Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(23)

Everyone stepped back when Black reached them. Meat turned to him, and the two men hugged for a long moment. Black was the first to pull away. “You look like shit.”

Meat laughed, then groaned as he put an arm around his middle. “Fuck, that hurts. And I’m guessing if I looked in a mirror, I’d look a lot like you.”

“Actually, since we’ve been able to shave and you haven’t, you look more like the abominable snowman,” Arrow quipped.

Meat couldn’t even muster up the energy to care that he was dirty, probably smelled awful, needed to brush his teeth, and had a three-day-old beard. It felt so good to be back with his friends, he didn’t give a shit how much crap they gave him about his looks.

“Where have you been?” Gray asked the question Meat knew everyone probably had on their minds.

“Later. I assume you haven’t been staying here?” Meat asked.

“Hardly,” Ro snorted.

“Fuck no,” Arrow said.

Glancing behind him at the military men hovering nearby, Meat lowered his voice. “You been driving yourself here to look for me or what?”

Gray’s eyes followed Meat’s, taking in the Brigade. Then he said quietly, “We’ve got our own vehicle, but we’ve always got eyes on us. Why?”

Meat wasn’t surprised. “I’d love to get a shower and get off my feet,” he said, loud enough for the men nearby to hear. Then, quieter, he said to Gray, “I’ve got a friend I need to accompany us back to wherever we’re staying, and it needs to be on the down-low.”

Bless Gray, he didn’t even blink. He simply nodded and muttered, “We need a distraction then.”

Meat opened his mouth to explain he didn’t think that would be necessary, that his “friend” had it covered, when there was a loud commotion somewhere in the near distance. Several people began shouting at once, and then Meat heard a gunshot.

Half a dozen of the military men ran toward the sound, which seemed to be coming from a couple alleys over from where they were standing. Three others ran toward where the Mountain Mercenaries were huddled up, reuniting and talking.

“We must go. Now! It’s not safe.”

Meat couldn’t help noting that the men didn’t seem concerned for the many women, children, and elderly who were scurrying around, trying to get to the dubious safety of their huts and shacks in the barrio. But he kept his thoughts to himself as he and his teammates hurried toward an exit in the fence about a hundred yards from the one he’d entered minutes before.

Gray was at Meat’s side, and as they approached a black van, he whispered, “Where’s your friend?”

“I’m not sure,” Meat said.

Ro opened the door and put a steadying hand on Meat’s side when he started to climb inside the vehicle.

A pair of dark blue eyes stared at him from the floor between the second and third rows of seats.

More relieved than he could say that Zara was already there, he scooted into the third row, putting himself between her and the door. He had no idea how she’d known which vehicle they’d be traveling in but assumed one of her friends in the barrio had seen the Mountain Mercenaries get out of the van when they’d arrived.

To his teammates’ credit, even though they couldn’t have missed Zara, they didn’t say a word about their stowaway. They simply piled into the van, with Ball shutting the door once they were all in.

“We’ve got two rooms at the closest motel,” Gray said as he slid behind the wheel. “We usually park in the gated lot behind the building. The military doesn’t follow us in, since they aren’t staying there. They’ve posted a van full of guards outside, though, supposedly for our own safety.”

Meat nodded, distracted. Outwardly, Zara seemed calm and collected, but he could feel her body shaking against his leg, and she was holding on to the material of his pants with a white-knuckled grip. She gasped at hearing the military had guards watching the team, but didn’t say anything.

“You have info on our military friends?” Ro asked Meat.

“I don’t know for sure if they orchestrated me and Black getting beaten up, but they’re definitely the reason this mission has been fucked from the start,” Meat told his teammates. “Basically, they’re crooked as hell and taking bribes from anyone and everyone. They were probably paid to try to sabotage the mission from the start, and when the locals decided we were easy pickings, they used my disappearance as a way to take attention off why we were here in the first place.”

“Trafficking of the kids,” Gray said solemnly from his seat behind the wheel of the van.

“Exactly,” Meat agreed.

“And your friend?” Ball asked with a nod to Zara, still crouched down behind the seat.

“Zed’s not a threat,” Meat clipped.

“Didn’t say he was,” Ball said soothingly. “Just wondering what part he played in all this.”

“I’ll explain everything when we get to a safer place,” Meat told his friends. All five nodded, and he sighed in relief. “Gray?”

“Yeah?”

“How’s Allye?”

Gray’s lips quirked upward, but Meat could see it pained him. “Good. Darby James was born yesterday, perfectly healthy.”