Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (9 page)

clock, she reckoned he was due to go out again any time now.

The last two mornings he’d come back with groceries, meaning that there had to be a village or town

nearby.

While the aftereffects of the rowanberry juice had passed, Millie was no closer to escaping than when

she’d first woken up. From the Norge addresses on the tins of tuna, she’d learned that she was in Norway.

As for her guard, she knew Larsen cleaned and oiled his pair of Glocks in the living room each evening.

She’d once asked him why she was here, but he’d merely shaken his head and said he’d share that

information later, when she was ready. Whatever that meant.

Millie had tried to come up with a list of people who’d want to capture her, but that list was surprisingly short. Yes, she’d foiled a few blackmail and kidnapping schemes over the last few years, but she’d been

very careful about her identity, and where she lived. To date, only one person had located her after the fact, but she’d spotted their clumsy attempt to rig her flat with an explosive straight away.

As much as she wanted to think it was because she was fantastic at her job, more likely people stayed

away from her because of the person who gave Millie her non-DEFEND related side jobs. Apparently,

whoever was keeping her here either didn’t know or didn’t care about Mr. B.

She was on her own until she could escape.

Procuring a weapon was her first priority. After searching a little both days, she’d come up empty-

handed, not even finding a sharp knife in the kitchen. Even without a weapon, she was hoping to make a

move soon. Not only would her family worry about her, she was determined to find out what Kiarra’s

brother was up to.

She heard steps on the porch, and Millie put on her ‘confused and not sure what to think’ expression

right before the front door opened. Larsen peeked his head in and said, “I’ll be back. The person watching you has orders to shoot if they think you’re trying to escape.”

She gave a weak nod, and Larsen shut the door behind him. She took her time finishing off her tuna

and tea before she crept to the front door. She had yet to call Larsen’s bluff about someone guarding her

whilst he was away, but today she would test it.

There were windows on either side of the door, and Millie leaned over to peek out from the side of the curtain. The chair out front was empty, and no one was in plain sight. Because of the sheer rock face off to the right side of the house, the best place to keep watch would be from the top of the house, on the roof.

Walking out the front door would be useless if she wanted the element of surprise.

Millie eased to the floor and crawled on her hands and knees back to the kitchen, where she’d left the

can opener on the edge of the counter. She reached up and eased it down before testing the weight in her

hand. It wasn’t one of those cheap scraps of metal, but rather a good solid pound of metal and plastic that would do nicely for smacking someone on the back of the head.

With her weapon now in hand, Millie slinked along the floor to the small bathroom across from her

bedroom. Once inside, she locked the door and turned on both the fan and the shower. While not usually

one to waste water, the noise from the combined shower and fan would cover any noises she made whilst

opening the small window and crawling out of it.

She eased the small window open, but when it creaked once, she stilled and waited. After sixty seconds

ticked by, she reckoned that it was safe enough to keep going. Most people expected women to take long

showers, and she’d use that stereotype to her advantage.

She finally got the window open and used the toilet as a step stool to reach the windowsill. Millie

positioned her back facing out and perched her arse on the sill. There was a two-foot space between the

house and the rock face, and she leaned until her back touched the solid surface. Looking up, she saw that no one was peeking over the side of the house. They could, of course, be lying in wait. But this was her

best chance to plan an escape, and Millie wasn’t one to shy away from a little danger.

Slowly she managed to get her legs out and place her feet flat against the wall on either side of the

window. Keeping a grip on the can opener, she placed her hands against the rock wall behind her, scooted

her upper body up a little, and then braced herself as her legs walked up the side of the house. There was a good six feet between the window and the roof, and as she repeated the process, inching her way up, sweat

started trailing down her back.

When her head was just shy of the roofline, Millie stopped and listened. The shower and fan droned

below her. The wind blew against the house and the few shrubs in the yard. Yet she didn’t hear any creaks

or movement from the roof. Pushing aside her doubts, she stood by her belief that the roof was the best

vantage point for an unknown guard.

Keeping her back against the wall, she reached one hand against the side of the house, and then another.

She shimmied up a few inches, ignored the rock scraping against her skin through her thermal t-shirt, and

peeked over the top of the roof. Sure enough, there was a woman sitting cross-legged toward the front,

watching the front—and only—door.

There was about ten feet between her current location and the woman. Millie was a good sprinter, but

not that good. She needed the woman to either leave her post or come closer to Millie’s location.

She tried to think of a way to create a diversion for the woman to investigate when the woman moved

her head enough that she could see her profile and Millie smiled at her good luck. She knew that fair skin, button nose, and mousy brown ponytail anywhere. It was her sometimes friend, sometimes enemy Petra

Brandt.

She remembered spotting Petra and her brother back at the pub in Edinburgh, on the night Millie had

been taken. It all seemed too much of a coincidence that Petra would show up here, too. At least Millie

knew a little about her adversary.

If Petra was doing this job for money, Millie could easily match it. The real question, however, was

whether Petra would wait long enough to listen to her proposition or shoot her on sight.

Larsen would never have left Millie alone and unrestrained if Petra had shared the extent of Millie’s

skills with him. An average person might think Petra had done it out of compassion, but in her experience, Petra never did anything without a self-serving reason behind it.

Her best option was to approach Petra, keeping the can opener tucked into her waistband, and see how

it played out.

It took a few seconds for Millie to hide her would-be weapon under the billowing folds of her shirt.

After taking a deep breath, she pulled herself up and said, “Morning, Brandt.”

As expected, Petra turned around with her gun pointed straight at her. Petra didn’t look the least bit

surprised by her sudden appearance. Quite the contrary, she looked as if she’d expected it. She nodded.

“Ward.”

“Are you here watching me as part of a job or are you doing it as a favor?”

“A favor.”

Well, damn, that just made all of this much more delicate. “Then why haven’t you told your boss who I

am? You knew full well that I’d try something like this.”

Petra lowered her gun and said, “Because I need your help.”

Millie frowned. “Doing what exactly?”

Petra kept the gun in her hand but took a step toward her. “Something that Dominik can’t help me

with.”

“What could you possibly not entrust to your twin brother?”

“I love my brother, but I can’t risk him telling his new boss about the person I want to help.”

She was intrigued since the Brandt twins were well known for always working as a team. “I can’t do

anything until you tell me more about what you’re asking, and what’s in it for me.”

Petra eyed her for a few seconds and finally said, “Tell my brother any of this, and I’ll make sure you

stay locked up for good.” Millie was unimpressed at the threat and merely nodded. Petra continued. “I need to get an old friend of mine out of an AMT research facility, and if you agree to go with me, I’ll help you escape Larsen’s house.”

“But why me?”

“I never thought I’d say this, but you’re good at what you do.”

“You’re nearly as capable as me.”

“I’d say better than you, but regardless, I need a second person since I can’t let this old friend know I’m behind the rescue.”

“Why?”

Petra hesitated and Millie saw a flicker of emotion she couldn’t name, but it was gone as quickly as it’d

come. What would unsettle a mercenary with a reputation like Petra Brandt?

Petra’s face hardened again and she said, “Because he thinks I’m dead and I need it to stay that way.”

Millie knew very little of Petra’s past before she’d started taking mercenary work, but even so, the

request was an odd one. “Let’s say that I agree to help you, and you get me away from here, what happens

to me after the fact? How do I know you won’t give away my location once your rescue mission is

complete?”

“If you’ll consider my offer, I’ll give you an act of good faith tomorrow morning by allowing you to

contact your brother Jaxton.”

Petra was going to help her escape and contact her brother? Millie narrowed her eyes. Something was

up. “Is this facility in the middle of a bloody jungle, with a moat of piranhas that I have to swim across or something?”

The corner of Petra’s mouth rose. “I’d like to see you try that, but no, it’s not. It’s no more dangerous

than anything you’ve done in the past.”

Considering she didn’t have any other options at the moment, she’d have to take Petra’s offer. But not

before she’d had some time to think about a detailed list of requirements. “If you hold up your end with the call to Jax, and promise to keep me in the loop with information for the entirety of the assignment, I’ll

promise to think about it.”

“Fine, Ward. Come back here tomorrow morning, fifteen minutes after Larsen leaves.”

Chapter Ten

The next morning, as Cam reached Santa Lucia Park, she resisted the urge to curse Marco Alvarez for

the tenth time.

The message she had translated in pieces said, “
In Merida on Sunday, at the park full of big heads, find
the old Spanish coins and ask for the Great-Tailed Grackle
.” While she’d put together that the “park full of big heads” was Santa Lucia Park with its collection of busts, she wondered about the rest of the message.

Considering she’d done the translating in bits, and not together, she could be following a literal translation when she should be following a figurative one.

If only Marco hadn’t crossed the line last night, she would’ve asked him to take a look at the message

and voice his opinion. But shushing her lips had been the last straw, and without thinking, she had sent him to his knees.

Men, in her experience, expected a woman to sooth their hurt ego when needed, but Cam had never

been very good at doing that. She held everyone to the same standard as herself, expecting people to buck

up and move on. Because most people misunderstood the reasons for her attitude, the rumors within

DEFEND had built up her image as a ball-busting ice queen. While it hurt on some level to think that was

how people saw her, unless someone spoke directly to her face, she ignored it.

For exactly that reason, it had taken her years to find a team she could work with. Jacek and Zalika

understood her brusque manner for what it was—high expectations. She would never ask someone to do

something that she wouldn’t do. In return for their dedication, Cam would lay down her life for Jacek and

Zalika. And deep down, she knew they would do the same.

Marco, on the other hand, was a wild card that she didn’t know what to do with. He wasn’t her

superior, nor was he her subordinate. Colleague might be the closest description, but even that seemed off.

Few of her colleagues had ever tried to provoke her, let alone trap her into a situation where she had no

choice but to comply, like Marco had done with the dancing last night.

He was far more intelligent than she had initially thought. Maybe she should just refer to him as a

nuisance.

Drumbeats started up in the distance, but she ignored their call and focused on the small collection of

stalls in Santa Lucia Park. There were handicraft and clothing stalls, secondhand books, and even a blanket full of Mexican antiques. But nothing to do with coins.

Because it was still early, there were a number of empty tables she presumed would be filled later. She

decided she had time to head toward the crowded main plaza to check in with Jacek and Zalika before she

came back to see which vendors filled the vacant spots. Santa Lucia was the only park she knew of in

Merida with “big heads.” If one of the empty vendor tables ended up not being a coin booth, she might

have to grit her teeth, find Marco, and ask about the correctness of her translation.

She exited the small park and walked out onto one of the streets that were closed to car traffic on

Sundays. This section of Merida was part of the historic district, and the old colonial buildings made her wish she could be a tourist for a day. Truth be told, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a

vacation. DEFEND was her whole life.

Yet she couldn’t imagine it being any other way. Her sister was now a member too, which meant she

might actually have a chance to get to know Kiarra again.

Cam had made a vow upon joining DEFEND that she would find a way to be reunited with her siblings