Game of Dust and Ashes (Book Two in the Covert Operations series)

Twenty-One

Second-floor study, Shadow Lawn Mansion, New Jersey. February 6, 2021, 8:17 p.m.

"Mel? Mel, can you hear me? Damn it, Melanie! Talk to me."

Slowly, my eyes opened, roused by Cedric's urgent voice shouting in my ear. I would have answered him had a gag not been shoved into my mouth, preventing me from speaking.

It took me a moment to remember what had happened. My head was throbbing and I could feel a slight stickiness stemming from my right temple. Vaguely, I recalled getting clocked in the temple by the huge oaf that had been blocking the doorway.

Not fast enough.

My thoughts were muddled, a groggy mess, but I didn't think that I'd been unconscious long. Maybe just a few minutes. Enough time that my wrists and ankles had been secured with a zip tie but short enough for the blood to still be flowing from the wound on my head.

"Melanie, are you there? Please come in," Cedric begged. "Melanie—what...Shit!"

A burst of jostling on the other end of the comms unit that was still in my ear. Then static.

I couldn't even move my mouth enough to say his name as that communications link between us went silent. It was never a good thing to lose comms with your primary tech analyst on a mission but for it to happen now with me unable to see if he was okay...

A jolt of panic went through me.

Cedric. Not him. Anyone but him.

I just prayed that the rest of our team was safe and that the rest was going according to plan, even without me being there. Dai was smart. When I didn't show in the kitchen, he would realize that something had gone wrong and send people out to find me. And everyone would know immediately that Cedric was down. Even now, through the pounding in my head, I could hear Stefan coming through on the channel, barking orders. Reinforcements would be on Cedric in a second. Even as I thought about it, I knew our perimeter team would be converging on his van to check out the situation.

The thought helped to slow my racing heart. Began to calm that edge of panic and allowed me to take stock of my surroundings fully for the first time.

I hadn't been given the courtesy of a chair as Max had, and instead lay on the ground with my face pressed into the carpet. It was interesting that they hadn't removed the tiny comms device in my ear, especially since I already knew that I'd been disarmed.

Two men – include the broad bald one that had knocked me senseless – were leaning against the wall opposite me. The second man I didn't linger on because I did recognize this face. It was the man who'd been guarding the staircase – the man with the golden Scorpion pin. Daniel's inside team.

If, of course, we hadn't been totally betrayed by them as well.

I could see him staring at me and wondered distantly if he recognized my face. If Daniel had told them that I would be here and to keep an eye out for me.

The one who'd knocked me out said, "She's awake."

"Good," said a cool voice behind me. "I was starting to get bored."

The scrape of a chair against the floor, a tread of footsteps I immediately recognized, the voice that was so familiar to me. When I looked up, I wasn't at all surprised to see who had circled around to stare down at me.

Amelia Grimes. Lia. My best friend. Practically my sister.

Her brown hair had been tightly braided for the op and it hadn't been changed in the few hours we'd been apart since leaving the hotel. Her eyes, normally wide and soft, were as hard and frosty as ice. Even her face seemed different, twisted into this mask of hate.