Inescapable (Men of Mercy Novel, A) Read Free Page B

horseshit,” Sawyer replied on a yawn. “My life is so much easier when you’re halfway across the world.”
    The kitten moved away and hopped down the steps to the porch.
    Kai rose to his feet in an easy movement and followed Sawyer to the road. After stretching, he lifted his eyebrows at Sawyer. “Think you can keep up with me, Nancy?”
    “Screw you, grandpa,” Sawyer replied. “I whipped your ass in that triathlon.”
    “You got lucky. And I had a cold.”
    Sawyer rolled his eyes. “That pansy-assed excuse again? Face it, you’re getting old and slow.”
    “Face it, you’re an asshole.”
    Satisfied that they’d fulfilled their duty to start off their morning by insulting each other, they hit the road, long legs easily eating up the tar.

Chapter Two
    SawyersFutureWife: Yeah, get well Ms. Sturgiss. And, ladies, for an early morning treat—something other than Flick’s muffins—get up early and watch Sawyer run the route along the river. It’s two for the price of one at the moment because one of his far-too-often absent partners is in town and is running with him. Holycrapadoodle! Smokin’ hot!
    ***
    “Three months,” Sawyer said. “I think that’s one of the shortest stints you’ve had away from Cas and Mercy. I take it that Sheikh What’s-His-Name is happy?” Their sneakers slapped the pavement in downtown Mercy, the air holding a bite that suggested that autumn was not playing around.
    “He doesn’t have any complaints,” Kai replied, his breathing unchanged even though they’d completed four of the five miles of their customary early-morning run. “I’m worried though.”
    “Why?”
    “I had to condense five months of intensive training into three months, and I while I think his people are good, I don’t know that they’re good enough.”
    “That’s why we got him to sign that waiver.”
    “A waiver won’t be worth jack shit if he gets taken out,” Kai muttered.
    “It won’t mean anything to him but it covers our corporate ass. Is he in any immediate danger?”
    Kai lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “He deals in oil and arms in third world countries. There’s always a risk.” He’d done his part, Kai told himself, again. He’d provided the best in close-protection training he could in the limited time he had. Personally, Kai thought that the sheikh should hire professional PPOs—preferably Caswallawn’s personal protection officers—but the stubborn, suspicious sheikh was adamant that he wanted his own people acting as his bodyguards. Kai had argued that he wasn’t fully convinced about their ability to protect him, but Sheikh Aban Armanjani’s decision was non-negotiable.
    “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the job,” Kai said, voicing his niggling worry.
    “He paid us the same amount to train his four guys as we would earn from two full training courses with twenty cadets each. It was a no-brainer,” Sawyer said.
    He knew that, just as he knew that there was nothing more he could do, Kai told himself. He resolved to let it go.
    “Business is good,” Kai commented as they thundered through Mitchell’s Park, pushing aside his worry about the sheikh’s safety. “We picked up the JackSon Corporation account in Iraq and that’s twenty more PPOs we need to employ.”
    “Already on it,” Sawyer told him.
    Of course he was, Kai thought. Sawyer could juggle a hundred balls in the air and not let any of them fall.
    “Have you made a decision about staying in Mercy yet?”
    “No.” Kai lifted up his hand when he saw Sawyer was about to object. “I’m not going to make an impulsive choice. They gave us three months to make a decision about buying the property and I’m not going to be rushed.”
    “The guys don’t want to leave Mercy.”
    Translation: I don’t want to leave Mercy.
    Kai kept his voice even. “That will be a factor I will take into consideration.”
    Kai heard Sawyer’s frustrated sigh and wished he could just make the damn decision. He