Page 110 of Her Mercenary

“I know you can,” he said, his eyes leaving no question that Roman truly believed I was strong enough to do it.

And that is the moment that I had no question he was the man for me.

I wasn’t weak. I didn’t need to be coddled. I was strong. I wasn’t a fucking damsel in distress. I was a fucking badass. I was his partner.

We. Were. Partners.

I opened the palm of my hand, and he rolled the ball from his hand into mine.

“Here’s the plan,” he said quickly, urgency back in his voice. “You’re going to do exactly as you said—you’re going to make yourself seen in the woods. Make noise, whatever. When they come after you, take off running in this direction, toward the truck. The moment the guards take off after you, I’ll sneak in the back and get the children.”

He hesitated, his jaw hardening to granite.

“Stop, Roman.” I placed my hand over his. “Please. Don’t doubt me. I can do this—we can do this.”

He softly cupped my cheek, nodded, then continued.

“Once they start chasing you, I want you to run like hell and count to five. Then I want you to press the button and throw this ball as hard as you can at the men. You have three seconds to get as far away as possible and take cover and cover your ears. The sound only lasts a few seconds. Then get up and run like hell back to the truck. I’ll meet you here with the children.”

I nodded, my heart beating like a jackhammer.

“What if someone stays in the house,” I asked. “What if they all don’t come after me? And you get attacked?”

“I’ll take care of them and whoever—if anyone—survived your attack.”

“What about the other slaves?”

“We’ll intercept them later on the road when I meet my team. We don’t have time to go back and forth. The children are this mission’s priority.”

“Okay.” I nodded, then inhaled. “Let’s do this.”

I put my hand on the door handle, then paused and glanced over my shoulder—into an intense, piercing green gaze.

“Let’s do this,” he said, that gaze making my stomach flip.

“Let’s do this for the kids, for your mom, and for Bear.”

“I love you, Sam.”

“I love you, Roman.”

We kissed desperately, passionately, like two lovers just before approaching the battlefield.

We met at the hood of the truck. Nerves vibrated inside my body.

“We’re going to split up here. I’m going to skirt around to the opposite side of the lodge,” he said, then regarded me with more intensity than in the truck. “Tell me the plan again.”

I nodded. “I’m going to make myself seen, run for five seconds, then push the button and throw the grenade. I have three seconds to get away, get down, and cover my ears. Then I run like hell back here, to the truck.”

“Exactly.”

He cupped my cheek and kissed me one more time. “I’ll see you soon, my love.”

Grenade in hand, I took off jogging, low and fast, as Roman disappeared into the shadows.

Darting through the spears of light, I ran like an animal. Adrenaline, hope, and a certainty that I was doing exactly what I needed to do at that moment carried me like wings on my feet.

Something came over me as I ran through the jungle. My nerves evaporated, an inner grit thrumming through my veins. I felt emboldened, and in a crazy way, I felt like I was becoming the person I was meant to be.

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