The Mercenary (4 page)

“Dammit. Someone else may be interested in our girl,” Kirk said.

“What? Anna, get me the footage from the airport on my screen.”

Kirk didn’t wait around for Savage to tell him to get in there. It stood to reason that her fiancé may have already sent a team to take her out if she saw too much.

“Hold up, Kirk,” Jack said.

Kirk kept moving. He heard Jack talking to Anna. The other man’s voice was completely calm. And then he heard a scream and the sound of a table being overturned as he walked into the diner.

“Shit,” Jack said.

“I’m on it,” Kirk said, taking off after the men who were dragging Olivia Pontuf out of the restaurant.

A
UGUST
1, S
ANDTON

O
livia screamed. She yelled as loud as she could, hoping for help. She clawed at Burati’s arms, trying to reach his face. He held on to her with surprising strength. She was almost numb with fear. The only thing that kept her going was the fact that she didn’t want to die.

“Let me go!”

“Shut up,” Burati said.

The kitchen staff all looked the other way as he dragged her through the back of the restaurant. The kitchen wasn’t that busy at this time of the day and no one looked at her.

Burati said something in Afrikaans and the other men laughed. Olivia knew that no one would be coming to her aid.

“Hurry up, Leon. We need to get out of here before the authorities come.”

Burati grabbed her hands and held them together. “Use that duct tape to fasten her hands, Barack.”

Barack did as he was told. Olivia struggled and kicked but Burati held on to her tightly. “Stand still.”

“No. I’m not going to make it easy for you to kidnap me.”

Barack had her bag and her phone and she could only hope that Anna had figured out what was going on, that maybe her friend would send help…but a part of Olivia knew she could only rely on herself.

Olivia kicked out, trying to get Burati or Barack, but both men stepped out of her reach. She spun on her heel and ran as fast as she could. She sprinted all out through the kitchen and through the back door, which led to a hallway.

She hesitated, not sure which way to go. That hesitation cost her.

Burati’s heavy hand fell on her shoulder and she was lifted over his shoulder facedown. She kicked and screamed until he slapped her hard on the ass.

“Settle down, Ms. Olivia. We don’t want any extra attention.”

“Screw you, Burati. This is kidnapping and illegal. Do you honestly think you will get away with this?”

“I’m not kidnapping you,” he said. Walking down the hallway, she heard the door behind them open and she twisted to see who was following them.

A man with a gun and dark stubble, that was who.
Olivia felt like the situation was getting worse by the second. What was she going to do? She wasn’t giving up, but she didn’t think she could fight this man and win.

“Freeze!” he yelled, but Burati didn’t stop. “Drop the woman.”

“Stay out of this,” Burati responded.

Olivia tried to kick her legs and this time Burati brought his hand to her thigh, squeezing tightly until she thought she’d pass out from the pain. She didn’t let that stop her, using her bound fists and punching him in the side.

“Help me!” she yelled to the man who’d entered the hallway. He was tall, dark, and scary but he seemed the lesser of two evils right now.

In the back of her mind was the thought that maybe this was the man that Anna was sending to her. “Kirk?”

He nodded, but didn’t respond, and that made her feel better. And she stopped worrying about him and his position and just tried to get free.

She heard a gunshot and felt Burati flinch and fall to one side. He was off balance and she rolled off him. With her hands bound it was hard to get to her feet, but she struggled upright.

She glanced around, her long hair swinging into her face. She ached everywhere. Burati drew his gun and aimed it at Kirk, but he didn’t slow down. Kirk just shot Burati in his gun hand. Burati’s handgun clattered to the floor. Barack fired at Kirk, but Kirk hit the man on the side of the neck as he came up to him. The other man crumpled to the floor.

Kirk grabbed her bag and kept on moving. Burati reached for his gun, and Olivia kicked it out of his grasp. Kirk bent down next to the other man and said something that was too low for her to hear. Then he clocked Burati on the head. Both of the men were unconscious.

“Let’s move,” he said.

“I need my bag,” she said. Searching for anything that would delay the moment when she actually left with this man. He scared her almost as much as the look in Burati’s eyes had.

“I’ve got your bag,” he said. “Laz?”

She had no idea who he was talking to. “What?”

“Be quiet and follow orders. The airport security guards are on their way. We need to get out of here quickly.”

“Did Anna send you?” she asked him.

“Yes. I’m Kirk Mann. My colleague is waiting for us with a car.”

“You can talk to him?” she asked, walking beside him. Actually
trotting
beside him, since he was taller than she was and walking at a fast clip. Maybe it was a good thing she’d put on her running shoes. Oh. My. God. She had almost been kidnapped. She’d seen Ray kill someone, he’d held a gun on her, and…

“Lady, keep up.”

“Olivia,” she said. “Call me Olivia.”

He nodded and then said something else to someone she couldn’t see. “How are you communicating with these other men?”

“We have wireless communication devices,” he said glancing back at her. “I have her. Let Anna know that I will put her on the phone as soon as we are secure.”

“Who are you talking to?” Olivia asked.

“My boss—Jack Savage. Listen, lady, if you could just be quiet and keep up, this will go more smoothly.”

She made a face at him but clammed up. She was tired and ached from trying to escape Burati. And she realized a numbness had taken over her. She still had the duct tape around her wrists, but she figured right now that wasn’t important. Getting to safety was. And there was something about Kirk Mann that made her feel safe.

Maybe it was the way he’d taken out those two men. She didn’t know. She only knew that for right now she was glad he was at her side. He would keep her safe, she knew that. She trusted that.

The fact that Burati had come after her like that made it clear to Olivia that Ray realized she had seen something today. She had no idea if he knew she’d witnessed him killing a man, but she did know that he seemed to want her dead.

“We are going to need to move quickly when I open this door. Laz is waiting in the arrival car park. He will have a dark green Mercedes,” Kirk said.

She nodded.

“Take my hand.”

“I can’t,” she said, lifting her bound wrists.

He took a knife from his pocket and cut her free. He pocketed the knife and took her hand in his. His bigger one engulfed hers. But as he slid their fingers together she couldn’t help but notice how strong his grip was. He wasn’t going to let her go. It was an oddly comforting thought as they emerged into the regular airport traffic.

She had that feeling of her life becoming some kind of surreal foreign movie. When she’d watched those films it had always seemed a bit daring and exciting to think of her ordinary boring life being shook up. But the reality was that she was scared and had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next.

As nice as it was that Anna had sent these men for her, Olivia realized she had noplace to go where she would be safe. But then Kirk tugged on her arm to keep her by his side, and she thought she was safe with him.

A
UGUST
1, P
RETORIA
, S
OUTH
A
FRICA

K
irk wasn’t distracted by the woman. He kept a weather eye on their back trail as Laz maneuvered the car through the airport traffic. He heard a ragged sigh and glanced over at the woman.

She had a bruise on one cheek and her eyes were a bit wide. She started to talk, but he shook his head.

“Keep quiet.”

Laz didn’t need the distraction from his driving and Kirk wanted to concentrate on keeping her safe. The same concentration that had served him well on his last job came to the fore now.

Her breathing was loud and ragged and he spared another glance at her. She had her arms wrapped around her own waist and was rocking back and forth.

“Don’t think about it,” he said. “Try to picture something pleasant, one of your favorite things.”

She nodded. He put on his shooting glasses. They looked like sunglasses and were good for reducing glare and sharpening images. There was someone in the car three behind them that he didn’t trust.

“Watch that black Land Rover, Laz.”

“I am. Can you read the plate?”

He could and did, giving the plate number using the phonetic alaphabet.

“Got it,” Savage said. “We’re running the plate now.”

“Should we lose them?” Laz asked.

“Affirmative.”

“Raindrops on roses,” Olivia said.

“What the hell?” Kirk glanced over at her again.

Her face was white, pale white. She was in shock. Damn.

“Stop singing.”

She didn’t pay attention to him. “Whiskers on kittens.”

Laz was doing a good job of getting them through the traffic and away from the Land Rover.

“That car checks out,” Savage said. “Find a safe area and get rid of everything that she has on her. Lambert’s guards came after her, so that means he might have a GPS tracking system in her mobile phone.”

“Will do, boss,” Kirk said.

Laz consulted his GPS navigator and Savage said something else, but Kirk couldn’t hear him over Olivia’s singing.

“Shut up,” he said, making his voice harsh and low.

She looked up at him with wide eyes. He wasn’t being mean, just doing his job. They couldn’t save her and keep her safe if they were distracted.

“Sorry…you said think of my favorite things,” she said.

“Think, not sing.”

Without warning, she started crying. He had dealt with men in the field before who’d lost it, but a woman…Why was she any different than men? He pinched the fleshy part of her upper arm.

She slapped his hand away and glared at him.

Thank God the tears had dried up.

“Why did you do that?” she asked.

“To make you stop crying.”

“Oh. Thanks, I think.”

He nodded.

“I found a neighborhood where we can dump her stuff. I think it might be better if she’s not seen with us here,” Laz said.

Kirk nodded. “Olivia, get down on the floor.”

“Okay,” she said. She curled her long legs under herself on the floorboards. He noticed her shiver first and realized shock was setting in. He was reaching down to rub her neck when she made a gagging noise and then threw up on his shoes.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“Laz, you got any water up there?”

Laz passed a bottle back. Kirk met Laz’s eyes in the mirror and the other man lifted both eyebrows at him. He shrugged. In the course of his career he’d been bled on, vomited on, spit on—hell, there was hardly anything that hadn’t landed on him at one time or another.

He poured some of the water on the napkin he took from his pocket and handed it to her. “Wipe your face.”

She nodded and took it. Her hands were still shaking. “Do you think you are going to get sick again?”

“Not now,” she said.

She wiped her face and he noticed how pale she was and how scared she looked.

“I’m so sorry,” she said again, tears falling from the corners of her eyes. “Don’t pinch me again.”

“Then stop crying.”

She blinked. “I’m trying. How do you do it?”

“Not cry?” he asked. He hadn’t cried since Armand had died more than three years ago.

“No,” she said, wiping her face delicately with the cloth he’d given her. “Not react to this kind of situation.”

He shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

“That’s not helpful.”

“My job is to keep you alive, not give you advice.”

“Are you good at your job?” she asked. He looked like he would excel at anything he put his mind to, but looks could be deceiving.

“Very.”

She nodded at him. “I’m glad.”

“We’re here,” Laz said. He’d pulled the car into a parking lot in a rough neighborhood.

“Sit tight,” Kirk said, getting out of the car. He made sure the area was secure, then turned back to the Mercedes.

“Give me all of her stuff,” he said.

“What?! What are you doing with it?”

“We’re not sure that Lambert hasn’t bugged your bag and phone.”

Olivia started to argue, but he just glared at her. She closed her mouth. Her stuff wasn’t going to keep her safe…only this man would.

“I need my BlackBerry. It has everything in there. And I took some files from Ray’s desk.”

“Get the files out. But you can’t keep the phone,” Kirk said.

He shook his head. He tossed her bag and then opened the back of her phone and took out her SIM card. He tossed the phone on top of her bag in the trash can and got back into the car.

“I…”

“Be quiet. Laz needs to concentrate.”

“Anna wants to talk to Olivia,” Savage said.

“She doesn’t have a phone, so call mine.”

“Will do,” Savage said.

His cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID first and than handed it to Olivia.

“Who is it?”

“Anna.”

She took it and held it to her chest as if it would offer her some kind of comfort. And he guessed that the comfort of having something normal in her hands was almost too much.

“Where are we headed, Jack?”

“The safe house in Pretoria. Laz has the directions. I might need you to go to the police department. You managed to avoid most of the surveillance cameras in the airport, but the ones in the hallway behind the restaurant recorded everything.”

“Did you get a copy of it?” Kirk asked.

“Yes. You’re covered. We need to debrief her.”

“Will do.”

“The rest of the team will be en route to Johannesburg shortly.”

“Why? Laz and I have this covered. When are we extracting her?”

“We are waiting for approval from the South African government. They want to talk to Olivia about what she saw. Remember I called the cops in Cullinan.”

“That’s right. I’ll debrief her and we can send them a report.”

“After we get the information from Olivia, I’ll put Laz on guard duty.”

“Affirmative.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Fine. I need to process the operation.”

“Our clients were very happy. You got a bonus, by the way, for being neat and clean.”

“Thanks.” Kirk was always clean. He didn’t see the need to kill anyone who wasn’t a target. And he never had.

“At least this job should be neater.”

“Doubtful,” Kirk said.

“She threw up on him,” Laz added.

Jack laughed. “That’s a woman for you.”

Kirk looked at the woman in question and found her looking up at him. Her eyes were wide and so damned blue he thought the Caribbean paled in comparison. There was a large bruise forming under her right eye.

One kill was affecting her a lot, he thought. And she’d only seen it from a distance…she was worlds too soft for this kind of action.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked.

No. She wasn’t okay. An odd calm had come over her once they’d thrown out all her stuff. All her stuff, she thought. She had nothing but a pair of battered running shoes and this Chanel pantsuit.

“Fine. I’ll call you when we get to wherever we are going,” Olivia said.

“Kirk and Laz are the best. They won’t let anyone get to you. I can’t believe those men almost abducted you in the airport.”

“Me, either. I should have realized that Ray would send Burati after me.”

“No, you shouldn’t have, I should have. I’m sorry about that, Ola. I figured I had you in a safe public place.”

“I don’t know that public places are safe now.”

“They aren’t,” Kirk said. “But we’ll get you to the house and take care of everything.”

She glanced up at him. He made her feel like she could take a deep breath and just relax. It didn’t matter that she was crouched on the floor in the backseat of a car still in Johannesburg. She knew that if she was with Kirk he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

“I’ll talk to you later, Anna.”

“Okay, bye.”

She handed Kirk back his phone. “Are we almost to…where are we going?”

“A safe house in Pretoria.”

“I lived in Sandton,” she said, shivering at the thought of going back there. That
House Beautiful
home that she’d been so impressed with when she’d first seen it.

“You’ll be safe with me,” he said.

She believed him. He didn’t seem like someone who made promises he couldn’t keep.

“Who were those men who apprehended you? Did you know them?” Kirk asked.

She was close to losing it again as she remembered Burati’s face. “Burati…the man who had me was my bodyguard. The other man, his name is Barack, I don’t know him.

Kirk nodded. “Do you think your fiancé sent them after you?” Kirk asked. His voice was low and gravelly.

She pictured Ray’s face as he’d aimed that gun at her car. The deadly intent in his eyes had chilled her then and continued to make her uneasy. Ray was definitely willing to kill her to keep his secrets safe.

“Yes, I do.”

“The authorities in Cullinan are going to want to talk to you about that,” Kirk asked. “When we get to the safe house in Pretoria I’ll take your statement and we’ll send it to them.”

“I took a bunch of stuff from Ray’s home office,” she said.

“Why?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. I just took everything that was in this locked drawer he had at home. Including a file he asked me to bring to him. Do you want to see it?”

Kirk nodded. “But not now. When we get to the safe house, I’m going to need you to go over every detail of what happened today. Do you think you can do that, tell me everything that happened?”

She nodded. As much as she wanted to forget everything that had happened to her today, it was impossible to escape the details of it. Over and over in her head were the images of Ray and then the menace in Burati’s eyes when he’d grabbed her at that restaurant. “I think Burati meant to kill me.”

“Probably. He seemed like a pro to me.”

“Anna is looking into his past to try to figure out what he did before he worked for Ray,” Olivia said.

She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m having a conversation with you.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Well, fifteen minutes ago I was fighting for my life. This has been the strangest day.” Olivia thought about her singing earlier and blushed. “Sorry for singing.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’m not your usual client, am I?” she asked.

“No.”

“What’s your normal—”

“I’m not big on talking,” Kirk said.

“Sorry,” she said. She pulled her knees closer to her chest, resting her head on them. When she closed her eyes, it all came back to her. Ray leveling that gun at her. Burati grabbing her and dragging her from a café.

“How did you get here so quickly?” she asked.

“We were in Africa.”

“Where?”

“North of here,” Kirk said.

“Morocco? I love Rabat. They have some of the best little markets for shopping.”

He shook his head and turned to stare out the window at the passing scenery.

But all she could see was his shoes covered in a towel and her own knees.

“Are you usually a bodyguard?” she asked him. She knew very little of what Anna did except that she worked for or used to work for Liberty Investigations. And that the work Anna did usually involved corporate crimes and stuff like that. This man didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would blend in in the corporate world.

“Sometimes,” he said.

“That was nice and vague,” she said, finding a little of her equilibrium as they talked. She realized, crouched on the floor at his feet, that she was starting to get the distance she needed from Ray and everything that had happened. She was going to be okay.

“Our line of work isn’t one that warrants discussion,” he said.

Laz laughed. “That’s the most politic answer I’ve ever heard you give.”

“Shut it, Laz and keep your eyes on the road.”

The other man chuckled one more time. “We work for whoever needs us.”

“I can’t imagine you in an office,” she said to Kirk. He wore a pair of camouflage pants and a plain T-shirt that fit him like a second skin.

“I don’t do office work. I’m a field agent.”

“I can see that,” she said. “You seem like someone more at home in the outdoors than in the concrete jungle.” He was tan and had sun lines at the corner of his eyes. Whatever he did, a lot of his time was spent in the sun. She shook her head. He was a mercenary, she thought. She was having a conversation with a man who was a gun for hire.

“You are a very reassuring man,” she said.

He gave her an odd look. She knew he wanted her to stop talking, but she found the more she talked the better she felt.

“I’ve never felt so scared before.”

“Are you going to throw up again?” he asked, wryly.

She shook her head, then sighed and put her head down on her knees. She wanted to go back to bed and start this day over again, she thought. She didn’t care that Ray was the kind of man he was, if she didn’t know…wait a minute, she wasn’t that type of girl. It was a good thing that she knew the truth.

She needed to make sure that Ray didn’t kill anyone else. She couldn’t believe she’d slept with a murderer.

That she’d shared her home and her body with a man who was capable not only of killing someone she didn’t know but also of killing
her.
It made her queasy and she turned aside, not wanting to throw up again.