Page 252 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

Had she not been sitting, she’d have fallen to her knees. “Oh, God, Thom. Are you all right?”

“Daddy’s fine, baby. Don’t you worry. Fariq and Christian just need me to do some programming for them. It’ll only take me a couple of days. I need you to remember all the rules, especially rules eight, ten, and eleven. I want you to call Mandy and let her know you and I are taking a couple of days off to go where the water and the sun are mild so we can enjoy ourselves. Can you do that for me, princess?”

Certain he must be telling her something, Avery agreed. “Yes, Daddy.”

“That’s my good girl. I’ll see you in a few days. Fariq is going to have you come pick me up in the corporate chopper so it can just be you and me. Okay?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I love you, baby. Be a good girl.”

Before she could finish saying, “I love you too,” the line went dead.

Avery replaced the receiver in the cradle, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and ran to grab the copy of the signed contract they had posted on the back of the door to the walk-in closet. She pulled it down and went to sit on the bed searching for the section that delineated the rules:

Rule One: When alone with Daddy and in trouble, I will address Daddy as Sir or Daddy only.

Rule Two: I will modify my language and stop swearing.

Rule Three: I will not level a weapon at Daddy or any of our friends.

Rule Four: I will not do any bullfighting or rodeo clowning from this moment forward.

Rule Five: I will not threaten or carry through on injuring any of our friends or co-workers, most especially Noah.

Rule Six: I will communicate to Daddy all my likes and dislikes.

Rule Seven: I will tell Daddy whenever I am aroused as soon as I start feeling that way.

Rule Eight: Only Daddy can touch, play with, or use my princess parts.

Rule Nine: I will sleep naked with Daddy and I am only allowed to wear panties Daddy has given me with his permission; no other panties will be worn.

Rule Ten: I will not argue with Daddy. I can express my point of view respectfully but whether Daddy decides to negotiate will be decided solely by him on a case-by-case basis.

Rule Eleven: No dangerous activities, as decided by Daddy, will be allowed.

Rule Twelve: I will take care of myself in all ways, e.g., eating right, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, no negative self-talk, etc.

Rule Thirteen: All of my orgasms belong to Daddy. I will not fake or withhold orgasms from Daddy.

He’d said rule eight, no playing with herself. She smiled, sure he’d said that only to make her laugh and so she wouldn’t worry. Rule ten, no arguing. That didn’t make sense… no, wait. It wasn’t arguing that he meant. He was reminding her that Wild Mustang didn’t, for the most part, negotiate. Whenever hired in a K&R (Kidnapping and Ransom) case, they would pay the stated ransom, but if jerked around or lied to, they would bring hellfire raining down.

Rule eleven made her smile as well, no dangerous activities. Well, two out of three wasn’t too bad, since she had no intention of violating rules eight or ten. But if Thom thought she was going to sit this mission out, he was sadly mistaken.

Staring out through the French doors, she considered her options carefully. She knew Thom wanted her to call in the restof the team, and she didn’t necessarily think that was a bad idea, but there were two problems. The first was that she would lose control of the operation and she didn’t much care for that idea. Thom would be safer if she was calling at least some of the shots, and that simply would not happen once she called in for backup. The second was that Noah would know damn well Thom would want her out of the line of fire. He wouldn’t hesitate to use her new status with Thom against her.

Thom had specifically mentioned the corporate helicopter because it was larger, could carry all the guys and was far less exposed; keeping their presence a secret until the last minute would be relatively easy. Additionally, the corporate helicopter was fully equipped with stealth technology and was fully armed with a variety of guns and missiles. What he didn’t know about her private, two-seater chopper was that it too had stealth technology, and while it only carried one missile, it did have several mounted and fully functional guns.

The last of what Avery believed to be the advantages of going in alone was that she had more speed alone. She could be ready to go before dawn and hit wherever they were holding Thom hard and fast, getting him the hell out of there before he was forced to un-cripple their criminal enterprise. Thom would stall as long as he could, but the longer they held him, the more pressure he would be under to help them rebuild their illegal empire.

She had to move fast. She couldn’t afford to wait. Avery was decided. She would leave a message for the team so they could stand as backup. If all went according to her as-yet undeveloped plan, her chopper’s smaller, faster flying capability meant she could get them out of the way and let the Wild Mustang team come in behind to mop up what was left of the operation.

What she needed was information she was fairly sure Zara could get her, but Zara would be easy to get on board. Finnwould need to be told the plan, but she would have no trouble convincing Zara that this rescue mission was best carried out without the guys’ knowledge or assistance. All she needed now was to know where Thom was being held. She was pretty sure Zara’s friend, Ghazil Assaraf, could help with that.

First things first, however. Picking up the phone, she called Mandy Hampton, who helped run the administrative side of the business. “Mandy? It’s Avery.”

“What’s up?” came the perky redhead’s greeting.

---