It was her favorite room in the house, light and bright and airy, with pale green paint, a big, white marble fireplace on the end wall, and shelves upon shelves stuffed with books. The combination of wood smoke, leather and the vanilla-scent of old paper was divine.
Amber scanned the group with a half-smile. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice, and for Marcus and Kiyomi for having all of us.”
Trinity glanced their way. Things were definitely not all sunshine and roses with those two right now.
Marcus stood in the doorway, leaning a shoulder against the jamb, arms crossed over his chest. Kiyomi was seated next to Megan and Ty on one of the couches. There was a noticeable tension between them, and it wasn’t hard for Trinity to guess its cause.
“There have been no major developments on the intel I gave you all yesterday,” Amber continued. “I’ve done a little more digging into the background of the suspects involved. Looks like they’re all in the UK right now, and they’re keeping a low profile.”
“What about who sent you everything?” Georgia asked, perched on Bautista’s knee on the chaise in the corner.
“Still nothing. I’ve put everything I have into it, and nada so far.”
A resounding silence answered her. Everyone understood how bad that was given Amber’s skills.
Amber slid her hands into the back pocket of her jeans, looked up at the screen where everything of importance was displayed, then surveyed the room. “The kidnapping ring is real, and Tarasov is definitely involved. Probably calling the shots from behind the scenes. So far I’ve found one offshore bank account with recent deposits of a few hundred thousand each. From buyers.”
“So what, some guy contacts Tarasov and buys a woman his guys have kidnapped?” Megan said with a curl of her lip.
“Worse. Looks like he’s taking custom orders for women. Maybe even specific women.”
“Wait.” Heath looked disgusted. “You mean people contact Tarasov with a freaking human shopping list, and his guys target women based on that?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. So far they’ve been taken in a specific area, but unless he’s stupid he’ll branch out elsewhere. Right now, this is a testing ground for him.”
A chorus of outraged murmurs followed the announcement.
“It’s been a challenge to try and find who the buyers are though,” Amber said. “I’m still trying to find the original sources for the money.”
“Kiyomi, you’re positive Tarasov’s to blame for Julia?” Eden asked, seated across the room from her.
Kiyomi’s dark gaze slid to her and Zack, and she nodded. “One hundred percent.”
“We have to take the bastard out,” Chloe said, shoving to her feet. Already standing, Heath curled an arm around her and drew her into his side.
“It’s worth a deeper look to see if we’re right,” Trinity said, drawing everyone’s attention. “And then we can see whether it’s a setup.”
“How do we know this isn’t Tarasov pulling strings behind the scenes, feeding us tidbits to draw us out into the open?” Heath asked.
“We don’t,” Trinity answered. “So we have to keep that in mind as we plan our response.”
“We could set up a sting where one or more of us acts as bait, and see exactly who’s involved,” Briar said. “We could find Tarasov that way, and like Trin said, we’d find out if whoever’s feeding us the intel is clean or not.”
Amber nodded. “I could create a fake buyer profile and feed him specifics on what kind of girl I want, matching one of us. Then we dangle the bait and wait to see what happens.”
Low conversation broke out all over the room. Trinity noticed Marcus watching Kiyomi from the doorway, his jaw taut.
She felt for him. As an intimate assassin, Kiyomi was the obvious choice to send as bait for this kind of operation. And Kiyomi had already made it clear she intended to kill Tarasov. If this went ahead, she would once again be in the thick of the danger.
Trinity pulled her attention away from Kiyomi and let out a soft breath as her Valkyrie sisters and their partners discussed everything amongst themselves, torn. It was clear things were turning in a decidedly tactical direction, and from here everything would move fast.
She’d wanted to wait to do this, but…
“I have something I need to tell you all,” she said over the conversations going on.
Everyone stopped to look at her.
She released a breath. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to sit this one out. Brody and I are expecting an important call any day now, and…” When everyone kept staring, she sighed and just said it. “We’re adopting a baby sometime in the next few weeks.”
Excited gasps met her words, but she hurried on before anyone could speak. “The birth mom is nearing her due date, so we could get the call any time. I want to stay and be part of this, to help, but if we get that call…” She shook her head. “I can’t stay.”
“Of course you can’t,” Briar said, jumping up and coming over to throw her arms around her in a big hug. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to me about this before.”
“Sorry. I wanted to.” She squeezed her friend tight, tears pricking the backs of her eyes.
She’d wanted to be a mother for so long, and the choice to have a baby of her own had been taken from her years ago. Adoption was her only chance. “You know how these things are. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about birth moms changing their mind at the last minute, so I didn’t want to jinx anything, just in case.”
“No jinxes. Everything’s gonna be fine,” Briar insisted with a delighted smile, then sobered. “Is this why Brody left so suddenly?”
“Yes, but don’t say anything to Matt,” Trinity said. “He requested the time off weeks ago, and Matt thinks it’s just for a holiday.”
More Valkyries had gathered around them, waiting for their turn to hug her. “Is it a boy or a girl?” Megan demanded.
“A boy.”
“Ohhh!” More gushing, more hugs, and Trinity found herself perilously close to tears.
This was her family. Brody and his dad and siblings had accepted her into the Colebrook clan, but these women… These women were blood to her.
“We’re so happy for you guys,” Eden said, her pretty golden eyes misty.
“Thanks. We’re happy too.” The whole adoption process would have taken a lot longer without Rycroft pulling strings for them and eliminating some of the red tape.
Trinity was nervous and excited about becoming a mother. But she’d also missed these women so damn much, and felt bad for not fighting shoulder to shoulder with them on this. She knew she was making the right choice, however. Her priorities had shifted the moment their adoption was pending, and her child came first now.
She doled out more hugs, finishing up with Heath, and gave a laugh. “Okay, sorry, I totally hijacked the meeting, and we need to get back down to business. Amber, you’ve got the floor.”
“Okay, well, first thing we need is to track down someone on the suspect list, intercept him and access his phone.” She tapped her chin, perusing the audience as she pretended to seem uncertain. “Hmm, if only we had someone who was good at stealing stuff.”