Page 115 of Her Mercenary

“Funny,” Roman deadpanned.

“That’s Maisie and Marcus,” I said. “They were kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta a week ago.”

“How many tangos at the house?” Mack asked, checking the cartridge in his gun.

“Four,” I said.

Roman smirked proudly. “Sam here bulldozed three of ’em.”

The men stared at me, their eyebrows arching.

Mack nodded at me. “Nice work.”

“The others?” Ryder asked.

“I took care of them. But more on their way, no doubt. Keep your heads up.”

“Aw, man, come on.” Mack groaned. “I thought you had a challenge for us. I didn’t come all this way for nothing.”

“If we come across any more guards, you want them dead or alive?” Ryder asked, interrupting the whining.

“Alive. Round them up, hold them at gunpoint until we get the victims out of the house. Then we’ll tie ’em up.”

Mack pulled a bag from the bed of his truck and tossed it to Roman. “Suit up.”

Roman secured a bulletproof vest on me, then himself. Grinning, he examined me. I grinned back, imagining what I looked like. Dirty hair, dirty face, a yellow sundress under a bulletproof vest.

Then he turned to the men. “Let’s do this.” He gestured to the truck. “You’ve got him contained?”

“Oh yeah. If he escapes, he’d have to take the cab of the truck with him.”

“Roll out.”

Mack paused, glancing back at the flames. “You sure you don’t want a piece of him real quick? Don’t even want to look into the bloody face of the motherfucker? You sure?”

Roman considered me. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.”

The sound of an engine rumbled in the distance, and Phineas cocked his pistol.

Roman glanced at Mack. “More men coming to the lodge. Ambush them.”

“You got it, bro.” Mack split off, and Phineas and Ryder disappeared into the jungle just as quickly.

Roman grabbed my hand, and together, we jogged to the truck.

56

SAM

Two weeks later

The weeks following the incident were a blur of travel, physical healing, and emotional decompressing.

Minutes after we’d rescued the victims from the lodge, the jungle turned into a circus of fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances, every citizen in the nearby small town responding to what they thought was a forest fire.

They got a hell of a lot more than anticipated.

The authorities found Conor Cussane tied to the chassis of a truck, four guards tied to trees, and twelve victims of human trafficking.

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