Defending Zara (Mountain Mercenaries #6)(35)

She had no idea if that was true or not, but she was ashamed of how she’d acted. She’d simply done what she would’ve if she’d been out in the barrio. Taken the precious food and backed into a small corner where no one could sneak up on her and steal her bounty before she’d had time to consume it.

Of course Meat’s friends weren’t going to take the soup away from her.

She closed her eyes and tried to pretend she hadn’t just embarrassed the hell out of herself.

But Meat, being Meat, took the attention off her, putting it on himself. “Did you have any painkillers, Arrow? Because I could use a few.”

“Of course. And yeah, you look like you’ve gone a round or two in the ring, that’s for sure,” Arrow told him.

“I think you look worse than me,” Black observed.

“How do your ribs feel?” Gray asked. “Arrow picked up some wrap, which should help stabilize your core and take some pressure off.”

The talk around her turned to Meat’s and Black’s injuries, and everything the latter had gone through over the last few days, and they all just let her be. At one point, Meat lay down on the bed, and Gray did a quick examination.

While that was happening, Ro mixed some of the meat and both veggies together in a container. He then walked over to where she was still sitting in the corner and placed the container on the floor next to her . . . along with a chocolate caramel candy bar. He didn’t say anything, simply retreated to the other side of the room, where he leaned against the wall and turned his attention back to Meat and Gray.

It didn’t take long for Zara to get full. This was more food than she’d seen at one time in months. Last November, she’d taken the bicycle and trailer to one of the charity dinners that had been offered close to Miraflores. She’d stuffed herself as full as she could, then taken as many leftovers as she could grab back to her friends in the barrio. Mags hadn’t been there, but Teresa, Gabriella, Bonita, Maria, and Carmen had been overjoyed to see all the food. They’d sat in the darkness with only one candle lighting the hut, and had eaten until they’d all felt as if they were going to burst.

It had been a good day, but once the food was gone, the hunger inevitably returned, and the rough day-to-day life in the barrio continued.

Zara carefully put the lid back on the still half-full container of soup, and she brought that and the uneaten veggies and meat she hadn’t been able to finish back to the table. Ball was standing there, and he took them from her, and Zara did her best to tamp down the feeling of regret that she had to give the food back. But he merely brought the containers over to what looked like a cabinet and opened it. It was a small refrigerator.

Zara sighed in relief. He wasn’t throwing out what she hadn’t been able to finish. She could still eat it later.

The thought of having food ready and available whenever she wanted it was a foreign one. There were few refrigerators in the barrio. And never any leftover food.

She appreciated that even though she had a feeling every man in the room was watching her, they did their best to make her feel as comfortable as possible. They didn’t stare, didn’t say anything about her food quirks. They simply continued to talk among themselves.

Meat had also eaten some food, and when he was done, Arrow brought Meat’s uneaten food over to the fridge and stashed it as well.

“You talk to Rex?” Black asked Meat.

“Yeah.” Then he looked up at Zara. “You ready to hear what’s next?”

Her opinion of Meat rose at his question, and it was already pretty high. She’d been making decisions about her life for a long time now, and even though she trusted Meat, she didn’t want him to just take over without giving her any say. She nodded.

He thanked Ball when he handed him his computer and opened it on his lap. He had his back to the headboard of one of the beds, with his legs stretched out in front of him. He’d put on a T-shirt, and Zara could almost picture him looking exactly the same way in his own house. Not that she knew what his house looked like, but he seemed comfortable in his own skin, and he’d obviously sat just like this with a computer in his lap in the past.

“Right—so, Zara’s a multimillionaire,” he said without preamble. “Her parents were loaded, and they left everything to her.”

“Shit,” Arrow said under his breath.

Zara looked at him in surprise. He was upset that she had money?

“Sorry, Zara. I’m happy that you don’t have to worry about money, but this is gonna complicate things for you.”

“Is it?” she asked.

He nodded. “When my Morgan returned to the States after being kidnapped, the press lost their minds. Everyone loves a feel-good story about someone being reunited with their family after disappearing. And Morgan had only been gone a year. You’ve been missing for fifteen. The press is going to hound you. They’ll be relentless. And now, people are also going to come out of the woodwork asking for money. Telling you all sorts of sob stories about why they need it. Their kid has cancer, they’re starving, they’re homeless. Everything you can think of and more. They’ll play on your emotions, use what happened to you to try to gain your sympathy and get money from you. It’s gonna be hell.”

Zara frowned. Well, shit, that didn’t sound good at all. “I don’t care about the money,” she said honestly. “I’ll just not talk to the newspapers, and no one will find out.”