His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil) by Zoe Forward Page A

basement. With a push, the fake shelving unit slid aside to allow access to a keypad. She punched in the ten-digit code. The wall moved to expose her safe room. When the door slid closed behind them, he ran a hand through his choppy dark hair and blew out a breath. He caught her arm as she passed him into the room.
    Her wrists buzzed with heat. She yanked them out of his grasp and rotated them. The bruising was almost gone. “You can heal by touch like your brother? I thought you didn’t have that ability.”
    “We’ve all got secrets.” He squinty-eyed her. “I need answers. Be straight with me. Tell me, not because I was assigned to guard you again, but because we’re friends. What the hell is going on?”
    How she wished this man made her feel even a fraction of what Alexi incited. Eli was loyal, batted for the right team, and was hands-down one sexy druid. She’d been tempted to seduce him back in college, but one disastrous, icky kiss between them proved that wasn’t happening. “They’ve got Liz.”
    “Who has her?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How long since someone kidnapped her?”
    “Four days.”
    He cocked his head and leaned a shoulder into the wall. “Are they making you jump through hoops with the false promise of her return?”
    “They threatened to hurt her…well, kill her, if I recruited help or refused to do what they asked. They conned me into two missions so far. Both felt like suicide ops. I didn’t get the impression they actually desired what they sent me after.”
    His lips flickered with a smile. “They don’t know who they’re contending with, then. Impossible op is your hometown. But you know better than this. You give them a cookie and they’ll ask for milk.” His eyebrows shot upward with a parental glare.
    “You’re right. I knew. But…I had hoped…” She glanced away from him.
    “Now that I dismantled their surveillance, what do you think they’ll do?”
    “They’ll probably hurt Liz as a threat. I just don’t know what exactly they want me to do or give them in order to get her free. They’re not demanding money or being clear.” She concentrated on not allowing her eyes to glass up. Nothing got her jazzed with emotion faster than someone threatening her family, even if she and Liz hadn’t ever shared a close bond. The bastards knew which buttons to push when it came to making her dance.
    “Who do you think they are?” he asked.
    “Don’t know. No face. No name. Difficult to follow computer trails. I’m not even sure if the lead communicator is male or female. Could you follow the trail of that video feed?”
    He shook his head. “No, it was bouncing off government servers. They’re piggybacking. Best way—”
    “To hide.” She nodded. “They can’t be this good. No one’s this good. Everyone leaves a trail.” She pulled the laptop out of her backpack. “Can you copy the hard drive without being detected? You’re better at computers than me.”
    “Is that what they sent you after last night?” His lower jaw worked back and forth.
    “Yes.”
    His eyes snapped up from the computer and narrowed. “You went alone?”
    She nodded, although her mind slid to Alexi. Maybe not so alone. “The kidnappers fed me poor intel for both missions. Perhaps purposefully off. It’s as if they don’t really want what they’re sending me after. I can’t connect the two items they’ve had me retrieve. That computer is off a cartel guy.”
    “Maybe it’s a game.”
    She slammed her palm against the wall. “I don’t play goddamned spy games anymore. I got kicked out of that life. This warehouse last night turned out to be a primed war zone, and then…damn it.” In MI6 she’d hated being used to promote another’s whacked backroom dealings. Although she missed the adrenaline of the job, she didn’t miss the bullshit.
    “Did Alexi Jovec show up?”
    Her gaze shot to him, shocked. “Why would you ask that?”
    “Serenity…” He shook his head. He