Page 2 of Broken

The first thing he saw was her, and for a second the impact of seeing her in person blocked out everything else. She was dressed in black combat gear, standing in front of a wall safe with her hands pressed against the door, magic glowing warmly around them.

And she was beautiful.

The golden glow reflected off her hair where it was pulled back from her face, burnishing it like polished copper. She was in profile to him, her expression intense with concentration. On one of her wrists was a thick gold cuff bracelet, sparkling with tiny jewels. It, too, glowed with magic.

Cole’s stomach lurched, and for a moment he felt suspended in time. Then he wrenched back his focus, taking in the rest of the scene.

Work the mission, he reminded himself. Assess the situation.

The sub-basement was a large room, about sixty feet across, with an ornate carved wooden desk near one wall, a few scattered pieces of smaller furniture, and an old partially clothed body on the floor about ten feet from the girl, bones picked clean. Fucking rats.

There was one access door on the opposite side from where he was standing. Probably the way the girl and Riker had come in, since there was no lingering scent of them where he was. That door was ajar, and Riker was stationed next to it, obviously standing guard—his focus constantly moved back and forth between the door and the girl.

And… hell. Riker was wearing a bracelet that matched the girl’s. Most likely the way he was controlling her. Magical light streamed out of it, spreading around the two of them in a large circle.

Wards, Cole realized. They’d taken down the ones the former owner had made in order to get inside, and Riker was casting his own circle of protection. So the bracelet not only controlled her, but allowed Riker to co-opt her magic and do what he wanted with it.

Bastard.

And this was going to make extracting her much more complicated. Cole might have to wait until Riker dropped the wards and they were on their way out.

“Ireland,” Riker said. “Hurry it up, can’t you? I don’t want to spend any more time here than we have to. I don’t know whose attention we might have attracted, with the magic we expended getting inside.”

The girl—Ireland—answered without turning around, her voice tight with tension. “Patience, grasshopper. I’m going as fast as I can. If I screw up, the wards on this safe will go off, and we’ll end up like him.” She jerked her head toward the body on the floor.

“Fine. Just hurry it up.”

“Sure,” she said. “Because speed safecracking was my specialty in spy school.”

The sarcasm was a good sign—she still had some fight left in her.

Cole expected Riker to snap back, retain control, but he just gave a snort. “Hurry anyway. We’re too close to let anything go wrong now.”

Oh, things were going to go so wrong for Riker. If he only knew.