Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

birth and money? And even more importantly, are you testing me? What response to your announcement are you expecting?

Dozens of suitable replies flew by as Gonzalez’s brain worked at high speed. The surge of adrenaline peaked once more, sharpening his wits.

Object and question. Keep quiet. Assent.

Damn, but I really hate improvising. I wish I had the time to study Wagner’s file properly, his internal voice whined just as his instincts took over. He nodded politely, tilting his head down and staying in the half-bowed position for a few heartbeats.

Inside, his worry about Megan redoubled, but there was nothing he could do about it. Trying to avoid pissing off the new boss was supposed to be far more important to his undercover persona than the pleasures he was meant to be getting from his aide behind closed doors. Wagner wanted his aide’s youthful body for himself? He could choke on it.

Very carefully, he avoided looking at Megan, and was relieved to see out of the corner of his eye that the girl had fixed her big blue eyes on Wagner in fear, as usual playing her role perfectly. Some of her strawberry-blond locks had escaped her bun, partially covering her face, but she seemed incapable of moving her hand to rearrange them. Her normally golden skin had paled into a terrifying, ghostly tinge, all the colour draining from her cheeks.

Damn, she looks about ten years younger,Gonzalez realised sadly.

The tension in the room rose. Megan flicked her eyes rapidly between Wagner and Gonzalez, begging silently for help, confused and unsure of what had just happened. Then she noticed the absolute indifference on Gonzalez’s face, saw that he wouldn’t even look back at her, and her heart froze. She was so deep in the skin of Megan O’Haress that panic threatened to take over. But then it passed and her mind skipped forward.

It’s good for the cover, she reminded herself, making no further effort to hide the ever-growing fear as Wagner’s eyes burnt with sick lust and cruelty.

She was now outside Gonzalez’s protection and falling fast into the heart of the lion’s den, but that had always been the calculated risk. She could work her way through it. What bugged her at the back of her mind, however, was that Gonzalez had lost easy access to her hacking skills.

Without another glance at anyone else, Commissioner Wagner headed out of the conference room to what used to be DCI Raphael Gonzalez’s office.

‘Gonzalez, I will see you in my office in five.’

He didn’t even try to hide his hand freely pawing at Megan’s breast and squeezing hard on his way out. She was his now.

***

Raphael Gonzalez glanced at Megan sitting behind her desk. With the commissioner in his office and everyone else running errands for their new terror of a boss it looked like the perfect opportunity for a quick conversation. Too perfect. He couldn’t guarantee that the security cams were still under their control.

Megan saw him out of the corner of her eye, but didn’t react. She had already sent Lieutenant Rivas a note with contact details for Eloise Moretti’s residence. Probably the last message she would be sending to MIS HQ for a while. Gonzalez’s codes, which she had been using to safely bypass the security systems, were no longer valid. The psychopath now in charge had actually made a beeline to delete them the moment he took over, and she had barely logged out in time.

She was considering getting a head start on whatever it was the commissioner had sent her, but catching sight of Gonzalez distracted her. A stupid, childish part of her wanted to hide behind him. To actually weep and beg to go back to where it was safe—behind a desk, in a cosy room deep under the rocks at MIS HQ.

It was getting difficult to stay focused on her work as she struggled more frequently with flashbacks. She knew that her work was still impeccable, of the high standard that not only Gonzalez but she herself expected, but at times she felt she was holding on to self-control by her fingertips. She couldn’t allow herself to lose control, especially not now. There was far more at stake than her own life or comfort.

She had been through all this before, and she could do it again. She was older now, had more experience; she could do it. She… she had to.

The last four cosy years at the MIS had been almost a curse. She had got too comfortable, too lazy. Her hacking skills and her infinite love for old-fashioned computers were an absolute treasure to the MIS, and she lived a luxurious life compared to her early years in Moscow’s slums. There was no computer system she couldn’t break into. The challenge of doing it without being discovered was addictive, and she thrived on it. Usually that meant staying at the HQ, combing through whichever computer system Gonzalez pointed at. Safely away from the sick System she was born into. But not anymore.

Calm the fuck down, woman, she told herself sternly. We survived it for years, we will survive now.

She knew she couldn’t let the fear run loose; it would dampen her ability to focus and react fast. She also couldn’t repress it entirely; it would look too unnatural, a dead giveaway that she wasn’t who Megan O’Haress was supposed to be.

Damn the flashbacks, damn the past.

No, not damn the past. Use the past,she ordered herself sternly.

She would have to selectively push away what was eating away at her, what was useless, and leave the fear and terror that would help her cover. She knew how. They had trained her to do it. Gonzalez had trained her. All she needed was strength. She couldn’t go back to HQ; she was needed where she was. She would stay until she received orders to be somewhere else. Simple. Even if so much wasn’t at stake, Colonel Larsen had saved her life, and she would die returning the favour if she had