Part of that wall was blown out and he could see light inside.
Valentino had been here. Diha had assumed he’d remote in, but he’d surprised them by being present.
So what had happened up there? Who’d gone after Valentino? And did it have anything to do with the murder in Brighton?
More questions and no answers.
SATURDAY. LONDON, UNITED Kingdom.
Valentino kept her head low while shoveling food into her mouth.
She was just another patron at the little café that routinely served the club crowd in this part of London. Fliers and stickers for Club Ibiza were still stuck to the corkboard by the register.
With one hand she scooped up another mouthful, hardly tasting the dish she’d ordered while scrolling her phone with the other.
She’d half expected to cut and run from today’s meet, so she hadn’t used good equipment. Right now all the camera and audio feeds were uploading. In moments it would be off the machine she’d left behind and on her private, secure server for review later.
A uniformed cop passed the front windows. She followed him with her eyes, but didn’t pay him much mind. After a pair had come in to ask the woman at the counter a few questions and left without once looking at Valentino, she’d breathed a sigh of relief.
She’d learned a lesson as a little girl that had been drilled into her head.
Don’t run from predators. It drew their attention.
It was why she never went far from the site of a job. They were always vulnerable when traveling. Moving put them out in the open, somewhere she couldn’t control.
This wasn’t something she could tell Viggo about today. If he ever knew how close she’d come to taking a bullet, he’d turn her into a bubble wrap burrito and never let her out.
There.
Valentino dragged her thumb across the screen, slowing the camera footage.
The angle wasn’t great, but she had just enough of a shot.
The woman wrapped a scarf around her head and put a mask over her mouth and nose.
It was her.
The woman who’d tracked Valentino.
She abandoned eating and watched the video.
The woman took a bag into Club Ibiza, likely to ferret out Valentino’s secrets.
She wanted to know everything about this woman. It had been so long since the government dogs got remotely close to her. She was impressed. If things were different, Valentino might even try to recruit the woman. It had been a long time since she worked with a real team.
Who was she?
Valentino watched right up until the feed stopped, signaling that her upload had finished and the equipment shut down.
Damn.
There wasn’t a single shot of the woman’s face. At least nothing that she could use.
But what about the man? She’d had a man with her.
Viggo had said the man had dark hair, a permanent stubble, and was likely British.
Valentino rewound and watched several of the feeds.
Which one was he?
She brought up the same camera that had captured the woman. Farther back, it had barely caught her would-be killer fleeing the scene and shooting a cop.
Valentino focused on the cop. He’d burst out of the van, a man on a mission. This was personal. He wasn’t just doing his job.
She paused the camera on a good facial shot of the man.
Dark hair.
Medium complexion.
The build was just about right.
It might not be him, but she figured he was a good place to start. She’d wreak a little havoc in his life and see what happened. Capturing the image, she sent it to her account to search out his name then set her phone aside, focusing on her meal.
Today might not have worked out perfectly, but she was alive.
She’d finished her plate by the time her phone rang. The number was unfamiliar. She considered not answering it, but then again, she hadn’t recognized the number last time when the doctor had called.
“Hello?” she said, throwing a vaguely German accent on her words.
“Val?”
“W-what are you doing calling me?” She glanced around the shop, as if someone might hear Viggo.
“I need you to come pick me up,” he said.
“I don’t have all the money. I’m two grand short.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
She paused. “What did you do?”
“I made an arrangement.”
Valentino blew out a breath. She needed her brother back, but she didn’t want him to get hurt.
“Fine,” she said after the shortest waffling known to man. “Where are you? There’s been some developments. I’m worried about your safety. Don’t ask, I’m not telling you.”
“Texting you the address.”
She smiled and a sense of peace came over her. “It’ll be good to have you back. I missed you.”
They weren’t perfect. She knew she could be paranoid and neurotic at times, but Viggo had stayed with her through the best and worst of times. This was just another chapter they had to weather.
17.
Saturday. London, United Kingdom.
Valentino stared at Viggo’s back. He stood at the vanity, scrubbing his face. The stubble had grown into a scruffy beard this last week, giving him a rougher than normal look. He only wore shorts. Water trickled off his shoulders from his shower. It was the first time he’d gotten the chance to wash since...
When was the last time?
She’d showered first when they landed at the second crash pad.
Days.
He hadn’t showered in days, when sometimes he showered morning and night.
It was a holdover from the days when they’d been forced to maintain a shower schedule. Their foster parents wouldn’t allow everyone to shower every day. It used too much water and hiked the bill. Viggo had been focused on sports, chasing the ever elusive athletic scholarship that had never come. They’d all wanted to make concessions for him, but rules were rules.
Now he could take as many showers as he wanted, so long as he stayed alive.
Viggo turned and looked at her. “Find anything?”
His question startled her out of her thoughts. She shook her head and looked back at her laptop.
She’d been digging into Miles Green.
Viggo had recognized the picture immediately.
Miles Green was the man who’d broken into their crash pad.
And that meant that somewhere in all the CCTV footage was the woman.
Valentino had already done her work on Miles. With a history like his, she didn’t have to doctor things as much as file complaints using other officer’s credentials. There was enough grumbling about him, though from what she could see it was because he followed the letter and intent of the law. He didn’t bend it, not even when it would be in his best interest to do so.
In another lifetime, she might feel guilty about what she’d done. Miles Green seemed like a decent kind of guy, but Valentino had learned long ago that the only interest she could care about was her own.
“Val, did you find her?” Viggo asked again.
He turned and leaned against the vanity.
His features looked heavier. His eyelids drooped, no doubt from the drugs he’d taken for the pain.
She still didn’t know how he’d convinced the doctor to let him go early and without complete payment.
“Not yet, no. But I’ll find her. If she steps foot outside the Thames House, I’ll have her.”
Could Valentino tempt the woman? Would it be worth it?
They were going to need to do something to protect themselves now that Skilton was after them. Maybe they needed someone else, someone useful and expendable?
She filed that away in the back of her mind and focused on the cameras.
Where are you, bunny?
SATURDAY. THAMES HOUSE. London, United Kingdom.
Diha stared at the computer sc
reen. Her hands were sweating in the latex gloves, but that couldn’t be helped. Preserving any possible evidence on the laptop was imperative. So if she had to use the machine remotely and even then garb herself in a head to toe onesie, she’d do it. Thankfully, they’d agreed on much less stringent rules.
Too bad she was coming up empty.
The laptop had been operated remotely. That much she could tell, so wherever Valentino had fled to, he’d remoted back into the device to close things down. Which told her he hadn’t gone far. A detail that would have been useful to know hours ago.
She and Cat had made headway with the drive from the condo. Though all they’d pulled off the device was some adult entertainment and files that neither of them could make heads or tails of. Diha thought they were either encrypted or used a code she couldn’t yet break.
Which left her staring at the latest computer in frustration.
Valentino was good. Very good. And she was just not getting close to him.
It was personal now.
The moment that man had pulled the trigger, it became less about the job and all about wanting to protect Miles. She clenched her hands and forced herself to draw a calming breath.
Her throat was still raw from that scream.
She’d felt her life slipping away from her as he doubled over.
The fear that had gripped her was something she never again wanted to feel. If it hadn’t been for Cat holding her back, she’d have run out there.
Now Diha just wanted to smack some sense into Miles.
What had he been thinking?
The office door swung open. “Knock, knock.”
“Not now, Harper.”
She was still too sensitive right now, and Harper was like sandpaper on a good day.
He closed the door behind him and crossed the lab. The wheels of a desk chair squeaked as he dragged it along with him until he could plop down next to her.
For several moments he didn’t say anything, and she kept plugging away. There was really only so much she could do while the program followed the bouncing IP addresses across the world. Still, she felt like she needed to be there and observant for it to work efficiently.
Finally, she couldn’t take the silence anymore.
Harper wasn’t a quiet person.
He didn’t have it in him.
“What?” she demanded.
Harper turned his head toward her, brows lifted.
She sighed. “Don’t give me that look. Why are you in here? Is Cat not flirting with you right now?”
“I’m worried about you,” he said.
“Me?” She frowned. “You’re the one that just got out of jail.”
He nodded. “And you just watched the guy you’re sweet on take a bullet to the chest.”
Her insides wobbled at the mention of that moment.
“It’s okay.” Harper rubbed her back. He didn’t often touch her. It was kind of awkward. He kept his touch to a small spot on her shoulder blade, and yet she needed the comfort.
Diha leaned toward him and let her gaze drop to the desk. “It was awful.”
“I bet.”
“I was so scared. At close range...” Her throat tightened and she couldn’t get the words out. She swallowed several times, then decided to skip ahead. “Now I’m just...angry. And scared.”
“I know. We’re all big, dumb men doing dumb things.”
She glared at him. “It’s not funny.”
“It isn’t, but it’s true.” Harper looked at her and in that moment he wasn’t the jokester. He didn’t have a funny grin on his face or call her Bond Girl. “Men like us are wired a certain way.”
“I know that.”
“Yeah, but today you saw it.”
She paused, considering his words.
She knew their job was dangerous. She’d been on the sidelines for their dangerous operations, and yet nothing compared to what she’d been through the last few days.
“You really like this guy,” Harper said.
It wasn’t a question.
She swallowed and shifted in her seat.
He continued after a beat. “It makes a difference, you know? I’m not saying you don’t care about what happens to us, but it’s different when it’s someone you really care about getting hurt. I feel bad if a cop or someone gets hurt supporting us, but not the same way if it’s one of us.”
“Does that make me a bad person?” she whispered.
“It makes you human.”
She nodded and some of the weight clinging to her slid away.
“Why’d you have to go off and like the uptight Brit, though?” Harper whined.
She chuckled and glanced at him. “You say that like I had a choice.”
“Sure you do.”
Diha considered it. From the moment she’d first met him, she’d felt herself drawn to him. That feeling hadn’t gone away, even with an ocean between them. She’d told herself it was a stupid crush, and yet it had flared hotter the day they arrived.
“What am I going to do?” she asked.
“Hm, that depends on you. Me? I’d cut and be done after.”
She knew that wasn’t a possibility.
“How long is this stuff going to take? We’re going to get dinner. You should come with us.”
Diha chewed her lip.
She could. But as much as she enjoyed being one of the guys, it was someone else she wanted to spend time with.
The lab door opened again.
She glanced up at Miles standing in the doorway. His dark gaze was focused on Harper’s arm.
“No, thanks, Harper. I have something I need to do,” she said.
He gave her one last soothing backrub then stood. “Suit yourself.”
Harper ambled around the desk.
Miles’ gaze went to hers, and Harper might as well have left already.
“Excuse me,” Harper said louder than was necessary.
Miles stepped aside and shut the door behind Harper.
“Are you still mad at me?” Miles asked.
“Yes. And I get to be.”
He nodded and walked slowly to the desk. “You know I wouldn’t have done anything differently?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She stripped the gloves off. “I know that, and I know this is how things are. It doesn’t mean I have to calmly accept it. I won’t. And if that’s a problem, well tough. I get to be angry and terrified if I think you might die. I care about you.”
Miles grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight.
She shut her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder.
The anger washed away, leaving her worn out. Tears prickled her eyes and she bit her lip in a weak effort to hold them in.
She loved him.
It was the soul-shattering realization she’d had in those moments when she thought he might be killed by a single shot.
She loved him and she would never get to tell him. Except he had survived, and she didn’t know if she could tell him the truth. Not when she might end up going home and never seeing him again.
“You get to be angry with me, I know that,” he whispered. “And I’m sorry.”
“At least we don’t normally work together. I feel like that would be too much to ask.” She wiped at her eyes, giving up the pretense that she was holding it together.
Miles leaned back and took her hands in his, then ducked his face. A few tears slid down her cheek.
“I take this to mean that you’d miss me if I were gone?”
She hauled back and smacked his shoulder. “Oh, you and Harper. You’re both so...”
Words escaped her, so she snarled her frustration.
Miles merely chuckled, perched on her desk and pulled her to stand between his legs for an intimate embrace. His nose bumped hers and she thought he might kiss her.
“Have dinner with me?”
Diha intended to work late into the night. Or more accurately, si
t with the programs. But looking at him now, she knew she really wanted to be with him.
“Okay,” she whispered.
He stroked his hand down her braid. “You can be mad all you want.”
“Why?” She narrowed her gaze.
His brown eyes turned warm. “You don’t stay mad at someone if you don’t care about.”
Diha swallowed.
Did he know?
SATURDAY. HOTEL. LONDON, United Kingdom.
Miles speared the last bit of asparagus off the plate and chewed it slowly. The TV droned on in the background, but neither he nor Diha were listening to it.
They’d picked up dinner from the café he’d wanted to take her to, but opted to eat in the privacy of the hotel. He’d suggested it to her, posing it as a quiet night in. His real goal was to protect Diha. Given that Valentino had access to CCTV and now might have seen Miles, he wanted to keep her locked up. Not that he could. But this was as close as he could get.
Once again, there was a wall between them.
Diha cared about him. She wouldn’t be angry if she didn’t. But those feelings might also change things. She wouldn’t be the first person who couldn’t handle being in a relationship with someone who dealt in danger.
He finished his meal and leaned back. The movement made something in his chest twinge painfully. That was going to happen a lot for the next week until things had healed.
She was still picking at her food.
Miles studied her, taking in how her loose hair framed her face and fell over her shoulders. She’d undone the braid earlier, almost as soon as they arrived, but the motion had seemed frustrated.
Something needed to be said, but he was at a loss for what it should be.
If he pushed her too far, if he was too honest with her, it might be too much.
But if he let things linger as they were, he was afraid this would become a bigger issue.
What would his Nan do? What would she say?
His own parents weren’t the chatty sort. In fact, his mother had been the queen of passive aggressive behavior when she was upset about something.
Miles didn’t want things to be that way between him and Diha. He wanted the kind of open discourse his Nan had with his grandfather.
Technical Risk (Aegis Group Task Force Book 3) Page 23