Page 19 of Hunter's Game
“I’m already risking everything else.” His smile was dangerous. “What’s one more terrible decision?” Besides, he’d never let a hair on her head be harmed. He hoped she knew that.
Before she could respond, her phone buzzed with an incoming message. The number was blocked, but the text made the color wash from her face.
Your mother made the same choice. Right before I put a bullet in her head. -M
Hunter read over her shoulder, his body tensing. There was only one person who could have sent that message. “Merrick knows you found the body.”
“He’s trying to rattle me.” But Eden’s hands shook slightly as she deleted the message. “Make me sloppy. Emotional.” He could hear the tremor in her voice.
“Is it working?”
She met his eyes, letting him see the rage she usually kept carefully contained. “What do you think?”
He studied her for a moment, then made a decision that would either save them or damn them both. Moving closer, he caught her wrist, his thumb finding her racing pulse. Meeting her eyes, he pitched his voice low, hoping to sooth her, ground her. “Talk to me. Tell me about her. About Sarah.”
“Now?” Eden gestured to her monitors showing approaching vehicles. “We’ve got maybe two minutes before—”
“Now.” He crowded her space in a way that most women would probably find threatening but was meant to anchor her instead. “You’ve been carrying this alone for three years. Time to share the load.”
For a moment, he thought she’d refuse. Then something broke in her expression—not weakness, but a different kind of strength.
“She was brilliant.” Eden’s voice was soft but steady, her eyes shiny and a little too wide, giving away the deep-seated emotion to refused to unleash. A warrior to her core. It made Hunter wonder at the horrors she’d had to experience to become the woman who stood before him now.
“Too smart to walk away once she discovered the truth,” Eden continued. “She found evidence that the artifact smuggling wasn’t just about money laundering or black market sales. The organizations involved were using ancient texts tomove classified intelligence, hiding modern secrets in historical artifacts.”
Understanding dawned on Hunter. “The tablets Romano was so interested in.”
Eden nodded. “They’re not just valuable pieces. They’re physical databases, encoded with everything from financial records to blackmail material. My mother figured out how they were encoding the information, how they were using legitimate museums as unwitting participants in an international intelligence operation.”
“And when she tried to expose it...”
“Thompson warned my father.” The words carried years of pain and rage. “Gave him time to move the most damaging pieces. But my mother had already made copies. Hidden them where they’d never think to look.”
“Where?”
Eden’s smile was as sharp as broken glass. “In plain sight. She—”
The distinct sound of helicopter rotors cut her off.
They’d spent too much time in the past, but it was time he wouldn’t take back. Not for a second. Every insight into what made this woman tick only stoked his fire for her more. Hunter was even more determined now to defend and protect the one-of-a-kind creature before him, the only woman he’d ever met who could match—and maybe even exceed—his thirst for knowledge and justice. Revenge.
“Time to go.” Hunter was already moving, gathering essential equipment while Eden initiated final shutdown protocols. “Unless you want to explain all this to a DEA tactical team.”
“They’re not just here for me.” She nodded toward her monitors showing the approaching forces, seeing the same thing he had—the patterns they set. “They’re setting up for a full containment operation. They mean to clean this entire location.”
Hunter studied the footage with professional assessment. The teams were moving with practiced efficiency, covering all exits while establishing a perimeter that would prevent any evidence from leaving the building.
“Thompson’s not taking chances.”
“He can’t afford to.” Eden shouldered her go-bag, checking her weapons with mechanical precision. “Not with what I found about his connection to international intelligence agencies. He’s been playing multiple sides for years, selling information to the highest bidder while using his position to protect the entire operation.”
“And your mother discovered his role.”
“She discovered all of it.” Eden met his eyes steadily, and the draw Hunter felt was undeniable. Any other place, any other time, and he would have made his move. “The federal agents taking bribes to ignore certain investigations. The intelligence agencies using criminal organizations to move sensitive data. The international crime syndicateslaundering money through legitimate museums. Everything.”
“Which is why she had to die.”
“Which is why they made sure her body would never be found.” Eden’s voice carried old pain. “Or so they thought.”
