Page 23 of Explosive Vengeance

She was silent so long he didn’t think she would answer. Then she relented with a sigh. “Did you see the news before you came to the train station?”

“Briefly after I got there. Why?”

“Anything important being televised?”

Only one thing came to mind. “There was some kind of explosion at a house in Paris belonging to a wealthy businessman. He was missing.”

“Because he’s dead.”

Wait. “Youkilled him?” His voice rose. He was on the run with a murderess?

She didn’t deny it, and that was answer enough. “As to who’s after me, I’m pretty sure it’s his older brother. He’s as corrupt as they come, but he covers it up with this fancy, polished veneer. He’s an evil piece of shit, same as his brother was,” she finished with a twist of her mouth.

“Holy shit,” he muttered, running a hand down his face. “Does Ty know all this?”

“Probably. I’m betting Megan does, so…yeah, pretty sure he does.”

Then why the hell would Ty have sent him to do this? And not warn him what he was walking into? “Yeah, let’s not talk anymore.” He already didn’t like knowing the things he did so far. He needed to maintain as much plausible deniability as possible in case they were arrested.

“Fair enough.”

Heath turned on the radio, found a top forty station and left it there to fill the silence. They sped through the darkness, his mind busy dissecting everything he’d learned.

He was going to kick Ty’s ass for this.

The remainder of the drive to Zurich passed without a single other word spoken between them. He’d made up his mind that she was some kind of spy.

When they were only a few kilometers away from the city, Heath’s phone buzzed with a new message. “They’re here,” he said to Chloe. “Where are we meeting them?”

She gave him an address that he passed on, and drove them to a cottage set back from a quiet street near the freeway. “This is us,” she said as she parked along the curb.

“What is it?”

“A safehouse.”

Of course it was. She apparently had a network of them at her disposal.

He stood on the back doorstep watching for any sign of trouble while she punched the keycode into the door lock and went inside. Heath followed, and within moments he got another message. “They’re two minutes out.”

And oh, man, it couldn’t go by fast enough.

A brisk knock signaled the wait was over. Heath shot off the couch when Chloe checked the back door, weapon in hand. “It’s them.” She opened it, the wide smile on her face transforming her from pretty to stunning. She enveloped a shorter brunette in a giant hug, then dragged her inside. “Itchy. Oh my God.”

The brunette—he presumed Megan—hugged her in return, holding on for a long moment. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Me either. Care to introduce me to that hunk on the doorstep?”

They separated, and Ty walked in, shutting the door behind him. He gave Chloe a smile and held out his hand. “Chloe. Nice to meet you finally. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

She shook his hand. “I’ll bet.”

Ty’s grin shifted to apologetic when he locked gazes with Heath. “Hey, brother. Good to see you’re still in one piece.”

“Ha-ha.” He walked over to shake Megan’s hand, his brain going a hundred miles an hour.

“And look, we brought you a new pair of jeans without any knife holes in them.” Ty pulled them out of his backpack, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Heath swiped them from him. “Thanks. Now start talking before I lose my shit.”

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