Mercenaries 1 Private Skirmish Read Free Page B

snapped it around her wrist. “What with the shock of seeing you again, I forgot to give you this last night.”
    “What’s that for?” She fingered the delicate silver swirls. The pattern was intricately woven and she couldn’t even see where the catch was. “It’s beautiful.” Just when she thought she understood the wily mercenary, he did something like this. The thing looked like it cost big bucks.
    “Don’t get all sentimental on me. It’s a com-link bracelet. Now I won’t have to lose any sleep wondering where the hell you’ve wandered off to. I can call and ask.”
    Snake snorted, a derisive grin on his face. “Old Kaeden here thinks if you had a chance, maybe you might have called his sorry ass sometime during the last couple of years.”
    Kaeden picked an apple out of the bowl on the table and lobbed the fruit at Snake’s head, barely missing as the man plucked it out of the air just before it connected with his face. “You haven’t learned any manners while she was gone. Sit down and shut up.” He turned to Dee. “We all have com-links now. If we’re separated we can keep in touch. No big deal. Yours looks like a piece of jewelry so no one is going to question it. The rest of us have them hidden in different places.” He pointed to the shiny green stone in the center of the silver swirls. “That big gem is actually a liquid crystal. It can receive pictures or files from any of us. Another one of Jackson’s handy little inventions.”
    “Okay, I guess it will be more useful than a real bracelet.” She secretly wished he had surprised her with a real piece of jewelry.
    She looked at the men lounging around the room. She’d missed them all, missed their ready humor and their fierce loyalty to each other. Jackson, with his knack for all things techy. Pete the pyro, who loved to make things blow up. Snake, who grew up in the bayou and could sneak up behind you so quietly you’d swear he was a ghost. Trace, with his ability to track anyone without tipping them off. And last but not least, Shotgun, the team’s sharpshooter. Once Shotgun went after a target, it was only a matter of time before it had a neat hole through it. Kaeden was the nominal leader, but each man was an essential part of the team.
    She felt a smile curve her lips for the first time since she’d realized Wren was gone. “So if you guys want to help look for my sister, I’d really appreciate it. I don’t seem to be making much headway on my own.”
    “Might be fun to go looking for an innocent person for a change. Not a lot of them around these days.” Jackson stood, stretching to his full six and a half feet. “Tell us a bit about the sister and how you managed to lose her.” He pulled a tablet out of his pocket, his fingers poised expectantly over it as he waited for her to speak. If information was available anywhere in the Ethernet, Jackson could find it.
    “Go ahead.” Kaeden leaned back and stretched an arm along the back of her chair. “Jackson’s been getting bored lately, and you know how obnoxious he can get when he’s got nothing to do. Sic him on someone.”
    Dee nodded. “Her name is Wren, like the little bird. She just turned twenty last month and she’s small, but wiry. She has blonde hair down to her ass, and she usually wears it in a ponytail. Says it gets in the way if she leaves it loose. I was tracking down a lead in the Loden Province when I got careless and the feds picked me up and sent me to auction.”
    She paused, watching as Jackson’s fingers danced across the tablet. “We were in the market sector, bartering some of the herbs we raised for meat when she disappeared. Wren said she was going to see if she could find some stakes for the taller plants, and I didn’t even see which way she went. They had to be pros to grab her from a public market like that.”
    The nightmare threatened to overwhelm her again. The bewilderment when she couldn’t find Wren, then the dawning knowledge