Page 6 of Toxic Vengeance

“Any luck finding your friend?” Marcus asked.

Eden, he meant. “I wouldn’t say we’re friends.” They had been once, however. “I haven’t seen or spoken to her since we graduated from the Program. But no. We haven’t found her yet.”

Kiyomi remembered her vividly. Eden was beautiful, with flawless light brown skin, light brown eyes, and a mass of black curls. For a time the cadre had contemplated making her an intimate assassin, like Kiyomi. Instead they’d moved her into toxins, where she could use her expertise, beauty and body to make kills up close in a different way. “The truth is, I don’t have many friends.”

Just as he opened his mouth to respond, the bleating of her cell phone dragged her attention away from him. She got out of the pool, completely unselfconscious of her body and the scars on her back, aware of Marcus’s eyes on her as she bent to pick up her phone. She was used to men staring, lusting, spinning sexual fantasies about her. The difference here was, part of herwantedMarcus to look, yet she couldn’t tell if he was interested or not. That was a first.

“It was Chloe,” she said as she turned to face him, the cool air raising goosebumps across her skin and beading her nipples tight. He hadn’t moved, and to his credit his gaze remained on her face, rather than her breasts. He quickly offered her his towel.

Interesting. After wrapping it around her body, she called the explosives expert Valkyrie back, her pulse quickening. For Chloe to call this early, it must mean something important had happened.

“Hey, you’re up early,” Chloe said, sounding like she’d been awake for hours. Or maybe she’d never gone to bed at all last night. You never knew with Chloe, who was addicted to caffeine and junk food. “Where are you?”

“I was just getting my laps in,” she answered, watching Marcus. It wasn’t a hardship. At forty-four the man was in his prime with a solid, muscular build he worked hard to maintain. “Something up?”

“Yeah. I just got another message from my former contact on the Dubois trafficking thing. Amber’s traced its origin to somewhere in the Ukraine.”

Amber was their resident hacker. She could do things with electronics and code that would scare the shit out of intelligence agencies all over the world had they known, but these days, she was using her skills for good—to help find the missing Valkyries and give them all a secure future. Before they all went their separate ways, however, they were going to go after the people behind the Program to mete out their own particular brand of Valkyrie justice. It was the only way for her and the others to truly move on and be safe.

“You think it might be Eden,” Kiyomi said.

“Maybe. But there’s more.”

Chloe’s uncharacteristically grave tone gave Kiyomi pause. “Tell me.”

“Rycroft called a few minutes ago.” Alex Rycroft, former NSA superstar and now “retired”, was helping their team out with his resources where and when he could. “An American contract officer with the CIA apparently reported a woman matching Eden’s description at a big dinner last night on the Crimean Peninsula. The guest of honor was Serkan Terzi.”

“And he experienced an unfortunate, lethal bout of food poisoning during or soon after dinner,” she guessed.

“Exactly. The contractor had the suspect woman in his car, then she dove out and disappeared.”

Goosebumps rippled over Kiyomi’s skin, and not because she was standing wet in the cool air. God, she loved hearing stories about how incredible her colleagues were. “Sounds like Eden.”

“Good. Problem is, we can’t find her now. She’s gone to ground. There’s a chance she might still be in contact with her former handler in Vermont. Amber found the woman’s contact info in Eden’s file. Nobody can reach her, either, so Rycroft’s going to send Trinity there to check it out in person since she’s already Stateside. He wants to know if you’re ready to be operational if Trin needs backup, since you knew Eden.”

Kiyomi paused. She was ready to be an operator, but not the kind she’d been before. She was never doing that shit again, and Trinity understood that. Of everyone Kiyomi had met here at Laidlaw Hall, she was the closest to Trinity. The elder Valkyrie was several years older than Kiyomi, and they were the same kind. The rarest kind of Valkyrie. Lethal, expert-level seductresses.

Over the past few months Trin had been a huge help in setting Kiyomi on the path to healing rather than self-destruction, and they talked several times a week. “Of course.” She’d lay down her life for Trin—and the others.

“Great, I’ll let him know. And just so you’re aware, as of right now we’re all on standby if we get a lead on Eden.”

“Understood.” In a way it would be a relief to be involved in some kind of action again, as long as it didn’t involve having to seduce anyone.

“Perfect. Okay, that’s it. Say hi to Marcus.”

“Will do.” Kiyomi lowered the phone, met the dark-chocolate gaze of the ruggedly gorgeous man in front of her, and smiled. “Chloe says hi. And I think we may have a promising lead on Eden.”

Chapter Three

The woman was a ghost.

Tired and frustrated, Zack set his laptop aside on the hotel bed and swung his legs over the edge of it to rake his hands through his hair. It had been twelve hours since “Eden” had dived out of his car in Sevastopol, and he was no closer to finding out where or who she was. Every avenue he and his contacts explored led to another dead end.

He’d flown here to Kiev last night, positioning himself near major transportation centers so he could go after her as soon as a solid tip came in. Upon arrival he’d spoken to his handler about the Terzi murder, and the potential killer.

This was the first time Zack had been torn about being involved in a manhunt. His duty was to find “Eden” and bring her in for questioning about Terzi’s murder before someone else found and killed her. Problem was, this was also the first time it had ever been personal.

He wanted to know who the hell she really was. Maybe it was stupid of him to think it, but he just couldn’t accept that everything between them before had been a lie. Even if she’d used him as a means to an end. Even if she’d been that coldly calculated all along. What they’d shared was way too special, too intimate to be completely fake.

---