by Susan Stoker
After about twenty minutes, she began to get antsy. No one had come up to her, asking if she was Allye, and the flash drive in her pocket seemed to get heavier and heavier the longer she waited. What if someone had figured out she had the information and was going to give it to Rex? What if he’d gotten hurt on his way to the bar?
Knowing she couldn’t just sit there anymore, Allye turned back to the bartender. “Hey, Dave?”
“Yeah, darlin’?” he asked as he wandered over in front of her.
“Can I leave my backpack here while I walk around?”
“Of course. The person you’re meeting with hasn’t shown up yet?”
She shook her head.
“You call him or her?”
“Him, and yeah, I tried ten minutes ago, and he didn’t answer.”
“Bummer.”
“Yeah.”
Dave held out a hand. “Give me your bag. I’ll put it behind the bar so no one will mess with it. Although no one would dare in my bar.”
She chuckled and rolled her eyes. Now that she believed. “You’re not going to spill anything on it, are you?” she teased.
Dave’s eyes narrowed. “I realize you don’t know me, woman, but I’m the best bartender in the city. I don’t spill. Ever.”
Allye laughed. He sounded so put out that she couldn’t help it. She held up her hands in capitulation. “Sorry! I didn’t know.”
Dave smiled at her. “Now you do. Hand it over,” he ordered, wiggling his fingers.
Allye picked up her backpack and handed it over the bar to Dave. He took it and placed it somewhere behind the bar. “You go on, explore. And you should know, you’re safe in The Pit. I know it looks rough, but I’d vouch for any man or woman in here. They’re good people.”
“Thanks,” Allye told him, feeling relieved even though she hadn’t realized she’d been tense in the first place. She hopped off the bar stool and turned to head toward the back room.
“Allye?” Dave called.
She turned around. “Yeah?”
“Cool eyes.”
She smiled. She’d had people gush about her eyes to the point where it embarrassed her. They’d asked questions about the streak in her hair and wanted to know if she was wearing contacts. Sometimes they went on and on, and it got extremely awkward. Dave’s simple compliment was friendly and not intrusive in the least.
“Thanks.”
Dave gave her a chin lift, and she smiled again, then turned and wandered around the room. Maybe she’d spent too much time in San Francisco, but the alpha-male chin lift did something for her. She hadn’t really noticed it before, but from the moment she saw Gray giving his buddy Black the same chin lift, she’d decided she liked it. A lot.
Allye meandered over to the jukebox and perused the song selection. It was an eclectic mix of pop, country, and rock and roll. The couple in the corner didn’t even look up as she went by them. She headed toward the back room, curious as to what a pool hall might look like. She stopped in the doorway and looked around.
It was a huge room, with about a dozen pool tables strategically set up so none of the players would have to worry about hitting anyone as they were playing. Two of the tables were in use, and by the looks on the players’ faces, the games were intense.
There were a few small circular tables randomly strewn around the room. Some short, so people could sit and drink and chat, and others were bar height, so pool players could rest their drinks on them as they were playing. There were lights hanging over each pool table, which gave the room a dim glow, but there weren’t any overhead lights on.
Allye turned to her right and glanced at the group of men sitting at the only square table in the room—and froze.
Her breathing increased, and her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. The men weren’t paying any attention to her and hadn’t seen her yet.
Allye took one step backward toward the doorway she’d just walked through. But she was too late.
“What the fuck?”
The exclamation had come from Black. The man she’d met just over a week ago on a mission she knew wasn’t exactly public knowledge.
Five more heads swiveled to look in her direction, and Allye could do nothing but stare. It was as if she could actually feel the amount of testosterone in the room increase.
All six men at the table were big. And good-looking. And staring at her as if they’d never seen a woman before.
But it was Grayson Rogers’s eyes that she couldn’t look away from.
Without a word, he stood, a fluid movement that was as graceful as those of any dancer in her troupe, and walked toward her.
“Kitten, what the hell are you doing here? How’d you find me?”
She loved the sound of her nickname on his lips, but his second question sounded more like an accusation than an actual “Boy, am I glad to see you again” statement.
“I . . . I didn’t know you’d be here,” she stammered. “I wasn’t looking for you.”
He looked confused.
“I called Rex, and he arranged to meet me here. But he hasn’t shown up yet. I was sitting out there”—she pointed at the doorway—“talking to the bartender, Dave, and got bored waiting. I didn’t know you’d be here,” she repeated.
“Fucking Rex,” Gray said under his breath, then held out his hand. “Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see you again. Are you okay?”
Allye liked this gentler Gray. She nodded and put her hand in his outstretched one. The second she touched his palm, his fingers closed around hers. The warmth from his body seemed to seep into her. She hadn’t even known she was chilled until she felt how warm his skin was. “I’m okay,” she said softly.
“No one’s been following you?” Gray asked.
Allye shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’ve felt uneasy recently, but it’s probably just a result of what happened to me before.”
Gray frowned and tightened his fingers. “Maybe, maybe not. Come on, I want you to meet my friends.”
He turned, and would’ve tugged her across the room to the table full of over-the-top-masculine men, but she stopped him.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
His eyebrows went up. “Why not?”
“Because . . . well . . . after what happened, you weren’t supposed to be there . . . I’m kind of a real-life, in-your-face reminder that what ‘didn’t happen’ . . . happened.”
He stared at her for a heartbeat, then grinned and shook his head. “Come on, kitten. Come meet my friends and teammates.”
She allowed him to lead her over to the table. If he wasn’t concerned about her meeting his friends, then she supposed she shouldn’t be either.
He stopped at the table and wrapped an arm around her waist. Their hips were smashed together, and she felt every finger as he gripped her opposite hipbone.
“Guys, I’d like you to meet Allye Martin. Allye, these are the guys. Meat, Arrow, Ball, Ro, and you know Black.”
“Hi,” she said awkwardly. “It’s nice to meet all of you.”
Her greeting was returned by all the men, and she couldn’t help but squirm under their scrutiny. The man Gray called Meat got up, snagged a chair from a nearby table, and placed it next to the empty one. She sat when Gray gestured to it. She didn’t lean back in the chair but instead sat fully upright, wondering what in the world was going on.
“So . . . you’re the woman Gray rescued the other week, huh?” Arrow asked.
Allye swallowed, then gave him a small nod.
“What I’m about to tell you, kitten, isn’t common knowledge. But after what you’ve been through, and given the fact that you’re supposed to be meeting Rex here, so he obviously trusts you, I’m comfortable telling you. These men and I are all part of a group called Mountain Mercenaries,” Gray said quietly. “Rex is our leader, so to speak. He contacts us when he has rescue jobs for us to do, mostly involving women and children who are being abused or were abducted. And before you ask, we’re highly
qualified. All of us are former military, all different branches, for the most part, and we’ve been through extensive training.”
Allye stared at him for a second, then her eyes went to the rest of the men around the table. She was surprised that he’d explained as much as he had, but she had no trouble believing that these men had the skills and strength to operate rescue missions.
Then something Gray said sank in.
“Mercenaries?”
He nodded.
Allye was confused. “You have a name? Can I look you up online? Hire you?”
“No.”
“Then why have a name?”
Allye thought it was Ball who answered. “Because Rex decided, rightly so, that we would become more well known if we were associated with a name. He wanted the bad guys to fear hearing the Mountain Mercenaries were coming for them. And it’s worked. There was a situation not too long ago where a bad guy in Chicago was desperate to keep Rex and his Mountain Mercenaries out of his business. Desperate enough to kill his own son when he couldn’t control him anymore.”
Allye wasn’t sure she wanted to know the details about that. But she was still a little confused. “But mercenaries are guns for hire. Like, they go where the money is and don’t care about right or wrong, good or bad. They’re all about the money. Aren’t you more like vigilantes or something? Working around the law to do what’s right and good?”
Gray stared at her, but the other men around the table chuckled.
Finally, Gray grinned. “Knew you were too smart for your own good,” he said. “You’re right, but when Rex formed our little group, he thought Mountain Mercenaries sounded tougher than vigilantes.”
Allye rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I guess Vengeful Veterans doesn’t exactly have the same ring, does it?”
And with that, the other men burst out laughing.
Allye couldn’t decide if they were laughing at her or with her, until Gray controlled himself enough to say, “I can’t wait to pass that on to Rex. Vengeful Veterans. Classic.” Then he sobered himself. “What we do is technically against the law. Most police departments would frown on us going into any kind of situation and taking the law into our own hands like we do. But in most cases, time is of the essence. We can’t exactly wait for the police to get the facts, decide if they think the threat is viable, and then make a move.”
Allye nodded. “If you’d done that in my case, I would’ve been long gone.”
“Exactly,” Gray told her, covering her hand with his own.
“And it’s not like we’re out saving the world every minute of every day,” Ro chimed in. “We all have regular jobs. Well . . . sorta regular. We make our own hours so we can leave at a moment’s notice if we need to.”
“What do you all do?” Allye asked, eyeing the men critically. “Other than save people like me. That is, if I’m allowed to ask? Gray told me he’s an accountant, which is still really hard for me to believe.”
“I make furniture,” Meat said.
“From scratch?” Allye asked.
“Yup.”
“And he’s got a waiting list a mile long from people wanting him to make dining room tables and outdoor furniture,” Arrow added. “I’m an electrician. I generally get hired by people who are flipping houses, to rework the wiring in their properties.”
“I’m a web page designer,” Ball added.
“And I’m a mechanic,” Ro said, his British accent sounding sexy even with only four words spoken.
“And you know I own my own gun range,” Black added. “You ever shoot a gun, Allye?”
She shook her head. “No. And before you offer, I’m okay with that.”
The other man eyed her for a long moment before shrugging. “If you change your mind, all you gotta do is ask.”
She nodded, then bit her lip and turned her eyes back to Gray. “Um . . . so . . . is Rex going to join you guys? Is that why he sent me here?”
“We’ve never met Rex,” Gray told her.
“What? How is that possible?”
He shrugged. “It just is. He runs the missions from the background. Gets the intel and sends us where we need to go.”
“But . . . he told me he was going to meet me here. I’ve got the . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“You have what?” Gray asked when she didn’t continue. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
Allye considered what to tell him for a long moment. It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust him. She was going to give him the flash drive before he left California anyway, but Rex seemed really interested in it, and she didn’t want to make the man mad. Not after all the money he’d spent getting her to Colorado Springs.
“Kitten, what? You never did say why you were here, other than to see Rex. How’d you find The Pit? And while we’re at it . . . how’d you get in touch with Rex in the first place?” Gray asked.
“Can we talk in private?” she asked, well aware of the other men listening intently to their conversation.
“No,” was his flat response. “I trust these guys with my life. More importantly, I trust them with your life. If I wasn’t here, I’d expect them to do whatever it took to make sure you were safe, just as I’d do for them in the same situation. Now spill.”
Allye wanted to reject his words. Tell him that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him all her secrets, but that would be a lie. She’d told him about her upbringing. About how horrible her mother had been. He’d literally saved her life many times over. She had no reason not to trust him. And if he trusted the other men, then she had to as well.
“Remember after you unlocked the handcuff and we were leaving the bedroom on that boat, and I ran back?”
“Of course. Thought it was stupid then, and I think it’s stupid now.”
“You never asked why I went back.”
Gray’s gaze stayed locked with hers. “What was so important that you risked your life to go back and get it?” he asked quietly.
Allye reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the flash drive. She placed it on the table in front of her. “That.”
Gray’s eyes flicked to the small device, then came back up to her face. “What’s on it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was going to give it to you before you left, but I forgot. Then I wasn’t sure the data on it even survived being submerged for as long as it was. But I did what I could, and when I plugged it into my laptop, it worked. But there’s only one file on it. And it’s password protected.”
“Leave it, Meat,” Gray ordered, not taking his eyes from hers.
Allye blinked and turned her head to see Meat’s hand inches from the flash drive. He looked like a little kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
“Come on, Gray. You know I’m the man for the job,” Meat whined. “Rex probably sent her here so I could get my hands on the drive.”
Gray rolled his eyes, and Allye wanted to laugh. “Let’s get all the info before you head off into your geek cave to hack into it,” Gray told him. Then he turned back to Allye. “He might make furniture for a living, but Meat is our resident computer genius. He can hack just about anything. Has a knack for everything electronic. Now let’s get back to Rex. How’d he get involved with this? He call you?”
Allye shook her head. “No. I called him.”
“How’d you get his number?”
She looked down at her fingers in her lap. “I remembered his number, from when we were on the boat after Black picked us up. I handed you the phone, and his number was on the screen.”
“And you remembered it after seeing it once?” Black asked.
“Yeah. I have a good memory for numbers.”
“So you called and got Rex,” Gray murmured. “I’m sure he was surprised.”
“He wasn’t exactly thrilled at first,” Allye told him. “But when I told him why I was contacting him, he got interested real fast.”
“I bet he did,” Ro said from the other side of the table.
“It might be nothing,” Allye said. “But on the boat, that guy, he was clicking on something on the laptop and talking about other women, telling me details about what had happened to them, as if he was reading about them on the screen. He wanted to scare me, and he did, but when we were leaving, I just thought that maybe whatever was on the flash drive could help find them. Save them.”
“If you don’t want her, I do,” Arrow drawled.
“Fuck off,” Gray told his friend as he glared at him before turning back to Allye. “So, you told Rex you had it, and he brought you to the Springs so you could give it to him?”
She nodded.
“And he told you to come here?”
“Not exactly. He sent a guy to my hotel, and this is where I was dropped off.”
“You honestly didn’t know anything about The Pit before you got here?” Gray asked.
“No. It’s weird that you guys just happened to be here at the same time as me, right?” Allye asked.
“Nope,” Ro chimed in. “We meet here every week. Same time, same place. Rex knows that just as well as the locals around here do.”
“Rex wasn’t ever going to meet me, was he?” Allye asked.
“No, kitten. He sent you to us,” Gray told her softly. “Remember when I told you he brought me and my friends here for an interview, and never showed up?”
Recollections of the conversation he’d had with her in the ocean shot through her. “Oh. Okay. Well . . . I guess I need to figure out how to get back to California now. I thought I’d give the info to Rex, and then he’d give me info about my flight home.”
“Stay. For a little while,” Gray said.
“I can’t.”
“At least until Meat gets into the flash drive and sees what we’re dealing with.”
Allye bit her lip and looked away from Gray. She wanted to stay. She really did. “But I have work next week. We’re starting a new production number, and I need to be there for rehearsals.”
“Rehearsals?” Ball asked.
“I’m a dancer,” she told him.
“I bet you’re like, really flexible, aren’t you?” Arrow asked.