Trygg swung a battle-ax one-handed, burying the blade all the way into the thick pillar of oak in the training area of the weapons room at the command center. The wood splintered on impact, exploding a hail of jagged shards in all directions.
“Motherfu—” His comrade, Savage, came up from the sudden crouch Trygg’s strike had sent him into, his eyes wide beneath his mane of wavy blond hair. He swiveled his head to look at the blow that narrowly missed him, then chuckled. “You asked me to spar with you, asshole, not volunteer as guillotine fodder.”
“Just trying to keep your questionable skills sharp,” Trygg replied. “You’ve been spending so much time with that new mate of yours, it’d be a shame to watch you go soft.”
Savage smirked. “Being with Arabella does anything but make me go soft. And since when have you given a shit about time I spend with her? Not getting jealous, are you?”
Rather than dignify the jab with an answer, Trygg snarled and brought the ax around for a second swing. Savage spun to dodge it, bringing his own weapon down and driving the iron blade of Trygg’s ax into the concrete floor.
“Now who’s the one going soft?” Savage taunted with a quick grin.
“Again.” Trygg raised his weapon for another round, but Savage held his hands up in surrender.
“Forget it. You’ve already shaved a couple of inches off my hair with that thing today and Bella needs something to hold on to.” When Trygg only grunted in response, his friend cocked his head at him in question. “Something wrong? If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were the one with troubles of the female sort. And since the only woman I ever saw you look twice at was that Atlantean icicle Tamisia a few weeks ago—”
“You know nothing,” Trygg grumbled. He relaxed his stance, then strode across the room to stow his weapon in the rack.
“She’s still in Rome, you know.”
“I am aware.”
“Yeah?” Savage came over and racked his weapon too. The warrior stared, then positioned himself so that he was leaning against the wall and watching Trygg’s gaze. “Are you also aware that she’s here right now?”
“Here?” Trygg replied, hoping he misunderstood.
Savage nodded, looking far too intrigued. “I saw her in Lazaro’s office on my way down to spar with you.”
Shit. That was nearly an hour ago. “What the hell is Sia doing meeting with the commander?”
Savage arched a brow. “So, she’s Sia now, eh? Maybe the Atlantean icicle isn’t as chilly as we all thought.”
The warrior’s obvious amusement with the whole idea made Trygg want to wipe Savage’s smile away with another hard bout of combat practice. But he had bigger problems to contend with if Sia had taken it upon herself to contact Lazaro Archer. Especially after last night’s fiasco at her apartment.
What was she doing, lodging a formal complaint?
Trygg didn’t have to answer to his commander or his warrior brethren about who he chose to get naked with, but knowing that Sia was in the building had him stalking out of the weapons room at a swift clip. Savage strolled along at his heels.
Just as the warrior had claimed, Sia had been in a closed door meeting with Lazaro. The pair were exiting the room together when Trygg approached from the other end of the corridor.
“Ah, there he is now,” Lazaro said with a nod. “Trygg, I was just coming to find you.”
He couldn’t keep from glancing at Sia as the commander spoke. She looked even more beautiful, if that was possible. But while the expression on her face was indifferent, her blue eyes were glacial.
Lazaro gestured to her. “You remember Tamisia.”
It wasn’t a question. The commander had been informed about the attack on the woman at Sia’s shelter, and he was too observant to pretend he wasn’t at least peripherally aware of the awkward tension radiating off Trygg and the Atlantean as they faced each other now.
“Tamisia,” Trygg said, giving her a nod of greeting while trying to tune out Savage’s low snort behind him. Sia’s withering gaze was the harder response to ignore. He cleared his throat. “What’s going on, Lazaro?”
“This.” The commander held a tiny SD card between his fingers. “Thanks to Tamisia’s help, we may be back in the game on our hunt for Santino.”
“Holy shit.” Trygg took the card.
“It’s encrypted,” Lazaro said, “which only confirms to me that we’ve got something big here.”
Trygg swung his incredulous gaze to Sia. “Where did you get it?”
“Angelina’s baby blanket,” she answered flatly. “I found it sewn into the binding.”
“The one that was a gift from her father, Gianni Tiaggi?”
She gave him a grudging nod.
“Fuck. Of course, it was hidden in the blanket.”
Why hadn’t he thought of that last night? Because he was too busy thinking about getting Sia naked, that’s why. The fact that he was still reliving their time together now just served to fortify his decision to nip their attraction in the bud.
He shook his head as he considered the data card in his palm. “Tiaggi must’ve figured anyone going after information he might’ve passed along would never think to search the infant.”
Sia shrugged. “Or he didn’t care one way or the other. Who can say when it comes to how men think?”
The barb sliced into him, as intended. If her cool demeanor left any question, her flinty tone did not. Sia was pissed as hell. And there was an odd resignation in her eyes when she looked at him. As if she had already written him off and left last night behind in her mind.
And in her heart.
“Do you think you can crack her, Trygg?”
Lazaro’s question jolted him for a moment before he realized he was talking about the SD card. “You know I can.”
Lazaro nodded. “Then let’s go see what’s hiding on that card.”
* * * *
Lazaro Archer led the way up the corridor, with Savage walking alongside him. To Sia’s dismay, Trygg lagged behind his comrades, slowing his long-legged strides to match her pace. The last thing she wanted to do was speak to him, but he seemed determined to have a few words.
“Are you going to tell me the real reason you’re here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She kept walking, refusing to so much as glance at him. “The Order is looking for intel on Roberto Santino and it appears I may have found some.”
“You know what I’m asking, Sia.” He narrowed a look on her, keeping his deep voice at a tight whisper. “Why bring the evidence to Lazaro instead of coming to me?”
“Oh, was that an option? I’m sorry, I guess I wasn’t sure based on the note you left before you slunk out the door while I slept.”
“You’re upset with me.”
“Not at all. You behaved exactly as I should have expected.”
He uttered a curse under his breath, then slowed her to a halt with his hand on her wrist. “I said I was sorry about last night.”
“Yes, you did.” She wrenched free of his loose grasp. “And so am I.”
She quickened her pace until she had caught up to his commander and colleague. She felt the heat of Trygg’s eyes at her back as she sailed through the door Lazaro held open for her, and into a room filled with computers and other technology.
Trygg entered a moment behind her, stalking over to take the empty seat in front of a bank of monitors and lighted processors.
He said nothing, getting right to work on the data storage card. Sia stood beside Lazaro as Trygg inserted the card into a computer and his fingers flew with speed and grace over the keyboard. She looked on, captivated as he worked.
It seemed odd to watch him excel at this skill, knowing he’d been born and bred to be a killer.
Although no more odd than it felt knowing those same deft, deadly hands had also delivered such intense pleasure last night.
She mentally barred the memory of their lovemaking from her mind. She was here because she wanted the Order to succeed in stopping Santino.
After her conversation with Lazaro Archer today, that mission was all that mattered.
She swallowed hard and watched along with Trygg’s comrades as he clicked on the tiny drive’s link to open its contents. As Lazaro had discovered when he attempted to open the card’s data, the files were protected by an encryption code.
It took Trygg all of three seconds to hack through it.
On the screen, a list of six files labeled with numbers only stared back at them. Trygg opened the first one. It was a text file with what appeared to be a copy-and-paste collection of emails. Each had little content, each dated within the past three weeks, all of them from someone with the user name “il_re.”
“The king,” Lazaro murmured, his tone sardonic.
Sia’s eyes went wide. “Are you saying these are Santino’s personal emails?”
“Looks like it.” Savage smirked. “Il Re. Subtle, the asshole is not.”
Trygg opened each file, and Sia excitedly started reading them out loud, translating as she went. “Marina di Ardea still too hot. Scouting new location. Await word before proceeding.”
She watched as he scrolled down to the next one, and then the next, her pulse beating faster as she realized they were almost certainly looking at correspondence from Santino to one or more of his lieutenants down the line.
When they reached the end of the list, Lazaro stood back with a frown. “This is a good find, but I have to admit I was hoping for a lot more.”
Sia glanced at him. “It may seem insignificant to us, but the contents on this card were enough to cause Gianni Tiaggi to fear for his life—and with good cause, considering his body was found in the river less than a week ago. Whatever information is here was enough for Santino’s men to kill Rosa just because they thought she might have it.”
“Sia’s right,” Trygg said. “And the emails aren’t the real piece of intel on this.”
“Then what is?” Lazaro asked.
Trygg didn’t answer. He was completely engrossed in his work now, his dark eyes laser-focused on the screen as he tapped out a few more commands. “There’s a hidden file here. I can feel it.”
“You can feel it?” Sia stared at the side of his rugged face, his scar gleaming in the light of the display. “What is that, a Breed thing?”
He gave her an askance look. “It’s my thing.”
“We’ve all got our unique talents,” Savage interjected. “My man Trygg here has a special connection to technological devices. If he can’t romance them with his fingers on the keyboard, he can undress them with his mind. Kind of makes up for his lack of finesse when it comes to people.”
Savage winked at her as he said it, which made Sia’s face flush with a fresh wave of embarrassment. Had Trygg told his friend about what they’d done last night? She lifted her chin as if she didn’t care one way or the other, but inside she was dying.
“What kind of hidden file do you think we’ve got here?” Lazaro asked, leaning one hand on the desk beside Trygg to have a closer look.
“Not sure yet,” he murmured. “Probably something Tiaggi didn’t want Santino to know he had even if someone did find the card. But I’ve got a way around that.”
Trygg accessed a program that split the screen. On one side was the list of six files. On the other was a working string of code that seemed to be connecting to the data on the card, searching for fissures in the encryption. Finally a window popped up, but instead of opening, it displayed a denied access error and password prompt.
“Another firewall,” Sia muttered, losing patience. It wasn’t only that she wanted the data as badly as any of the warriors in the room with her, it was the fact that being this close to Trygg was wreaking havoc on her senses. Her frustration came out of her in an exhaled huff. “I thought you said you could crack it.”
“I have.” He stopped tapping on the keyboard and closed his eyes for a moment, his face held in utter concentration. A moment later, the window disappeared and a file opened. Strings of multi-digit numbers filled the screen.
Sia peered at them, trying to find some logic in the sequences. “What are those?”
Trygg gave her a grim smile as they kept scrolling, page after page after page. “I’m guessing by the looks of them, it’s a list of Swiss bank accounts.”
“Holy shit,” Savage hissed. “If that’s true, we could be looking at potentially accessing billions of dollars’ worth of Santino’s assets. If we play our cards right, we could have his accounts drained in hours.”
“True,” Lazaro said. “And that is good news. But a broke Santino isn’t nearly as good as a dead Santino.”
Trygg was still skimming the list when he paused his cursor over one set of numbers with degree marks beside them.
“What’s wrong?” Sia asked, leaning in to read them.
“This set of numbers is different. They aren’t account numbers. They’re coordinates, followed by what looks like a date and a time.”
He opened a new window and typed one set of coordinates into a search engine. A second later, a map of southern Italy filled the screen with a pin right over the Sicilian port city of Trapani.
“These are delivery schedules,” he murmured.
“Two nights from now,” she replied breathlessly, catching on to the number sequence and seeing the date now, her body humming with energy and adrenaline. They were so close to being able to take that bastard down now, she could taste it.
Savage grinned. “Whatever Santino is up to with these messages, looks like it’s going to happen in Trapani.”
Lazaro clapped Trygg on the shoulder. “Knew I could count on you. I need to call Lucan and let him know what we’ve uncovered.”
The commander walked into the hallway, his phone already held at his ear. Savage left the room without any excuse at all, leaving Sia and Trygg alone once more.
“Admit it,” he said after a moment, swiveling around in his chair. “You’re impressed.”
She scoffed. “Just because you have some obvious skill with the rather rudimentary technology of this world? Hardly.”
He shrugged. “Well, you impress me, Sia. Looking for the data card in the baby blanket was… That was really smart. We’d have nothing right now if you hadn’t put that together. Thank you.”
She hadn’t expected his praise, nor his gratitude. The fact that he offered it left her confused and unsteady. She’d come here fueled on anger and a bruised sense of pride. More than that, she’d gone to Lazaro Archer with a bitter, wounded heart. Now, Trygg was acting as if they were still a team—albeit an unwilling one.
She couldn’t let herself fall for it so easily. Hadn’t she learned a thing after Elyon and the other men who had walked all over her to get what they wanted?
Now, it was her turn to win something just for her. Something she wanted.
And she had every intention of doing just that.
“I’ve asked Lazaro to let me assist in the mission to take down Santino.”
Trygg shot out of his chair, his dark brows crashing together. “You what?”
“I asked him, and he agreed.”
He gaped at her as if she’d just sprouted a horn in the middle of her forehead. “Why the fuck would he agree to that?”
Lazaro’s deep voice provided the answer. “Because Tamisia has already proven herself an asset to us on this operation. Without her, we’d still be chasing our tails looking for the slimmest threads to lead us to the son of a bitch. Now, we’ve got emails, account numbers, and a possible jump on Santino’s distribution schedules.”
Trygg looked positively furious. “I don’t like it. This is my mission, Lazaro. I don’t want a female standing in the way—”
Sia gasped. “Standing in the way? You just said yourself that I impressed you. You said I was smart—”
“Yes, you are,” Trygg interrupted. “So be smart, Sia. Let the Order handle this. We don’t need to be worried about you getting hurt.”
She glared at him. “I can take care of myself. I think I’ve already demonstrated that to you more than once.” Heat tingled in her palms. She didn’t have to glance at them to know they were filling with energy. “I’m not a weak little woman that you have to look out for, warrior. I could put you on your ass right now. I am your equal, Trygg.”
“I never said you weren’t.”
Lazaro’s gaze pivoted between them. “Good. Then that’s settled. Trygg, meet your new partner. I’ve already decided. She’s in. And frankly, we need her. Lucan just informed me that they’re hearing talk that Santino’s cousin, Marco Crespo, has returned to Italy.”
Trygg grunted. “I thought that dumbfuck moved permanently to the States six months ago.”
“Well, now he’s back for some reason. We need to find out why.” Lazaro looked at Sia. “That’s where you come in.”
Sia caught Trygg’s disapproving glare, but she tuned him out and smiled at his commander. “Tell me what I need to do.”