Defending Morgan (Mountain Mercenaries #3)(23)
“Well, he got that right for sure,” Morgan observed. There were french fries, a hamburger, chicken fingers, potato skins, a chicken Caesar salad, mac and cheese, three steaks, a hot dog, and three pieces of chocolate cake for dessert. “There’s enough food here to last a week!”
“Not with three full-grown men plus you two,” Arrow told her. “Go on,” he said as he nudged her knee with his own. “Pick what you want. We’ll take whatever you two don’t eat.”
Truthfully, Morgan wanted all of it. Seeing the food laid out in front of her made her salivate. “What do you want, Nina?”
The little girl chose the hot dog, some fries, and a chicken finger. Morgan picked the hamburger, fries, half of the salad, and half of a piece of cake. She knew she’d never be able to finish it all, but simply having it in front of her was heaven.
Thirty minutes later, all that was left of the food were a few fries and a couple bites of chocolate cake. Nina had fallen asleep halfway through her lunch. Black said she’d hardly slept at all the night before because she was so scared of him and Ball.
Morgan felt as if she were going to burst, she was so full, but she couldn’t remember ever being more content. Two days earlier she never would’ve thought she’d be sitting in a hotel room in a casino in the country that had become her prison and worst nightmare. Not only that, but she felt safe and protected. That was almost a miracle.
Her eyes felt heavy, and she was even a bit chilly in the air-conditioned room.
Just when she’d decided to lie down next to Nina and take her own nap, Black said, “Rex wants to know where we’re taking you after we get Nina home to her mom.”
Chapter Seven
Arrow glared at his friend for ruining Morgan’s relaxed mood. It was the first time he’d seen her completely let down her guard, but Black’s words made her stiffen, and the worry lines in her forehead had returned.
Without thought, he reached out and put a hand on her knee. Nina was sleeping soundly on the bed next to her, she was sitting in the middle of the queen-size bed with her back against the headboard, and he was sitting on the edge of the bed near her hip.
“I . . . I guess I’m going home to Atlanta,” Morgan said hesitantly.
“Before you make a decision, maybe we should have a discussion about the people in your life so we can see if we can figure out who might be behind your kidnapping,” Arrow said gently.
Morgan nodded, but he noticed she was chewing on her lip in agitation.
He wanted to reach over and pull it out, then rub his finger over the abused piece of flesh, but he refrained . . . barely.
“Morgan, would it be all right if we called the rest of the team and had them listen in while we have this discussion?” Black asked. “We’ve found that we work best when we all brainstorm together.”
She nodded, but didn’t stop gnawing on her lip.
Arrow couldn’t stand it any longer. He reached up and used his thumb to pull her lip out of her teeth. “If you’re still hungry, I could get you something else to eat,” he teased.
She brought startled eyes up to his and shook her head. “No, I’m stuffed. I just ate more in one sitting than I usually got in a week.”
That made Arrow want to go back into the city and hunt down the assholes who’d held her and Nina. “You can trust the others as much as you do me,” he told her quietly. “I’d trust them with my life. Have trusted them with my life on more than one occasion.”
“How many more are there?” Morgan asked.
Arrow blinked in surprise, then realized that he’d never really told her about the others. “Three. Four if you include Rex. There’s Gray, Ro, and Meat. I’ve told you a little about Meat already. He’s our computer guru, but he also makes the most amazing furniture you’ve ever seen. Gray is an accountant when he’s not squiring his girlfriend, Allye, to her various dance recitals. And Ro is a mechanic. He and Chloe met not too long ago when we helped take down her asshole brother.”
She stared at him for a beat. Then she said, “Oh . . . um . . . okay. I can handle three or four people listening in. I was afraid you were going to say there were like ten more guys who would be hearing my humiliating experience.”
Ball had been leaning against the far wall, but at her words, he pushed off the wall and came toward them. Arrow noticed that Morgan flinched at the quick movement, but she swiftly hid it and raised her chin in an almost defiant manner. He was proud of her for not cowering, but hated that she felt she needed to protect herself from his friends.
“Nothing about what happened to you is humiliating,” Ball said, his voice low. “You didn’t ask to be kidnapped. You didn’t ask to be brought down here. You didn’t ask for anything that happened to you while you were here. Frankly, I’m more than sick of men taking advantage of their superior size and strength to hurt women and kids. Especially someone who looks like you.”
“Looks like me?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah. Like a Disney princess. If someone is able to hurt you, there’s literally no hope for them. None.”
Arrow wanted to chuckle at the look on Morgan’s face, but he refrained. Ball was right. She did look like a character straight out of a Disney movie. Small and delicate . . . but he knew firsthand that she had nerves of steel.