Megan’s grin was cocky as hell. “Put me in, coach.”
Chapter Six
Something was definitely up. A reunion? Come on.
Alex snorted to himself as he stepped into his home office and shut the door. It was early but Grace was up too, already puttering around in the kitchen, and their daughter was still asleep. Time for him to sneak in a little more work.
He opened his email, scanned the contents of all the alerts he’d set up so he could try to keep some semblance of tabs on the remaining Valkyries. “Well, would you look at that,” he deadpanned. All eight of them, and all their partners except for Matt DeLuca had arrived in the UK throughout yesterday morning London time.
What were they up to, and why were they hiding it from him? It was driving him insane that he didn’t know what was going on, that no one was updating him.
Maybe it wasn’t his place to oversee them anymore officially, but he didn’t give a shit. Somebody better tell him what the hell was happening, otherwise how could he step in if needed?
Picking up his encrypted phone, he dialed Trinity. The call went straight to voicemail.
So he called again. And again. And again.
Pick up, he finally texted, growing more annoyed by the second. All of them in the UK together? It couldn’t be good.
A million possibilities flooded his brain. Everything from taking down an international crime syndicate, to assassinating a suspected war criminal. Or maybe a terrorist cell. With these women, it could be anything.
His phone rang as he angrily typed out another text. An unknown number showed on the display. “Hello,” he answered, his voice clipped.
“It’s me,” Trinity said. “What’s the matter?”
“You tell me. And this line’s secure, by the way.”
He could hear voices in the background. Lots of them. “Just a sec, it’s too noisy in here.” The background noise faded as she presumably left the room. “That’s better.”
Was it? He had to unclamp his jaw to speak. “What’s going on? I know you’re all together there.” Amber had leaked little tidbits of intel to him over a secure network, but not enough for him to piece everything together, and he no longer had a team of analysts under him.
“Together where?”
“Somewhere in England,” he growled. “Probably at Laidlaw Hall.” Okay, so he was a control freak. But that’s exactly why he’d been so good at his job. This semi-retirement bullshit was wearing thin already. He itched to be in the middle of things again.
“Yeah, everyone’s here. But nothing’s going on. We just talked about the situation.”
He wasn’t buying it. “Are you guys in danger? Did you receive a credible threat?” He couldn’t shake the suspicion, and he’d grown to care about these incredible women. Probably more than was wise, but he couldn’t help it.
“There’s no credible threat at the moment.”
That they knew of, she meant. Or maybe Trin was hiding more from him than he realized. “I want a video call. Now. With you, Amber and Briar.”
She sighed as if he was being ridiculous. “Fine. Hang on a sec.”
Just over a minute later she called back using a video link, and three Valkyries appeared on screen in Marcus’s study at Laidlaw Hall. Knew it.
“Hi, Alex,” Amber said with a friendly smile, waving. “What’s up?”
He grunted, glaring at them all. He’d lost more damn sleep over them over the course of the last twelve months than he had in the first two sleep-deprived years as a parent. “I want to know what you’re planning. I don’t want to be directly involved, but I’m also not gonna leave you all hanging in the wind if it goes sideways.”
“Awww,” they all chorused, giving him identical, adoring smiles that tugged at the heartstrings he didn’t like people outside of his family to know about. Then again, in a way these women were like extended family to him.
“Don’t aww me.” He folded his arms, raised an eyebrow. “Am I going to have to clean up a big-ass mess again like last time?”
Last fall they’d blown up Jane Allen, aka “The Architect” while she was riding in the back of a van during a prison transport that was supposed to have been top secret and high security—and then claimed it had been a freak accident. The political, legal and bureaucratic aftermath of that one had been a nightmare.
“Because in case you weren’t aware, I keep trying to retire, and you guys are making it really goddamn hard.”
“We are well aware, which is why you’re on a need-to-know basis,” Briar said. “And besides, we don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Then he got it.
It wasn’t that they didn’t trust him. They knew he was in a sort of limbo, career-wise, and didn’t want to involve him in anything incriminating or that would cause him any problems. Dammit to hell, how was he supposed to stay mad now?
“Okay, then hypothetically speaking, if anything should happen—and I’m not saying it will, because history has shown what peaceful and model citizens all of you are—” he added sarcastically, “I’m here.”
“We know,” Briar said. “And we appreciate it.”
None of them said anything more. He studied the three of them, and thought of the other five somewhere else in the manor house.
They were the most infuriating people he’d ever dealt with, and he’d dealt with a lot of infuriating people over the course of his military and intelligence careers. But damn, he had such a soft spot for each and every one of these women. Against all odds they’d survived a reprehensible government program that had stripped them of everything and forced them to endure years of danger and unimaginable hardships, and had finally won their freedom with Jane’s death.
“If it makes you feel any better, we’re all being extremely well-behaved so far. Even Chloe,” Amber added with a bright smile that did nothing to dispel the level of his unease.
“Yeah, but that’s mostly because Heath’s here to watch her,” Trinity added. “She and Bautista got in some knife practice earlier.”
Alex shook his head, a surge of fondness making him fight a grin. “I know this is a lot to ask, but for the love of God, be careful. And…at least try to stay out of trouble.” That was like asking for the moon where they were concerned, but it still needed to be said.
“We will,” Trin said. “Love you, Alex.”
“Yeah, love you,” Amber added, and the three of them blew him a freaking kiss before signing off.
He set his phone down on the desk, shaking his head at himself in disgust. They’d just played him, stroked his ego and manipulated him into backing down, and he’d let them. Folded like a cheap-ass tent. Becoming a husband and father had made him turn soft.
A tap came at the door, and Grace poked her head in. “Hi.” She stepped into the room wearing a short, peach silk robe held together with a flimsy tie at the front, giving him a tantalizing outline of her breasts and leaving her legs bare from mid-thigh.
Glancing from his phone to his face, she raised her eyebrows. “Everything okay?”