Page 31 of Code Name: Reaper (K19 Allied Intelligence Team Two #5)

REAPER

T he zip ties cut into my wrists as I tested their strength. Military grade—these bastards knew their business. The concrete floor beneath my seat was stained with oil and rust from decades of machinery.

I cataloged potential escape routes. The loading dock thirty feet to my left with a heavy steel door that looked like it hadn’t been used for years.

The service entrance behind Prism was reinforced metal with multiple locks.

The windows were too high and too small to be useful.

Ancient-looking industrial equipment was scattered throughout—some of it heavy enough to use as weapons—and six columns supporting the ceiling structure could provide cover if we got free.

Two guards flanked the entrance, but they weren’t FSB.

I’d worked against Russian intelligence enough times to recognize their bearing, their equipment choices, and their positioning.

These men carried themselves differently.

Private contractors or ex-military from somewhere else entirely. That detail gnawed at me.

Amaryllis sat bound in an identical steel seat three feet away.

Her jaw was set in that stubborn line I’d learned to recognize during our days of verbal sparring, and blood trickled from a cut on her temple where they’d been less than gentle during the takedown.

Her breathing was steady, her posture alert despite the restraints.

Pissed off more than afraid—which was exactly what I’d expect from her.

“I do apologize for the dramatics, Amaryllis.” Aldrich smoothed her jacket with manicured hands. Her accent was crisp, upper-class British—not at all what I’d expected. “But you’ve proven surprisingly elusive, and this was the only way to ensure your cooperation.”

The woman carried herself like she’d been born to command rooms. Designer clothing that cost more than most people made in a month. Diamond earrings that caught the light when she moved. A watch that could fund a small country’s intelligence budget.

But there were tells if the observer had the right training—like both Amaryllis and I did.

The way she held her left shoulder higher than her right—an old injury.

Calluses on her hands that no amount of manicures could hide.

Muscle definition in her forearms that spoke of continued weapons training.

She might dress like aristocracy, but she was still an operative.

“Where is she?” Amaryllis demanded, testing her own restraints with subtle movements.

“ Dr. Henning will be joining us shortly.” Prism taunted her with the alias. Aldrich moved closer to the older man, who’d been silent since we arrived. “Ember, would you ensure our other guests have departed?”

Ember. I knew that code name from the intelligence briefs we’d received—he was one of Minerva’s council of twelve. The way Aldrich’s voice softened when she addressed him, how her hand brushed his arm in passing, made their relationship obvious. More likely lovers than colleagues.

“Of course, darling.” His accent matched hers. Old establishment through and through. He gestured to the two guards, who left the room. Why would anyone consider us a threat, given we were bound and weaponless?

Ember and the other guy, who’d been with him since the hotel, followed them out, leaving us alone with Prism.

“You founded Minerva Protocol,” Amaryllis said the moment the heavy metal clicked shut. Her voice carried a tone that meant she was about to go for blood. “Was it intended as a criminal enterprise from the beginning?”

Aldrich raised a brow. “Criminal? Silly child, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I? I saw you with Vasiliev in London.

I have recordings of your communications about eliminating Mercury.

Audio, video, financial transfers—all of it.

” Amaryllis leaned forward as much as her restraints allowed.

“You’re working with Romanov, aren’t you?

With Avalon? Had you with Argead too? A traitor not only to your country, whatever that may be, but to the world.

You’re no better than any of the criminals you vowed to bring to justice. In fact, you’re worse.”

A microexpression flashed across Aldrich’s face—too quick for most people to catch, but I’d been trained to read the signs. Pain. Regret. She was fighting not to react to the accusations, but Amaryllis had hit a nerve.

“Is that why you disappeared?” Amaryllis pressed, sensing weakness like a shark scenting blood. “Because you couldn’t keep up the facade of being a decent human being?”

Aldrich’s composure cracked for a quick moment, then she rebuilt it with visible effort. Her hands clenched at her sides, knuckles white with tension. “Enough,” she spat. “You’re as irrelevant as your opinions.”

She pulled out a cell phone, and after a moment, she began speaking.

“I have your precious Amaryllis.” She didn’t look away from us for an instant. “Along with her attack dog from the coalition. You have thirty minutes to show yourself, or they both die.”

She ended the call without waiting for a response and tucked the device into her pocket.

“There. Time to finish what we started.” Aldrich stood and left through the same doors the others had.

“Fuck,” Amaryllis whispered, the word carrying all the weight of our situation. She twisted against her restraints, testing the steel frame’s stability. “Kingston, I’m so sorry. I’m so goddamn sorry.”

“Don’t.” I used the word that had gone from annoying the fuck out of me to becoming a way of saying so much to each other.

“I dragged you into this mess. I walked us both into exactly what you predicted.” Her voice cracked. “You told me it was a setup, and I ignored you because I was so desperate to find Mercury that I couldn’t think straight.”

Guilt radiated off her in waves when she looked at me.

“And Mercury’s going to walk right into this because of me.”

The plastic restraints bit deeper into my wrists as I repeatedly tested them. They felt thick, designed to hold significant weight without breaking. The metal frame pressed against me—welded steel construction that wouldn’t give way easily. Breaking free would require leverage I didn’t have.

But there were always options if you looked hard enough. The welds on my right armrest showed stress fractures from years of use—I could feel the slight give when I applied pressure. The air currents suggested ventilation shafts or hidden access points.

“You had to come.” It wasn’t an accusation; it was a statement of fact. If my parents or my brother—or Amaryllis herself—were missing, I would’ve made the same decision she had.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” I used my full body weight to move the chair I was in closer to her. It scraped across the floor, a noise that might make our captors come running, but there were things I had to say while I had the chance.

“I made contact against your wishes.”

She smirked despite the dire situation we were in. “As if I didn’t know you would.”

“You want to know what else I think?” I shifted my weight again to test different angles of pressure on the restraints.

“Sure.”

“Something else is at play here. Aldrich’s reactions spoke louder than her words.”

“I picked up on the same things.”

“The way she said, ‘Finish what we started,’ felt off.”

“Agreed,” Amaryllis whispered. “I still think she plans to kill us.”

“Do you? Come on, you’re the one who reacts to feelings. Is that really what your instincts are telling you?”

She didn’t respond for several seconds. “You’re right. This isn’t what it seems,” she finally said.

“There’s my girl.” When I winked, she shook her head.

Amaryllis looked away, but I could still see the pain etched on her face. “I’m still sorry. I never should’ve contacted you in the first place.”

“Yeah? Did you really think I wouldn’t move heaven and earth to find you anyway? That there would’ve been a minute when I didn’t feel an ache deep inside me, knowing the only way to get rid of it was to figure out where the hell you were, then to keep you safe.”

Her eyes filled with tears again. “Kingston?—”

“I’m not done. When you opened that door in Montenegro, I knew in an instant that we were meant to be together. That kiss in Berlin? It’s what I wanted to do that night. Press you up against the wall, take my first taste, and claim you.”

Heat rose in her cheeks, and she turned to face me. “I wanted you to,” she whispered so softly I could barely hear her.

“I knew that. Wanna know how?”

Regardless of her response, I intended to tell her anyway. “The connection between us was immediate. It hit me like a lightning strike. You felt it too. You knew that the second we met, nothing would be the same. It didn’t matter how much we fought it or each other; we were already bound together.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Don’t do this,” she pleaded.

“I have to.” I leaned forward as much as I could, straining against the restraints until they cut deep enough into my wrists to break the skin.

“I need you to know that falling for you was the best decision I’ve made in my entire fucking life.

I love you, Charity. Whether or not you love me too won’t change how I feel.

I’ll love you until the day I draw my last breath. ”

“God, Kingston, I love you too.”

“Close your eyes.”

She did without arguing.

“Does this feel like the end? Do you honestly believe we won’t walk out of here alive?”

Her lids opened wide. “We’re going to make it through this. As crazy and impossible as it seems, I know we are.”

“Me too.”

“The text said the coalition was compromised.”

“A tactic that worked. Except for the part where I ignored it.”

“Do you think they’re on their way?” she asked.

“I know they are.”

“They need to hurry.”

“What happened to you knowing we were going to make it through this?”

“It isn’t us I’m worried about. It’s Mercury.”

“She’ll have a plan, an exit strategy we don’t know about.” I shifted my weight again, feeling the weak points in the chair give another fraction of an inch. A few more minutes and I had no doubt it would give enough for me to break free.

A door groaned open behind us, and footsteps echoed across the concrete—two sets.

“Remember what I told you,” I whispered, continuing to work at the weakened weld while keeping my voice too low to carry.

“Which part?”

“All of it. Especially the part about following you to the ends of the earth.”

Aldrich appeared around the corner of stacked pallets. Ember followed. She was far more composed than when she’d walked out. Every trace of her earlier vulnerability was erased.

“It shouldn’t be long now,” she said, looking at her watch as she moved to a position where she could observe both the service entrance and the loading dock, creating overlapping fields of observation.

Ember took the opposite angle, and I realized they were setting up crossfire positions that would give them control over all possible approaches.

Seconds later, the other three men entered from the opposite side of the space.

“What exactly are you planning to finish when Mercury arrives?” I heard the shift in Amaryllis’ tone that meant she was probing for information.

Aldrich’s smile was winter-cold, but there was regret beneath it. “A mission that should have ended years ago. One that’s cost lives it never should have.” Her quiet words carried an inevitability, an acceptance.

As the roll-up door at the loading dock that looked as though it hadn’t been used in years creaked open, I held my breath, waiting to see who would be the first to walk in.