Kiyomi let her mind go blank and melted into him, opening up her senses until there was nothing but him and the rising tide of longing and arousal he created. He made her come alive. She’d been dead inside until him.
A ringtone went off, disturbing the quiet. Not hers. She never brought her phone with her during therapy homework.
He leaned back to fish his phone out of his pocket, glanced at it. “It’s Amber.”
Her interest sharpened. Amber and Jesse had pulled her out of hell that day in Syria and saved her life. She would never forget it. “Go ahead.”
“Amber. How are you?” He paused. “One second.” He put the phone on speaker. “Go ahead.”
“Hey, Kiyomi. Listen, something’s come up, and I need to tell you about it.”
At her friend’s somber tone, she met Marcus’s gaze. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure yet. But we’re being monitored. All of us.”
She sat up, instantly on alert, the peace of the garden forgotten. “Monitored how?”
“Right now, it’s a low threat level. Seeking behavior that tells me whoever is looking isn’t sure where we are. But the problem is, we’ve all been identified somehow.”
Marcus’s jaw flexed, anger sparking in his eyes. “Can you tell where the intel leak came from?”
He was right. It had to be a leak. There was no other explanation for how anyone would have found out their identities otherwise.
“Not yet. Whoever this is, they’re clever, and good at hiding their tracks. So far I can’t even pinpoint where they are.”
Unease slid through her. Amber was one of the most talented and gifted hackers in the world. If someone was looking for them and she couldn’t crack this, there was definitely cause for concern. “What do they want, any idea?”
“Not sure. There’s been nothing specific so far, but I’m keeping on top of it. Also, you need to be aware that whoever this is, they seem to have a particular interest in you.”
An invisible fist grabbed her stomach. “Meaning what?”
“There are almost four times as many searches for you than for any of the rest of us. I don’t know why.”
Marcus stilled, his expression taut. “Looking for her location?”
“Looking for anything on her at all. Though as far as I can tell, the person hasn’t found anything to compromise your safety.”
Yet. “What about our marriage certificate?” She’d used a different surname that she’d adopted for all her new IDs, but kept Kiyomi as a first name because she refused to give that part of her up. But if someone had found that record and realized it was her, it would lead them straight here to Laidlaw Hall.
“I scrubbed it from public record as soon as it was issued,” Amber replied. “The only way anyone could get it now is if they accessed the original through the parish—which they would have to do in person—and so far, no one has. So far, there’s no credible threat. I just wanted to alert you about what’s going on.”
It still made her uneasy as hell. “Thanks. We appreciate it. How are you and Megan?” Her sister.
“We’re both fine. Miss you guys though.”
After they ended the call a minute later, Marcus brought her hand to his lips and kissed the center of her palm. “She’ll stay on top of it. If there’s any danger, she’ll let us know straight away and we’ll go to ground somewhere.”
Kiyomi nodded and tried to downplay it. She didn’t want him worrying about her. “I’m not worried. Amber’s watching, and I feel safe here with you.”
But a frisson of unease wound through her anyway.
The danger should have ended with the Architect’s death last fall. They’d all gone through so much. Too much, and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing anyone from the family she’d only just found.
Reading the concern in her husband’s eyes, she put on an easy smile and got to her feet. “Let’s go inside,” she said, holding out a hand.
He took it, allowed her to help him up and immediately braced his weight on his cane while Karas popped up beside him, tail wagging. They walked hand in hand up the pea gravel pathway toward the old Georgian manor house, its warm, golden Cotswold stone glowing in the sunlight that glinted off the windows.
Thoughts raced through her mind with each step. Trying to figure out who could be targeting them now. What thread they might have failed to tie up last fall. Anything they could have possibly missed last time.
She came up blank, and that was almost worse. Hard as it was to accept, they were being hunted again.
Chapter Two
Ivy set down her coffee cup on the desk and paused to stretch her back before resuming her work at the keyboard. Every day for months now she’d been working on this same project. Conducting her research. Looking for any sign of weakness she could exploit. Any tiny slip.
So far they hadn’t disappointed her by making it easy.
Three monitors were set up in front of her at different heights, allowing her to process information more quickly and weed out the chaff. She focused on the middle screen, where all the current files were displayed, containing all the relevant information she’d found so far.
Eight of them, one on each surviving Valkyrie. Eight deadly female operatives who posed a threat to her.
They’d done a good job of trying to wipe their identities from the record. Most people wouldn’t know who they were now, and sure as hell wouldn’t have the capability of finding anything on them at all.
But she wasn’t like most people.
The intel she’d compiled thus far had taken countless hours to find, using the best computer that money and her skills could get her. She had earned the right to finally do something for herself. Something that mattered to her.
This was it.
Once upon a time she’d been naïve enough to break her number one rule and risk trusting others, and had nearly paid for that mistake with her life. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, she had ceased to exist that night. Because of that, in many ways the woman staring back at her in the mirror now was still a stranger to her as well.
She scanned the latest search results displayed on the first monitor, struggling to ignore her rising frustration and impatience. In spite of all her work, she hadn’t yet found anything that would help her locate the Valkyries. Still nothing solid on Kiyomi.
She twisted the bracelet on her left wrist as she thought, toying with the cool, smooth jet bead that bore the image of a cherry blossom. It was the only token she’d kept from her former life, before the betrayal. To remind her of the past, and act as a symbol of her motivation to track the remaining Valkyries down.
All she needed was one solid thread to tug on. One tiny filament, even. From there it was only a matter of pulling on it until she had what she wanted. Patience and perseverance were the key.
Her black and white cat Mr. Whiskers meowed and jumped onto her lap to butt her chin with his head. “You’re hungry, huh?” she murmured, still staring at the screen as she scratched behind his ears and finished reading the results of the scan.
There had to be something here. She was getting close, she could feel it.