Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(15)

“Shit,” Ball muttered.

“If you want to head home, we’ll stay and find Meat,” Arrow offered.

Gray closed his eyes for a moment, overcome with love for his brothers-in-arms. Opening them again, he looked at Arrow. “What would you do if it was Morgan?” They all knew Morgan was almost as pregnant as Allye. She had about a month and a half to go in her pregnancy, however.

“I know what I’d want to do, but I also know she’d tell me to keep my ass here until I found Meat and brought him home,” Arrow said.

Gray nodded and snorted out a breath. “Sounds like the exact conversation I had with Allye earlier.”

“Meat wouldn’t want you to miss the birth of your first child,” Ro told Gray.

“I know, but here’s the thing . . . ,” Gray said. “I can’t stop thinking about how we found Morgan. She’d been missing for a year, and no one was even looking for her. I can’t imagine leaving here without Meat. He knows we’re looking for him. Just as I’d know if it was me. I can’t leave without him. As a SEAL, I was taught we simply don’t leave a man behind. Ever. And even though Meat wasn’t a SEAL, it still applies.”

“Then we need to hurry up and find him,” Arrow said definitively.

The others nodded their agreement.

“Rex has been poring over satellite images and hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary,” Gray informed everyone. “He’s got some stills of the men in the street beating on Black and Meat, but pictures from the satellite are only taken every thirty seconds. In one photo, Black and Meat are lying in the street, and in the next, it’s just Black. So whatever happened occurred within thirty seconds.”

“Fuck. There has to be more,” Ro complained.

“There might be, but we all know Meat’s our resident hacker and computer expert. Rex is no slouch, but when push comes to shove, Meat’s the master,” Gray said.

“Besides, it’s not as if there are any surveillance cameras to hack into out here,” Black said.

“Everything about this place isn’t sitting right with me,” Ball said softly. “And it’s more than the corruption. It’s the gang that attacked Black and Meat. It’s the way the women won’t look anyone in the eyes, how they cower away from us when we try to talk to them. It’s the abject poverty and how no one in the military seems to give a shit.”

“We can’t change a culture,” Ro pointed out.

“I know, but the Brigade’s behavior goes against everything we stand for,” Ball said. “We’ve spent years trying to give women and children a better life. I understand that there are still way too many places in the world where men think they’re superior to women and will do everything in their power to stay on top of the food chain, but it fucking pisses me off every time I see it.”

“My brother, Lance—you guys remember, the photographer?—said the same thing when he was down here accompanying that film crew,” Black said from his place on the bed. “They were doing a documentary on prostitution, and when he got back, he said it was one of the most depressing things he’d ever seen and done. That there was a defeated vibe from all the women. Unlike in the States, where some women actually choose to sell themselves, the women down here don’t have a choice. They’re either sold by their own parents or forcibly taken from their homes and told they can leave when they’ve worked off a debt.”

“A debt that never existed in the first place,” Gray mumbled.

“Of course. Lance also said there were a lot of foreign women caught up in prostitution here. Some didn’t even speak Spanish. He and his crew weren’t allowed to talk to or film any of those women, though. Every time Lance got a glimpse of one, she’d disappear into a room or be shuffled out of sight by one of the johns. He said some of the women looked American, but without speaking with them, he couldn’t be sure. The name del Rio was mentioned a lot, and I looked into it. He’s apparently the man down here. He’s got the most control over the sex trade, and he has everyone who’s anyone on his payroll.”

There was silence in the room after Black’s statement. Everyone lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Gray said, “We’ll just have to do better tomorrow. Take some cash. Maybe if they won’t talk to us out of the goodness of their hearts, they’ll talk with an incentive. Lord knows the people here need money. I’m not leaving until we’ve got Meat. We haven’t ever left anyone behind, and we’re not about to start now.”

One by one, the other men agreed with Gray. Ro and Arrow left to go to their room next door, while Ball settled onto a pallet on the floor. No one said a word, but Black, Ball, and Gray definitely weren’t sleeping. Too much had happened, and they were too worried about their friend and teammate.



The third day went about the same as the one before, as far as the search inside the barrio went. No one knew anything, and no one had seen anything. The military members had been just as asshole-ish as they’d been the previous day, as well, and hadn’t cared that they were scaring the residents, who might’ve been more help if they didn’t feel so threatened.

Even with Gray offering money to anyone who might help them find Meat, they’d gotten nowhere. But Gray got the definite feeling some of the people in the area knew more than they were saying. Especially those who lived on the street where Black and Meat had been beaten. Gray supposed he couldn’t blame them for being wary, but it was frustrating as hell.