Page 31 of Toxic Vengeance

“Where’s Penny now?” Eden asked.

“Best we can figure, Edinburgh,” Trinity answered. “But we’ll need Zack to look at the files Chris gave you, and analyze them further with Amber before we can be sure it’s a good place to start looking for her.”

“Do we know what she’s doing there?” Chloe asked, her arm around Heath, a former Pararescueman.

Trinity nodded. “We think she’s hunting an escaped war criminal. Both Eden and Zack are familiar with him.”

Alexei Popovich.

Eden’s gaze shot to Zack, understanding in her expression. “That’s why you were at the dinner in Sevastopol. You were gathering intel on Popovich.”

“Yes.” Until Terzi had mysteriously been poisoned…by her, killing the entire operation.

Trinity lifted an eyebrow at him. “You ready to get to work?”

“Ready.” He had a fake cover that would still work and allow him access to some of his old contacts, so he should be able to get answers about Popovich, and maybe Penny as well.

“Good. Once you and Amber verify the likelihood of Penny being in Edinburgh, we’ll get moving.”

Everyone listened as Trinity handed out their assignments. If they confirmed Penny was likely in Edinburgh, he, Eden and Trinity would fly out tonight on a private jet and start the search as soon as they arrived in the city. From there, it was wait and see, but if anyone had a shot at finding her, it was another Valkyrie.

When the meeting broke up everyone went to the kitchen to grab something to eat, but Eden headed left. Zack followed her outside into the formal garden where she stood near a fishpond close to the stone wall in the far corner.

“You should eat,” she said without looking at him as he approached. “It’s gonna be a late night.”

“I’ll get something in a bit.” He hated this awkwardness between them.

She blew out a breath as she looked across the garden. “Why did you say yes?”

“Why do you think?”

She eyed him coolly. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have asked.”

“Because of you,” he said after a beat.

His answer made her uncomfortable enough to look away. “Why, you still thinking about turning me in?”

“You think I would?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re capable of now. I don’t knowyou.”

Yeah, she did. Way more than he knew her, and that put him at a huge disadvantage, especially since she didn’t trust him anymore. “That goes both ways, though, doesn’t it? Because it turns out I never knew you either.”

She was silent a moment, then lowered her gaze to the pond. “Look, I’m sorry for leaving the way I did, and severing contact. But I had no choice.”

“Didn’t you?”

Those gorgeous honey-brown eyes swung back to his. “Not that I could see. Chris had warned me that Valkyries were being systematically hunted. I had to go to ground.”

“Did you know I was a CIA contractor when we met?”

“Yes.”

Anger sparked inside him. “Then why didn’t you come to me for help?”

She didn’t answer, just held his stare, and her silence told him everything. Because he worked with the CIA she hadn’t trusted that he wasn’t involved in the hunt somehow. Some part of her hadn’t been sure if he might be trying to get close to her to extract intel on other Valkyries, then kill her.

Everything in him recoiled at the thought. He would never hurt her, ever, not even if he’d been ordered to. He couldn’t. That wasn’t how he was wired.

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