Page 24 of Toxic Vengeance

“What do you want from me?” he finally asked, calm in spite of what she’d just told him. Solid, strong, ready to face whatever came at him.

“You’re an intel expert with lots of contacts. You understand how the Agency operates. We want your help in finding the people behind this.” Well, Trinity and Rycroft did. Eden worried this was a disaster waiting to happen.

He didn’t answer. God, her emotions were too close to the surface now. She was rattled and wanted to end this now before her resolve to stay detached from him crumbled. Every moment she spent here alone with him made her ache for what could have been.

Zack didn’t move, just kept staring at her. “Why did you leave that day?” he finally asked.

Here it was. The moment she’d been dreading most. She raised her chin. “Because I had to.”

He gave a slow nod. “Was it all an act?”

She drew a breath, done with this torturous conversation and not about to beg him to join the team. “I’ve told you everything you need to know about this. You need to decide whether you’re in or out. You’ve got twenty minutes. Text this number if you’re in.”

She shoved a business card with the number scrawled on the reverse side and handed him back his phone. “If not, forget this meeting ever happened. Don’t ever try to contact me again, and stay out of our way.”

He nodded, his eyes hardening like steel. “So it’s like that.”

“Yeah, it’s like that.” She put her earpiece back in, opened the door and walked out, her throat tight and her whole chest aching.

If this turned out to be the last time she ever saw Zack Maguire, at least he would remember her walking away with her spine straight and her head held high.

Chapter Seven

Trinity was waiting for her down the hallway when Eden came out of the room. “You good?”

“Yeah.” A little queasy, if she was honest.

The other woman nodded, her expression shrewd as they reached the door to the stairwell and stepped inside. “Weirdest thing happened earlier—I lost comms with you right after you went inside with him, and they resumed the moment you left.”

Eden didn’t bother answering, just followed her down to the parking garage under the building. Reaching their vehicle, she slid into the passenger seat and shut the door. While she had the utmost respect for Trinity, Eden didn’t care if she and Rycroft were pissed at her for cutting comms. Seeing Zack in private was hard enough without having their past exposed to scrutiny and speculation.

“So what did he say?” Trinity asked as she put on her seatbelt, thankfully letting the other matter drop.

“He didn’t know about the hit, or that the hitter was dead. Apparently John was a good friend of his. Said he must have been following orders.”

“What about the rest of it. Did you tell him about you?”

“Yes. He didn’t seem surprised by it, only about us being hunted.”

“His handler might have tipped him off after Sevastopol.”

“Could be.” She settled back in the seat, still uneasy about this whole thing. “Why do we need him specifically again?”

“Why, do you have a problem with working with him?”

Eden looked over at her. Trinity obviously suspected something had gone on between them. “You mean, other than his so-called ‘friend’ killing my handler and targeting me as well?”

Trinity was silent for a moment, the quiet of the insulated parking garage settling around them. “Were you in love with him?”

The sudden jump in topic tripped her up. Her past relationship with Zack had no bearing on their current mission, but Trinity clearly either saw or suspected there was something between them. “No, it was nothing, and it was after my mission was over.”

The other Valkyrie’s expression remained unreadable. “He’s certainly been diligent in his digging about you since whatever happened in St. Petersburg. He’s been trying to find you ever since, first with his CIA contacts, then on his own. After Sevastopol he was tasked with tracking you down.”

To know all of that, Amber and Rycroft’s team must have researched him—which, yeah, of course they would. “He didn’t suspect a thing when we were together, and he was just as surprised to see me in the Crimea as I was to see him. And if he’s been tapped to find and possibly capture me, why do we want him on the team when he poses a risk to us all?”

“Because we can use him.”

Despite Eden’s suspicion about Zack’s motives, her hackles rose at the implication there, automatically wanting to protect him. “Use him how?”

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