Defending Harlow (Mountain Mercenaries #4)(71)

Black was keyed up. Frustrated that they didn’t get more out of the asshole tied to the chair, but satisfied he’d scared the man enough that he wouldn’t be an issue for the women at the shelter anymore. That he wouldn’t be bothering Harlow.

Black wrinkled his nose at the stench of piss coming from Brian. It really was amazing how the biggest bully turned to mush the second someone stronger and meaner got their hands on him. He nodded at his friends, and they took out their knives and cut Brian loose. He immediately fell sideways to the concrete floor, moaning.

Everyone took a few steps away from the pathetic man lying on the floor to have a conversation without him overhearing.

“You are one scary motherfucker,” Ball said. “I swear, I could beat on someone all day, and they still wouldn’t break, but one look at you with a knife in your hand, and the perp always starts singing like a canary. It’s spooky.”

Ignoring his friend, Black said, “We need to talk to Loretta. Find out the details about the offers she’s had.”

“I’ll call Rex,” Ball said.

“He’s not going to be happy,” Ro warned.

“Tough. We got more info, and hopefully Meat can do something with it once he talks to Gray. Rex should’ve paid more attention and done more digging, then maybe we wouldn’t have had to resort to finding the information our way,” Ball said.

“Go,” Arrow ordered. “We’ll clean things up here.”

Black nodded and turned to leave. He’d have to change clothes and shower before heading to the shelter.

He needed to see Harlow. Needed her light to combat the darkness stirring in his soul. He was good at what he did, but it took a toll. Normally, it would take days for him to feel normal again. But he had a feeling just being around Harlow would ground him. Would make him remember why he did what he did. To protect her and others like her. Innocents. People who didn’t have the skills to protect themselves. And he’d use every one of those skills to make sure Brian and his cronies didn’t put a single finger on her. It was bad enough they used words to scare her. But the thought of them actually touching her was abhorrent.

Black exited the warehouse and didn’t look back. He knew his teammates would get rid of any evidence that might’ve been left behind. The owner of the building was the father of a teenage runaway they’d found after she’d been missing for three months. She’d been in New York City with a man thirty years older than her, completely strung out on drugs. They’d brought her home, and the last they’d heard, she was taking a few classes at the local community college and slowly acclimating to her new life.

Her father had offered the use of several of his warehouses, no questions asked, whenever the Mountain Mercenaries needed them. The team didn’t take advantage of the offer very often, but today, having that connection definitely came in handy.

As it turned out, Black wasn’t able to get to the shelter until much later than he’d planned. Rex called the moment he got out of the shower, and stupidly, Black answered. “Black.”

“What the fuck is your problem?”

“I did what needed to be done.”

“Bullshit. You jeopardized my entire organization!”

“The hell I did. You know I’m discreet. You know I’d never do anything to hurt the Mountain Mercenaries.”

“You kidnapped an innocent civilian, beat the shit out of him, and threatened him. What part of any of that do you think is okay?”

Black was done. He was always respectful with Rex, but today, he’d reached his breaking point. “Maybe if you’d been doing your job, I wouldn’t have had to do it for you. Maybe if you had researched Brian Pierce like you said you were going to, you would’ve found out who was paying him and his asshole friends to harass Harlow and everyone else at the shelter. I wouldn’t’ve had to call in that favor.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” Rex hissed.

“I wouldn’t if you were actually doing it!” Black insisted. “Look, I respect the fuck out of you, Rex. But you haven’t been present in this case—and you know it. Something is going on with you, fine, but that shouldn’t mean you leave me and the others in the lurch. We need you. We need your expertise. We can be the muscle all day long and go into whatever godforsaken country you send us into and retrieve women and children, but we can’t do it without you having our backs. And right now, it feels a hell of a lot like you’ve deserted us.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Do I? Tell me about Brian Pierce, Rex. Does he have a family? Sisters? Where do his parents live? Where did he go to high school? Who are his best friends? Does he have a job? How much money does he have in his bank account? These are all things you should’ve found out by now. All it would’ve taken is a few clicks on your computer. But you didn’t. We’ve been waiting for you to tell us what we need to know, but we had to find out the intel on our own.”

“Fuck,” Rex swore.

“There’s a lot that we still don’t know about what’s going on,” Black told his mentor and friend. He’d never met the man in person, had only talked to him on the phone. Hell, he didn’t even know what Rex’s true voice sounded like, as he’d only heard it mechanized. But he still considered him a friend and trusted him with his life.