Page 18 of Her Wicked Hero

“What are you talking about?” Marcia wanted information, but she knew she needed to act ignorant too. She’d been living at the Brockman’s house since Mrs. B. died, so she could help watch over Christie and Debbie. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that Mr. B. still had his hands in a lot of different pots even though he’d retired. In some ways, she guessed, he had even more freedom to get things done, and he was making the most of it. She wondered what project had gone so terribly wrong that seventeen men had died.

“What? You can’t believe your dad got good men slaughtered? Well, he did.”

“Are you telling me he was working with men like you? Mercenaries?”

“Don’t get up on your high horse. Before I took this project, I was working for the Thorne Group. I came over to the dark-side so I could help take your daddy down and also for the money. It was a twofer.”

“So, it was men from the Thorne Group who died? They were working with Dad?”

“Yep.”

“How are you going to make this deal work now that you just have me?”

Raymond’s stride faltered, but he immediately continued on as if nothing had happened. “That’s the part where I need the phone. Your daddy always has little operations going on throughout the world, and Jefferies is the man in the know. Those operations your daddy handles cost a shit-ton of off-the-books money. He’ll just have to slide some over our way if he wants his pretty daughter back home, now won’t he?” Raymond grinned down at her evilly.

Marcia kept quiet for a long while, using the sounds and the scents of the swamp to block out the feel of Raymond’s hands on her body. She was jarred out of her reverie when Raymond suddenly stopped and pulled out his GPS device.

“Thank fuck. We’re almost to the river. Just another quarter mile, and we’ll be at the river bend. If you’re really quiet, you should be able to hear the rushing water.”

They were both silent. She looked up and saw all the trees in the distance. She could hear the monkeys and the sound of water. Marcia looked at her mud-caked feet with dread. The man could say whatever he wanted about Mr. B. paying for her return, but that was never going to happen if Raymond had his way. He wanted Mr. B. to suffer, and that meant Marcia was going to have to suffer.

“Do you hear it?” he asked her.

“Oh yeah. Everything is coming through loud and clear.”

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Zed said the words in a low whisper. Dammit, if he’d only gotten out of the camp twenty minutes sooner, he would have caught up with Raymond and Marcia. Now they were on some damn boat they’d hijacked, headed down river. The only, and he meant only good thing he could see out of this was there wasn’t a body in the water or on the shore.

Pull it back, Zaragoza. He looked closer at the disturbance at the shoreline. He could see where the boat had actually flattened a lot of reeds, but he didn’t see any evidence of the plants having been cut or chewed by motor blades. He took a deep breath and gave a slight smile. So, the boat was probably being propelled by good old-fashioned paddle power. Or it could just be that the motor hadn’t been turned on.

He needed a boat, and he needed one now. Preferably one with a motor. He clicked his comm, and didn’t get a signal to Dex, so he dug out the satellite phone.

“I need help,” he said to Dex without preamble.

“I’m conferencing in Kane,” was Dex’s immediate response.

Zed waited until he heard a click.

“You all here?” Dex asked. Zed and Kane said yes at the same time.

“I’m at the river.” Zed started. “Really fresh tracks are telling me Raymond and Marcia just confiscated a boat to head downriver. They probably have a twenty to thirty-minute head start.” Zed knew he sounded pissed, but that’s because he was pissed. “I can’t see them,” he continued. “How much boat traffic can I expect? Am I close to civilization? Do you think I should head out after them on foot and hope they camp come nightfall?”

“Here’s what you need to know,” Kane said in a calm voice. “You’re currently ten miles up-river from where the Eco-Tourism really starts on the river. So, you’re going to have to figure out a way to either stay out of sight or blend in, and you’re going to have a hell of a time blending in with your rifle,” Kane said.

Dex laughed and Zed felt relief wash over him. This was workable.

“Why are you laughing, Dex?” Kane asked.

“I’m hurt Kane, I leave for nine weeks, and you forget who you’re dealing with,” Zed said.

There was a long pause, and then Kane laughed. “So, you scrounged up some civvies before heading out?”

“Now, I’m offended. Of course not. Wyatt’s low man on the totem pole. I had him do it.”

Dex laughed even harder.

“I’ll be able to blend in, I have an extra duffel to shove the SCAR into because I’m sure as hell not leaving my rifle behind.”

“That could work,” Kane relented. “Now, to answer your question. Where you’re currently at, you’re probably going to run into mostly locals. There are fishermen and people who live on houseboats. Sometimes, out where you are, you’ll have folks hunting orangutans.”