Operation Swift Mercy (9 page)

Mercy tried her best to follow the conversation but was clearly missing something here.
Chase
sent her a grin at her lost look. “These two here
—
,”
he said indicating Tate and Del with a toss of his head in their direction, “
—u
sed to be
two of
the biggest players
you’d ever me
e
t, until they met Summer and Willow.”

“Yep. They ruined two perfectly good men. Turned em
’
into the pathetic saps you see before you today,” Tupper added with a sad shake of his head as he continued to look through the magazine.

“Shut up Tup. You’re just jealous. Ignore him. One day Tupper’s going to fall, and it’s gonna
’
be hard. And I, for one, can’t wait to be there to see it.” Del smirked.

In reply Tupper held up a middle finger at his friends, without lifting his gaze from the page. “Not. Gonna
’
. Happen.”

Another knock at the door sounded and Del walked over to answer it. It was like central station in this place. Mercy couldn’t help but wonder how many more people could fit in here.

Chapter
Eight

“Hey you.” Del’s gentle tone d
rew Mercy’s gaze across the room
where he was pulling a tall, slender woman with dark hair toward
s
him in a tight embrace. Averting her gaze from their long kiss, Mercy sent a glance sideways toward Chase and saw that he was watching her with a slight smile. “That’s Willow,” he told her, needlessly.

So this was the bride to be. S
he thought she finally had everyone placed. Although how they were all connected she was still unsure about.

“Save it for the wedding night you two,” Tupper drawled from across the room, chuckling at Del’s one finger reply he gave Tupper without breaking his kiss with his fiancé.

Mercy suddenly felt too crowded. It had been a long time…in fact never, had she been a part of such a large group of people, so content in
each other’s
company. They were like one, big
,
relaxed family that she didn’t belong to. She needed to get away for a while. She needed some space.

Sensing her growing disquiet, Chase leaned close, his voice a murmur, “You wanna
’
go for a walk?”

Nodding quickly, Mercy pushed her chair back
and got
to her feet before he changed his mind.

“We’ll be back later,” Chase announced.

Summer poked her head around the corner at Chase’s farewell. “Will we see you two at dinner tonight? We’re going to try out that steak place down the street.”

Mercy went to shake her head, but Chase cut her off, agreeing they’d be there.”

“Oh good. I haven’t had a chance to meet you properly, Mercy. We’ll see you tonight then.”

Mercy sent her a weak smile, allowing Chase to usher her out of the room, past Del, who now
held Willow tightly against him and threw
a hello to Willow
on her way out.

Outside in the hallway Mercy let out a long breath, enjoying the open space around her.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I should have warned you they can be pretty full on.”

“Who are they?”

Chase chuckled
at her bewildered tone. “If I could do that all over again I’d introduce you one at a time.
We
all
served together for a long time.”

“But Del said he was a Marine. I thought you were Navy?”

“We were a
F
orce
R
econ unit. It’s kind of like a
Special Forces
unit, but it’s in the Marine corp. The Marines are attached to the Navy, even though they’re separate—if that makes any sense. Anyway, a Force
Re
con unit is made up of a mix of specialty operators and a medic is one of them—but the Marines don’t have medics—so I’m attached to the unit even though I’m in the Navy.”

“Well that sounds complicated.”

Chase shrugged, but his smile was easy. “For all intents and purposes—I’m Force Recon. We all do the same training.”

“So you’re like some super medic?”
S
he smiled.

Chase chuckled, shaking his head. “I guess I always
liked a
challenge. When I was offered a cha
nce to try out for Force Recon—
it appealed to my do or die mentality.”

“So you’re pretty close to them then.”

“Yep. They’re my
family
. We’ve been through some pretty tough times together.”

They headed toward the elevator, Chase suggesting they head down to the poolside bar
for a drink.

As they sat at a small round table and ordered their drinks, mercy felt herself relax
slightly
. Chase really was good company when he wasn’t grilling her. So he wouldn’t open his mouth and spoil the moment, Mercy decided to do a little of her own grilling. “So how does a U.S Force Recon unit, meet up with two Australian women?”

“Well now, that’s a long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she smiled.

Chase held her gaze steadily, the intensity causing her heart rate to pick up slightly. She knew that he was drawing a deeper meaning from her words, and for the life of her, she couldn’t make herself laugh it off.

“We were mixed up in a bit of a situation a few years back which involved Willow’s husband. Which is how Summer came to find us.”

“Wait a minute,” Mercy held up a hand. “Willow’s
husband?”

Chase gave a small smile
.
“Her
first
husband
was a
war
correspondent
. He
did
an investigation on this real bad dude, named Tre’ago
. Anyway, Tre’ago had him killed.”

“Oh my God.” Mercy stared at him across the table in wide-eyed horror.

“Yeah. It was pretty heavy. Anyway, Willow also being and investigative reporter was following up leads on Tre’ago
when
she got this stupid idea in her head that if she went to Cambodia and did a story on the Red Cross up there, she could track down
Tre’ago
and gather some more evidence to expose his part behind her
husband’s
death.”

“So what happened?”

“She got ambushed by some rebels and thrown in a Cambodian prison camp.”

Mercy stared at Chase dumbfounded. This stuff didn’t happen to normal people surely? “
H
ow did she get out?”

“We broke her out,” Chase said with a small off handed shrug.

Of course they did
, she thought dryly.
Just another day
at the office for
a Force
R
econ
operator
.
Was this guy for real? Somehow she knew he was. From anyone else she’d brush it off as a tall tale, but having met the other men just now and coming to know Chase Maloney, she found herself believing him. He wasn’t bragg
ing or big noting himself—simply
relaying an event she’d asked him about.

She liked that about him
; h
is quiet, reassuring presence. While Tupper
seemed to be a bit
on the egotistical side—Chase was the opposite. He didn’t need to talk up his tough guy image. There was a gentleness about him that seemed at odds with the fact he was first and foremost a warrior, but he was also a healer—a medic.

“Wow. My life seems so dull in comparison,” she said with a small smile.

“Oh yeah—you’re life’s really dull…getting chased by thugs, out running
a deranged
ex…falling in with a bunch of rough and ready Force
Recon
Marine’s…real boring!”

“Well, if you put it like
that
,” she said, trying for a haughty tone.

Their drinks arrived and Mercy sipped at her Margarita slowly enjoying the salty citrus flavour as it glided smoothly down her throat.

“I know you think you’re protecting us by keeping all this stuff to yourself, but we really need to know who this guy is, and who we’re up against. We can handle anything
he can
throw at us—if we know what we’re dealing with.”

Mercy sighed, staring down into her tall glass, stirring the icy beverage li
stlessly. “You’re not on
home ground here, Chase. He
pretty much
owns this place. It doesn’t matter how good you are at this stuff—you aren’t backed by the U.S military
here
…you can’t beat him. I need to just slip away quietly and deal with this alone.”

“Deal with what? And how are you going to deal with it?”

Mercy
shook her head. How could she tell him what Nikkos was involved in? How could she
not
have known what was going on all this time? What kind of person did that make her? She couldn’t face seeing that look of contempt she was feeling inside reflected in his eyes if she told him. “Look, I have a plan. I just need to get out of here and time to work out who I can trust.”

“Why don’t you start with us?”

“Because you seem like nice guys and I don’t want to be responsible for bringing harm to you.”

“It’s too late to worry about us being involved. Those guys will at the very least, know my name by now. You have to give us a fighting chance here
,
”
h
e told her quietly. “Give me his name so we know what we’re up against.”

Mercy’s shoulders stooped as his words set in. He was right. Those men could have found out Chase had rented that car.
Damn it! Why was everything going so wrong?
How was she supposed to fix this when she kept dragging people into it with her?
“His name’s Nikkos Petros. He’s got connections with local casinos and real estate—you name it, he’s probably part owner of it.”

“So what have you got on him to make him want you dead?”
Mercy jumped as Tate’s deep voice sounded from behind her. Before she could recover from
t
he surprise, Tate, Del and Tupper had joined them at the table, placing beers down before them and waiting for her to talk. Flashing a glare across at Chase, Mercy realised he’d been softening her up before the interrogation started.

“I meant it when I said we’re already involved, Mercy. Just let us help.” Chase said quietly.

What was the use? She’d never met more determined, annoying men in her entire life, and there was no way they were going to let up on her until she told them what they wanted to know. “I overheard him bragging about one of his business ventures. I didn’t want to believe him, so I followed him one
day
to see for myself
.” Mercy closed her eyes briefly against the memory of the shooting, but forced herself to continue. “I managed to capture a meeting…and a murder on my phone. I witnessed him ordering a man killed
.”

“Well, that would explain it,” Tupper said after a low whistle.

“Do you still have the phone?”
Tate asked.

Mercy shook her head—I panicked once I realised what I had, and what he’d do if he found it on the phone, so I took out the chip and mailed it myself in a parcel.”

“That’s what we got from
Maureen’s
place then?” Chase mused as though confirming something to himself.

Mercy nodded briefly, her hand going to her necklace.
“I
hid the chip in here,” she opened the locket and tipped out the small bit of plastic that contained the only thing capable of saving her life, although it was also the one thing that now put her life on the line for having as well.

“Smart thinking,” Del congratulated her and for some reason his quiet words filled her with a glimmer of pride. She suspected these men didn’t give out praise too often unless it was well deserved.

“Do you mind if we take a look?” Tate asked, before reaching across for the chip, looking it over before taking out his phone and removed the back, switching the chip he had in it already and inserting hers.
He swiped a few buttons and began watching the video she’d recorded, and from where she sat across from him, she still jumped when they sound of the gun shot sounded and that sick sensation returned as she recalled how it felt to have witnessed a person’s execution.

“How did you end up in the river?”
He asked, passing the phone around to the other men and hit play again.

“After I saw him…do that,” she faltered slightly. “I knew I couldn’t just disappear or he’d get suspicious. So I had to go along to the fundraiser that night with him. I was hoping that I’d be able to make contact with someone there who would know what to do
,
but then I saw him all chummy with so many of the invited politicians and high profiled guests that I realised I didn’t know how deep this
all
went. If the immigration minister was in on it
,
then there could be others.