“Oh yeah. Working perfectly. Idiot didn’t even bother permanently deleting photos of all the women they’ve targeted, or pictures of himself.”
Good. With any luck they might even be able to find where the missing women were and give them a chance of survival. Maybe even prevent any other women from being kidnapped. “Perfect. Looking forward to finding out what else is on there. See you soon.”
“So, where to now?” Ty asked, smoothly merging into the traffic pouring out of London onto the motorway.
She reached for his free hand and curled hers around it. “Home.” The gatehouse at Laidlaw Hall, where they’d first lived together before heading back to the States.
The first part of this mission was complete, and phase two was about to begin. She couldn’t wait to deliver some Valkyrie justice to the assholes responsible for all this suffering.
Chapter Eight
Eden let her hand brush over the tufted tops of the purple fountain grasses as she wandered along the border planted nearest to the south side of the high-walled garden, enjoying the peace and tranquility while it lasted. This gorgeous spot was something right out of a fairytale.
All around the perimeter of the garden, the golden stone walls absorbed the heat of the summer sun, making it the perfect spot for the beautifully espaliered fruit trees growing along it. There were apple, cherry, pear, peach and plum trees, their carefully pruned branches anchored to the stone.
“Thought I might find you here.”
She glanced up and smiled at Zack as he strode through the door set in the opposite wall. “Isn’t it incredible? I’d forgotten how gorgeous it all was.”
Aside from spending time with her fellow Valkyries, the gardens were what Eden had missed most about this beautiful place. Plants had long been a passion of hers. She knew every single one in here by both their common and Latin name, knew all their properties and toxicity levels—and how to make the best use of that.
Zack stopped in front of her and closed his big hands around her hips. She stared up into his gorgeous gray eyes, a smile curving her lips as she looped her arms around his neck. After a long, heartrending journey, they had found their way back to each other and were all the stronger for it.
“Miss me?” she teased.
“Yes, and you left your phone inside so I had to come find you in person.” He leaned in and kissed her, bringing one hand up to tangle in the back of her curls as he pulled her flush to the front of his body and proceeded to make every thought disappear with the slow, thorough possession of her mouth.
Then he straightened suddenly, leaving her clinging to his broad shoulders and hungry for more. “Amber just called everyone to a meeting.”
“So she found something juicy.” Four hours ago, Amber had taken all the intel from Will Heaver’s phone and put it through her insanely powerful laptop. Eden was eager to find out what she’d uncovered.
“Must have.” Lacing his fingers through hers, Zack started for the open doorway in the garden wall.
The others were all gathered in the library again when they arrived. Standing at the back of the room, Eden leaned into Zack, his strong arm around her waist.
“Good, everyone’s here,” Amber said when she saw them. “This likely won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but Will Heaver’s phone turned out to be a gold mine of information, and better yet, he has no clue we have any of it. I was able to retrieve almost all of what he tried to delete, and Lady Ada found a lot of leads for us to follow up on.”
She paused a beat. “Unfortunately, it’s going to take us longer to track the missing women. Tarasov moves fast. From time of capture to delivery at their holding facility appears to be only a few hours, and in most cases they’re done one at a time with no doubling up. After the client has the woman picked up, tracking them becomes a nightmare. They could be anywhere in the world by now.”
A rush of anger hit Eden. She’d seen a lot of things over the years of performing clandestine missions. But this disgusting, horrifically callous and entitled mindsets of these men, who thought they could just pay to have a woman who matched their sick fantasies pulled right off the street because they were nothing more than objects to them, was pure, twisted evil.
Amber faced the screen set up above the large fireplace behind her and started the presentation. “So far, Jesse, Trin and I have identified who we think are the major players involved in the kidnapping ring, but as of now there’s been nothing more on the origin of the tips we received from our anonymous source. In the meantime, we can deal with the other potential threat—Tarasov and his crew.”
She pulled up a satellite image of what appeared to be an industrial area. “Here’s where we think they’re holding the captured women, at least temporarily.”
The camera zoomed in on a long, rectangular building, and Amber continued. “Mostly warehouses and storage facilities in this area, along with some shipping companies. This is our target building.” She circled it in red, then detailed the surrounding area and talked about the security measures they’d found so far.
Not surprisingly, Tarasov was using a small crew at the holding facility. The turnover was quick, and sporadic. They brought the women in, held them for a brief period, and released them to the buyer. No schedule, no set shifts or patrols, nothing that would make it easy for law enforcement to plan a raid.
“We’re going to have to rely on recon right up until the moment of the op for this one,” Amber continued. “Next, we’ve got Tarasov’s lair.”
She pulled up a live feed of an upscale, terraced house and gave a rundown of the floor plan and likely security measures. “And, finally, the pick-up crew. Heaver leads that team. Small rap sheet of petty crime, and he’s a triple black belt in two different disciplines. He usually works these jobs with two other guys waiting in a vehicle for his signal. He intercepts the victim, and the others swoop in to make her disappear.”
Eden studied the men’s pictures on screen, hating them all on sight.
“Basically, to make this happen we’re looking at a three-pronged attack, involving three simultaneous ops. Starting with Heaver and his crew. And for that, we’re gonna need someone to pose as bait. Eden, you’re up.”
“I’m ready,” she announced. Zack’s hand tightened on her waist but he didn’t argue. The wheels for this had already been set in motion the moment Amber sent Tarasov Eden’s picture and specified her as a target.
Trinity glanced at Kiyomi. “You’re still a go for Tarasov?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Eden shifted her attention to Marcus, who stood hovering in the doorway. His expression was dark and he looked about to crack a molar his jaw was clenched so hard.
She felt a pang of sympathy for him. It wasn’t easy, loving one of them and coping with the danger involved, and Kiyomi’s demons ran deep.
“All right,” Trinity said to the room. “Amber and I will divide you into teams, and then we can start breaking everything down.”
Amber motioned for Eden and Zack to come up front and waited for them before speaking. “To make the bait angle work, we need to pretty much hand them everything on a platter. I’m going to send them a specific address where the fake client I’m posing as has spotted you.”