by Kaylea Cross
“Copy. I’ll head around front.”
Eden’s pulse kicked up as she stared at the back of the flat through the gloom, Zack just behind her. Then a crash came from inside.
If Penny was inside, she was under attack.
Drawing her weapon, Eden charged for the back door. Before she could reach it Zack shot past her, pistol in hand as he drew his foot up and kicked at the old lock. Two kicks and the lock gave. He shoved the door open with his shoulder, swept the entrance with his weapon. “I’ll go left,” he whispered.
They surged inside, scanning the darkened interior. He went left, Eden went right.
She crept forward slowly now, rocking her weight from heel to the ball of each foot as she searched her side of the main floor. Streetlamps cast a faint glow through the windows on either side of the front door, spilling over the hardwood floor.
A sound captured her attention. Something moving just out of sight in the room closest to the front door.
She and Zack both stopped. Eden whipped her weapon around the corner and peered into a small sitting room. Then froze.
A woman lay sprawled out on her stomach on the floor. Still alive, hands weakly moving over the hardwood as if she was trying to pull herself forward, a dark trail of blood marking her slow, painful progress. The killer could have gone out the front door while Zack was kicking the back one open.
“Sweep the rest,” she said to Zack, then holstered her weapon and rushed over to kneel beside the woman.
Her head was turned toward Eden. There was just enough light coming through the edges of the blind covering the window to allow her to see the woman’s face.
Eden’s heart sank. No… “Penny?”
The woman’s eyes lifted to hers, the labored sound of her shattered breaths filling the room. Strawberry-blond hair, brown eyes, freckles. Right build. A pistol lay just out of reach of her right hand, and she held what looked like a go bag in her left.
Jesus, no. “It’s Penny,” she told Trinity and Zack. “She’s hit bad.”
“I’m pursuing the shooter,” Trinity said, her voice uneven as she ran. “Thirty-ish male, dark hoodie and jeans, heading west.”
“Copy,” she answered, already doing an assessment on Penny. She’d been shot twice, center mass. Both rounds had gone out through her back, leaving larger exit wounds. Eden grabbed the bag in Penny’s hand and rummaged through it, finding some bandages and pressure dressings they always took with them on missions. “Just stay still,” she told Penny, keeping her voice calm even though her heart rate was elevated.
“G-gone,” Penny wheezed.
“The shooter?”
“Place is clear,” Zack said, coming up behind her. “Where’s she hit?”
“Chest. Call an ambulance.”
“Already did.” He knelt beside Penny and helped Eden turn her over onto her back. But there was so much blood already.
She leaned over Penny, held that shocked, anguished gaze. “Penny, we’re here to help you. I’m Eden, and this is Zack.”
Penny opened her mouth. Blood spilled from the corner of it, dripping onto the floor. Eden pulled on a pair of latex gloves in the go bag and pressed down harder on the entry wounds, letting Penny’s weight and gravity press on the exit wounds. She’d lost too much blood. The bullets had hit her lungs, and probably her heart.
“Penny, who shot you?” she asked, leaning close, willing the other woman to hold on. She needed an IV immediately to keep her blood volume up before her heart gave out. The ambulance was Penny’s only chance. “Did you see him?”
Penny’s eyelids fluttered. Her lips moved, then she grimaced and choked on her own blood.
Shit. Immediately they rolled her onto her side to try and make it easier for her to breathe. “Who shot you, Penny?” Eden said urgently. “Who came after you?”
Penny jerked, a terrible rasping sound locking in her throat, then convulsed, her body desperately fighting for oxygen.
No, no, no… “Penny, stay with me. The ambulance is almost here.” Anything to get Penny to hold on. “I need you to fight, Valkyrie.”
Even as the convulsions grew weaker, those brown eyes lifted to lock with Eden’s, a heartbreaking flare of recognition there.
Eden bent to cup Penny’s face in her hands. “That’s right, sister. I’m one of us. Loyal Unto Death. I’m not leaving you.”
Through the agony and fear, surprise filled those wide brown eyes. And then tears. Penny stopped struggling, her chest barely moving now. But she held Eden’s gaze, the hope and relief there heartbreaking as it mixed with something else. Resignation.
She knew she was about to die, with a fellow Valkyrie beside her.
Too late. Too fucking late!
“We’ve found you,” Eden said, putting on a reassuring smile. If that was the last thing Penny saw on this earth, hopefully it would bring some measure of peace. “You’re not alone anymore.”
That stare remained locked with Eden’s, but then the light in Penny’s eyes changed. Dimmed. Her features went slack, her lids half-closing, eyes staring at nothing as the life drained out of her.
“Fuck,” Eden snapped, easing back onto her heels, her chest about to explode. They’d found Penny, but too late, and now she was dead. “She’s gone,” she said to Trinity, voice hoarse.
“Dammit. Okay, I’m coming back to you now. Meet me in the back and bring Penny out. We’re taking her home.”
Home. Where was home, for any of them? “What about the shooter?”
“Tell you in a few minutes.”
Heartsick and suddenly so damn tired, Eden swallowed and pushed to her feet. “Copy that.” She could feel Zack watching her, still kneeling beside Penny.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
Eden nodded, staring down at the other Valkyrie. She was young. Mid-to-late twenties, maybe. She might not have known Penny personally, but Eden still felt like she knew her. They were all sisters in a way, with only each other to count on now.
She set her jaw. It wasn’t fair. Wasn’t right. If they’d shown up a few minutes earlier, they could have gotten her out safely. If they’d gotten here in time, they could have whisked Penny onto the plane waiting on standby and given her protection. A new life.
“I’m going to find some blankets to wrap her in,” she said, ruthlessly shutting off her emotions. They had to be out of here by the time the ambulance arrived to avoid any more problems.
She found some upstairs in a linen closet. When she came back down, Zack had already positioned Penny on her back, hands clasped at her waist, and he had closed her eyes.
Steeling herself, Eden handed him a blanket. Together they wrapped Penny up, and Zack carried her to the back door.
“I’m here,” Trinity announced a moment later through Eden’s earpiece.
A silver van was parked on the sidewalk, its side door slid open.
Eden checked up and down the street to ensure no one was watching. “Hurry,” she said, wanting to be away from here, and for this awful night to be over.
Zack rushed out with Penny in his arms and climbed into the back. Eden shut the side door, then hopped in the front passenger seat and slammed the door. “Go.”
Trinity took off up the alley. “Amber’s cancelled the ambulance and is calling in a clean up crew.”
“What happened to the shooter?” Eden asked, eyes on the road. She couldn’t stand to look back and see Penny wrapped in those blankets where Zack had laid her on the floor.
“Ran his motorcycle into the side of a truck a block away.”
“Suicide?”
“Maybe. I’ve got his prints.” Trinity turned onto a main road and accelerated. “Did she tell you anything?”
“No. She was too far-gone. Hitter shot her twice, center mass.”
Trinity was quiet for a few moments, the spray from the wet tires and the whir of the windshield wipers the only sounds in the vehicle. “We’ll transport her back Stateside for burial, and make sure she’s hono
red.”
Eden glanced at her in confusion. Valkyries were ghosts long before they died. And when they did, there was no one to mourn them, no grave to mark their final resting place. “Honored? With what?”
Trinity’s hands flexed on the steering wheel. “With a star on the wall in the CIA memorial at Langley, same as the others.”
Chapter Ten
Zack waited until they were back at the manor house before approaching Eden.
She’d spent the short flight from Edinburgh with Trinity, talking to Amber on the phone. They’d tried to determine how the hitter had found Penny, and who he was. Upon landing they’d left Penny’s body at the airport, to be transported back to the States on another flight. Trinity had set it up with Rycroft, who would handle the burial.
“It’s been a long night,” Trinity said as they reached the front door just before midnight. “I’m turning in for a while. See you guys in the morning.”
“Sure,” Eden said as they stepped inside. The house was quiet, everyone else asleep except for Amber, who was working in her room. “I’m going up too.”
Zack caught her arm to stop her from leaving. “Can I talk to you a minute?”
She gave him a wary look, then nodded. “Fine. One minute.”
What he had to say would take longer than a minute, and he wanted privacy. “Let’s take a walk.”
For a moment he thought she’d refuse, but then she nodded and stepped back outside.
“Are you okay?” he asked as they took the gravel path along the back of the house. She had to be upset about Penny, tough act or not.
“Yeah. Just disappointed and angry.”
Zack still wasn’t sure how much of the real Eden he’d known back when they’d been together. She was closed-off now, so different than the relaxed, carefree woman he’d known. He wanted to know this one too, so much it wound him up inside.
It had rained all night in Edinburgh, but here the skies were clear. A bright half-moon lit their way as they headed around the side of the house and up the lawn toward the pasture bordering the stable. He had so much to say. God, where to start?
He kept his hands in his coat pockets, an extra deterrent to keep from touching her. There was no point in delaying this conversation any longer. Keeping it inside was killing him. “I looked for you after you left me,” he said quietly, unable to stand the distance and hurt and lies between them a second longer. “I never stopped looking for you.”
She stopped beside him, staring out at the moonlit hills surrounding them as the silence spread. “I didn’t want to hurt you. Or to put you in danger.”
“You knew what I did, who I was. But you didn’t trust me, or that I could make that decision for myself?”
She finally looked at him, and the impact of her gaze nearly drove the breath from his lungs. In that moment he was finally seeing her for who she truly was. A woman who’d spent her life as a weapon, moving from one op to another, never getting close to anyone. Except him. “It was too dangerous. For both of us.”
He absorbed that in silence for a moment. He was sick of lies and secrets and half-truths. “Was any of it real?” Please say some of it was real.
Her expression shuttered before she broke eye contact and stared out at the surrounding hills. She was silent for so long he didn’t think she would answer. Then, “I was more real with you than I’ve ever been with anyone else.”
It came out so quietly he barely heard her, but her words made his heart pound. “How real?”
She slanted him a look but didn’t answer.
He pushed. “Which is the real you? The woman I knew, or the one standing in front of me now?”
“Both,” she said after a moment. “The one you saw was the one I always wished I could have been.”
The answer made his whole chest hurt. She’d never been free to be who she wanted, who she truly was inside. The Program had taken away her choice. He couldn’t imagine living like that, hated that she’d had to. “Then that must mean you felt safe with me before.”
She still wouldn’t look at him, but nodded. “You made me wish my life could have been different.”
His whole body tightened. It took all his restraint not to reach for her, pull her close and ease the burning ache in his chest. To take away the loneliness he sensed in her. “Maybe it can be now.”
“No, it can’t.” She met his gaze again and he could sense the battle now, the yearning pitted against her need to stay detached. “How much of it was real with you?”
There was no point in lying. He still wanted her, more than ever. “All of it. Except that I was working for the CIA. Which you already knew about.” He’d been more authentic with her than anyone else.
“It’s not a good idea.”
“Why the hell not? I know the truth about you now, and I’m still here. I set my career aside to help you and this team, and even though you don’t trust me completely, I haven’t turned any of you in.” What more did he have to do to prove himself to her?
Eden exhaled and shook her head, her dark curls bouncing against her shoulders. “Christ, I was stupid to stay with you as long as I did.”
“Why?” he demanded. Why was she denying herself the possibility when the proof of the others was right in front of her?
“Because I should have gone to ground immediately when the threat against me first broke, but I didn’t. I broke all the rules to be with you, and it almost got me killed.”
“What do you mean,” he said, a chill spreading through him.
She let out a hard exhalation. “Someone must have seen me go into the hotel at St. Petersburg. They caught up with me partway to the train station, would have shot me dead if I hadn’t noticed him at the last moment and acted first.”
Jesus. “I didn’t know.”
“I know. But I was playing with fire every time I met you. I knew it, and kept going back for more anyway. I won’t make that mistake again.”
Refusing to accept that, dying to touch her, Zack took her by the upper arms and turned her to face him. “Then tell me you don’t still feel it,” he challenged, holding her gaze. “Tell me you don’t still want me.”
“It doesn’t matter what I want.”
The hell it didn’t. And that wasn’t a no.
Desperate to get through to her, break through that barrier she hid behind, he cupped her head in his hands and covered her lips with his. She stiffened, her hands going to his chest, but instead of pushing him away she gripped the tops of his shoulders and kissed him back.
It was like a chemical reaction. Just like it had always been between them.
Zack groaned and hauled her to him, pulling her as close as he could while he slanted his mouth across hers, relearning the feel and taste of her. She didn’t hold back, her fingers sliding into his hair as her tongue stroked his, those firm curves plastered to the front of him, making him hard all over.
It had been so long. So damn long since he’d been able to feel her, lose himself in her. The sensual, urgent way she kissed him set his whole body on fire.
“Eden,” he groaned. “I missed you so goddamn much. It tore me up not knowing what happened to you, or what I’d done wrong.”
“Stop talking,” she gasped out.
No way. He’d bottled this up for long enough. Now that he had her in his arms again he couldn’t hold it in. “I want to lay you down right here,” he said between kisses. “Want to strip you and pin you right here in the grass and make you come with my tongue.”
Eden moaned and kissed him harder. She’d never been shy about what she wanted with him. God he missed the way she let go for him, the sounds she made. He would never get enough.
His hands moved over her restlessly, greedy for the feel of her, mapping every curve. Knowing the truth about her had only made the hunger worse.
He wrapped an arm around her hips, locking her to him, his other hand now splayed in her thick curls. This was real. No matter what they’d pretended before, this amazin
g heat and connection between them was real and all the more intense because they both knew the truth about each other now.
She rubbed against him, seeking more. Zack skimmed his hand up her ribs to cup a breast, triumph soaring inside him when she arched and gasped, momentarily breaking the kiss.
They stared at each other, faces inches apart. He drank in the arousal on her face, the way her eyes slid shut when he rubbed his thumb across the nipple straining against the thin fabric of her sweater and bra.
“Zack,” she whispered, gripping his hand as she pressed her forehead to his shoulder.
The vulnerable edge to her voice pierced him. He gathered her to him, held her close while he kissed her temple, her cheek, the side of her jaw. Her body was taut with a pent-up need he would kill to satisfy, her breathing ragged. “What?” he murmured.
Her fingers dug hard into his back, her short nails pricking him through his shirt. “I can’t think straight around you. I can’t do this again.” She sounded miserable. “I can’t afford to be that weak again.”
He closed his eyes and hugged her tighter, the protective, possessive part of him refusing to let go. “I want you back, Eden. I’ll never stop wanting you back.”
“Wanting’s not enough, and you don’t even know me.”
Yes, he did. She’d just told him he’d seen a side of her that no one else ever had. And that meant everything. “Then let me in so I can.”
She made a frustrated sound and pressed her head harder into his shoulder, her breath creating a warm patch on his shirt. “I’ve never…”
“Never what,” he whispered, wishing he knew what to say, what to do that would make her let go of her fear and mistrust and open herself to him again.
“Only one person really ever knew me, and now she’s dead because of it.”
Her handler. Zack caught her chin in his fingers and tilted her head up until she looked at him. “I’m not afraid, Eden. I want to know you. Everything, good and bad.”
Her half-smile was sardonic, a little sad. “You might not like what you find out.”