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zone. They would arrive in the city of Al-Izir and make contact with Ian Black and his mercenaries. Hopefully by then Black would have information about the hostages’ location. If not, HOT was going to bunk in the compound with Black’s mercenaries and wait for the coordinates.
    Ryan didn’t like that option. A quick glance around the room told him that no one else did either. Especially Iceman, who’d fought with Black when it appeared the man was responsible for trying to kidnap Grace Campbell.
    After an evening involving a dunk in the Tidal Basin and a jail stay for both Ice and Black, they’d learned the mercenary was actually on their side. He’d been embedded with the group seeking to kidnap Grace Campbell, but he’d been working with Mendez when it came time to rescue Grace.
    That didn’t mean a damn thing to Ryan. So Black had been on their side that time . There was no guarantee he would be this time. His loyalties were unpredictable at best and traitorous at worst. He didn’t care about people. If he did, he never would have recruited Emily.
    That’s what killed Ryan every day. Not knowing if she was okay or scared out of her mind. Wondering where she was. Who she was with. Wondering if Black was touching her the way Ryan had touched her.
    He dipped his chin to his chest and studied the floor beneath his boots. Anger rushed through him, filled him so full he felt like he would burst at the seams with a single touch to his body. It was too much like when he was a kid and he’d been angry and hurt because his mother had left. He’d been fucking helpless to fix a damn thing, and he’d hated it.  
    He’d given her so many chances, kept expecting her to turn up at his games or for the weekends he was supposed to spend with her, but she didn’t. Or if she did, she was high or drunk or just manic. Self-medicating when she should have taken the meds the doctors gave her instead.  
    He could still see his dad’s sad face. Still hear his dad’s voice. “She’s not coming today, buddy. She’s not feeling too well.”
    That had been code for she was too fucked up, but he hadn’t known it at the time. His dad, God bless him, had never said a bad word about his mother. It had taken getting older and losing the rose-colored glasses he’d viewed her with to make him realize the truth.  
    Maybe he’d had rose-colored glasses with Emily too. Maybe her vulnerability and sadness had masked the truth from his eyes.  
    His belly tightened at the thought even as his heart rebelled.
    Just like when he’d been a confused kid wanting his mother to care about him.
    Not the same thing. Not the same.
    But it felt remarkably the same deep inside, goddammit.
    “I know you don’t like this,” Mendez said after he’d finished with the logistics. “I know you don’t want to sit in Al-Izir with Ian Black, but time is of the essence with this one. We have to be ready to act the minute we know the location of the hostages.”
    The faces around the room were stony, determined. And then they all spoke as one.  
    “Sir, yes, sir!”
    Mendez nodded and looked at his watch. “Six hours until go. You know the drill.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    THE KUMA DESERT WAS A WASTELAND, and Al-Izir was right in the middle of it. The sand stirred up in whirlpools as something too dry and hot to be called a breeze scoured the desert floor.  
    Emily wanted to stop and pull down her abaya so she could take a drink from her waterskin, but she had to keep going. It wasn’t that far to Ian Black’s compound. She just had to tough it out. Lately, no matter how hydrated she was, how rested, the second she got out into the heat, she wilted. The heat of Acamar was taking it out of her, which was surprising considering how long she’d dwelt in Qu’rim’s climate. They were the same, for heaven’s sake.
    The scents of burning meat wafted on the air, and her stomach rebelled. She put her hand to her mouth and hurried past the street vendor. When