Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(10)

“I’ll get better food tomorrow,” she said between bites.

“It’s fine.” And it was. He’d gone days without eating in the past, so he wasn’t too worried. He was more concerned about his ankle healing enough that he could walk on it. His head was feeling better, but still wasn’t one hundred percent yet. At least he could sit up without vomiting. He’d take that.

They sat together eating their candy bars in silence. Finally, Meat couldn’t stand it anymore. He was more than curious about the young woman sitting next to him. If what she’d told him was correct, she’d literally saved his life. For that alone, he wanted to know everything about her.

“So, Zara . . . tell me about yourself.”





Chapter Four

Zara froze. She wasn’t ready to talk about herself. Hell, she never talked about herself. It was safer that way. But she didn’t want to get up and walk away either. For some reason, she felt comfortable with Meat.

It made no sense, really. But then again . . . she was tired. Tired of constantly looking behind her. Of having to scrounge for food. Of trying to stay under the radar. She was way too practical to live her life wondering “what if,” but at the moment, talking to Meat, she felt her guard lowering.

She still wasn’t going to talk about herself. Not yet. She’d only known this man for hours. But she could put his mind at ease. “I went back to the barrio and found out about your friends today.”

His eyes widened and he sat up straighter. He leaned toward her eagerly. “Yeah?”

Zara nodded. “Mags said that right after I left with you, the Americans came and got the man you’d been with.”

Meat sighed in relief. “Thank God! Did you get a chance to tell them I was all right?”

Zara bit her lip and shook her head.

Meat frowned.

At his expression, she found herself wanting to explain. “The Special Forces Brigade members are still with them. We can’t risk talking to the Americans. It would bring attention to ourselves. Bad attention.” Zara wasn’t sure Meat understood. “The best thing is to not be seen,” she said. “If they see us, they’ll start asking questions, and we won’t be able to help others like we do now.”

Meat looked at her for a long moment before he finally nodded. “I understand.”

“Mags said she would try to get a note to them. But hopefully you will be healed enough to leave soon, and it won’t be necessary.”

“I wondered where you had gone today,” Meat said. “I hadn’t expected you to do that for me.”

“You were worried about them.”

“I was. But still. How far did you have to travel to get back to the barrio where you found me?”

She hesitated. The last thing she wanted was to get Daniela in trouble, or for Meat to get too curious. The less he knew, the better.

Before she could think of a good answer, he spoke.

“Never mind. I’m learning that there’re a lot of things I’m better off not knowing, right?”

Zara nodded.

“Have I thanked you yet?” Meat asked.

Zara looked at him with what she knew was probably another shocked expression.

“I guess I haven’t. It’s obvious you know this area much better than I do. Black and I weren’t expecting to be jumped like we were. I appreciate you and your friends stepping in to help us, especially considering the amount of danger it obviously put you in.”

Zara licked her lips and said nothing.

“You haven’t asked what we were doing there.”

She already knew about the boys they’d found, but shrugged anyway.

“My friends and I are part of a somewhat secret group. We’re called the Mountain Mercenaries. We’ve made it our mission to rescue women and children from those who would do them harm. The wife of our leader, Rex, disappeared years ago, and he suspects she was kidnapped into the sex trade. He’s never stopped looking for her. In the meantime, he’s dedicated his life to helping others like her, who are taken from their homes and families.

“We were working with the government on a human-trafficking sting. We were told there were several boys on the verge of being sold into the kind of life no child should ever know exists. Our intel was good . . . but when we got here, things got all fucked up. We should’ve pulled out of the mission immediately, but decided to go ahead with it. That was our mistake.”

Zara stared at Meat. She and the others had already deduced the Americans were there to try to save the children, but they hadn’t known anything about their motives. They’d wondered why a group from the United States would care about what happened to a bunch of poor barrio kids. And it was obvious that Meat did care. He cared about a bunch of children he’d never met.

For just a moment, Zara wondered what her life could’ve been like if Meat and his friends had been around when she’d needed them.

But the second she had the thought, she dismissed it. She didn’t know how old Meat was, but fifteen years ago, he probably wasn’t in the same line of work he was in now.

Then something else he’d said registered, and she explained, “A lot of the military is corrupt. Not all of the soldiers, but many. Money is scarce here, and it’s hard to hold on to morals when your family is living in filth and starving, so some start working for the drug cartels. Or del Rio. The men your friends are with are not good. I told you already that they help del Rio find women and children for his sex houses. Recently, they’ve begun looking for much younger children. I suspect the reason everything went wrong is because they were trying to make sure you didn’t succeed.”