“What’s it say?” Cory asked. His rifle had never wavered from Sierra’s chest.
“She was a POW for over a year,” Alan said. “In Afghanistan. She was rescued not too long ago.”
“Interesting,” Cory said. Then he motioned to Tony with his head. “Let her in. Then search her. If she makes one wrong move, shoot her.”
Tony moved toward the doors. The men had moved one of his recliners up against the glass and it took him a moment to scoot it out of the way.
It was just one more thing that proved these assholes had no idea what the hell they were doing. A fucking chair in front of a glass door wasn’t going to keep anyone out for long.
“In,” Tony ordered Sierra.
She slid inside the room, keeping her arms up and away from her body.
Grover noted she was moving slowly, not making any jerky movements, and she kept her eyes on Cory, as he was the one giving the orders and obviously in charge.
“Thank you for letting me in!” Sierra said. Then her voice hardened. “The house is surrounded. The only reason I got through was because the stupid cops were looking for people coming out, not going in. Thank you for shooting at them to help me get in here. They’ve got some serious firepower out there. I’m assuming you’ve got enough to hold them off?”
No one answered as Tony searched her for weapons.
Grover didn’t like how the man’s hands lingered a bit too long on Sierra’s chest and between her legs, but he didn’t let any of his thoughts show on his face. He needed to play this smart until he figured out what Sierra intended. She hadn’t acknowledged him in any way, and he needed to do the same. If Cory knew how much Sierra meant to him, he’d use her against him.
For a brief second, his mind flashed back to Afghanistan, when Sierra had warned him about that very thing.
He hated that they were right back in the same situation.
“She’s clean,” Tony said.
“The second I heard what was happening, I jumped in my car and came over. I didn’t have a chance to stop for my stash. My weapons,” Sierra told the group. Then, looking around, she said, “I thought there were more of you.”
“There are,” Tony said. “We’ve got lots more people upstairs.”
“Shut up,” Cory hissed angrily.
“It’s not like a little thing like her is gonna overpower us or anything,” Luis scoffed.
Cory stalked toward Sierra, and it took everything within Grover not to react to the danger coming off the man in waves. Not that he could do anything…not with Brody holding a weapon at his head.
Two months ago, before he’d met Sierra, Grover wouldn’t have hesitated to act before now. He would’ve sacrificed himself so his team, and other law enforcement personnel, could storm the house and take these assholes out. But now that he’d found Sierra? No. He needed to stay alive. He had more to live for than he ever had before.
Cory reached into the holster at his side and pulled out a pistol.
Without hesitation, he coldcocked Sierra in the face.
She fell to her hands and knees, her head hanging, and every muscle in Grover’s body tightened.
Then she looked up, met Cory’s eyes—and smiled.
It was a chilling look. If Grover didn’t know her as well as he did, he might’ve seriously thought she was unbalanced. “Nice hit,” she said calmly.
“What are you really doing here?” Cory growled.
“I want to join you,” Sierra repeated. “I hate the military. The Army especially. I went to Afghanistan to serve my country. I was too short and weak to join the military, so I got a job as a contractor to serve that way. I thought we were doing the right thing over there. That we were trying to help. But I was wrong. So damn wrong…”
She laughed bitterly before continuing. “The Afghani people don’t need help. They don’t want help. They’re doing just fine. All the military does is interfere in their way of life. How would we like it if someone invaded our country and told us were doing everything wrong? If they told us our religions were wrong and immoral? Americans think we’re saving people, but in reality, no one wants or needs us to save them.”
“This is true,” Cory said matter-of-factly, holstering his pistol.
Grover barely dared to breathe as he listened to Sierra con the evil man standing above her.
“For a long time after I was taken, I thought the government would come to my rescue. Surely they’d help an American citizen, right? But they didn’t. They didn’t give a shit about me. Because who was I to them? No one! A useless contractor. A female. I was worth less than the sand on their boots. They left me there to suffer. To be tortured. To let the frustrations of an entire country be taken out on me for an entire year! It wasn’t fair. But did they care? Fuck no!”
“But they did rescue you,” Tony said. “It says in this article that an Army unit saved you.”
“They did,” Sierra agreed. “But only because one of their own was taken hostage. Do you know how long he was held? One week. One…fucking…week before his people came for him. They basically had to take me when they discovered I was there too. But they didn’t come for me. I would still be there if it wasn’t for the bad luck of that soldier getting taken.”
“Hmm.” Cory was clearly listening…and Grover noticed that he’d lowered the barrel of his rifle a bit, his stance slightly relaxed.
He was damn glad his role in Sierra’s rescue had been kept out of the media, that it hadn’t been released he was the soldier who’d been taken captive.
She was doing it.
Damn if Sierra wasn’t winning this asshole over.
“I don’t know what your plan is…but I want in,” Sierra pressed. “Especially if it means taking some of those military bastards out.”
Cory nodded, making a decision. “Fine—but you won’t be left alone.”
Sierra shrugged as if she didn’t care about that.
“And we aren’t giving you a weapon,” he continued.
At that, Sierra pouted. “How am I supposed to kill anyone without one?”
“You can be bait,” Cory said with a smirk. “When they see you in here, they’ll be even more desperate to do something stupid.”
“Ah, cool. Okay. I can play the damsel in distress,” Sierra said, smirking back. Then she looked over and met Grover’s gaze for the first time.
He thought he might see worry in her eyes. Maybe she’d try in some way to communicate with him. But all he saw was hatred.
He actually had to remind himself that she was playing a part. That the anger in her eyes wasn’t directed at him.
“What about him?”
“What about him?” Cory said belligerently.
“He’s one of them,” she spat. “He’s dangerous.”
“He’s a pussy,” Brody said with a laugh. “He hasn’t moved a muscle, not with this rifle pointed at his forehead.”
Sierra glanced at Cory. “I know I’m just a chick, and you’re probably way smarter than me, but you have to be careful with these military assholes. They’ll try to surprise you and catch you off guard. I saw it happen more than once when I was on base in Afghanistan. You can’t trust him, even with a gun pointed at his head.”