Toxic Vengeance

by Kaylea Cross

  Eden fired a heartbeat before he rounded the corner. Her bullet hit him in the back of the shoulder. He grunted and stumbled but stayed on his feet as he disappeared from view a split second later.

  She couldn’t chase him. She had to help Chris.

  Leaping over the wall, she raced for her friend. Blood was already forming a pool beneath her on the pavement.

  “Chris,” Eden said in an urgent voice as she dragged the bike off the older woman and dropped to her knees beside her. “Chris, can you hear me?” She pulled the helmet off, doing a visual sweep to assess the damage.

  It was bad.

  Two shots had hit Chris in the left upper chest, but they weren’t bleeding. The holes in her belly were, however. Her friend’s eyes were barely open, her skin already turning a ghastly grayish tinge from shock and blood loss. She was breathing in shallow, raspy draws, blood bubbling out of the holes in her stomach, coming out her nose and mouth with each breath.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  Eden ripped open Chris’s leather jacket and found a ballistic vest with two holes in it. Damn. Chris had been concerned enough to armor up before coming here, but it hadn’t protected her belly, and from the amount of blood spurting from one wound, it had hit a major artery—possibly the aorta.

  Eden whipped out her cell phone and called 911 while watching for the shooter, then applied pressure to the wounds with both hands to try and stem the bleeding. Someone moved off to the right. She snatched up her weapon, froze when a dark-haired woman stepped out from behind the next garage, a pistol held at her side.

  “Stand down, I’m here to help,” the thirty-something woman said in a calm voice as she glanced around. “The shooter’s gone.” She wore black cargo pants and a long-sleeved shirt over full curves, her grip on the weapon as rock-steady as the deep blue gaze pinning Eden.

  “Freeze right there. You’ve got one second to drop your weapon, or I drop you,” Eden warned.

  Surprising her, the curvy woman calmly holstered her weapon and angled the left side of her body toward Eden. “Like I said, I’m here to help.” Moving slowly, palms facing outward, the woman reached down to pull down the waistband of her pants to expose her left hip—

  Revealing the Valkyrie tat on the side of it.

  Stunned, Eden wrenched her gaze up to the woman’s face, fighting to cover her shock. Another Valkyrie? Here? The timing and circumstances were way too suspicious. “Who are you?” She still had one hand on Chris’s belly, her palm and fingers sticky with warm blood. Too much blood, pooling around them. Her knees were soaked with it now.

  “Trinity Durant.” The woman approached them, looking at Chris now. “Is she alive?”

  The gurgling sounds had stopped. Eden put two fingers to Chris’s carotid pulse. It felt like a giant fist reached up to crush Eden’s windpipe. “No.” Oh, God, no, this can’t be happening. She immediately started chest compressions.

  Trinity knelt beside her. “You called for an ambulance?”

  “Yes.” Little good it would do Chris now, but Eden still didn’t stop. “How do you know the shooter’s gone?”

  “He got into a car and drove south.”

  Eden kept up with the chest compressions, struggling to fight back the rising tide of emotion and not trusting anything about this situation but unable to ignore the significance of having another Valkyrie standing before her. The woman could easily have shot Eden while she’d been attending to Chris, but hadn’t. Maybe she was telling the truth.

  After a minute Trinity placed a hand on top of Eden’s. “She’s gone,” she said softly.

  Eden threw Trinity’s hand off and kept going, choking back the sob that wanted to rip free. Her brain knew Chris was dead. Her heart refused to accept it.

  This time Trinity grabbed hold of Eden’s hands. Hard. “Stop. We have to go.”

  Eden went rigid, forced her gaze to Trinity’s. “I can’t leave her like this.”

  “You have to. The shooter might come back, and he might not be working alone. We need to go.”

  She was right. Of course she was right. There would be too many questions, too many possible entanglements. Chris’s murder hadn’t been random. It had been a targeted hit. Why? Because of Eden? Because of what Chris had given her today?

  But the thought of leaving Chris lying here in her own blood without anyone to stay with her ripped her heart out.

  “Eden. Now.”

  The steel in her voice was like a slap. Eden sucked in a painful breath, forced her hands away from Chris’s chest, and pushed to her feet.

  “Come on,” Trinity said quietly, taking Eden’s arm and leading her away.

  Stay sharp. Stay sharp, Eden repeated to herself as they walked away, watching for any sign of danger. She couldn’t think about Chris lying alone back there. Just couldn’t.

  Trinity took them to a silver minivan parked one block over and put Eden in the front passenger seat, sliding the backpack off and placing it at Eden’s feet. “Take these and clean up as best you can,” she said, handing Eden a pack of bleach wipes. “Put everything in this plastic bag when you’re done.”

  Eden took them and began wiping Chris’s blood from her hands. She had to scrub it from around the edges and beneath her nails. “My car’s parked in the driveway.”

  “I’ve got someone coming to take care of it.”

  Eden was too upset to bother asking more.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Trinity said as she steered down the street moments later.

  Eden couldn’t answer, still trying to take it all in. Goddammit, it hurt. Chris had been caught off guard back there, oblivious of how close the threat was. They’d both been oblivious. If Eden had gone outside with her, maybe she could have prevented this.

  Or you might be dead now too. “How did you find me?” she forced out.

  “Been looking for you for a while now. Me and the others.”

  It made no sense. “Others?”

  Trinity handed her a cell phone. “Call the number on screen. Kiyomi wants to talk to you.”

  The name forced the remaining air out of her lungs for a moment. She hadn’t heard it in years, and it brought sharp flashes of memory to the front of her mind. A slender Asian girl with liquid brown eyes. Learning to spar together. Learning how to read body language and intent in a target. How to approach them to seem the most non-threatening. Various means of incapacitating or killing them.

  With a stiff finger she hit the call button and waited for the call to connect.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” Trinity said from behind the wheel. “Eden’s on the line.”

  “Eden? This is Kiyomi Tanaka. Do you remember me?”

  This was surreal. “Yes. How…?”

  “Are you all right?”

  Physically? “Yes.”

  “Good. Trinity’s going to explain everything once you’re secure. You’re safe with her.”

  Eden wasn’t about to just accept that. This could still be an elaborate trap. She’d been trained not to lower her guard. To be suspicious of anyone who tried to get close to her. But that tat on Trinity’s hip, and being put in contact with Kiyomi directly afterward… What if this was real?

  Sirens sounded in the distance. First responders on the way to help Chris. Far too late. She swallowed, not wanting to talk anymore. Not sure what to think, what to believe. “I have to go.”

  “I understand. I just wanted you to hear a familiar voice. Stay close to Trinity, she’ll get you out of there safely. We’ll talk soon. Bye.” She ended the call.

  Eden handed the phone back to Trinity. A fire truck and two police cars roared past them. Eden bit the inside of her lip. Chris had been there for her when no one else had. They’d had good times and bad times, and even after the Program had been shut down, Chris had chosen to stay in contact, risking her safety to help Eden. Today she’d paid the ultimate price for it.

  Pain expanded in Eden’s chest. She thought of Chris’s half-closed eyes st
aring sightlessly up at the sky.

  I’m sorry, Chris. So, so sorry.

  “How did you follow me here?” she finally asked Trinity.

  “I didn’t. I was here for your handler. I wanted to see if she knew where you were.”

  “Why?”

  “We’ve been tracking you for months, trying to find you.” Trinity turned down another side alley, watching around them carefully. “I’m part of a taskforce responsible for locating and bringing in all remaining Valkyries. Kiyomi’s one of them. She’s back at our headquarters in the UK. We want you to come back there with me.”

  Was this for real? “For what?”

  “For your safety. We’re under threat, Eden. Being hunted by people within the Program. So we’re recovering all of us still out there, before it’s too late, and joining forces. We’re going to end the threat, and then we’ll all start over without the constant fear of having to look over our shoulders every minute.”

  Eden stared at her, having a hard time processing everything Trinity had said when her mind was still full of Chris lying dead in the alley a few blocks away. “How many of us are left?”

  “Nine, maybe ten. After you, there are only one or two more still alive.”

  Holy shit. She’d never imagined anything like this happening.

  “I know this all comes as a shock, especially after what just happened. But I’m hoping you’ll consider it.” Trinity glanced across at her. “Did Chris give you anything today? Any important intel?”

  “A book.” It was in the backpack.

  “What’s in it?”

  “I don’t know, she told me not to open it—” She stiffened as Trinity hammered the brakes and brought them to a sudden stop.

  Following Trinity’s gaze, she spotted the black car in the ditch across the road. Its right tires had slid off the road. Two bullet holes marked the windshield. In the driver’s seat, someone was slumped over the steering wheel.

  “Shooter’s car.” Trinity threw the car into park and got out.

  Eden was right behind her as they crossed the road, weapons up. Blood spattered the driver’s side window and dash. Then Eden got close enough and found herself staring down at Chris’s killer. “It’s him.”

  “Yeah.” Trinity glanced up and down the road. Finding it deserted for the moment, she pulled on gloves, took out a small device and opened the driver’s door to take his fingerprints. Stepping back, she looked around them once more. “His killer’s long gone. Let’s get out of here.”

  Jesus. Two hitters, different targets. Somebody had a specific hit list and wanted to keep things quiet. But who?

  Eden hurried with her back to their car, her mind going a hundred miles an hour. She pulled the book Chris had given her from her bag and tore open the wrapping paper. It was a hardcover copy of a Robert Ludlum novel. Opening it, she found a niche carved into the pages containing a flash drive.

  Trinity pulled a U-turn and sped back the way they’d come, reaching for her phone. “Hey,” she said to whoever answered. “I’ve got Eden, but there’s a situation. Chris is dead, and so is the hitter who killed her. A few blocks away, double tap to the head. I’m sending his fingerprints to you, and Eden’s got a thumb drive we’ll need analyzed asap.”

  Eden listened to every word, her thoughts divided between their security and coping with the guilt of abandoning Chris’s body to strangers.

  Trinity ended the call. “Do you remember Amber Brown?”

  Eden blinked as a vague image came to mind. Thin, oval face. Brown hair, green eyes. Hacker? “The name’s familiar.”

  “She’s our resident tech whiz. She’s going to analyze everything as soon as she gets it.” Trinity glanced over, hit her with that dark blue gaze. “I’ve got a flight chartered back to the UK. I want you to come with me. Will you?”

  Eden was cautious by nature. Except with Zack, and except right now. Because while she rarely made knee-jerk decisions, there wasn’t time to sit and debate her options. She wanted answers and justice for Chris. Wanted to find out who had killed her and why, and for a chance to meet the others if what she’d been told was true. Someone was out to kill her. And Zack might be involved somehow.

  We’re being hunted…

  She wanted justice. And revenge.

  “Yeah,” she answered, resolve hardening like steel inside her. “I’ll go with you.”

  Chapter Five

  Eden roused herself from the mental fog she’d been in for the past few hours and focused on the terrain outside the car window as Trinity passed a slow-moving tractor. Rural England wasn’t the kind of place Eden had imagined the Valkyrie headquarters would be located. She’d imagined a secret location somewhere smack in the middle of London, or maybe Manchester or Southampton. But the Cotswolds?

  She and Trinity hadn’t talked much on the flight over, because Trinity had been busy taking call after call from team members here in the UK and some back Stateside. Eden hadn’t wanted to talk anyway, beyond ensuring that Trinity had someone she trusted who would contact Chris’s family, and that her body would be flown back to Washington State for burial once it was released. Authorities were already at work on the investigation into her murder, while Eden and her newfound teammates would do their own digging.

  Eden had stayed in her seat staring out the window at the clouds and ocean passing below them, thinking about Chris and the dangers still facing her and her fellow Valkyries. Emotionally exhausted and tired from the long, draining day, she’d eventually fallen asleep and woken minutes prior to landing at Cotswold Airport.

  This whole area was like something out of a Beatrix Potter painting. The two-lane road was bordered by tall hedgerows on both sides. In the gaps between them, rolling hills in various shades of yellow and green stretched out as far as the eye could see, dotted by more hedgerows and trees.

  “We’ll be there in another fifteen minutes,” Trinity told her, pulling back into the left-hand lane after passing the tractor. They were stuck behind a big delivery truck now, going half the speed limit. “I’m starving. Hopefully Mrs. Biddington has a big spread out when we get there.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “The cook. She’s seventy-three and only works part time—usually a couple mornings a week and Sunday lunch. The rest of the time we all just fend for ourselves.”

  Eden was hungry, but her rumbling stomach could wait. She wanted to find out what was on that thumb drive so she could target whoever was responsible for Chris’s murder. “Will everyone else be at the house when we get there?”

  “Yes, for a change. Usually at least a few of us are off doing other things, either in London or outside the UK.”

  A few minutes later Trinity turned them off the main highway and continued down into a little green valley. “There’s Laidlaw Hall,” she said, pointing to her right.

  Eden followed Trinity’s finger and spotted a large mansion off in the distance, like something from Masterpiece Theatre. A big manor house built of honey-colored stone set in pastoral grounds. “That’s headquarters?”

  “Yep. You’ll meet the owner at some point, but he’s pretty private and mostly keeps to himself.”

  “Why did he let you guys set up here?”

  “He’s a good friend of Megan’s—Amber’s sister.”

  Eden whipped her head around to stare at her. “Amber has a sister?”

  “Long story, but yes, and they’re both Valkyries. Megan’s our resident ninja thief.”

  To Eden’s surprise, nerves danced in the pit of her stomach when they reached the massive gate at the end of the long driveway. Much as she’d dreamed of finding her lost Valkyrie sisters someday, she wasn’t sure she had the energy for this right now.

  “Megan and her boyfriend live in the gatehouse here,” Trinity said as they drove through the gate and passed the smaller honey-colored building on the left. “Everyone else is up at the main house.”

  It took almost a full minute to reach the house from the road. Just as Trini
ty pulled up front around the circular end of the driveway, the tall front door opened and four women stepped out.

  “There’s the welcoming committee now,” Trinity said with a wry smile. “Come on, let’s get the introductions over with, and then get you settled. I know you’re tired.”

  Grieving. She was grieving and angry and emotionally drained.

  Eden climbed out of the car, putting aside her grief and unease, hiding everything going on inside her. Chris was gone. This was Eden’s new reality and she had to adjust.

  A slender Asian woman with long black hair started down the steps, and Eden breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized Kiyomi. “Hey, it’s been a long time,” Eden said as she approached.

  “Sure has.” Kiyomi shook Eden’s hand, her welcoming smile vanishing a moment later. “I’m sorry to hear about your handler.”

  “Thank you.” Eden didn’t want to talk about it, however. She was focused on revenge.

  “Glad you’re okay, and we’re all happy to have you here. You up to meeting the others?”

  Looked like they were all waiting for an introduction, so might as well get it over with. “Sure.”

  Kiyomi led her up the steps, and Eden felt inexplicably nervous. All of these women were Valkyries? It was so hard to wrap her head around that.

  Two brunettes with similar features stood side by side next to a blonde. “Do you remember Amber?” Kiyomi asked.

  “Vaguely, yes.” She gave the darker brunette a smile.

  Amber returned it and stepped forward. “I remember you. Well, mostly I remember your back kick. You caught me off guard during a sparring session and knocked me on my ass in front of the instructors,” she said with a grin, and shook Eden’s hand. “Welcome. This is my sister, Megan. And this is Chloe.”

  Eden shook hands with the others. “Nice to meet you all.” She’d worked alone her entire career, and had only been close with Chris—and then Zack. Meeting Trinity ten hours ago had been a shock. Staying in a fancy country manor headquarters with four other Valkyries was completely surreal.