Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(11)

Meat didn’t blow her words off. Didn’t tell her she must be mistaken. He simply grimaced. “That makes a lot of sense. Can I ask a question?”

Zara nodded.

“Are my friends safe? I know they won’t leave without me, and they’re probably working with the military to try to find me. If they’re in danger from these corrupt men, I need to get back as soon as possible, even if it’s not healthy for me.”

Zara’s respect for Meat increased tenfold.

“They should be safe,” she said with conviction. “They’re after women and children, not strong men. And not Americans. They may have paid Ruben and his friends to intervene beforehand, to try to disrupt your mission of rescuing the children, but if they did, that clearly didn’t happen. Mags said that after the raid the children were reunited with their parents and moved to a group home in Lima somewhere. But del Rio and the military members under his control won’t want you guys here any longer than you have to be. They want to get back to their regular routine.”

“And what’s that, exactly?” Meat asked.

Zara shrugged. “Intimidation. Taking children from their mothers to give to del Rio. Keeping the honest police off the trail of the people working for the drug cartels. Taking women off the streets to replenish their numbers in the sex houses.”

Meat leaned forward, and Zara heard him inhale sharply. It was a reminder that he wasn’t anywhere near full strength, that his ribs were still very painful.

He put his hand on her leg and asked with uncanny insight, “That’s why you dress like you do, isn’t it? And why your hair is so short, and why you bind your chest.”

She was alarmed at how easily he’d seen through the disguise she’d worn like a shield almost her entire life in Peru. She panicked for a second, wanting to run away and hide. To get away from Meat’s piercing gray eyes that seemed to see right through her.

“Don’t panic,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “Your secret is safe with me. I’m impressed, actually. Not everyone would be able to pull it off, although I’m surprised anyone can be around you for more than five minutes and not know you’re a girl. How old are you, Zara? Sixteen? Seventeen?”

She slowly shook her head.

“Eighteen?”

“Twenty-five,” she admitted quietly.

Meat sat back and stared at her in shock. “Seriously?”

She nodded.

“Wow. Okay, now I’m even more impressed. How did you learn English? I’ve noticed that not many people speak it in the barrio.”

Zara considered what to tell him. She wanted to spill her guts. Mags had encouraged her to find out if the American would help her. She wanted to tell Meat everything, to ask if he’d help get her back to the United States, but she wasn’t sure she could handle possible rejection. Not from him, and not after all this time.

She’d fantasized about going to America, but that was all it had ever been—a fantasy.

Deciding to take baby steps, she said, “I was born there.”

Meat looked confused. “Where? The barrio?”

“No. America. I lived in Colorado.”

“Seriously? Holy shit! That’s where me and my friends are from! Colorado Springs. Where were you born?”

“Denver,” Zara whispered. Goose bumps had risen on her arms, and she knew she was breathing too fast. This couldn’t be a coincidence . . . could it? For so long, she’d been lost and abandoned. She hadn’t completely agreed with Mags about helping the Americans . . . but maybe, just maybe, this was fate.

Meat opened his mouth to say something, and at that moment, Daniela burst into the room and told Zara that she needed her help with a patient.

Zara immediately stood up, but Meat grabbed her hand. It must’ve hurt, but he didn’t let go. “What’s going on?”

“Someone’s here to see Daniela. Needs a doctor.”

“I want to continue our conversation. I want to know more about you.”

Zara felt butterflies in her stomach at his words, but she ruthlessly tamped them down. He lived in America. Had tons of friends and had no clue about the harsh world she lived in. She wasn’t a good person. And even if she did get up the nerve to ask him to take her back to the United States, what would she do there? Where would she go?

Life in the barrios was all she knew. At least here, she had Mags and Daniela and the other women.

“Zed!” Daniela called out from the other room.

Zara pulled her hand out of Meat’s and turned away from him.

“If I can help in any way, let me know,” Meat called after her. “I’m a medic, and even if I can’t stand up or move all that fast, I can still advise you.”

She nodded and forced herself to turn away from him. The longer she was around Meat, the more she liked him. He was a good man—that was easy to see.

Zara wasn’t exactly surprised to find the heavily pregnant woman standing in Daniela’s living room. She had a small child at her side, a girl probably around four or five. The woman was panting and telling Daniela that she’d been in labor for almost twelve hours, and that something was wrong. The baby wasn’t coming out.

Zara also wasn’t surprised the woman had managed to get herself to Daniela’s home. There really hadn’t been any other choice. It wasn’t as if they could pick up a phone and call for help. She didn’t know where the woman’s husband was, probably out begging for money or searching for work—if she even had a husband. It was the way of life in the barrio.