Page 22 of Her Chosen Protector

Before she had a chance to say anything else, she saw Schlessinger barreling into Azua’s private office. Great.

“What’s going on?” he demanded in French.

The three men looked at her, as if answering him was her problem.

“Monsieur Becker can explain. I need to find the first aid kit for Senor Azua,” she said as she

brushed past the obnoxious man.

She heard Becker’s sigh as she left the room. Serves him right.

Asher sucked down another glass of water with some Tylenol. Thank God the jackhammer in his head had toned down to just a bongo drum. It made it easy enough for him to really assess where the bank gate was the most vulnerable. Rafa was right; once they got past the gate, maneuvering around the building would be easy with the security codes that he’d been provided. Still, how to get into the gate without alerting the secret police—that was the problem.

“It’s got to be done here at the southwest corner,” Kane said for the fourth time. His voice was seriously beginning to grate on Asher’s last nerve. He loved Kane, but the man didn’t know explosives like he did.

“Kane, it is definitely more vulnerable there, but everybody and their brother will see what we’re doing. If we set the charges, here, here, and here,” Asher pointed at the three different stress points clustered together behind the building, “we can get the same effect.”

“Yeah, but the odds of getting it just right are astronomical.”

Asher shot Kane a disparaging look. “Do I go about doubting your computer geeky expertise? No.

I just assume that somewhere, sometime, you ate a bunch of computer parts as a child and you are now part cyborg. Just quit second-guessing me and let me do my job.”

Kane gave him a humble look. “First, I’m not a cyborg.”

“No, he’s an android,” Cullen spoke up.

“Second, I’m sorry. Totally out of line.”

“Yep, you were,” Cullen chimed in.

Both Asher and Kane said shut up at the same time. Cullen laughed.

“But even after you do your magic—which of course you will because you are exceptionally good at your job—we still need to keep the secret police off our ass. That requires a diversion,” Cullen reminded them.

“You mean something that includes an alligator?” Asher asked Cullen.

“Nah, something with a little more bite,” Cullen grinned.

Asher noticed Rafa watching them all talk, with a confused look on his face. Asher realized that even though the kid knew some English, this was going way over his head. What was worse, Leo was being left out. Not good.

“Leo, you’re in charge of figuring out the diversion. Use Cullen’s experience as a professional dumbass to see what you can come up with.”

“Leo, my services are at your disposal,” Cullen dipped his head with a grin. “First, we have to decide what costumes we want to wear to mingle in with the other people at Carnival.”

“Oh God, my headache is getting worse,” Ash complained. “Time to leave you to it,” he got up from his chair. He and Kane headed over to Max.

“Did anything new come in from Carter at CIA?” Max asked as he stepped away from the Azua women.

Kane shook his head. “He’s been silent for the last hour since I told him we have all the details on the bank. He’s pissed as hell that Bradshaw skipped out to Aruba. Nomad Security has a pristine reputation internationally, so the fact that this happened is raising flags all over the world.”

“I don’t really give a shit. It happened, and we now have ten civilians whose lives are on the line, because he was stupid, greedy, or a coward. All three of those options are fucked-up in my book,”

Asher said heatedly.

“What Ash said.” Max nodded. “You get Carter on the goddamn phone. You find out which way the wind is blowing. We have two more Nomad employees in the bank with those civilians and I don’t want to find out that those people are in a henhouse with a fox. If those other two Nomad Security people are giving Maduro info, I want to know, now!”

Kane just raised his eyebrow. Ash knew what that meant. It meant that Kane was on it, and that Carter’s ass was going to be grass if he didn’t get back to him. And it probably meant that—