Page 13 of Explosive Vengeance

Heath shook his head, his annoyance burning through his forced calm. “What thehell, man? I followed your girlfriend’s friend, thinking I was doing a good deed by keeping an eye on her because that’s how you painted it, and not only was shenothappy to see me, she nearly sliced my junk off with a freaking KA-BAR.”

Ty laughed. “Oh, shit.”

Heath glared at Chloe, who was grinning now as she chewed her gum. “Yeah, oh, shit is right. A little more info or some warning would’ve been nice. Care to tell me what’s really going on now?”

“Brother, that’s a long story and I’ll fill you in later, but just know I’m sorry for all this and that I owe you big time.”

“Yeah,bigtime,” Heath agreed, still watching Chloe. Ty hadn’t sounded that surprised about the KA-BAR bit. Asshole. “Anyway, we’re at a place outside Strasbourg, and no one else followed us. Can you put Megan on so I’m not in the hot seat anymore?”

“One sec.”

Heath stood there holding his phone like an idiot while they waited for Megan to come on the line. Chloe hadn’t moved, and though she’d lost the grin, her big brown eyes held mingled curiosity and amusement as she watched him.

“I’m here,” a female voice said a moment later, and Chloe’s expression sobered. “Your end secure?”

Chloe’s face gave nothing away. “No.”

“Understood. You like Wagner?”

Something flared in her eyes. “Yes.”

“You know what to do.”

Before Heath could make sense of the odd conversation, Chloe swiped the phone from him and ended the call. Pulling another phone from her hip pocket, she texted someone.

What was she up to now? Why wouldn’t anyone tell him what the fuck was going on here? “Can I have my phone back now?” he said, a bite to his tone.

She kept typing. “Nope.” She stopped, scanned the screen, and when it buzzed with an incoming message moments later, she tapped a button.

The first few bars of a classical song he vaguely recognized filled the silence.

Chloe froze, surprise flickering across her face before she masked it and stopped the song.

“What? What does it mean?” All clear? Danger? Jesus, he hadn’t felt this clueless since he’d been captured in SERE school.

Those big brown eyes swept over him from head to toe and back again, as though she was seeing him for the first time. “Stay here and don’t move,” she ordered. Tossing him his phone, she pivoted and marched from the room, her phone to her ear.

Chapter Five

Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” That was the song the woman claiming to be Megan had sent.

Chloe’s heart raced as she hurried to the bedroom, waiting for the call to connect. All the signs said this was real. Megan’s name. The timing of Megan finding her. The song. Even the guy waiting in the other room.

It had been years. So many years since she’d heard her friend’s voice, and she didn’t want an audience for this conversation.

“Hey,” the same woman answered.

Megan. Was it really Megan? “Your end secure?”

“Yes.”

“When did you graduate?”

“May nineteenth.”

Same day as Chloe. “Who was with you when you got your mark?” Chloe asked.

“You.”

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