“No.” Erin covered her mouth.
“Yeah, it gets worse. She then posts it on Facebook—”
“Shut up...”
“She doesn’t notice the ropes tied to the posts or the trashcan in the corner of the shot. God, my brother was pissed. The girl was embarrassed. Makes me glad I live far, far away.” Riley shook his head.
“Okay, you win.” Erin held up her hands in surrender, the left side of her mouth hitched up in that adorable, mischievous smile he’d only glimpsed in pictures. He wanted to keep that look on her face for as long as possible.
“So what do I win?” Riley grinned back.
Man, what he wouldn’t give for this to not be a job. He wanted to spend a few hours trading stories with her, making her laugh, then see where things went.
3.
FRIDAY, MOSUL, IRAQI Kurdistan.
Mark Forest climbed the stairs to the ramshackle building that served as Allied Security’s headquarters. It was a far cry from the air conditioned, comfortable office he’d had with NexGen, that was for sure. He’d had it made, and that upstart bitch had cut him off at the knees. Now he was reduced to running his company out of a shack and doing what amounted to the armored Uber of the Middle East.
He peeled off his Kevlar vest and hung his helmet on a peg to dry. Though the city was undergoing a massive clean-up effort, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie of what was to be the biggest, organized city development in decades. He sat at his desk, the weariness weighing on his shoulders.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He’d scraped his way to the top. That NexGen gig was supposed to be his. He’d put in the hours, recruited the men, did the jobs. The side work was what it took to keep business going. Everyone knew there was a cost, and they trusted Mark to take care of it.
Then she’d happened.
Erin-fucking-Lopez.
Mark picked up a pen from the desk.
Now that events were in motion, she would never be a problem again. Getting her out of the picture was top of his list, then the laptop, after that the leak was plugged and business could continue. He would rebuild and all would be well.
His phone vibrated.
Mark groaned.
What now?
He peered at the screen.
Fucking hell. It was one thing after another with these people.
“Hello?” Mark leaned back in his chair.
“She’s gone,” a breathless man said in Arabic.
“What?” Mark sat up.
“Five Americans came and took her.”
“She was still alive?”
“We weren’t ready yet.”
“And you let them take her? You didn’t kill her?” Mark pushed to his feet.
“They attacked us!”
“When? Who were they with? Where did they go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fucking hell.” Mark hung up.
There was no point in continuing the conversation. Mark’s only use for outsourcing that part of the job was to keep his hands clean of eliminating Erin Lopez from the picture.
He had to fix this. The noose around his neck was tightening, and if he didn’t stop her from uncovering more damning evidence, she’d eventually find it. He’d thought trimming a few loose ends would solve all his problems, but all he’d done was give the one person he hated most the tools to not just end his career but his life.
FRIDAY. AEGIS GROUP Safe House, Masad, Iraq.
Erin stretched her legs out on the cushioned bench toward Riley. It felt good to have showered and be in clean clothes. She was almost human again, a novel concept after being trapped in the dark with nothing but a bucket to keep her company.
She was glad the rest of his team had gone to bed or were on watch. They were a friendly group, but the noise put her on edge. Riley was different. He was easygoing, he didn’t pry, he made her laugh and forget the present, but most of all, he seemed to pick up on when she wanted to change the topic before she did.
If she met him in a bar, he was the kind of guy she’d take home with her. He was also the type she’d pine over when he left.
Erin drew circles on the table top and tried to ignore the heat crawling up her neck. She’d had more than a few ideas during the course of the evening.
The reality of her life was that the men her age were either stationed in Erbil for a period of time, or they expected things from a wife she wasn’t going to do.
Given the opportunity, at any other time, she’d flirt shamelessly with him. The way he blushed when he talked about his family was endearing, and those long lashes were mesmerizing. She could spend hours sitting here talking about nosey family.
“You ready for bed?” Riley patted her ankles, his touch leaving her skin tingling.
Panic twisted a tight hold around her chest, cooling the heat. The last thing Erin wanted was to be alone in the dark. The truth was until they crossed back into Kurdistan she wasn’t going to breathe an easy breath. Even then, she wasn’t sure who they could trust. This team was at risk. Hell, it was a wonder they hadn’t been stopped at a check point on their way here.
“Actually...” She smiled to keep her nerves from showing. Riley wasn’t a mind reader. He couldn’t know everything going on in her head. “I was curious how you secured that village.”
“Oh.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal pulling off a rescue with only a handful of bullets shot. “Brenden speaks enough Arabic to get by. We recorded him saying a message about the rescue and asking everyone to go to the mosque at sunset so no one was hurt.”
“That’s—that’s amazing, do you realize that?” Her admiration for them was getting out of control, which meant she was a few
