“Are you going to tell Zack what else you found on my phone?” Nevada asked in a somewhat docile tone.
Jackie managed a tiny smile and shook her head. “I didn’t see anything else,” she replied, then turned and followed Zack.
Nevada stared after Jackie and smiled with relief. She then hurried after them.
Chapter 44
Zack escorted Sam into the clinic with her wrists zip-tied in front of her and stopped her in front of Ross, who sat on the vet’s desk. Beck leaned against the gorilla cage bars and watched them in silence. Sam didn’t bother looking around and immediately made eye contact with Ross. Her lack of emotion told them everything they needed to know about her intentions coming into the sanctuary, although it wasn’t clear when she knew what.
“Where’s Marco?” Ross asked with little emotion as he folded his arms across his chest and stared back at her.
Sam then smirked in a mildly unsettling manner and raised an arrogant brow. “Fuck you.”
Ross glanced past Sam at Zack. “Charming girl,” he announced.
“Consistent with the type of trash I attract,” Zack replied, not even seeming affected by it.
Nevada and Jackie entered the clinic but remained near the entrance and observed from a distance.
“Lock her up,” Ross announced and indicated the cage they had used for Marco.
Zack escorted Sam to the nearby cage, where he emptied her pockets and checked her shoes for any lock pick devices. She glared her displeasure with his indifferent treatment of her. Kirk and Bogart soon joined them in the clinic. Monroe and Gil were only a minute behind them and entered with Quinn and Rowen. Both men had their wrists zip-tied behind their backs. When they saw Nevada, they became enraged.
“You double-crossed us,” Rowen shouted while attempting to reach Nevada.
“I was trying to save your worthless lives,” Nevada scoffed back while glaring at both men. “Even if the three of us did combine forces, we’d never make it out alive. We’re no match for what’s out there!”
Gil and Monroe placed them in a separate cage not far from Sam’s cage. Monroe cut the zip ties binding them since they weren’t getting out of the pen anytime soon.
“I’ll remain here and watch our prisoners,” Ross informed them. “Jackie and Zack will hike to the ranger’s station. I want the two of you to search every inch of that place.” He then indicated Sam within the first cage. “I want you to find out everything there is about Ranger Sam.” He then eyed the others. “The rest of you need to split up into your usual teams and find Marco.”
As the guys buddied up and began leaving the clinic, Nevada frowned and insecurely rubbed her arms. “What about me?” she then asked, seeming almost apprehensive.
“Beck is going with Gil and Monroe,” Ross informed her. “You can go with Kirk and Bogart.”
Kirk groaned while sneering. “Great,” he muttered.
Bogart managed a tiny smile at Nevada while waving off Kirk. “Kirk’s an asshole, but you get used to him,” he announced.
§
Bogart appeared defeated as he walked with Kirk and Nevada through the sanctuary overgrown with vegetation. “Finding Marco is going to be next to impossible,” he informed them. “If she hid him somewhere within the park, he could be almost anywhere.”
“Not anywhere,” Nevada informed Bogart, then nodded to an old, rotting sign that pointed out the different areas of the park. “This way; toward the gorilla habitat.”
“Why that way?” Kirk asked while reluctantly following her anyway. “It’s not very far from the clinic. That sounds a little too easy.”
“She jumped me near the lion’s habitat,” Nevada informed them. “She got me out of the way first, and then went back for Marco. It’s a straight shot across the park from the lion’s habitat past the gorilla’s enclosure to the clinic. I caught up with her in the zebra habitat where she was saddling her horse, preparing for a hasty getaway.” Nevada eyed both men. “That means Marco has to be somewhere nearby. We were in the zebra habitat, and Zack and Jackie had checked the giraffe paddock. That just leaves the gorilla habitat.”
“Your logic escapes me,” Kirk muttered, “but I don’t have a better suggestion.”
Nevada groaned and rolled her eyes. “I’m a bounty hunter,” she informed them. “Finding people who don’t want to be found is sort of my job.” She threw her hands in the air in frustration. “Just trust me, okay?”
They headed into the gorilla habitat and looked around. The habitat had a large open area overgrown with tall weeds, natural fencing, and tall, faux stone for climbing. Bogart entered the fake stone cave that was meant to be a shelter for the gorillas. Once inside, he discovered Marco sitting on the cement floor with his hands and ankles zip-tied and a piece of duct tape over his mouth.”
“He’s in here,” Bogart called to them.
Kirk and Nevada entered the stone shelter. Nevada removed one of the knives from her boots and easily sliced through the zip ties while Bogart removed the duct tape covering his mouth. Marco groaned a sigh of relief and gingerly rubbed his sore wrists.
“I’m so glad to see you guys,” he announced, then eyed Nevada. “Even you.”
Nevada rolled her eyes then returned her knife to her boot. Kirk lent Marco a hand, which he accepted, and pulled him to his feet.
“That ranger woman came into my cell, waved a gun in my face, and tied me up,” Marco informed them then cringed. “The way she looked at me, I thought for sure she was going to kill me.”
“She had us all fooled,” Bogart remarked.
“We should get him back to the clinic before something else happens,” Kirk announced.
§
After announcing they’d found Marco, everyone except Jackie and Zack returned to the clinic. Marco joined the others near the desk while glancing across the clinic room. He saw Sam occupying his old cell and sneered at her.
“Psycho bitch,” Marco scoffed at her.
Sam sneered back at him.
Marco then eyed the two men in the end cage. “Who are they?”
“They’re bounty hunters,” Nevada informed him while moving closer to the cell containing the two men. She glared at both men with loathe. “Don’t worry; they’re not the ‘kill you’ type of bounty hunters.”
“We might just make an exception for you,” Rowen remarked to Nevada while offering a slightly cocky grin.
Nevada sneered at Rowen. “Give it your best shot,” she scoffed.
Ross sighed while eyeing Marco, leaned against the vet’s desk, and folded his arms across his chest. “It might be easier if we just left you on your own recognizance,” he remarked to Marco. “Do you understand the importance of staying with us?”
“Trust me,” Marco announced as his eyes widened. “I’m not going anywhere without you guys.”
“Kirk and Bogart will take first watch,” Ross announced. “Take him to locker room and let him shower, then get him something to eat.” Ross approached Nevada, who still remained near the cell containing the two bounty hunters. “I think, under the circumstances, it’d be best if you distanced yourself from these two.”
Nevada cast a skeptical look at Ross. It was possible she realized Ross didn’t exactly trust her with the bounty hunters with whom she’d had a known history. She didn’t respond but, instead, turned and walked away. Ross eyed both men, then returned to the vet’s desk, casting himself in the chair, and propped his feet on top.
“Girl’s going soft,” Rowen muttered to Quinn while watching Nevada leave the clinic.
“No, she just got a better offer,” Quinn remarked with a defeated sigh. “She knows better than to bite the hand that feeds her.”
“Nah,” Rowen remarked while shaking his head. “Ever since she took up residence at Zack’s home for wayward mercenaries, she’s been different. I think he broke her.”
“She was pretty much broken before,” Quinn reminded him. He then hesitated and considered something else. “Ma
ybe he’s fixing her.”
Rowen glared at Quinn. “You don’t fix someone like Nevada,” he remarked. “Girl’s got no emotions.”
§
Zack entered the ranger’s station with Jackie only a step behind him. Both headed in separate directions to begin their search. Jackie entered the bedroom while Zack started his search in the living room at a bookcase filled with fiction novels. He pulled each book from the shelf and flipped through it in search of anything hidden within them.
“Who reads this many romance novels?” Zack called to Jackie.
“Plenty of women read romance novels, Zack,” she called back from the bedroom.
“You don’t,” Zack replied.
“I do, but mine are all digital,” she announced.
“What you read doesn’t constitute ‘romance’,” he informed her. “I’ve seen what you read. A lot of throbbing, thrusting, and panting.”
Jackie poked her head out of the bedroom and glared at Zack’s profile with annoyance. “Stay out of my cell phone,” she scoffed.
“Why do you need to read that trash anyway?” Zack asked without looking back at her. “Doesn’t Holden give you enough throbbing and thrusting?”
A flying pillow struck Zack in the back of the head. He jumped and looked back at the bedroom doorway, but Jackie was gone. Zack grinned slyly and returned to the books on the shelf.
“Zack,” Jackie called out from the bedroom. “I found something!”
Zack replaced the book to the shelf then hurried for the bedroom. Jackie kneeled over a hidden compartment within the floor. She removed a large metal box. Zack lowered himself to his knees on the floor beside her. Jackie attempted to open the box, but it was locked.
“I need something to pick the lock,” she announced, then turned toward him while still on her knees, knowing he had just about everything a good Boy Scout would need. Jackie patted down his thigh pocket closest to her. “Do you have a lock pick kit on you?”
“Would it kill you to carry shit in your own pockets?” Zack teased.
Jackie eyed him and raised an arrogant brow. “I shop in women’s stores,” she informed him matter-of-factly. “Women’s clothes don’t have pockets.”
“Is that why I’m always carrying your lip balm?” Zack asked.
Zack then removed his Bowie knife from his boot, slipped the blade between the lock and the box, and gave it a hard flick. The lock flew from the box. Jackie eyed him skeptically. She could have done that.
“Not exactly state-of-the-art technology,” he informed her, flipped the knife in his hand, and returned it to his hidden boot sheath.
Jackie opened the box revealing several identifications, passports, credit cards, and a few bundles of cash. While Zack routed through the IDs, Jackie removed an envelope with several newspaper articles inside.
Zack suddenly groaned and shook his head. “Son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered.
“What is it?” Jackie asked and glanced at the ID in his hand.
“All these IDs are fake except this one,” he informed her and showed her the real one. “Sam was girlfriend to Vinnie the knife’s grandson, Vincent.”
Jackie’s expression dropped. “Oh, that’s not good,” she remarked. “Meanwhile, we’re sitting on the man who’s accused of killing his brother.”
“Oh, but it gets worse,” Zack informed her. “About five years ago, back when Sam’s real name was Kelsey, she witnessed Vincent killing a police detective. Kelsey went into witness protection; only it didn’t end very well. It was believed she’d died along with several U.S. Marshalls when the safe house was blown up.”
Jackie shuttered, reliving one of the less fond memories from her own past. She frowned and sifted through old newspaper articles, scanning them.
“Yep, it’s all here,” she remarked. “Sam did one hell of a job going off-grid.”
“She couldn’t get too much further off-grid than this,” Zack agreed. “Question is, how far did she go to disappear? What happened to the real ranger?”
“How do you suppose she learned of the bounty on Marco?” Jackie then asked. “She doesn’t exactly have access to that sort of news up here.”
“She has internet,” Zack informed her. “With all the free time she has on her hands, it wouldn’t take much for her to put it together.”
“Okay, so she dated Vinnie the knife’s grandson and was about to testify against him,” Jackie remarked. “That means he wanted her dead five years ago. What would she hope to accomplish by snatching Marco?”
“Absolution?” Zack suggested while raising a brow. “Maybe she just wanted her life back.”
“I doubt Vincent would give her that,” Jackie remarked. “She’d have to know the chances of Vincent simply killing her would be great.”
Zack placed Sam’s ID into his pants pocket then sat on the floor near the secret compartment. His mood seemed to change drastically. “You know, I’m no stranger to women using me,” he informed her, then ran his fingers through his hair in disgust, “but I usually know that going in.” He then met her gaze. “I actually believed she was who she said she was. That she thought I was just some average guy and she was some average girl.” Zack tossed the remaining IDs and passports into the metal box. “Something almost normal, like when I first met Maggie.” He then stood and seemed almost angry, which wasn’t often. “This is why I prefer women like Katya. I know where I stand with women like that. There are no games, no pretending to be something we’re not. We’re who we are and do what we do.”
Jackie stood and met his gaze. “You know damned well you can have a normal relationship with a normal woman if you just put a little effort into it,” she informed him. “Just because Sam turned out to be a fraud--”
“I’m not broken, Jackie,” he announced boldly while staring into her eyes. “I know the kind of person I am. You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”
“I’m not feeling sorry for you,” she insisted while moving closer to him, then placed her arms around his neck and moved in to hug him.
“This certainly feels like pity,” he gruffly remarked.
“Shut up and accept the hug,” Jackie announced without releasing him.
Zack placed his arms around her waist and held her only a moment before pulling her tightly against him as if he’d never let go. “Okay,” he announced while burying his face into her neck. “You can feel sorry for me just this once.”
Jackie suddenly tensed at what she felt then groaned in disgust. “And you ruined the moment,” she firmly announced while attempting to push him away.
He refused to release her. “I swear,” Zack protested. “That is my gun.”
Jackie managed to pull away, then looked down and saw the handle of the semiautomatic sticking out of the waistband of his pants. She smiled with some embarrassment.
“My mistake,” she remarked.
Zack shook his head with disapproval. “You always go there,” he huffed.
“Sorry,” she replied while smiling timidly, then crouched beside the metal box and returned it to the compartment in the floor.
While she wasn’t looking, Zack quickly turned away and attempted to adjust himself without her noticing.
Chapter 45
Sam stared at the ID Zack held up to the bars containing her photo and the name Kelsey. She frowned, walked away from the bars, and flopped onto the cot.
“So now you know who I am,” Sam scoffed then glared at the guys on the other side of the bars. “Why don’t you tell me who the hell you are?”
“We’re doing some contract work for Giovanni,” Ross informed her. “We’re here to keep his son alive.”
Sam lifted her head and glared at them. “If I intended to kill Marco, I would have done it,” she insisted. “I’m not a killer.”
“No,” Nevada scoffed while glaring at her. “You were only dating one.”
Sam sprang up from the cot and glared at Nevada. “Not intentionally,” she scoffed, then attempted to control h
er temper. “I’ll admit; I’d heard the rumors about Vincent’s family, but Vincent told me he was nothing like them. I dated him for a little more than a year, and I never noticed anything even remotely suspicious. He seemed legitimate.” She then frowned. “Until that one night.” Sam drifted off into her own world. “I couldn’t sleep and went downstairs. That’s when I walked in on Vincent executing that police detective. I suppose I was in shock, but I just stood there wondering if he was going to kill me for having seen it.” She managed a tiny, almost painful smile and snorted a laugh. “He handed the gun to his man, took me back upstairs, and made love to me as if nothing had ever happened. I was just waiting for him to kill me, but he didn’t.”
Everyone stared at Sam and quietly listened to her story. Sam remained lost in her own thoughts.
“I remember every detail of that night like it was yesterday. He told me he loved me, rolled over, and went to sleep as if everything was perfectly fine.” Sam looked up and realized everyone was staring at her. “I was too scared to go to the police. I was sure he’d have his men follow me. I waited until two days later when I had a spa treatment scheduled.” She drew a deep breath and held her head up proudly. “Once I was at the spa, I called the FBI. I wasn’t sure if any of the local police were on Vincent’s payroll, and I didn’t know who to trust. That was the day my life ceased being my own.” She then eyed the others. “You heard about what happened at the safe house, I’m sure. I took off after that, and I’ve been in hiding ever since.”
“What happened to the real ranger?” Monroe was the first to ask. His look was commanding, revealing his concern for the actual ranger’s fate.
“There wasn’t any ranger,” Sam informed him while raising her brow. “The ranger station was abandoned for a few years already. I found uniforms, working equipment, and even a badge. I guess they couldn’t find anyone to take the job and just locked the door. There was an older man who lived within walking distance from the station at the time. When he passed away, no one claimed anything from his estate, including Smokey. I found a lot of his daughter’s belongings at his house. I proclaimed myself the park ranger, and no one ever questioned me. Well, not that I actually came into contact with a lot of people. Mostly, I made small talk with hunters and campers and chased off my share of poachers.”
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