1. Chapter 1

My hand didn't look all that promising, so I folded.

"No guts, no glory, babydoll." Tony sneered.

I shrugged and tried my best not to cough as the cigarette and cigar smoke in the room was gaining intensity. Click. Another lighter flickered. Why did I come here again? Oh right, sis needed help.

This wasn't my usual poker environment. Where I played, we played for hundreds of thousands of dollars, not nickels and dimes like these guys did.

I would be in Panama right now, adding to my bank account instead of bleeding from it—not that the few hundred dollars I was losing here meant anything. But I hated being in the company of these men who thought themselves big, bad wolves when they were nothing but old, used-up intelligence agents.

"So what did we do to deserve the honor of your company, Amber?" Tony wanted to know, still convinced I hadn't guessed he was bluffing yet. Tony was an ex Internal Affairs Team Leader for the CIA; if anybody had done anything to dirty his or her hands, Tony knew it. In his early fifties, he was too young to be retired, but somehow he had managed to amass enough wealth to call in an early retirement. With his penchant for blackmail and intelligence resources, it was easy to guess how.

"I figured it's been a while since we talked," I hedged, folding my two Kings.

"Right, and my mother was a lovely woman with impeccable manners." Sven threw me a curious glance. He was active NSA.

The other three men were Axl, also a former CIA, and Russ, who had been in Navy Intelligence like me. His career had been shortened after someone doused him with acid a few years ago. And last but not least, there was Andres, a former Russian spy and, as far as I knew, an active member of the Russian mob now. Like me, he didn't fit into this group at all. Like me, his bank account flirted with a billion dollars, and like me, he was a far more experienced poker player than the other men at the table. However, he didn't play professionally like I did in my military retirement.

Normally, I wouldn't have been caught dead in the company of these people, but when my sister Dawn called, asking me for help for the first time in our lives, I answered.

Do you still have contacts from your service in the CIA ? Dawn had asked by way of greeting.

Leave it to Dawn to open with a question like that .

Navy Intelligence , I corrected automatically, wondering why I was bothered and why she was calling me. We hadn't talked in a few years. Not since I got shot. Yes, some, why ? I said.

I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but there is something foul afoot with Interplanetary Communications. I think they know what happened to the explorers they sent. And I think they sent the military over and fought with the Vandruks.

I sighed; this was what I had answered the phone for? My na?ve little sister.

She was a biologist, a vegetarian, and a believer in the good in people.

Ten years ago, a wormhole was officially opened for the first time. In the beginning, Interplanetary Communications sent drones and robots, but the rub was that anything metal disintegrated on contact on the other side. So Interplanetary Communication sent the first exploration team to Vandruk, the alien planet the portal led to, also known as Hope One at the time. The official version was that the explorers went missing. Never to be heard from or seen again.

So did the second and third teams. After that, no more attempts had been made.

Dawn? I huffed. I know this doesn't fit with your world narrative, but you can be sure that the military would have sent soldiers there after the expedition never returned.

There was a pause on the other end. So you think the government knows? Is involved ?

Thankful that this wasn't a face-to-face call, I rolled my eyes. Yes, Dawn, I'm sure of both of those things. Considering the amount of tax dollars that went into the project, I added it to my mind but didn't voice it.

I have information, but I need to know… if the government is involved or if this is solely Interplanetary Communication's doing. Dawn sniffed.

That got my attention. What kind of information? What did you get yourself into?

I can't really say yet, but… can you do me a favor?

Do her a favor , I mused. After she ruined the only home I had after our parent's major fuck up. After she left me lying on a hospital bed with four bullet wounds.

What do you need? I heard myself say in my mind, still disbelieving that she had reeled me into whatever scandal was going on in her little scientific community.

I need to know if the government is sending American troops to Vandruk.

Considering that my sister and twenty other wannabe Vandruk brides were about to go there, I sighed and promised I would find out. When I pressed her for more information on what she suspected and what kind of information she had, she refused to tell me.

I could have pushed her more, but to be honest, it had been a long time since I had gone on some kind of mission. My interest was piqued, and I was even somewhat excited over the prospect of feeling out Tony and getting information from him. If anybody knew anything, it would be Tony, who, thanks to his old job, had friends in high places and, I was sure, was blackmailing quite a few of them.

I couldn't have cared less about an alien planet, but I was getting a little bored with my cushiony life—at least that's what I told myself. Deep down, I knew I was doing this for Dawn. She was family, and as far as I was concerned, the only living family I had, and we were stuck together—even if we didn't like each other.

It didn't happen very often… well, actually… never… that hers and my world met, but again, here we were.

Axl took the pot with two Queens, and Tony dealt another hand while finishing his fourth tequila. He had a reputation for being able to drink more than a camel, but I figured he might be equable enough now for a few questions. The sooner I asked them, the sooner I could get out of this hellhole.

I had already—purposefully—lost a thousand dollars. I needed to keep Tony happy to answer my questions, which he wouldn't have been had I beaten him.

"I heard there's some movement for some action on Vandruk?" I tried to be as casual as possible.

"Hope One?" Russ asked, his face a scarred mess, giving him the perfect poker face. He couldn't have forced a smile with a .45 held to his head.

That was life in the Intelligence community. You never knew when someone with beef would come back at you.

"The name's Vandruk now," Tony corrected, staring at his two cards. "What's it gonna be lady and gentlemen?"

I didn't bother looking at my cards. "I'm in," I announced, echoing the other five men around the table.

I put a hundred-dollar poker chip on the table.

"Come again? I'm in," Sven announced, wiping sweat off his brow.

"Vandruk," I said, "they used to call it Hope One until one of the aliens appeared a few weeks ago demanding women."

"Ah, that shit." Russ waved his hand, indicating that he was out.

Tony put the first card of the river on the table, Jack of Spades, and it was time to check what I had. Two diamonds. Eight and Jack. Fucking Dawn. I had never gotten this many good hands in a row before, and now I had to figure out how to lose with them.

The next card on the river was the nine of diamonds. Shit, shit, shit , this hand was shaping up to be a monster—something I really didn't need. Tony was a poor loser. If I wanted to keep him happy, I had to let him keep winning.

"Why do you want to know about that? Didn't think you were still interested in any ops," Tony asked, narrowing his eyes at me. Yap, he definitely knew more about this than a normal citizen.

"Maybe she wants to join the mate program," Russ chuckled.

I shrugged. "Maybe. I've seen pictures of those hunks, and I can tell you that human men can't hold a hand against them," I baited. It was true, too. That alien warlord, barbarian, or whatever he was had been a sight to behold. I was the first to admit that I had a few wet dreams about him. If they all looked like that, there wouldn't be many human women left on Earth in a year .

From his exotic skin coloring, a magnetic ochre red, to the intricate scars over the largest muscles I had ever seen on a man—which, coming from the Navy, I had seen plenty of. Reddish-black, long hair on a chiseled face that would come straight from a model magazine complimented that hard body of his. His chest had been naked, and his legs were hugged by leather pants, oh, and don't forget the bone sword and stone ax. Yeah, he could have slung me over his shoulder and taken me anywhere, and anyhow, he would have wanted to.

Predictably, Russ flustered. Because of his mutilated face, he either had to pay for women or intimidate them. Neither option appealed to me. "With your icy cunt, not even an alien will touch you."

I laughed.

"Gentlemen, let's keep this game civil, shall we?" Tony played at being a diplomat. His eyes roamed my body, and his grin reiterated his invitation to join him in his bedroom like he always did.

"What's the big deal? So, the aliens want a bunch of brainwashed women? I say good riddance," Andres chimed in, shrugging his shoulders.

"All I'm saying is that if Earth is going to invade Vandruk, I would like to know about it." I tried to bring the conversation back to what I was actually interested in.

"Dawn's your sister, right?" Sven, who had stayed quiet until now, asked, and all eyes turned to me. Among all of us, he was the only active Intelligence Officer as much as one who had worked for any intelligence agency before could retire. It wasn't exactly a program that just let you out and retire to Florida. Old enemies would never accept an Oh , you're retired now , argument.

"Dawn? As in Doctor Dawn Wayland?" Tony's left eyebrow arched up to his bald head.

"Yeah? So what?"

"So what? You haven't played poker with us in ages, haven't spoken to us, and suddenly, you come here asking questions about Vandruk. Where your sister is going tomorrow? You're not playing with your normal idiots, Amber." Tony put the deck of cards down. "What did little sis tell you?"

He seemed awfully interested in Dawn.

I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, I meant no disrespect. I just want to make sure my sister isn't going into a warzone."

"Are we playing cards or interrogation?" Andres frowned. Whatever Tony might or might not know or was involved in, I didn't think Andres was in on it, which would make sense. Once a Russian, always a Russian, wasn't that the saying? And if the good old USA wanted to invade Vandruk, they probably didn't want a partner taking half the spoils.

Tony stared from Andres to me and said, "I think you should take your chips and leave."

Well, that was an interesting turn of events. It wasn't the first time that I was kicked out of a poker room, but it was the first time I was kicked out because of the direction the conversation was headed .

"You're hiding something." I leaned over the table as I rose, getting into Tony's face. "And I will find out what. And when I do, you better pray you're not involved in something that might hurt my sister."

"Get the fuck out," Tony responded coolly.

"Keep the change." I threw my cards on the table. "You're all lousy poker players anyway."