Page 90 of Nanny for the Mercenaries

She whirled toward me and spoke in a rush. “Maybeis what my daddies say when they meanno, but don’t want to say it. Why won’t you come over and play with me? We don’t have to do anything new. We can keep playing Minecraft. Wehaveto finish that game. We almost have enough diamonds to make a full set of armor, and then we can use a Nether Portal to go into the Nether!”

“You’re right, how silly of me,” I said. “We have to finish our Minecraft game! Then we will figure out what to do next.”

She nodded as if that should have been the answer from the start. I smiled sadly.If only it were that simple.

At eleven o’clock on the dot, the penthouse phone rang. “Excuse me, Mrs. Caspian?”

Mrs. Caspian. They must have assumed I was Archer’s wife. The sound of that gave me a whole bunch of new, confused feelings. “This is Trish.”

“Yes, hello. This is the manager downstairs. Your driver has arrived to take you to the airport. I have checked his credentials, and everything appears to be in order.”

“Perfect,” I replied. “Please send him on up.”

“Right away, ma’am.”

I hung up and turned to Kaylee. “Our driver is here. Are you all ready to go?”

She looked around and pointed at objects. “Suitcase. Backpack. Tablet. Yep, I have everything!”

“Do you need any snacks before we go? I can make you a quick sandwich. I think we have a few bags of chips left…”

“I can wait until the airport,” she replied. “Daddy Jordy said he would have a surprise for me at the airport. I hope it’s ice cream!”

A knock came at the door. To be extra safe, I looked out the peep hole. The man standing outside matched the description Archer had given me, and was wearing a badge over his breast with the three-ringed logo I was supposed to look for. Most importantly, he wasn’t the man who had mugged me. That should have been a given, but it was something I wanted to make sure of anyways. Everything looked good.

I opened the door. “Hello, I’m Trish, and this is Kaylee.”

The man smiled and stepped into the doorway. “I’ve been told all about you, ma’am. I’m here to escort you.”

He swung so quickly that I didn’t realize what was happening. His fist struck my cheek, and stars flew across my vision. The ground came up and hit me in the side of the head, cushioned enough by my arms to keep me conscious.

“What…”

“But the airport is not where we are going,” he said, drawing a gun from a holster inside his suit jacket. His eyes were cold and uncaring.

“Kaylee…” I tried to get up but the room was spinning. No matter how much I blinked, I couldn’t make it go still. Kaylee was in danger. That was the most important thing. I tried to tell her to run, but she was standing there, looking confused.

“Why did you hurt Trish?” she demanded.

The man snatched her by the hand, then turned to me. “This is for Prague. For Anton’s brothers. Make sure they know why.” He raised the gun to Kaylee.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out; my throat wouldn’t work the way it was supposed to. I couldn’t even get up. I was paralyzed with helplessness, the worst feeling in the world, even worse than how I felt yesterday in the market when the mugger was grabbing my arm. Kaylee was frozen too, staring at the pistol with innocent eyes, eyes that didn’t recognize what it was. The sight was too horrible to watch, so I clamped my eyelids shut so I wouldn’t have to see.

Please no, I prayed.Please don’t let this be happening.

The gunshot was oppressively loud in my ears. So loud that everything sounded muffled afterward, like my eardrums were stuffed with cotton. I opened my eyes, not because Iwantedto look, but because I wondered if my prayers had been answered. If somehow this was all a cruel joke.

The attacker and Kaylee still stood where they had been before. The man lowered his gun. He seemed just as confused as Kaylee. That was strange. Moments before, he had appeared totally in charge. What did he shoot?

A red smear began spreading on the crisp white of his dress shirt, barely visible underneath the suit jacket. He looked down at it, touched the red, and stared at his fingertip as if he didn’t believe it. The gun fell heavily to the floor, and then the man crumpled on top of it. The door to the penthouse tried to close automatically, but was blocked by his body.

Heavy footsteps pounded in the hall, and then Harrison appeared in the doorway. He kicked, and I heard the gun slide across the marble deeper into the hotel. He wrapped Kaylee in a big hug, said something to her, and then knelt at me.

“What did he do?” he demanded. “Where are you wounded?”

“He hit me in the face. A punch,” I managed to say. My voice sounded stronger with every second. “What are you doing here?”

“I didn’t like any of this,” he explained while lifting me off the ground. He gently placed me on the couch. “So I trusted my gut. I turned around and came back. Good thing, too. If I’d gotten here a few seconds later…”

---