Page 28 of Raven’s Claw (Raven’s Cliff #2)

Jordan stared at Mac then slowly made her way through the rest of Kash’s buddies, finally ending with Kash. She didn’t deserve the unyielding faith staring back at her, but she’d take her wins where she could find them.

“Becca? If I give you some parameters, can you search the area, say an hour or two in any direction? Maybe we can narrow down a handful of locations Rook might be hiding in. Get a jumpstart on some kind of strategy because I know him, and he’s not going to give us any time to adapt once he calls.”

Becca beamed. “Girlfriend, I can do you one better. I can list all the areas in order of probability based on everything you give me. More is better here, and…”

An alarm sounded throughout the room. Not a siren, like Jordan would expect if there was a fire or an inbound missile. This was just a few pings, then silence.

Becca inhaled. “Whoa. What the…”

She tapped more keys, windows and folders flying across the screen.

Too fast for Jordan to make out any of the words.

Becca seemed to follow everything. Clicked her way until she had blueprints of the building superimposed on the monitor.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but someone just pinged a tracking device inside the room. ”

Bodie shook his head. “No way. Not a chance Rook’s men infiltrated my office without setting off something. I might not be at your level when it comes to hacking, but I know how to secure my own damn building.”

Becca frowned, her fingers still racing over the keyboard. “It’s odd. It’s more of a homing beacon. Very low range, no more than a few hundred feet.” More typing. “There’s some sort of code embedded in the transmission. Give me a minute, and I can probably source it…”

She froze, gaze locked on her screen before lifting to look at them. She swept the gathering of people, lingering on Jordan. “I’m sorry, but it’s you.”

Jordan frowned, studying Kash’s team before coughing.

“Me?” When Becca just stared at her, she shook her head.

“It can’t be me. These aren’t even my clothes, and I haven’t been close enough to any of Rook’s men for one of them to have slipped a tracker on me.

It must be something else.” She held up the cell. “The phone?”

“Not to sound vain, but I’m pretty damn good at what I do, and this isn’t coming from a cell. The signal would be stronger, and the coding would be different. I honestly don’t know what this is. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“I think I’d know if Rook implanted…”

The answer hit her. Took her breath away. Left her standing there, mouth gaped open, lungs refusing to inflate. She turned to look at Kash, but he’d obviously already arrived at the same conclusion.

He raked his fingers through his hair, tousling strands across his face. “Shit. Your implant.”

“I had a private doctor inject that. I never trusted anyone remotely associated with Scythe unless I was dying.”

Kash took a breath — grabbed her hands. “And were you ever close to dying since you had your last one replaced?”

“I…” Everything locked down tight. Her throat, her lungs, her damn heart. Frozen. Just like Becca had been a few moments earlier.

Kash moved in close. “Relax, sweetheart. Just breathe.”

“Breathe? God, what if…” She rolled her shoulders, wanting to claw out of her own skin. “I need a knife. Now.”

“Easy…” Chase darted over. “No one’s getting a freaking knife. Just, talk me through it. Obviously, you both think you know what kind of implant Becca’s talking about.”

Jordan met him head-on. “It’s supposed to be for birth control, because God forbid one of Rook’s assets did something as insane as get pregnant.

I had it replaced a year ago, but a month before I ran, I had a mission go seriously sideways.

Barely made it to the extraction site before I passed out.

It was one of the few times I’d ever been thankful Scythe has its own physicians. I never thought…”

Chase merely nodded, thanking Zain when his buddy handed Chase his medic bag. What Jordan assumed was always waiting in Chase’s truck. “I assume nothing changed to make you suspect it had been swapped out?”

Jordan resisted rolling her eyes. “I was always in that fifty percent who didn’t get any additional benefits other than the obvious, if you get my drift.”

“No need to say more. Is the implant under your arm?”

“Scapula. I get hit too often in the arm to risk putting it there.”

Chase didn’t have to ask her to lift her shirt. She had her form-fitting sweaters off and her tank yanked over to one side before he could open his bag and remove a scalpel.

He probed the area, hissing out his next breath. “Damn.”

“What?” She tried to look over her shoulder, but he tsked.

“This’ll go a lot smoother if you don’t move. And whoever put this in went way too deep. It’s supposed to sit just under the skin, not in your damn muscle.”

“I don’t care if you have to shove a sword in there, just get the freaking thing out.”

“Spies.” He removed a syringe. “Let me freeze the area a bit. And no, that’s not up for debate. You don’t have to muscle through me slicing a six-inch groove in your back to prove you’re tough. We already know.”

Jordan stood there, picturing all the ways she’d strangle Rook once she got her hands on him, when Chase sighed. She chanced another glance, when he held up the unit. “That son of a bitch.”

“It’s definitely not for birth control.” Chase dropped it into the palm of her hand. “Let me get some skin adhesive on this before you try to kill anyone, okay?”

Jordan stared at the device, wondering how she’d been so naive. Why she hadn’t thought to check. If this was the first time Rook had made the swap or if he’d used the handful of other times she’d been medically compromised to insert similar implants.

Which brought up another issue, but she could worry about the unprotected sex with Kash, later. Assuming she was still alive.

Chase taped a bandage over her back and gave her arm a pat. “I don’t get it. Why would he exchange your implant with a tracker that has such limited range?”

“Because he’s an obsessive, manipulating, narcissistic bastard.” She resisted the urge to punch the nearest wall. “Damn. Did he get a lock on me?”

“I jammed the signal before he would have gotten more than the general area.” Becca sighed. “But I’m sure he already knows where you are.”

“And everyone wonders why I have trust issues. Can you?—”

The burner cell rang.

Becca started tapping keys, again. “I’ll do what I can to trace it but…”

“Don’t worry. He’s going to tell me exactly where to find him.” Jordan took a breath, then answered, putting it on speaker. “Rook.”

He chuckled. “Ember. Or do you prefer Jordan, now?”

“If you knew where I was, you could have just knocked on the door so we could have this chat in person.”

“What’s wrong? Miss me, already?”

“I promised you I was going to stick a knife in your back. I can’t do that unless we’re in the same room.”

“I thought the point of shifting into Jordan was to reduce your violent tendencies?”

Jordan laughed. “I guess you just bring out the vengeance in me. I want to speak to Atticus.”

“He’s fine.”

“Then, put him on.”

Rook breathed heavily into the phone. “You know how this works. He stays alive as long as you follow the rules.”

“This isn’t about rules. This is about which side of me shows up for the meeting. Now, put him on, or I’ll assume he’s dead, and I’m not sure you have enough men on hand to wage that war.”

Rook huffed, then the sound changed.

“Jordan? Don’t you dare make a deal with this bastard.”

Mac inhaled as her father’s voice echoed through the room. Rough. Definitely edged with pain.

Jordan fisted her hand, using the bite of her nails against her palm to ease the jumpy feeling in her gut. “Are you okay, Atticus?”

“Don’t worry about me. I promised Thomas I’d keep an eye on you if you ever showed up. Don’t make a liar out of me. You need to run?—”

Everything cut off, just the rustle of fabric — something heavy hitting the floor in the background.

“Parker always was the sentimental type. You have your proof. Now, I assume you’ve decrypted all the intel.” He took a breath — let it rasp over the line as he blew it out. “I’m gonna need that back.”

Jordan swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Where and when?”

“What? No counter proposal?”

“We both knew there was only one way this was ever going to end. Do you have a location, or am I picking it?”

The phone dinged, a text popping up in the window.

“I just sent you the coordinates. It’s a bit off the beaten path.

Let’s say, midnight. I’m afraid that won’t give you much time to strategize before you have to leave.

And that’s assuming you get your new friends to give you a lift.

You can bring two plus the pilot to retrieve Atticus.

If I see even a suggestion of anyone else, he’s dead, along with all those friends you’ve put in my sights.

And I trust you know enough to come unarmed. ”

“You just keep your end of the bargain.”

“Don’t insult me. I don’t renege on my promises.”

“Then, I’ll see you at midnight.”

“I mean it, Ember. Try to double cross me, again, and I’ll drown Raven’s Cliff in their blood.”

“I get it. And Rook…” She pressed the phone against her jaw. “This ends. Tonight.”

She hung up, hating the fact her hand shook.

Not much and not something any of Kash’s team might notice.

But she did. Each tiny vibration reminding her of how far she’d fallen.

That she wasn’t the operative she’d been when she’d limped out of that warehouse.

That somewhere along the line, she’d started caring.

Kash moved in beside her. He was the reason she’d changed. Not because he’d asked her to, but because he’d dared her to move beyond her comfort zone. To be more than just an asset for Rook to manipulate.

He’d dared her to become Jordan Archer. Ex-operative, and the woman in love with him.

He nudged her shoulder. “You okay?”