Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(89)

“Yes?” The word felt dull coming out of her mouth. It was like the last few weeks had been filled with color and now she had to go back to black and white.

“Can you tell me where the coffee shop is?” He had a thick Australian accent. He brushed a hand through his super-short hair and looked around as though completely lost. “I can’t find a thing in here.”

She looked around. There was a coffee shop close by. It sold gelato, too. She realized she’d managed to walk to the edge of the market. “Well, you’re going to have to walk back to the east. You’re on the edge of a residential district and that’s probably not the safest place to be. I should go back, too. I’ll help you find it.”

At least she could get one good deed in. The man was intimidating, but some of the residential sections of the island were known to be violent. Even at his size, he could be mugged or worse. The police were too busy protecting the tourists to pay much attention to some sections.

“Or you could come with me quietly, Faith.”

She turned back, her skin going cold at the sound of her name. She hadn’t told him her name. She started to walk away, but a woman blocked her path. She was dressed in a filmy white skirt that covered the bottom half of her slinky bathing suit. A big hat covered her flowing dark hair and she carried a big beach tote bag. She looked every inch the wealthy tourist out for a jaunt, with the single exception of the gun she held on Faith.

“Sorry, love,” the woman with the English accent said. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with us.”

“You weren’t supposed to scare her,” the Aussie shot back.

The Brit shrugged. “Ten isn’t around to give us orders. I’m following my instincts. My instincts tell me this one is going to require a bit of persuasion to come with us. Besides, we need to move. Her father’s goons are looking for her. We’ve got maybe two minutes until they’re here.” The woman’s stunning green eyes narrowed. “Tell me. Did they kill Tennessee Smith? Did you watch them?”

“Hey, Erin said she wouldn’t do that,” the man argued.

They knew Ten? And Erin? She looked around, but she’d managed to get off the beaten path. The nearest people were far away. She wasn’t sure they would even hear her if she screamed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to scream.

She wanted answers. “Is Erin still on the island?”

It was stupid. She didn’t even know Erin. Not really. Erin was apparently a big part of the conspiracy against her father, but she wanted to look at the woman and tell her how she felt. She hadn’t been able to do that with Ten.

“She is. None of us leaves without Ten. Or his body,” the Aussie said with grim determination.

That was a bit dramatic. “Put down the gun. I’ll go with you. I want to talk to my…friend. It’s good to clear the air sometimes. Are we walking or do you have a car somewhere? We really should go. My father’s men will look for me and they might not be so polite when they find the two of you here.”

The British woman nodded to an alley. “My partner is waiting.”

She placed the gun in her tote bag, likely thinking Faith wasn’t much of a threat. Which was correct. She had a tiny bit of self-defense training. The likelihood that she could stand up to these two was miniscule. The Aussie alone could kill her with one hand.

Which was why this was a horrible idea, and yet she followed the woman in white down the alley that could potentially be the site of her ignominious death. Or another kidnapping meant to force her father to do whatever these people wanted.

Would Tennessee Smith be at the end of this road? Would he be the one holding a gun and sending her into a cell until her father coughed up the money or information he required?

She had to know. In that moment, it didn’t matter that she could die. She had to know if Ten Smith would be the one who killed her. She had to look at her friends and tell them what they’d done to her, how deep their cuts had been.

When a big man with inky black hair opened the door to a van that really should have had property of a serial killer painted all over it, she got in.

Because nothing seemed to matter anymore.



Twenty minutes later, she knew all three of their names, but not where they were. The Aussie, Brody, had blindfolded her lest she be able to direct her father and his nefarious men back to their Bat Cave.

Des was the woman, and Des had gotten a stern lecture from the Russian god, Nikolai. Apparently no one wanted a gun pointed Faith’s way at this point. It was obvious they were going to play good cops and bad cops with her. She wondered which one Erin would be.

“We’re here,” Brody said. The big man had sat in the back with her after he’d made sure she didn’t have a cell phone on her. She’d left it behind and considered seriously destroying the thing since her sister had probably put a tracker on this one, too.

Brody had been strangely gentle with her, making sure she was buckled in and that she didn’t get jostled too much after they’d turned off the road and onto what felt like a dirt path. He’d asked if she was comfortable and told her that they would feed her or get her something to drink once they’d made it to the meet point.

He was a polite kidnapper.

“Don’t get scared,” Brody said. “I’m going to take the blindfold off now. We’re here. No one’s going to hurt you.”