening up your home to all of us. I know that must be hard for you. And for…watching over me.”

Something moved in his eyes, then he looked away. “It’s been my pleasure.”

He was uncomfortable with her gratitude. Kiyomi found that interesting. And they’d talked more in this past minute than they had her entire stay. “Can I ask you something?” she said after another minute. They had things in common that the others didn’t. Dark, terrible things. He’d gone through his own version of hell. They’d both been captured and taken prisoner by the enemy.

He gave her his full attention. “Aye, of course.”

“Do you sleep through the night since coming back from Syria?”

His face froze at her words.

Kiyomi flushed, wishing she’d never opened her mouth. He was quiet and private. She’d been trained to be polished, smooth as silk with her words, yet with him she just blurted out her innermost thoughts like an idiot. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

“No, it’s all right.” He shifted, fastened his eyes on the garden once more. “I don’t sleep through often.” After a pause, he glanced at her. “Nightmares?”

“Yes.”

He nodded, his eyes full of understanding and a pain she wished she could wipe away. “They’ll ease eventually. And dealing with everything in your head will get easier with time, I promise.”

She half-smiled. “Okay. I’m going to hold you to that.”

The back door of the house opened, drawing their attention. Amber stepped outside, the late afternoon sun glinting gold in her chocolate-brown hair. “There you are.” She headed toward them at a brisk pace, a woman on a mission.

“Everything okay?” Kiyomi asked, tensing inside.

“Yeah, I just wanted to update you.” She looked between them, then settled her gaze on Kiyomi. “I found something you should know.”

“What?”

“I found out who Dubois is buying the shipment of women from.” Her cold expression said it for her.

Rahman.

Kiyomi’s stomach grabbed as she thought of the women. That would have been her fate if not for Amber and Jesse. Rahman had made a serious mistake in not killing her when he’d had the chance.

One day she would kill him for what he’d done.

No matter what it took, no matter the cost, her last act on this earth would be to kill him.

Chapter Thirteen

“Damn, I just don’t feel right about this,” Chloe said to the others around the safehouse kitchen table the next morning.

So much had happened since she’d left Paris. She suddenly had a team to help her, and she was trying to wrap her mind around that. Megan’s sister Amber was monitoring various channels back in the UK, keeping them up to date on the latest dealings between Guillaume Dubois and the broker responsible for shipping the women to Marseille.

Unfortunately, their best plan for this op was now dead. A former Valkyrie working with Rycroft named Georgia was supposed to have flown in last night from the States to act as the rep, but intel at the last moment indicated her information might have fallen into Dubois’ network’s hands.

If true and they identified her, they would kill her on sight. The team had considered bringing Interpol in on this, but Rycroft no longer had contacts there he trusted implicitly. There was talk about a potential mole in the agency, possibly linked to Dubois.

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