Page 40 of Toxic Vengeance

She was saying goodbye to everything they’d had. Everything they could be.

Easing back, she lowered her gaze and stepped away. “We’d better go back, tomorrow’s going to be another busy day. We both need to sleep.”

She wanted to escape him, have time to reinforce her protective walls. He wouldn’t force her to stay, but he wouldn’t give up either. “Eden.” He waited until she made eye contact before stepping forward to cup the side of her face. “I’m on your side. And I’m not going anywhere.”

She stared back at him for an endless moment, her expression almost resigned, then turned away and headed back toward the manor.

Zack let her go, his whole being protesting having to watch her walk away.

****

Kissing him had been a colossal mistake.

Eden scowled at herself as she reached her bedroom door on the way to breakfast the next morning. Why the hell had she done it? Annoyance pricked at her like needles. A few fancy words, a couple of kisses, and she’d caved. Pathetic, and now she couldn’t get him and the things he’d said out of her head.

She’d been up half the night thinking about everything. Zack. Penny. The others.

This entire situation had thrown her world off kilter, and when she and Zack had finally been alone last night, her resolve to keep her distance had collapsed the moment his lips had touched hers.

He wanted to be with her, and he was after more than a fling. But how the hell could she open her heart up and bare herself to him when everything they’d shared before had been based on lies?

She didn’t know how to do that. Dammit, letting Zack in so deep last time had almost gotten her killed.

Kiyomi smiled at her from the table as Eden entered the breakfast room. “Hey. Get any sleep last night?”

“Not much.” Eden helped herself to the silver coffee pot in the center of the table. “You?”

“Some, but not much after I heard the news. Anyone else up yet?”

“I heard someone moving around outside my room a while ago.”

“Marcus. Apparently one of the neighbors’ sheep got through part of the fence on the northeast side of the property, so he went out to deal with it.” She studied Eden over the rim of her teacup. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Angry, though. And I feel guilty. If we’d gotten there sooner, we could have saved her.”

Footsteps sounded on the stone floor in the hall. Amber walked in, followed by Trinity and Zack.

Eden’s eyes locked on him, a warm, flipping sensation hitting her low in the belly as she took in the sight of him in dark, snug jeans and a charcoal-colored collared shirt that hugged his powerful chest and shoulders.

“Morning,” he said, his deep voice sliding over her like a caress. Weakening her decision to stand firm on not getting involved with him again.

“Morning.” Wrenching her eyes away, she busied herself with buttering toast someone had set out in silver toast racks.

“I just talked to Megan,” Amber said, reaching for two boiled eggs perched in cobalt blue glass eggcups. “She and Ty aren’t coming up until later, but I’ll fill you guys in on what I told Trinity before I came down.”

Eden stilled and focused on her. “About Penny?”

Amber nodded. “From recent communications and other files I accessed from her phone, I think she somehow knew about us. It looks like she’d been trying to make her way into England. She started in Finland and moved into Scotland, had searched bus schedules going to York.”

That was only a few hours’ drive away from them. Eden’s hand tightened on her coffee cup. “She was trying to find us?”

Amber’s face was somber. “I think she wanted refuge. And maybe to join us. How she found out about us, I don’t know yet.”

Setting her cup down, Eden sat back, feeling ill. Minutes. Mere minutes had cost Penny her life, had made the difference between death and rejoining her Valkyrie sisters, who would have protected her.

“What about the hitter?” Zack asked.

“It took some digging,” Amber replied. “Someone buried his info deep, but he’s a contract officer with ties to the CIA.” She held up her phone to show a picture of him.

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