Page 101 of Her Mercenary

“Where did she go?” I asked, panic tightening my voice.

“The man came and took her,” the girl whispered back.

Panic shot through me—had Conor taken her?

“What man?” I asked.

“The man they call Captain.”

Captain?

Lucas?

I blinked.

But he’s supposed to have already left, supposed to be sitting at the bedside of his pregnant daughter.

“Capitán took her?” I asked, trying to understand.

“Yes. The man with the eye patch.”

Definitely Lucas.

I frowned, saw Sam’s empty cage, then looked back at the girl. “When? How long ago?”

“Just ten minutes, maybe fifteen.”

I thought of the black car driving away from the lodge. Why the hell had Lucas taken Sam? And where the fuck was he going with her?

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

I spun on my heel.

“Sir ... sir!” The little girl whisper-shouted at me, stretching her fingers through the cage. “She promised someone would save us today.”

I stopped and turned. There was no way I had time to save the children, to carry them a mile to my truck and then begin to find Sam.

“Please, sir,” the girl pleaded.

A loud bang sounded above, followed by sharp voices.

I tore myself away from the teary blue eyes and jogged up the stairs, forcing myself to ignore the pleas behind me.

There was no time. All I cared about was Sam.

I slipped down the hall, retracing my path. The cell phone in my pocket buzzed, startling me. I lunged into a vacant room and pulled it from my pocket.

Unknown Caller flashed on the screen of the old lady’s phone, with only a single bar of reception.

I answered.

“Roman ... landed ... the airport.” Ryder’s voice crackled on the other end. He’d redialed the number I’d called him on from the church. “I ... letter ...”

“Hang on,” I said, “I can barely hear you.”

I jogged across the room and pulled open the window. One of the many peaks that topped the lodge was just to my left, its tip leading higher up the roof.

“Hang on,” I said before stuffing the phone in my pocket.

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