She couldn’t tell him that. She couldn’t make him understand. Not without telling him more. Sometimes knowledge wasn’t power. Sometimes it was taking a risk.
Zora had told her in the beginning when she signed on to the task force that there might be attempts on their lives simply for knowing things. It was why they were so careful with who knew what. They didn’t want to play with people’s lives.
“There.” Cat sat back. “Those cameras and microphones are so small no one will see them.”
Diha knew that. She’d bought them, after all.
“And don’t worry about Miles. You know how weird men get when you wreck their plans. When he sees how this works out, it’ll be fine.”
The side door opened and Zora leaned in. “It’s time. Ready?”
Diha sighed. “Yeah.”
She looked down at herself.
Valentino’s instructions had been specific. Down to the requirement to wear something pink and striped. Cat had a simple, pink A-line skirt and Zora had given her a boat necked, black-and-white striped top that mostly covered the bullet-proof vest she wore under it. To make the vest less obvious, she’d thrown her own yellow cardigan over it.
Why had no one ever mentioned how uncomfortable bullet-proof vests were?
She could barely breathe in the damn thing.
“You need to go,” Zora said.
“Okay.” Diha grabbed the small bag and took the keys Zora handed to her.
The team would hold back until Diha had established contact, then move in. All she had to do was get there and talk.
Which meant driving on the wrong side of the road.
She glanced at the back of Miles’ head one more time. More than anything she wanted to talk to him, but he’d avoided her completely.
Diha climbed out of the van and let Zora escort her to the two-door car.
“Just get in and talk. We’ll do the rest,” Zora said.
“And if he has a gun?” That question scared Diha.
“If the last meet told us anything, it’s that he doesn’t want to be face to face with you. Not really. Just keep your distance and get him talking. You’ve got this. I’m proud of you.”
Diha nodded and lowered herself into the car. It was so odd to sit on the wrong side. This was where Miles should be. But this was one job they couldn’t do together, even if he would speak to her.
She started the car and pulled out onto the street.
The meeting location was just two blocks away in another vacant building. This one for some sort of office.
Diha found a place to park, took a few extra moments to ensure she gave the other vehicles enough space, then got out and paid the meter.
She looked up and down the street, squinting as the sky began to drizzle, and wished she had a clue what she was looking for.
Valentino.
Miles.
A hidden assassin.
A reason to not go in.
Nothing came to her.
Her phone buzzed, alerting her to the impending meeting.
She silenced the alarm, squared her shoulders and turned to face the office.
This was her job. She could do it. And later, after it was all over, she’d make it up to Miles. Somehow.
Diha stepped into the building and pulled out a flashlight. Clicking it on, she walked slowly through the entry and an open door.
Someone had taped arrows on the floor.
Likely Valentino.
She followed them, walking slowly, taking her time for Cat to process everything she saw.
Was it Diha’s imagination or was the floor sloping down?
She turned a corner and stopped.
Her flashlight landed on the chest of a very large man wearing a plastic tiger mask.
Valentino.
He’d come here himself.
MONDAY. LONDON, UNITED Kingdom.
Ramon had a hunch this was his lucky day.
He’d known when the whole lot of the Aegis Group mother fuckers left Thames House that something was up. Following the chick sent out on her own had just been the obvious move.
No way they’d send the computer geek to do something with the rest of them clustered together.
Something was happening.
He circled around back of the vacant office building and found a rear entrance. A flattened Coke can kept the lock from engaging without being obvious to anyone not looking.
The building couldn’t be very large. At least not on the ground floor.
He kept the small light focused on the ground, examining the footsteps disturbing the covering of dust.
The soft whisper of voices tickled his ears.
She was here.
The Aegis Group bitch and his target.
It was about time Ramon had a good damn day.
He stayed as low to the ground as he could. An average person making their way around the building in the dark would miss a low moving object—or person.
Ramon cleared the rooms off the alley exit, then proceeded into the building, toward the voices.
He could almost make out what they were saying.
Light chased the darkness away up ahead of him.
He went to a knee and keeping his head low, peered around the corner.
A larger room opened up to him. Two long tables with work stations now empty were set up on either side, and beyond that some sort of control panel and a bank of windows.
The light was coming from the room below them, but it lit the woman leaning over the console well enough.
Was it her? The woman who was the real power behind the name Valentino?
He’d only gotten the briefest of glimpses of her before. He wouldn’t be as careless this time.
Ramon pulled back and took a deep breath.
He had to act fast. No hesitation.
Mind ready, he took the first step around the corner, gun up.
Only the woman was gone.
Shit.
He quickstepped into the control room, searching the shadows for her.
Something hard rammed up into his ribs. He grunted and staggered sideways, sweeping his left arm out to try to grab the object.
It clattered to the ground.
He got a brief glimpse of the woman right before she threw something at him. A fine powder or something. He breathed it in and coughed. His eyes stung, as if he had grit in them.
Her footsteps pounded the floor.
She was getting away.
No.
He couldn’t let her. He was going to kill her this time.
MONDAY. LONDON, UNITED Kingdom.
Viggo had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hated everything about this meeting, but there had been no talking Valentino out of it. Her mind was set on going forward.
He strained to hear her next words.
The woman, Diha, watched him with wide eyes.
She made him think of a kitten with eyes that big. She wasn’t harmless, but he doubted her bite was all that bad.
What the hell should he say?
Valentino’s voice in his ear didn’t come.
“Does that not work for you?” Diha asked.
Shit.
He had to say something.
Valentino couldn’t take forever to think things through.
A bang from up above made him tense. Had something fallen over?
Then the unmistakable shout, a single word, “Run!”
Valentino.
She was too far for him to get to her. They knew they would have to flee separately. It was part of the plan. The way it had to be.
And yet, if someone was here, if Valentino had to run, chances were they also needed a way out.
Viggo lunged while Diha was still looking around for the source of the voice. He grabbed the smaller woman’s arm and yanked her toward him.
“No! Please,” she yelled, trembling.
He grit his teeth and pushed memories of finding Valentino crying and shaking out of his mind.
; This had to be done. For them. So they could survive.
MONDAY. LONDON, UNITED Kingdom.
Miles strained to hear Diha’s voice. They couldn’t yet see her, but they were inside the building now.
He hated this plan.
Fucking hated it.
Of course, Diha would do something that put her at risk. She was fearless, despite what she thought of herself.
Damn woman.
“Does that not work for you?” Diha’s voice came through his headset. Her tone was tense.
“Something’s not right,” Miles said.
“No, duh,” Harper clapped back.
Something clanged or hit the floor somewhere in the building.
Miles flinched and pivoted to face a hall.
Suddenly Diha shrieked, “No!”
Miles nearly went to his knees at the fear in her voice.
What the hell was happening?
“Move,” Logan barked.
“Come on,” Harper snarled.
Miles wanted to rush forward, follow those arrows, but that wasn’t the plan. They couldn’t all rush to a single point.
They had to split up. They had to, and yet he wanted to rush to Diha.
Instead, he sucked down air and plunged into the darkness, close on Harper’s heels. The others were likewise divided into teams of two, proceeding to cover the building.
Miles heard it first. The breathing and footsteps.
He shoved Harper up against the wall a moment before the slight figure of a woman hurtled around the corner.
Miles reached out and grabbed the woman with one arm. She barely weighed anything. He tightened his grasp and pressed his gun to her shoulder, though his finger wasn’t on the trigger.
“Let go of me,” she snarled and kicked back against his shin.
Only it was her who howled in pain as she connected with the guard protecting his lower leg.
“We’ve got someone. A woman,” Miles said.
“Let me go. Let me go,” she demanded.
“Guys?” That was Jamie, only now his voice wasn’t full of a smile or a laugh. It was tense.
“Where is she?” a man bellowed.
Miles heard the voice both through the headset and resounding through the building.
“Where is she? I want to see her right now, damn it. Bring her to me,” the same man shouted.
“Miles?” Even Logan’s voice wavered. “We need that woman in here now.”
“He’ll kill you. He’ll kill you all,” she snarled.
“I want to see her now,” the same man’s voice echoed.
Harper took a step, working out how to move with the woman that was completely unconcerned with the gun pointed at her.
“I need you to calm down,” Logan said, but Miles knew he wasn’t talking to their team.
Harper shoved Miles back the way they’d come while watching the hall. The woman had been running. From what or who?
“Let me go. Let me go! Let me go right now,” she kept shouting.
Miles lifted the struggling woman off her feet and carried her as fast as he dared back the way they’d come.
Tucker met them part way. “The way’s clear, go. I’ll cover you.”
“What the hell is going on?” Miles demanded.
Tucker leveled a look at him. “It’s not good. Keep your head. She needs that right now.”
Miles’ blood went cold. He moved forward, and yet it didn’t feel like it was him in charge. He half-carried the woman while Tucker and Harper flanked him, guarding him from whatever the shadows concealed.
“Who were you running from?” Miles asked.
“He’ll kill you,” she said in a sing-song voice now that made the hair on his arms stand up.
What special brand of crazy was she?
Miles dragged their captive into a room. Logan and Jamie stood on either side of a pair of double doors leading into the only well-lit space Miles had seen. And in the middle of the halo of light was a big man Miles recognized.
Valentino.
And trapped against his side was Diha.
Miles sucked in air and let himself feel the fear. He looked into Diha’s dark eyes and saw terror there.
He was afraid for her, but he wouldn’t let it rule him. He’d get them out of this.
Miles stepped forward into the room with the woman clamped against him.
“You must be Valentino,” Miles said. “We didn’t get a chance to properly meet the last two times we met.”
Actually, wasn’t the guy Miles had chased shorter? And a puffy coat would make the already large man appear massive.
“Let her go,” Valentino said coldly.
He was American.
For some reason Miles had always assumed Valentino was Spanish or Portuguese. His earliest career was centered there, but listening to him, there was no denying it.
Valentino was American.
“That’s not how this works. You know that and I know that.”
The woman struck back with her elbow, driving it into the vest. It still hurt, but he was saved from the brunt of the blow.
“Stop it,” Miles said and pushed the muzzle of the gun against her with more force.
“Go ahead. You wouldn’t be the first man to threaten me with a gun,” she said.
“Easy. Chill. Let’s all of us take a breath. No one has to get hurt,” Miles said.
“Then let her go,” Valentino demanded.
“Who is she? Why is she so important to you?”
Valentino wrenched Diha’s arm up and pressed his gun against her temple so hard she was forced to bend her head sideways.
“Okay. Okay.” Miles took the gun away from the woman, but didn’t release her. “We can come to an agreement. No one has to get hurt.”
A murderous light burned in Valentino’s eyes. “Let her go now.”
This man wasn’t stable. Miles was worried that if Valentino didn’t secure the release of this woman he’d begin shooting, possibly killing all of them.
Was this what the woman had been going on about? Why was she so quiet now?
“Whatever gets us out of here fastest,” the woman said slowly.
Valentino stilled and stared at her.
Something was passing between them, some unspoken communication.
“Talk to me, big guy,” Miles said.
Valentino’s gaze went back to Miles. “Okay.”
That was...weird.
Was it Miles’ imagination or did it seem like the woman was in charge here.
“Make the exchange,” Logan said. “We’ve got the upper hand. Get Diha out of there.”
Miles agreed, but he’d hesitated. His feelings for Diha hadn’t changed, no matter the way things were going down.
“Okay,” he said. “How about this?”
A shot rang out from above them. Glass rained down. Before Miles could move, another shot fired.
He felt the impact through the woman’s body. She jerked as the bullet tore through her.
“No,” Miles yelled.
Another shot fired.
He threw himself sideways and shot blindly toward where he’d glimpsed the gunman.
Valentino roared, a sound full of rage and grief.
Diha screamed.
“Gunman down. Gunman down,” someone yelled.
Miles pushed up.
Diha lay on the floor.
Logan, Jamie and Tucker had piled on top of Valentino and were still struggling to pin the man as he crawled toward the lifeless form of the woman.
Miles zeroed in on Diha.
She wasn’t moving.
“Dee?” he whispered. “Diha?”
He sprinted across the room, leaping over Tucker’s kicking legs to reach her. Miles gently grasped Diha’s arm and rolled her onto her back.
She had a hand pressed to her brow.
The gash had come open and bled into her hair and down the side of her face.
She blinked up at him.
Diha
was alive.
She was alive and they had Valentino.
Miles gathered her up in his arms and hugged her.
She was okay.
And yet, things between them had changed.
“Holy fucking shit,” Harper said, his voice echoing from above and through the comm unit.
“What?” Logan barked.
“It’s Ramon. It’s the Horseman. Green fucking shot him,” Harper said with growing excitement.
Miles didn’t know who that was or why it was significant. He was too lost himself standing on the edge of a divide that hadn’t been there yesterday.
“Val! No, Val!” Their prisoner sobbed.
Diha let go of him and they both turned toward Valentino.
He’d dragged himself and the three men trying to restrain him several feet across the room and now had his face pressed into the hand of the woman. He lay there, hands behind his back, crying.
“Did he just call her Val? Like, Valentino?” Diha asked.
Logan glanced back at them.
The comm unit had transmitted her question to all of them.
Was it possible they’d been looking at the wrong person all along? Then who was he? And what the hell just happened?
TUESDAY. THAMES HOUSE. London, United Kingdom.
Diha hit send on her last report.
Since Miles was technically still on leave, she was supposed to send these to the Deputy Director General herself. Still, Diha had copied Miles out of spite.
He hadn’t spoken to her since those moments after Valentino had been killed. Diha had foolishly thought when he ran to her that everything would be okay. After that final embrace, he’d pulled back until he wouldn’t even look at her.
It hurt.
The job they were both so passionate had come between them. It was the reality of what they did. She should have known they couldn’t have love and be in the service of two separate masters.
Zora knocked on the lab door. “Cat gone?”
“Hm?” Diha glanced up. “Oh, yes. She got on an early afternoon flight. Left a little bit ago.”
Zora closed the lab door behind her. “Any luck?”
Diha sighed and dragged her mind off her personal problems and back to work. “Both Baker and Joon claim they were trying to reach us and the Director told them we were here on a mission, so they decided to join us. At least we kept them busy and out of things until the very end.”
Still, they didn’t know who they were passing intel on to, and in a mess like this anything could happen.
Technical Risk (Aegis Group Task Force Book 3) Page 27