Viking Warrior Rebel

by Asa Maria Bradley

  Ulf lunged forward, placing his face a fraction of an inch from Luke’s. “I’ll show you who’s the better man.”

  “Looking forward to it,” Luke hissed, refusing to move his head.

  Suddenly, the car swerved and he hit the window again, striking the same tender spot on the elbow. Ulf fared worse. His head smacked into the back side door.

  “Knock it off,” Leif said as he straightened the steering wheel. “If Astrid finds out you’re having this pissing contest, she’ll beat the shit out of both of you.” He paused. “And then she’ll come after me for putting you both in a small enclosed space together,” he mumbled.

  Luke turned around for another glare at Ulf. The other man returned one of his own but didn’t say anything. Luke faced forward again and then cursed under his breath. They were on the main road, and there was no sign of where they’d turned from the smaller country road. He’d missed it. He slanted a look Leif’s way. Had the guy distracted him on purpose? From the pleased smile on Leif’s face, it was very possible.

  “Look,” Leif said. “Let’s try to talk like adults.” He looked at Luke for a second before focusing on the road again. “What’s going on with you and Astrid? I’m asking because I care about her.”

  Luke wanted to tell the guy to fuck off again, but Leif obviously was looking out for Astrid. “We’re still figuring that out,” he offered instead, ignoring the hitch in his chest that reminded him their relationship had a predestined ending.

  Ulf muttered something from the backseat, but both Leif and Luke ignored him.

  “She’s family,” Leif said. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.” He smiled as if they were talking about the weather or some equally benign shit.

  “You don’t have to worry about that, my king,” Ulf said. “If he hurts Astrid, she’ll kill him herself.”

  Luke ignored the guffaw from the other two and focused on the peculiar way Ulf had addressed Leif. “Why did he just call you king?”

  Leif shot Ulf a warning look through the rearview mirror. “Because that is what I am.”

  “Is your title related to this whole sovereign nation status?”

  “So Astrid told you about that.” Leif made it a statement. “We operate within U.S. laws as much as we possibly can, but sometimes we have to step outside those limits.” He looked at Luke again. “You’ve seen what the wolverines can do. We can’t just call the cops to come and stop them.”

  Okay, that made sense in a really warped way. Luke’s own division was created so its agents could work outside the limits of the FBI, but he was a U.S. citizen. “But how can you operate within our country’s borders if you’re from a different country? What international agency oversees your operations, and how do they work with U.S. law enforcement?”

  “None of your business—”

  Leif interrupted Ulf’s outburst with a small shake of his head. “Our superiors have global jurisdiction,” he said. “It allows us to operate under a kind of diplomatic immunity.”

  “What is the name of your agency?”

  “I can’t tell you that.” Leif turned to look at him and cocked his head. “Why so interested in who we work with in your government?”

  Fuck. The cop in Luke had automatically tried to work out the web of jurisdiction. Leif would figure out Luke’s true identity if he wasn’t careful. He couldn’t blow his cover. “I’m just interested in who I should look out for. Hazard of the trade, I guess. The club attracts people from the shady side of the law sometimes.”

  “From what I’ve heard, you walk the shady side too,” Ulf interjected.

  Luke ignored him but filed away that they’d obviously researched both him and his business. “Let’s talk about these wolverines. What are they?”

  A line appeared between Leif’s brows. “We don’t know for sure, but Irja’s figured out they’re made through genetic manipulation and cross breeding.”

  “By whom?”

  Leif paused for a while. “We don’t have concrete evidence.”

  “But you have a suspect?” Shit, he sounded like a cop again. For that matter, so did Leif. Was it possible that Astrid and everyone else at the big house in the forest were part of some kind of international policing effort?

  Leif just nodded.

  Luke waited for more details, but the silence stretched on. He changed tack. “And why did they kidnap the women?”

  Ulf leaned forward. “Astrid told you about them?” Leif shot him a surprised look too.

  Luke frowned. “Yeah. She was pretty shook up. Seeing them so powerless brought up bad memories.”

  Leif’s eyebrows shot up, and Ulf made a noise of surprise.

  Shit, they hadn’t known about Astrid’s background. “Don’t tell her I said anything,” he begged, but two others weren’t paying attention.

  “It makes sense,” Ulf said. “She was a shield maiden. If she was born a thrall, that could be how she earned her freedom. I had battle brothers who became free men that way. Sign up for a few years of raiding without pay, and you’d be your own man eventually.”

  “Shut up,” Leif warned him. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  Luke stored away the words they’d used. He’d figure out what shield maiden and thrall meant later. “I thought you already knew,” he said.

  Ulf smirked, but Leif nodded. “If Astrid wanted us to know her history, she would have told us.” He shot another warning look Ulf’s way through the rearview mirror.

  The guy grumbled but finally nodded his head. “I’ll keep quiet.”

  Luke let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “I owe you guys.”

  Leif’s feral grin made Luke regret the words as soon as they left his lips. “I’m sure I’ll collect at some point,” Leif said. “Meanwhile, brush off your formal wear. Naya wants you at our wedding.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Ulf stuttered, but Leif interrupted him by holding up his hand.

  “I’m not pleased about it, but my själsfrände wants him there so her brother won’t feel like the only outsider.” He pulled up in front of Luke’s apartment building and turned halfway in his seat, facing Luke full-on. “Naya says I still have a lot to learn about the art of compromise, which is the only reason you are allowed at my wedding. I and the rest of my warriors will be monitoring you carefully. Not just at the wedding.”

  “Understood.” Luke got out of the car. At the same time, Ulf opened the back door and exited. He made sure to bump Luke with his shoulder as he moved to take the front seat.

  “Not here and not now,” Ulf hissed. “But soon.”

  “Looking forward to it,” Luke said in the same low voice as he walked toward the building entrance.

  * * *

  Back in his apartment, Luke took a quick shower and dressed in his own clothes before he called Whalert. The number in Rex’s message was not one Luke had used before. His boss answered on the first ring.

  “That you, Holden?” Whalert asked. There were myriad voices in the background, and someone laughed loudly.

  “Where are you?” Luke asked.

  “I can’t use the office anymore. We’ve been compromised.”

  Luke straightened. “Okay.”

  “The fucked-up part is that I triggered it myself.” Frustration laced his boss’s tone. “I should have known better. You’ve warned me several times. Instead, I acted like an overconfident rookie.”

  Luke interrupted the self-flagellation. “Slow down and tell me what’s going on.”

  Whalert swallowed loudly. “This morning, I checked to see if the lab had finished the analysis of the blood sample you had me enter.” Luke had sent Astrid’s blood-soaked scarf to his boss so his own identity wouldn’t be associated with any records. It was standard when an operative was undercover, but also a way for Luke to be extra careful. “I couldn’t even se
e the lab request entry,” his boss continued.

  “It’s been locked for higher clearance?” Luke had suspected the case would trigger something like this, but he’d thought it might only move beyond his own security clearance. He’d never imagined it would get ripped out of Whalert’s hands. The guy was way above Luke’s pay grade.

  “No, the record is completely gone. It’s as if I never sent the request. Even the confirmation email has been deleted from my inbox. Someone really wants that sample to disappear.”

  Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. This was way worse than he’d thought. What the fuck were Astrid and her band of Scandinavians involved in? “Are you safe?” he asked his boss.

  “For now. I grabbed my files and got the hell out of the office. Luckily it was early and not many people had arrived yet. No one saw me there, so the cleanup crew will probably go to my house first.” Cleanup crew was code for the assassins used when an agent went rogue.

  “This is bad,” Luke said. “Do you have a safe house?”

  Whalert paused. “Nice try, but you know I won’t tell you.” A hint of suspicion had crept into his voice.

  “Fuck, man. You’re thinking I’m out to get you now?”

  “I think I’ve earned the right to be paranoid.”

  He was right. Luke apologized. “What do we do next?”

  “I’m going off grid. It will take me a little while to get situated. Once I know I’m safe, I’ll work on figuring out how far up the chain this corruption goes. I think I know some people I can trust to look into this, but I need to make sure they’re not susceptible to manipulation before I contact them.”

  “Makes sense. I’ll cover my tracks as well.”

  “No need.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Whalert paused for a moment. “Look, I should apologize for not taking you seriously when you were trying to tell me something weird was going on with this case.”

  “I never said it straight out.” Luke had hinted to his boss that he suspected an unusual number of their supervisors were invested in the case, but he’d never actually told him he thought the covert labs had been operating as long as they had because someone within the agency—shit, within the government—was supporting them.

  “You were clear enough.” Whalert cleared his throat. “I owe you an apology, but maybe the fact that I listened on some level will make up for that. I started separating your cover identity from a lot of the official records. It didn’t take much, since DTU operates under the radar anyway and is on a separate IT infrastructure. But I did enough so that this morning I only had to run a few computer routines to separate your undercover identity from your real identity. Luke Holden no longer exists in any bureau records, but his official paperwork is still valid.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” He was stunned both by the audacity of his boss’s action—who knew how many laws he had just broken—and the brilliance of his planning. What had happened to the stuffy office guy who insisted on the wisdom of following procedures?

  “You don’t have to say anything. It’s not a foolproof plan, but it should buy us enough time so we don’t have to worry about anyone coming after you immediately. I even doctored Broden’s report in the Denver office’s records.”

  “That makes things easier on this end. Do you still want me to meet up with Kraus tomorrow to see what that connection is?”

  “Yes, dig around in whatever that shithead is up to. I have a hunch he’s the key to a lot of this.” Whalert paused. “I’m heading closer your way.”

  “Okay.” If his boss had shared that much about his new location, he must trust Luke at least a little.

  “Ditch this phone,” Whalert continued. “We’ll communicate in safe areas online until I can set up a safe phone connection again. Use DTU code modification.” The Domestic Terrorist Unit had developed code words no other agencies were aware of. No electronic or written records of the encryption key were stored. Each new agent learned and memorized the code when a senior agent taught it to them.

  “How will I know where on the Net to find you?”

  “You’ll get an invitation you can’t miss.” Whalert chuckled. “Anything new with your target?”

  Luke hesitated. Talking about Astrid somehow seemed disloyal. A completely irrational feeling, but there it was. “I found the connection between her and Naya Brisbane.”

  “Spill.”

  Luke summarized how Naya’s fiancé was the leader of the group and how they all lived in the same mansion.

  “Sounds like a cult,” Whalert said.

  “They function more like law enforcement than a cult.” Luke paused for a breath. “Actually, they’re very much like soldiers. I definitely get the warrior vibe from all of them.”

  “If they’re operating within our borders, they must work with some branch of the U.S. military.”

  “That’s just it. Leif says they’re a sovereign nation and have diplomatic immunity.”

  “What, like some sort of Native American ambassadors? That doesn’t even make sense.”

  “I know. I’ll have to do some more digging. I’m invited to Naya and Leif’s wedding the day after tomorrow.”

  “Weddings are excellent opportunities to make friends.”

  Luke doubted he’d become friends with any of the other guys if they were at all like Ulf and Leif. It was more likely they’d all get drunk and brawl. “I’ll try my best. There’s more.” He told Whalert about the women kidnapped by the wolverines.

  “If there’s a human-trafficking connection and someone within our government is involved, they will want this covered up.” He cursed under his breath. “And why haven’t you told me about these wolverine freaks before?”

  “I figured you’d have me committed to a room with padded walls.”

  Whalert laughed, but it was more bitter than joyful. “Probably. But at this point, my eyes are opened to all kinds of depravities and weird shit. So you think these creatures are genetically engineered.”

  Luke nodded and then realized his boss couldn’t see. “Yes.” He almost told Whalert about growing up in one of the covert labs and what it had done to his brother, but keeping quiet about that part of his life was too ingrained.

  “We need to stop this. You find out more about what the Scandinavians are doing and how they are connected to these creatures. See if Kraus is somehow involved. I’ll work on flushing out who in the government is covering for these fuckers.” He paused. “Could we use Leif and his troops as allies? If they’re fighting the wolverines, it seems like we have a common enemy.”

  “I don’t know enough about them to be able to answer that yet.” Although, there was no way Astrid would be an ally once she figured out how much he’d kept from her. Ulf had pointed out that Astrid was quite capable of killing him. She’d probably choose a very slow and painful method.

  They ended the conversation, and Luke destroyed the phone he’d used. That would be his last link to Luke Hager for a while. He’d only have to worry about being Holden now. At this point, he wasn’t sure how separate the two identities actually were. Meeting Astrid had a lot to do with why he preferred being Luke Holden.

  His other phone dinged the signal for incoming email, and he checked his inbox. A message welcomed him to his new membership in the Hair Club for Men.

  Whalert had a sick sense of humor.

  Chapter 18

  Flower garlands were stupid, Astrid decided as she tried to get the stalk of a rose to bend and attach to some twine. She’d never been into girlie stuff, other than her love of luxury bath products and lotions. Why did Naya need flowers all the way down the aisle? Just a few at the front by the altar would have been plenty. The wedding was tomorrow, and there was no way Astrid would get all these freaking roses to cooperate in time for the ceremony. The florist had told them they could put up the flowers
the day before, since they would keep in the cool temperatures of the spring nights. She’d been miffed Leif wouldn’t let her and her crew on the premises but reluctantly gave the Vikings the instructions.

  A large tent had been erected in the meadow behind the fortress, and by keeping it closed, they’d protect the flowers from any late-spring frost. The flowers had to be sprayed with water this evening and then again in the morning to look fresh and dewy. A lot of effort for a bunch of prickly weeds. Luckily, Astrid didn’t need to be involved beyond trying to wrestle the stems into garlands. Irja and Torvald would be on water-spraying duty. Torvald loved flowers. Who would have guessed?

  Leif and Naya would say their vows on Walpurgis Night, the traditional Norse celebration of spring and the beginning of new life. Astrid had always loved the celebration, especially the giant bonfires that were lit at dusk. After a long winter, seeing nature wake up to spring made everything seem possible. What better timing for the king and queen to celebrate their new life together as a married couple? All the warriors had enjoyed collecting wood into a giant pile in the meadow behind the fortress. Astrid looked forward to lighting it. Maybe Naya would let her throw some of the rose garlands into the flames. The thought made her smile, and she twisted the rose stem one last time and forced it in place.

  Thinking about marriage made Astrid’s thoughts stray to Luke. The själsfrände bond had forced them together, but were their feelings strong enough to sustain a relationship? Somewhere deep inside, no matter how disappointed she’d been in love in the past, she’d always wanted what Naya and Leif had. Though their relationship had been rocky in the beginning. At one point, Naya had run away from Leif and the warriors because the pressure of the forced connection was too much. That damn bond.

  Astrid had been furious and hurt when Naya left, but now she understood better. Were her own feelings for Luke real, or was the bond manipulating her into a relationship—a marriage—she wasn’t emotionally ready for? This must be what brides of arranged marriages felt like. And she still had to explain to Luke that the Norse handfasting ritual needed to be completed or Astrid’s life in the human realm would be over. No biggie.