The Valhalla Prophecy by Andy McDermott Read Free Book Online Page A

but we just weren’t good for each other. Maybe someday you’ll meet the right person for you. I hope you do.”
    Chase wanted to reply, but found his throat clenched tight by a torrent of emotions. By the time he managed to force them down, Sophia had climbed into the sports car and started the engine. The Maserati carved out into the traffic with a V8 bellow, leaving him standing uselessly on the pavement. He stared after it, hoping it would turn around and bring her back to recant, but it was quickly lost to sight.
    Numbed, he headed indoors, collapsing once more into the armchair. The solicitor’s letter was still on the table, taunting him.
Just sign, and it will all be over …
    His clenched fist thumped down on the chair’s arm. “Fuck that!” he snarled. Mac’s words echoed in his head:
fight to the end
. His SAS unit’s unofficial motto, but one that he lived by. He knew now in his heart that he would never get Sophia back, but he wasn’t just going to surrender meekly on her terms.
    And he wasn’t going to roll over and die in his own life, either. He was going to
do
something.
    Chase took out his phone and thumbed back through the recent calls to return one. “Mac,” he said on getting an answer. “What’s Hugo’s number?”

3
New York City
    “Eddie, get up,” said Nina, coming back into the bedroom to find her husband still in bed, the covers crumpled back to expose his muscular, if scarred, body from the waist up. “It’s nearly time for work.”
    Eddie didn’t move. “You’re the boss—tell everyone we’re having the day off. It’s not like the planet will explode if we don’t turn up.”
    “You’re jinxing it again!” She went to prod his side. “Come on, move your—”
    Fast as a snake, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto the mattress beside him. She yipped in surprise. “Move my what?” he said, smirking.
    “Your ass.”
    “Arse.”
    “Ass.”
    “Arse.”
    “Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, you still have to move it.”
    The smirk widened. “I was planning to. Only in a sort of repeated up-and-down motion. ’Cause if we
are
going to have kids, after what you said yesterday we need to get cracking on it.”
    She laughed. “I know, but I wasn’t thinking at every available moment.”
    “I bloody was!”
    “Edward J. Chase, you have a one-track mind.” Nina kissed him, then sat up. “Seriously, though, time to move. I’ve got a meeting at nine thirty. And I’m sure you must have something to do as well.” She cocked her head and gave him a mocking smile. “What exactly
is
it that you do at the IHA?”
    “Save the world and shag the boss, mostly.”
    “I can’t dispute that. Come on, get up.” She pulled the covers off him, then eyed what was revealed. “Ah, I see you already
are
up.”
    Eddie cackled. “I don’t hang about. So you just drop your kecks, then hop aboard …”
    She gave the upstanding member a playful swat. “It’ll have to wait until tonight, sorry. But you hold that thought.”
    “If I do that, I won’t be able to walk all day!”
    Nina laughed again, then tugged away from him and stood, checking her watch. “I’m out the door in fifteen minutes. And you
will
be with me. Preferably fully dressed.”
    “Oh, so I’ve got a choice?”
    “Ha! You’re a married man, you have no choice in anything.”
    “Yeah, I learned that in my first marriage.” He huffed, then rolled out of bed. “Well, if the world needs saving again, suppose I’d better bloody do it.”
    “Hopefully it won’t need our services today,” Nina told him. Now it was her turn to smirk. “Because I’ve got plans for tonight.”
    Eddie grinned, then headed for the bathroom.

    “Can’t believe you’re still cold,” said Eddie as they entered Nina’s office.
    “What?” she complained, unzipping her coat. “It feels like the middle of winter!” She pointed at the cityscape beyond the windows. The view across her native Manhattan from the United Nations’