Unmasking the Mercenary

by Jennifer Morey

  “Open the gate.”

  The dark-skinned man with an untrimmed mustache stared at her. “Mr. D’Evereux said not to unless he tells me.”

  She looked at the controls and spotted what had to be the one to open the gate. Going forward, she reached to press the control before the guard could stop her.

  The gate began to open.

  When she ran back outside, the gate was already closing again. She saw Rem bend into the driver’s side of the SUV. He came back up with the keys.

  Haley went to him. “Give them to me and tell your guard to open the gate.” She held out her palm.

  He only turned his back and started back toward the villa. Behind her, she heard the gate finish sliding shut. This was making her really mad. Who the hell did he think he was?

  Walking faster, she caught up to him and went for the keys. He held them tight in his grip. He clasped his other big hand around her wrist and easily pried her off him. Keeping hold of her, he continued his trek toward the villa. She tugged against him, but he forced her toward the open front door. There, he let go of her wrist and pushed her inside.

  She stumbled as he kicked the door shut. Regaining her balance, she darted around him. Yanking the door open, she ran for the guard shack. Screw the SUV. She’d run down the street until she found a car.

  She heard Rem’s chase, his heavy footfalls eating up the ground between them. She knew the moment he caught up to her that she was doomed. He hooked one arm around her. She stumbled and had to slow. He lifted her off the ground. Her back pressed against his chest. She kicked and wiggled and grunted. He lowered her enough so that she could put her feet on the ground. She tried to wrench herself out of his grip. Their feet got tangled and they both lost their balance.

  “Damn it, woman!”

  They rolled on the dirt and gravel, him blocking all her tactical moves and joining his grunts to hers, adding a few choice swear words. She wound up on her back with him on top. Before he could see it coming, she punched him. Blood sprouted from his nose.

  “You can’t make me stay here!”

  Ignoring his bleeding nose, he tossed the SUV keys aside and pinned her with both arms and clamped her legs in the coil of his. She couldn’t take a deep breath. She couldn’t move much, either.

  “Stop,” he growled, as breathless as her.

  She gave him a head bang, aiming her forehead for his already battered nose.

  “Ah!”

  “Let me go!”

  He put his face just above hers and willed her with his eyes. “Stop fighting me.”

  “Then let me go!”

  “Stop fighting me,” he repeated.

  She slowed her struggle.

  “Please,” he softly said.

  Looking up into his intense, incredibly light blue eyes, she went still.

  “I have to keep you safe,” he added.

  That finished her. She breathed hard a few times, until her pulse slowed and she relaxed. He believed Ammar would carry out his threat. And it dawned on her that he truly cared what happened to her—this man with such a dark past. It intrigued her. All his badness hadn’t frozen his heart completely. Something warm curled through her.

  Holding both of her hands in one of his, he used the back of his forearm to wipe the blood from under his nose. He wouldn’t have had to hold her hands. She wasn’t going to fight him anymore. She wouldn’t get past the gate before he stopped her anyway.

  He used both hands to pin her wrists again. Odd, how it didn’t frighten her the way it had before.

  “I’ve never met a woman like you,” he said with exasperation, the rasp in his tone entirely too appealing. “I’m not sure if I should be impressed or worried.”

  “Definitely worried,” she said, smiling.

  He chuckled.

  Seeing the change in his expression, she resisted the pull on her heart. She did not want to find him attractive. But he was. It seemed the longer she was with him, the more she liked him.

  “You have to let me go,” she said, amazed at how at ease she was underneath his heavy weight.

  The smile left his eyes. “I can’t.”

  “Cullen will send operatives after me.”

  “They won’t find you.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “Not to the airport.”

  “You can’t force me to stay with you, Rem.”

  “I’m going to keep you alive. You heard Ammar. He’ll kill you. The moment I turn my back, he’ll come for you and make sure I find out. I can’t let him do that.”

  “What do you want that’s so important? If you walk away, he’ll leave us both alone.”

  “Is that what you would do? You’d walk away from a terrorist and let him carry on with his plan to kill as many infidels as he can?”

  “Cullen won’t let Ammar get away with anything.”

  “Cullen.” He said the name derisively. “I don’t need anyone else to fight my battles.”

  “Why is it so important for you to catch Ammar?” she asked again.

  Something crossed his eyes that softened them, some kind of reminder of why he was here. She didn’t think he would answer, but he did.

  “He took something from me,” he said.

  “What did he take?”

  His body sagged a little. He lowered his head beside hers, close to her neck. She heard him inhale. When he breathed out she felt the warm air on her neck. She turned enough to see his eyes were closed. When he lifted his head and opened them, she saw pain. Tragic pain. The same as she’d seen last night, a reflection of her own.

  Releasing her, he rolled away and climbed to his feet. She sat up and watched him walk to the keys, bend and lift them. Stuffing them into his pocket, he walked over to her.

  He extended his hand. “Please, Haley. I need you to come with me. Don’t make me lose more than I already have.”

  Her heart melted all over his words, all over the way he looked down at her. She couldn’t stop it, this feeling growing inside her. What it was, where it came from, she didn’t understand. While everything Cullen told her about him kept her wary, she gave Rem her hand. He pulled her to her feet.

  “All right, but you have to tell me where we’re going,” she said.

  “To intercept a diamond deal.”

  Chapter 4

  “I should call Cullen.”

  Rem glanced at her as he drove the SUV toward Robertsport. The sun was setting on another hot, dry day. The rainy season would begin soon. “Right. McQueen. The superhero soldier America loves so much.”

  She cocked her head as she looked at him, not missing his sarcasm. The man sure had a sore spot. She wondered what put it there. “He’ll worry. And he told me he’s sending three operatives after me if I don’t get on a plane today.”

  “He sent you here to gather information. Well, you’re about to get more than you bargained for. Go ahead and call him. Tell him to back off his team. Satellite phone’s in my duffel.”

  She eyed his surly profile. “He’s a good man.”

  “They all are.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Big-shot soldier. Ex-Delta. All that.” He smirked.

  “Boy, somebody has a chip on his shoulder.” He didn’t look at or acknowledge her. But she could feel the annoyance radiating off him. “Did you want to be a soldier?”

  He turned at that. “I was too busy selling drugs, remember?”

  She couldn’t think of a thing to say. Of course, he’d heard her conversation, but it had gotten under his skin like a big ugly tick. “Were you?”

  “I was fourteen.”

  “So blame the world, why don’t you.” She shook her head and crawled between the seats, not caring that her butt was prone. How had she ever been drawn to such a sourpuss? Note to self: watch your low moments.

  She dug inside his duffel, spotted the satellite phone and hesitated. There were other things packed in the duffel. Ammunition. A knife in a holder. Packages
of dried food. Extra clothes. Seeing a portion of what looked like the black handle of her P99, she pulled it up from the bottom of the bag and stared at it. At least she knew where it was now. Tucking it back under the contents of the bag, she retrieved the satellite phone and was about to withdraw when she noticed a partially unzipped compartment. Seeing something inside, she unzipped it the rest of the way and pulled out a photograph. A stunning woman with long, dark hair and dark eyes smiled for whomever took the photo. She stood in front of a brick ranch home in the fall of some year. Disconcerted by a sudden rush of jealous curiosity, Haley tucked the photo back into the pocket and zipped it shut.

  Climbing back into the passenger seat, she caught Rem adjusting the rearview mirror. She narrowed her eyes at him. Had he lowered it to check out her butt or keep an eye on what she found in the duffel?

  She entered the number and waited.

  “Odie,” she said, when the woman answered.

  “Let me guess, you aren’t boarding a plane today,” Odie said.

  “Let me explain.”

  “Cullen’s going to blow a gasket.”

  “Cullen is wrong about Rem, Odie.” She ignored Rem’s slow glance her way, feeling his surprise.

  “You say ’Rem’ like you’re getting cozy with him.”

  Haley sighed her impatience. “Go get Cullen.”

  “Didn’t take you long to get on first-name basis. It’s very…interesting, especially for you.” Haley heard the curbed teasing in her tone. Dryly she wondered what it cost the otherwise crass woman to hold back. She had to be dying to jab about what she perceived as Haley’s new love interest.

  That didn’t mean Haley didn’t use these opportunities to her advantage. “Not nearly as interesting as your phone conversations to that guy on the East Coast.” Odie humphed.

  Haley laughed. “Isn’t he kind of soft for your usual taste?”

  “Beats the he-men that are always coming and going from this place. Thank the Universe they’re in the field most the time.”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d heard Odie talk like that about men. “What do you have against operatives?”

  “They think they can have any woman they want, yet they’re all retarded when it comes to relationships.”

  “Somehow I can’t picture you wanting a relationship. That guy you met must be something.”

  “He is. But what I like about him most is he’s normal.”

  “Cullen said he’s an engineer.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing, I—”

  “It’s a refreshing change,” Odie all but snapped, interrupting her in the process.

  It would never last. Not only did Haley hear it in her friend’s tone, but Odie with an engineer was just laughable.

  “You’ll be back at TES in no time,” she said.

  “Yeah, yeah. And you’ll be leaving it. It’s like Cullen all over again. You’re falling all over that guy instead of paying attention to your mission.”

  Before Haley could argue, Cullen got on the line. “Where are you?” He sounded furious.

  “Calm down. I’m fine.”

  “Where are you?”

  She had to tell him. “On our way to Robertsport.”

  “We?”

  Haley stayed quiet. This wasn’t going to go well.

  “I’m sending in a team,” Cullen said.

  “No. Don’t do that. Just trust me on this, okay? This is turning into something big.”

  “Exactly what I don’t need to hear. Let me talk to him.”

  “What?” He wanted to talk to Rem? Should she let him?

  “D’Evereux. Put him on.”

  After hesitating a couple of beats, Haley handed Rem the phone. He raised a brow and she shrugged.

  He took the phone. “Yeah.”

  His eyes shifted to Haley and she could all but hear Cullen threaten him.

  “The last thing I want is anything to happen to her,” he said after a while. “It’s the reason I’m taking her with me…I don’t have a choice…believe me, I wanted to get her on that plane as much as you did.”

  A longer silence passed. If Haley knew Cullen, he was demanding information from Rem. She watched as Rem relented.

  “Yes, his name is Ammar Farid Salloum,” he said at last. “You wondered if Habib Maalouf was into terrorist financing, well, you were right. But it goes a lot deeper than that. Ammar’s the one you want, not Habib. Ammar’s been threatening Habib for years. Holding the lives of his family over his head if he doesn’t do what he wants. Usually that’s laundering money through the purchase of diamonds.” He paused. “That I can’t tell you.”

  What had Cullen asked? What couldn’t he tell anyone?

  “I’ll get Ammar. That’s all you need to know,” Rem said.

  Haley heard Cullen’s raised voice from across the vehicle but couldn’t decipher what he said.

  Rem glanced over at her before facing forward again. “I understand your concern, but there’s nothing I can do about it. If you believe nothing else I tell you, believe that Ammar will find Haley no matter where she goes. He’ll find her and he’ll kill her.”

  He paused again as Cullen spoke on the other end of the connection. “I know Ammar. Better than I want to know him. He won’t try anything as long as Haley’s with me.”

  Was Ammar afraid of Rem? Judging by the long silence, Cullen was wondering the same thing, or else he’d realized he wasn’t going to win the argument. Rem wasn’t budging. And if someone as disreputable as Ammar was afraid of him, he must be more dangerous than any of them imagined.

  She was still grappling with that and the notion that he knew more than he was saying when he handed her the phone.

  “He asked for you,” he said. “Not too kindly, either.”

  She took the phone and Rem faced the road as though nothing unusual had occurred.

  “Cullen?”

  “I don’t like how personal it is for him. He won’t even tell me why he’s after Ammar.”

  The picture of the woman flashed in her mind. “Don’t send anyone, Cullen. Not yet. Let’s see where this leads over the next couple of days.”

  “Out of the question.”

  “Cullen—”

  “I’m not leaving you with a guy like that. I don’t trust him.”

  “He isn’t going to hurt me.”

  Silence.

  “I can gather information.” It was the closest she could come to letting him know she’d picked up on the fact that Rem might be withholding something big from them.

  Cullen didn’t say anything. She could tell he still wasn’t convinced, but he was beginning to waver. Haley was his only inside source at the moment. He wanted to maintain that, but he didn’want her at risk.

  “I’m safe with him, Cullen. You know that,” she coaxed.

  “You’re anything but safe, Haley. I want you back here.”

  “Well, I don’t want to come back yet. I want to see what else I can dig up on Ammar and anyone he’s associated with.”

  “Precisely why I want you back here. I don’t want you going any further with this.”

  “You wouldn’t have sent Travis and I to Monrovia if you didn’t think there was something worth pursuing.”

  “You’re alone now. Travis isn’t with you.”

  “I’m not a victim anymore. When are you and Travis going to get that?”

  Cullen sighed hard, the size of his frustration reaching her from across the miles separating them. “I’m posting some men in Monrovia. They’ll be at the Mamba Point Hotel.”

  “Cullen—”

  “You have forty-eight hours before I tell them to go after you. And my order is going to be shoot to kill without asking questions. Understand?”

  “Yes.” It was the best she’d get from him.

  She said goodbye and held the phone in her lap. Beside her, Rem stayed quiet and kept his attention on the road.

  “Who is she?” she asked.

 
As she expected, that brought his head around. The abruptness of it.

  “The woman in the picture,” she explained. “It was in the zipper comp—”

  “I said get the phone, not snoop around in my things,” he said, cutting her off.

  She decided not to mention that her gun didn’t belong to him. “I know she’s the reason you’re doing this.” She hesitated. “Now that you’re dragging me into your mess, I have a right to know who she is.”

  “Was.”

  Did that mean she was dead? Haley had to push back her sympathy. “Who was she?”

  His hand tightened on the wheel.

  “You must have loved her,” she pressed.

  “She was my sister.”

  Haley began to see the resemblance, except for the woman’s dark eyes. “What happened?”

  He didn’t respond and she didn’t make him. She could feel his anguish. See it in his profile. “Ammar killed her, didn’t he?”

  Still, no response.

  “Why?”

  “Enough questions, Haley.” He drove to a stop in front of a shack of a building.

  She didn’t force the issue. Little by little his puzzle was unraveling, and it contradicted his character. He seemed so trustworthy, yet his past was far from redeeming. And he clearly had something to hide. He didn’t pretend to deny that fact, either. He didn’t care who knew he wasn’t revealing everything. He wasn’t going to bend.

  Well, she wasn’t leaving his side until she uncovered whatever made him feel so threatened. She just hoped that when all was said and done he’d be standing on the right side. Her side. She didn’t think her gut was wrong about him, but then, why was he guarding his secrets so well?

  Getting out of the SUV, she looked closer at the run-down building. If one could call it a building. It didn’t even look like it could keep out the rain. “What’s this?”

  “Our new accommodations.” He turned a wry grin her way. “It’s a step down from the last one.”

  She took in the chipping blue paint and cracking concrete, and moved on up to the rusting metal roof. “Welcome to Liberia.” She stepped into the place behind him. “Why are we here? In Robertstown, I mean.”