Page 17 of Wired Courage

Rhinehart, first in the lineup, looked battered but confident—his powerful shoulders looked relaxed, his head held high, gleaming in the electronic lamps’ light.

Connor felt a little of the tension torquing his muscles leach out.The members of his team were pros andwere used to dealing with situations like this.

The roar of an ATV brought their heads around to face an arriving vehicle. A petite female figure all in black got off the back of the vehicle piloted by a hulking ninja slung about with automatic weapons.

The woman strode into the light, and the lithe way she moved reminded Connor of Sophie. Exquisitely beautiful in her black ninja outfit, her tawny skin glowing in the arc lights, Pim Wat drew every eye. She didn’t appear to be armed.

Silence fell. The ninjas went still. Pim Wat raked the row of them with her dark gaze, and Connor’s mouth dried.

“Who speaks for you?” Pim Wat said.

“I do,” Rhinehart replied. Even kneeling, he looked strong and capable. “We can work something out.”

“Where is my daughter?” Pim Wat reached over her shoulder. She drew a samurai sword out of a back scabbard with a slithering sound.She was armed after all.

“We can discuss that. We will need to negotiate for that information, though . . .”

Pim Wat took a step past Rhinehart to stand in front of Davies. The man didn’t even have a chance to beg for his life before Pim Wat brought the sword down in a slashing arc, eviscerating him. As Davies opened his mouth to scream, looking down at his entrails spilling in disbelief, she decapitated him with a single blow.

Davies’ head hit the ground with a wet thump. Arterial blood sprayed the men on either side of him.

A cacophony of yelling and panic erupted as Snowman, on the other side of Davies, instinctively tried to escape and was manhandled back into line.

Pim Wat stood quietly, her blade dripping. Her gaze moved down the row of them to fall on Jake—and then, horrifyingly, landed on Connor. Recognition flared her eyes wide. A delighted smile lit her blood-spattered face. “Sophie’s lovers! Oh, how delightful!”

Pim Wat turned back to Rhinehart and her smile was pure poison this time. “I don’t need any of the rest of you now. I have something my daughter will want as much as her child, and these two men will give me all the information I need.”

Pim Wat swung the sword.

Rhinehart’s head joined Davies’, and Snowman’s.

She reached Thom Tang. She hadn’t even bothered to wipe her sword between executions.“NO!”Connor cried out involuntarily.

The diminutive Thai pilot had closed his eyes, his face pale as he awaited his fate stoically. Thom had been more than a pilot and driver to Connor—he’d been afriend,and Connor had precious few of them.

Pim Wat paused. Her beautiful dark eyes flashed as they met his. “Where is my daughter, Mr. Hamilton?”

Jake bumped Connor with his shoulder to get Connor’s attention, and glared at him.He couldn’t tell Sophie’s location!

“Sophie is safe,” Connor said.

Pim Wat’s face twisted into something ugly. “I need to know where my daughter is. Tell me and I will spare this man’s life.”

Connor groped for something to sway her. “Please. Thom is a good man with a family. Not a soldier or a killer. He never signed up for this life.”

“Give me what I want and he can be as good or bad as he pleases.”

Thom turned his head and met Connor’s gaze. The pilot’s warm brown eyes were pleading, though he said not a word. The sight gutted Connor. Jake bumped his shoulder again, reminding him of the stakes.

Connor bit down on his lip.

He had to think of something to trade.“We were waiting for a message from you about the baby,” Connor stalled. “We were willing to negotiate to get the child back. But you never contacted us.”

“That’s because you don’t understand what our purposes are for my daughter, and for my granddaughter.” And with no further warning, Pim Wat lopped off Thom Tang’s head.

Blood from the pilot’s severed neck sprayed Connor in a hot, coppery-smelling spatter. Connor convulsed with a cry, falling to the ground. He heaved, emptying his belly. He writhed and fought, unable to silence his own rough cries of grief and horror as the ninjas grabbed him, dragging him and Jake toward the ATV.

Pim Wat was taking them back to the stronghold.

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