Page 7 of Explosive Vengeance

“A few minutes ago, in a station in central Paris. She bought a ticket to Strasbourg. Train leaves in eighty-one minutes.”

That didn’t give them much time. Certainly not enough to get to Paris before the train left. “How long does it take for the train to get to Strasbourg?”

“Two hours, give or take.”

So, around three-and-a-half hours total. Still not enough to arrange and hop on a private flight to get them there in time. “We’ll have to intercept her in Strasbourg.”

But how? They couldn’t involve the police or any other law enforcement because they didn’t know who was targeting the remaining Valkyries. If only they had someone in Paris they could have step in—

A light bulb lit up in her brain. “I got it!”

Megan dashed from the room before her sister could answer, racing downstairs. She found her boyfriend Tyler in the study having a beer with Jesse and the master of Laidlaw Hall, her dear friend Marcus. All three men looked at her as she burst into the room.

“I need you to call your friend back,” she blurted to Tyler without preamble. “The one you talked to this morning.”

He blinked at her with those sexy slate blue eyes. “What, Heath?”

He was still in Paris for another day or two. “Yes. Right now. Come on.” She grabbed his hand, pulled him out of the chair and dragged him from the room, gesturing for the others to follow. “We think we’ve found Chloe but we need someone to follow her so we don’t lose her. Her train leaves Paris for Strasbourg in a little over an hour. Can you get him to follow her?”

“You wantHeathto follow her?” He sounded incredulous.

“Yes.” He and Tyler were pretty much best friends after working together as security contractors in various hotspots and combat zones throughout South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. “It’s our best shot. He’s former AFSOC, so he’s trained—”

“Not for something like this, and it’s not fair to him if I can’t tell him what’s really going on.”

“Tyler, weneedhim. Plus he’s got some security clearance. And as a former PJ, he cares about helping people. He’s perfect.” She towed him up the stairs to the office where Amber was still working her magic, then turned the puppy dog eyes on him, aware of Jesse entering the room and Marcus’s cane thudding on the floor in the hallway. “We can’t afford to lose her when we’re finally so close, and after this hit she’ll be in even more danger. Please?”

Thankfully Tyler was used to her by now, and he was quick on the uptake. He also knew how hard it was to track a Valkyrie, let alone capture one. If they lost Chloe now, they might not get another shot.

He sighed and turned to her sister. “Amber, show me what you’ve got.”

It took him all of two minutes to get a read on the situation. After briefly discussing it with everyone in the room, he pulled out his phone, then hesitated. “I hate doing this to him,” he said to her. “But we can’t afford to lose her.”

“No, we can’t. So hurry.”

Tyler glanced at Jesse, former MARSOC-turned-hitman, now a part of their team. “What do you think?”

“You trust him?” Jesse asked.

“With my life.” He said it immediately, without any hesitation.

Jesse nodded, absently stroking a hand over Amber’s hair. “Then make the call.”

Chapter Three

Escape.

That’s what Heath had needed, and he planned to make the most of this leave in Paris between security contracting jobs. Escape from the grind of being in a combat zone for months at a time. From the sheer, mind-numbing boredom during downtime, then the toll of frequent bursts of high-alert status when they went outside the wire.

Escape from the ghosts that never truly let him rest. Friends he’d lost on the battlefield, whose faces remained sharp in his mind whenever he tried to sleep.

He took a pull of ice-cold beer from the bottle, set it down with a sigh and picked up his cutlery to dig into the crepe filled with Nutella and bananas. It was late and the café was mostly empty. He’d always heard the food in Paris was second to none, and so far, he’d have to agree. This place around the corner from his rental was open until three in the morning and he liked this time of night because it was peaceful, without too many people around.

After spending the past two days shaking off the dust of East Africa in the French capital, he was in full vacay mode. He’d already seen the Eiffel Tower and been to the Louvre. Over the next few days he planned to see some of the Napoleonic sites, and visit the famous catacombs that were essentially underground ossuaries full of the bones of six million Parisians.

During his years in the Air Force and then as a security contractor, he’d spent more time in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia than he had in all of Europe combined, and he wanted to rectify that during his time off between jobs. He had less than three weeks this time, and he was going to make the most of it.

He stuffed another bite of crepe in his mouth, frowned when his cell phone rang. Who would be calling him at this hour? His aunt was getting up there in years and was starting to get forgetful, but she still had enough wits to know it was the middle of the night over here.

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