Page 30 of Toxic Vengeance

The chocolate-brown brunette rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Don’t mind Chloe. I’m Megan,” she said, stepping forward to offer her hand.

He shook it. “Zack Maguire.”

“Yeah, I know. Welcome.” She introduced him to the others, and he was surprised to learn that the other brunette was her older sister, Amber.

“So, Maguire,” Chloe said, snapping her gum. “You ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The others snickered and Chloe kept grinning, seeming amused.

“So, these are the others,” Eden said, sounding less than thrilled at having to make the introductions. “You’ll meet the guys later. Now you might as well get settled in.” Okay, and even less thrilled at him staying here. He had an uphill battle ahead of him if he was going to make any headway with her, and he needed to know the truth about what had happened between them.

“Megan will show you to your room, if you’re ready to go up,” Marcus said in his accented voice, reaching a hand down to scratch behind the dog’s ears.

“Sure.” He’d rather Eden do it, but he was smart enough not to push too hard for the time being. Seemed she planned to give him as wide a berth as possible while he was here. Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t going to allow it. And then there was his dad, who was going to be crushed that Zack’s promised visit home wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

He followed Megan back inside and up to the third floor, mentally piecing everything together. From what Trinity had told him, all the guys living here were former military—some SOF—and thoroughly vetted by Rycroft’s people before being invited here to join the team. Zack was still fuzzy on all the legal details of this thing, but if Rycroft was heading it up, then he must have found enough loopholes and gray areas to make it work.

“You and Eden are the only ones up here aside from Marcus,” Megan told him as they reached the landing on the third story. “Everyone else is on the second floor. Well, Marcus would call it the first floor, because they classify it differently here in the UK. Anyway…here’s you.” She opened the second door down the hall. “Your room’s probably a lot girlier than you’re used to, but it’s one of the most masculine in the house.”

She stepped aside to let him into the room done in a medium gray tone. A dark, antique four-poster took up most of one wall. His suitcase was already beside it. “This is great.”

“Glad you like it.”

“Where’s Eden’s room?”

Megan met his gaze, her curiosity clear. “Across the hall and down two.”

He nodded and took a look into the en suite bathroom. Whoa. This was by far the nicest place he’d ever stayed, and it put him close to Eden, so bonus. “So what happens now?”

“We’re meeting downstairs in a bit to get everyone on the same page as far as recent developments go. We used to meet in Marcus’s study, but it’s pretty much the only room left that he can escape from us all now. There are so many of us here now that the library’s a better size anyway.”

“Lead the way.”

She smiled, her eyes full of curiosity. “I plan to.”

Down on the main level the library was off to the left, a large room stuffed with built-in bookcases, comfortable-looking furniture, and a bank of tall windows at the far end that let in lots of natural light. The room smelled faintly of wood smoke. Three men and all the women except Eden were already assembled, and they were all staring at him. Sizing him up.

This was where Zack excelled. He was an expert at making people feel comfortable and getting them to talk to him. He went straight over and introduced himself to the guys, even got a couple laughs from them, but when Eden stepped inside a moment later, he swore the air charged with an electric current.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She’d changed into a feminine, blue top that hugged her breasts. She’d also let her hair down, all those sexy curls falling around her face and shoulders.

She kept her distance, standing at the back of the group and folded her arms, her expression unreadable as she avoided looking at him. All that did was confirm she was very much aware of his presence. Good.

Being surrounded by all these Valkyries wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he’d taken way worse assignments in the past. Individually these women were lethal, with a ninety-five-percent success rate on their targets. Together? They could topple powerful organizations and destabilize governments.

This is the shit I saw on the news.

Every one of these women was a force to be reckoned with, legends within the operative and intel community, and here he was with six of them in the same room—had been romantically involved with one for months without realizing it. Unreal.

Eden had duped him completely, and if everything people said about the Valkyries was true—and he was pretty sure it was—then he was damn lucky she hadn’t just offed him before walking out of that hotel room that final morning, to protect herself and keep things neat and tidy. It made him wonder why she hadn’t simply killed him.

Because she cared about me, at least on some level.It was the only thing that made sense, and before this was all done, he wanted to hear it from her own lips.

“Okay, everyone’s here, and you’ve all met Zack,” Trinity said, moving to stand in front of the fireplace where a few logs burned in the grate. “He’s been briefed on the basics on the way here, and will be providing his intel expertise, so now I’m going to talk about our latest mission.”

She lifted the tablet in her hands and held the screen so everyone could see the picture of the strawberry-blond woman on it. “This is Penny, and she’s the last surviving Valkyrie we’ve been able to identify. Given the state of things and the current security situation facing us all, she’s obviously in grave danger. So far all attempts to contact her have come to nothing. But thanks to the intel on the thumb drive Eden’s handler provided her, we think we have a possible location for her. Zack will be working with Amber more on this to confirm, and I’ll be their link with Rycroft and the analysts Stateside.”

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