Defending Morgan (Mountain Mercenaries #3)(22)

As they walked down the hall, a door opened, and a little girl came running out. She ran toward Morgan as fast as her legs could carry her.

Dropping the bag, Morgan opened her arms and caught Nina. Luckily, Arrow was there to steady her, keeping her from falling back on her ass.

Nina didn’t say a word, but Morgan could feel her shaking in her arms.

“Come on, beautiful. Let’s get you guys into the room,” Arrow said in her ear.

Morgan nodded and stood, with his help, and put her arms under Nina’s butt, holding her to her chest as she walked down the hall in the direction the little girl had come.

An extremely tall man, even taller than Arrow, stood in the doorway of room seven forty-eight. He had blond hair, and his eyes were ice blue. Morgan shivered after looking at them for even two seconds. He was almost scary, but she could see Arrow was relaxed at her side, so she knew she had nothing to fear from the guy.

The other man in the room wasn’t as tall as his teammates. He had black hair and brown eyes and was staring at her with an intense gaze. He wasn’t as muscular as his friends either, but she had a feeling he was the most dangerous of the bunch. How she knew that, Morgan had no idea, but she made a mental note never to piss him off.

“Good to see you,” the tall man said to Arrow.

“You too, Ball. Things go okay here?” Arrow asked.

Morgan followed their movements with her eyes, even as she sat at the end of one of the beds with Nina still in her arms.

“She’s been . . . upset,” the other man said. Morgan assumed this was Black by process of elimination.

“Did she need any medical treatment?” Arrow asked, crouching down in front of Morgan and Nina.

Morgan met his eyes as Black answered. “Not that I could see. But I wasn’t about to freak her out even more by checking her over as closely as I wanted.”

Morgan read between the lines. Nina had probably taken one look at the two deadly men and shut down. Black wouldn’t have wanted to take off her clothes to examine her and scar her even more than she probably already was.

Nina whimpered, and Morgan shifted her higher up on her chest. “Shhhh, baby. You’re okay. These are the good guys. They won’t hurt you.”

The little girl moved her head until she could see Morgan’s eyes. “Not like the bad men did to you?”

“No, baby. They saved us from the bad men. See? I’m here and I’m fine. I even got to shower. Wouldn’t you like to get clean too?”

She felt Arrow’s hand on her knee, and even that small touch bolstered her. Gave her the strength to try to help deal with Nina’s demons.

The little girl nodded.

“How about some food first?” Arrow suggested. “I know Morgan is hungry, and I am too. Would you like to see what we got for lunch?”

Nina rested her cheek on Morgan’s shoulder and stared at Arrow with big eyes.

Morgan sighed. “It’s okay, Nina. He’s not like your father. He won’t hurt you if you spill anything.”

“Will he make you do anything if you want to eat? Like the other men did?” the little girl asked quietly, in a way that made it more than obvious Morgan had done whatever was necessary to keep their kidnappers away from Nina.

She ignored the sharp inhalations from the men in the room and concentrated on the little girl in her arms. “No. You’re safe here. I’m safe. These are the good guys,” she said again. She gestured to Arrow. “And this is Arrow. His first name is Archer. That’s how he got his nickname. An archer is someone who shoots with a bow and arrow.”

“Like Princess Merida?”

Morgan smiled. “Exactly like Princess Merida.” She glanced at Arrow, who looked amused, but confused. “She’s the heroine in the animated movie Brave,” she informed him.

“I’ve never seen it,” Arrow confessed. “Is it good?” he asked Nina.

She bobbed her head up and down quickly. “She’s really brave.”

Morgan grinned when Nina stated the obvious.

“So she’s a lot like you, huh?” Arrow asked. “I bet she’d be super proud of how brave you’ve been.”

Nina didn’t answer, but Morgan could see that she was thinking about what Arrow had said. She continued, “Black and Ball are also good guys. They won’t hurt you. They’re doing everything they can to get you back to your mommy.”

“I miss Mommy,” Nina whined.

“I know you do, baby. But in order to get back to her, we have to do what Black, Ball, and Arrow tell us. They’ll keep the bad guys away. We also have to take care of ourselves, though, too. That means staying clean and eating the food they bring us.”

“I’m hungry,” Nina whispered.

“Me too. Want to see what we brought for lunch?”

Nina nodded.

Morgan looked up to see Arrow staring at her with a weird look in his eyes. “What?”

He merely shook his head and reached for the Hard Rock Cafe bag. He pulled out carton after carton until they were practically covering the bed.

“Holy cow,” Morgan breathed. “I guess your friend Meat thought we were really hungry, huh?” she asked.

Black chuckled. “He just knows what it’s like to be in a foreign country and to be craving good ol’ American junk food.”