Page 16 of Nanny for the Mercenaries

“Wait!” I said. “Now that I’ve signed the documents, you can tell me where we’re going. Right?”

Archer glanced over his shoulder, then leaned down close until his lips were an inch from my ear. His breath was warm and tickled my skin as he answered.

“The first contract is in Norway.”

7

Trish

On Saturday, we flew from Wilmington, North Carolina to Dulles International Airport, where we would transfer to the flight to Oslo. During the shorter flight, I sat between Jordy and Kaylee. Archer was directly behind me, and Harrison’s huge bulk was crammed into the window seat behind Kaylee.

“So you guys are mercenaries,” I said halfway through the flight.

“Yeah…” Jordy replied cautiously.

“You’re not like Blackwater or whatever. The guys that do war crimes and stuff. Right?”

He narrowed his brown eyes at me. “You probably should have askedbeforeyou signed the employment contract and got on an airplane with us.”

I felt my chest tighten. “I’m not joking. You aren’t really like them. Are you?”

“Sometimes there’s collateral damage,” he said softly. “Just last week we meant to hit a terrorist cell in Qatar, but ended up destroying a retirement home in Kansas. Big mess. Walkers and oxygen tanks and hard candy scattered everywhere.”

By the end I was groaning at him. “That’s not even alittle bitfunny.”

He grinned and nudged me with his elbow. “We’re nothing like Blackwater. We’re rarely in active combat zones, and we are very particular about what contracts we take. We do a lot of security details. Training exercises, too. Occasionally we do something more…delicate. But the vast majority of our jobs are safe and boring.”

“And what kind of job are you doing in Oslo?” I asked.

Behind me, Archer cleared his throat pointedly.

Jordy glanced back at him, then lowered his voice. “We’re doing recon and security for some big summit. No idea what the deal is.”

Archer let out an exasperated sigh behind us.

“Wait a minute. The big peace summit?” I asked.

“I guess?”

“That’s a huge deal!” I said. “It was in the magazine I was reading in the terminal. There’s going to be, like, a dozen world leaders there!”

“Cool,” Jordy said. “Guess that’s why they’re paying us so much.”

“I spend a ludicrous amount of time typing up mission briefings,” Archer grumbled, “and he barely even reads them.” Harrison made a grunt that might have been agreement, or might have been disapproval.

I felt a tremendous amount of relief to learn they weren’t bad guys. I had spent the entire past week worrying about exactly that. Jordy and Archer didn’tseemlike bloodthirsty mercenaries who would kill indiscriminately, but looks could be deceiving. And Harrison definitely had a rough edge to him that oozed calm violence.

“So we won’t be in any danger,” I said, more to myself than to Jordy. “Archer mentioned how you wouldn’t bring Kaylee anywhere dangerous, but it’s nice to know for sure.”

“Not much danger this time. Now, the mission we had in Prague a year or two back, when we were going after Anton Novak…”

Now Archer spoke up: “I believe that is enough sharing for one afternoon. Especially in such apubliclocation.”

Jordy grimaced. “Yeah, he’s right. Discretion is important. Get a few beers in us and we’ll tell you the story, though.”

“You’re impossible,” Archer groaned.

Prague, I thought.I’ll have to remember to ask them about that later.

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