Operation Swift Mercy (8 page)

Chase
reached over and took her hand in his. “Trust me. These guys know how to
take care
of themselves. You’re not going through this alone, okay?”

If she’d had any remaining scrap of pride, the last of it just crumbled away beneath those last few words…alone. She’d been alone most of her life. How desperately had she wanted to find someone so she would never be alone again…
and look where that got you?
A little voice reminded her. The thought brought reality crashing down upon her, but the warmth of Chase’s hand holding hers so securely fought back disapproving caution inside her head. She had
nowhere
else to go. She
had
to finish this—those girls needed her. She’d do what had to be done to make sure Nikkos was brought to justice for them.

Pulling into the underground car park beneath the motel, Chase helped her gather her bags and led the way inside. They took the elevator u
p to the tenth floor and stepped out into a roomy foyer and followed Chase down three doors, stopping behind him as he knocked on the door and waited silently.

The door swung open, and Mercy found herself looking up into the face of a tall, dark haired stranger.

“Del’s on his way with the rental,” he told Chase, in lue of a greeting, swinging his gaze from Chase back to settle on M
ercy
.

“This is Mercy. Mercy, Tate Maddox.”

Mercy gave a weak smile, feeling as though she were being dissected beneath the man’s intense scrutiny.

“Come on in,” he said, holding open the door for them to walk through.

“Where’s Summer and the kids?”

“Down at the pool with Willow. So what’s going on?”

Chase held out a chair for Mercy to sit down on and took the one
next to
her. The room was a
two bedroom
suite, complete with kitchenette and a lounge
area
. There was also a large balcony
. A
gentle
breeze
blew
the thin curtain in and out the open doorway and Mercy took a deep breath of the cool air.

“Mercy’s got a problem with an
overzealous
ex. We were tailed from her grandmother
’
s house and they followed us into a shopping centre. These guys weren’t hacks—they were professional.”

Tate had been watching Chase as he spoke, but switched his gaze toward Mercy when he’d finished. “So why would your ex send someone to follow you?”

Mercy wet her lips nervously, but held her resolve. This guy may be tough, but Nikkos was evil, and she needed to remember that. “He was a little upset that I walked out on him.”

“A little upset?”

Mercy gave a shrug. “More than a little. We had a disagreement the other day and there was an accident…that’s when Chase found me,” she swung her gaze over to Chase and saw that he was watching quietly—no doubt hoping to get some answers too. Dropping his steady gaze, she looked back at Tate.

“The way I hear it—it was no accident. If your ex tried to kill you—you need to go to the police.”

“I can’t.”

“And why not?”

Mercy shot a glance toward Chase and back again, nervously. “
He has friends in high places. I’m not sure who I can trust.”

She saw the men share a brief glance and knew there were more questions coming.

“And who would this ex of yours be?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“We can’t help you if we don’t know all the facts.”

“I
don’t want
you
getting involved
in all this. I’d appreciate some help
leaving
out of the city but you don’t need any trouble
.
I could buy a cheap car, that would solve the problem of someone seeing me at the airport
and
I’ll just drive inland.”

“If he has connections high up in the police force—don’t you think he’ll manage to track you down eventually?”

“I only need a few weeks or so… until I figure out…until I find somewhere safe to go.”

“Sounds to me, like this is more than just a pissed ex.” Tate said breaking the momentary silence which followed.

“
Like I said—if you can help me get out of this place, I’d be very grateful.
If you’d
rather not, then that’s okay too.”

A knock on the door brought Tate to his feet as he walked across the room to answer it and Mercy
soon
found herself dwarfed as two more men entered.

“Any trouble?” Chase asked the first man, who swung a set of keys over one finger, his gaze holding Mercy’s as passed the keys to Chase.

“Nope. We weren’t followed.”

“They weren’t watching the car?” Chase asked, clearly puzzled.

The second man gave an amused snort, “They were watching—but their car had a slight mechanical malfunction of some sort and
they
were unable to follow us. You might wanna
’
take that back to the
rental yard sooner rather than later though. They’ll be able to track you down with it.”

“Yeah thought of that—but the
office
has the other hotel still down as my address, so they won
’
t get far.”

Mercy didn’t much care what they were sorting out—the main thing was they seemed to know what they were doing and at the risk of  her inner feminist spluttering in outrage, sitting here with these men, it didn’t feel as though Nikkos and his sidekicks could possibl
y
harm her. She felt safe.

“So you going to introduce us or what
,
Maloney?” The second man asked, moving forward.

Next to her she felt Chase shift closer, and his arm going around the back of her chair. “Mercy, this is Tupper and Del.”

“G’day,”
Mercy said quietly.

Beside her, Chase groaned.

Sending him a confused glance, Mercy saw him shake his head sadly. “Don’t speak Australian around Tupper…we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Shut up and let the woman speak in her native tongue,” Tupper told the others, grinning down at Mercy with a charming smile.

Mercy glanced from one to the other
and wondered
what the hell they were all
talking
about? Who were these people?

“Oh…I see how it is…you already staked your
claim,
Doc?” Tupper drawled, his smile dropping a notch.

“Shut up Tupper,” Chase bit out, his hand falling
from
the back of
Mercy’s
chair
.

“So these guys who were tai
ling you
—
”
Del cut in, abruptly bringing to a halt any further discussion between Tupper and Chase. “
—w
ho are they and what do they want?”

”That seems to be the
big
question,” Tate murmured from his seat across the table, with a lazy drawl.

The door opened and all eyes turned to the petite woman in the doorway struggling with a baby on her hip and
holding
a toddler by the hand.

“Daddy!”

Mercy watched a small child
launch herself at
Tate, chubby arms anchoring around the man
’
s neck tightly.

“Hey munchkin, did you have a good swim?”

“Emily Rose Maddox—you tell your father why we had to come back early.”

Mercy watched the small child’s smile disappear to be replaced by large soulful eyes and a trembling lip. “I said a bad word,” she whispered barely loud enough to hear.

Four sets of male eyebrows rose in surprise as all gazes turned upon the tiny dark haired child sitting in her
father’s
lap.

“Why did you say
a
bad word Em?” Ta
te asked the little girl gently.

Mercy saw the child glance quickly at her mother, before launching into the whole sordid tale. Apparently there was a
n altercation over a blow-up
floaty
ring and Emily told the little boy what she thought of him.

“What did you say?”

“I’m not allowed to say it no more.”

Putting the baby down on the floor on a soft mat, t
he child’s mother moved to stand closer to her husband, arms folded across her chest. “Let’s just say it rhymed with
truckin rasckhole
”

A ripple of male coughing followed, masking surprised chuckles which
did not go down well with the child’s mother who sent a withering glare around the room at each of
the men
. “Obviously she’s been hanging around you lot too much. How many times d
o
I have to tell you to watch your language around the kids? It’s not just you guys anymore...”

“How do you know she got it from us? She could have easily picked it up from her mother—I’ve heard you cut lose with a choice word or two
,
Summer,” Tupper smirked from across the room, ignoring the warning shake of Tate’s head as he chuckled.

“Which reminds me
,
Johnny Tupperoni. Don’t invite your blonde bimbos out with us anymore. After
dinner
last night, I had to
explain to a certain someone—
” she sent a swift glance down at her daughter, “
—t
hat normal, nice women do
not
wear dresses that showed their boobies to everyone.”

“And that’s exactly why I
don’t
date normal, nice women,” he smiled back at Summer
,
sweetly.

“Tupper, man. Shut up while you’re ahead.” Tate warned in a tone that almost sounded like a plea.

“Fine! Suits me. Hangin
’
around you guys is a drag now days anyway. You’re all married and boring
.
I’ll just go do the nightclub scene on my own
.”

Rolling her eyes, Summer shook her head in despair at the younger of the men and bent down to retrieve her daughter from Tate’s lap. “Come on, bath time.” She turned to move away, but then spun back around doing a double take as she seemed to spot Mercy sitting at the table for the first time. “Oh. Hello.”

Mercy saw her swing a questioning glance at her husband, before Maloney jumped in to do the introductions. “Summer, this is Mercy.”

“Hi.”
Awkward.
“It’s okay, I’m not here with Tupper…I’m
one of those boring,
nice, normal wom
e
n
.
”

Summers face lit up with a smile, and she shifted the child she was carrying to the other hip,
“Nice to meet you. Hope this little outburst didn’t just scare you off,” she said with a wince.

“No, that’s okay. I was already pretty scared before you came in.”

Summer chuckled and sent a coveted glance toward Chase, that Mercy
tried not to
read too much into. She didn’t want these people to get the wrong idea about her and Chase. “They’re harmless, really.”

“Don’t tell her that, Summer. We just had her thinking how bada
ss
we were.”

“Del!” Summer cried, with a pointed glance down at the little girl in her arms.

“Shit. Sorry!”

“Oh my God. I swear it’s like trying to supervise a bunch of kindergarteners around here. Excuse me Mercy, I have to remove my children from the room before Del completely ruins them!”

“Sorry!” Del called at Summer
’
s retreating back.

“Are you
trying
to get my balls busted man?” Tate groaned.

“Give me a break—it takes more than a few months to stop talking like a Marine.”

“You better get the hang of it pretty fast—you’re getting married in three days.”

“Live it up while you can, man. Cause your life as you once knew it
, is
about to end.” Tupper threw over his shoulder at the others as he picked up a magazine from the co
ffee table and flipped through
the pages.

“Don’t knock what you haven’t tried, Tup,” Del threw back.

“Won’t catch me trying marriage any time too soon. I’m already the Marine corps slave—
won’t
be some woman’s on top of that.”

“Famous last words, my friend,” Tate chuckled from his seat
at the
table. “Famous. Last. Words.”

“Amen!” Del threw in, sharing a grin with his friend.