Page 47 of Tempting Tessa

Declan supported Jessie’s weight on one side while Tommy did the same on the other. They marched her back to the castle, the sun peeking over the horizon and casting a pale orange hue on the gardens and rear door.

Inside the dining hall, Spence lounged in a high back chair, a porcelain teacup in hand. Steam rose in lazy spirals as he observed their entrance. “Well,” he drawled, setting his cup down. His gaze roamed over Jessie like she was the best thing he’d seen in ages. “Our prodigal swan has returned.”

Jessie glared at him and said nothing as they lowered her into a chair. Blood ran down her leg and onto the floor.

Tessa remained standing, the shotgun resting casually against her shoulder. Tommy inspected Jessie’s wound while Meg paced and Declan leaned on the door frame.

Moda appeared, and Tessa sent her to retrieve first aid supplies.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” Tommy told them. He patted his sister’s thigh. “You’ll live.”

Jessie sneered at Meg. “You always were the most accurate shot.”

Declan cleared his throat. “Excuse me? Everybody knows I’m the sharpshooter on the team.”

Meg and Spence exchanged a look. Spence tapped the screen of his phone and resumed sipping tea. “Recording now. Let’s start from the beginning.”

With her hood off, the deformity of her left side was more evident. Tommy tried not to stare.

“I’m injured,” Jessie said.

“You’re lucky it wasn’t me who shot you,” Tessa replied. “You’d be in far worse shape. Now, start talking, or I’ll make you wish Meg had aimed higher.”

Tommy shot her a warning glare. Tessa stayed neutral.

Jessie shifted uncomfortably and grimaced, hiking up her leg and putting pressure on her bleeding injury. “You don’t understand. If Viktor finds out I’ve been here, he’ll kill all of us. He’ll set off the attacks and blame you for them.”

“Blame us, how?” Meg asked. “What’s his motivation for all of this?”

Tommy knew they needed the full details, but dammit, he was in Spencer’s corner. He wanted Jessie to start from the beginning and explain what the hell was going on. He’d heard what she’d told Tessa in the garden, but he needed to have more facts rather than speculation.

Jessie’s gaze swung to Tessa. “Did you pick up the USB I threw at you?”

Tessa withdrew the stick from her pocket and held it up. “What’s on it?”

Before Jessie could answer, Tommy loomed over her. “Is it infected with a virus? Will it alert Harris?”

“No. Of course not,” Jessie said. “Just look at what’s on it. Everything you need to know is on there.”

Reluctantly, Tommy accepted the drive from Tessa. By the time he returned with the laptop, Moda, the maid, had arrived with the bandages. While Tommy proceeded to take a few precautions before opening the drive, Spence appointed himself as medic and began to care for Jessie’s wound.

As Tommy checked the background encoding, he was relieved there were no viruses. He began rooting through the files stored on it. “What is this?”

Tessa moved to peer over his shoulder. Jessie said, “It’s Viktor’s manifesto. His master plan. The proof he’ll plant to frame the swans. Everything.”

Meg joined them, standing on Tommy’s other side as she read the screen. “We need to send this to Flynn ASAP.”

“What’s he going to do about it?” Jessie challenged, flinching as Spence used an alcohol wipe on her wound. “The moment Viktor gets wind of this, he can type in a code and set off those EMPs. Flynn won’t even have time to blink. That’s why you must let me go. We can’t take the chance that he’ll figure out I’m here or that I stole that information.”

Tommy rubbed his eyes and returned to the document directory. “And this?” He clicked on a file labeled SWAN.

A series of files appeared, each bearing a team member’s name. “What the hell?” Meg said as he selected the one with her name on it, and they scanned its contents. “This is… Everything about you,” he said. “Your history, your skills, your missions. And it looks like details about your missions for Black Swan.”

She scanned the material. “Fabricated details.” She pointed at one of the entries. “That’s not how the mission went down. We didn’t have any contact with a Horace du Fossen.”

Dec crowded in, also reading the screen. “I don’t get it. What is this?”

“He wants to prove that the swans were never heroes,” Jessie said. “That you’ve been the villains all along. He’s setting you up to take the fall for the EMP attacks, and this evidence”—she emphasized the word—“is to prove that the swans have beencreatingthe chaos that the CIA claims they’re needed for. That they want to terrorize people so they can swoop in and save the day.”

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