The Protector of Ambra (Mercenaries of Fortune, #5) Read Free Page A

dumbest person alive if she didn’t try to exploit that. “Pierce, buddy,” she said, slapping her hand across his arm. “You’re noble.”
    Pierce’s magazine-white teeth blared against his tanned skin. “I already said I’d help, but go on. This sounds like it’s going to be good.”
    “Hear me out. Pretend that ‘no’ is not an option.”
    “Wow.”
    “I’m just saying that since you work for the government and I’m an American citizen in distress, you’re kinda obligated to help me and others. I told you what I do. How many people are helped by my tiny business? Those people and their families...” She paused for the most dramatic headshake on Earth. “Think of the children.”
    “Yours?”
    “No. Ours,” she said, swinging her arm away from her chest. “All the kids of those workers in the fields who are benefiting from the increased incomes from Sweet Happiness—”
    “Chocolate Haus. Yeah, got it,” Pierce said, stopping again and crossing his arms. He sighed into his fist and appeared as though he were in the middle of the craziest argument with himself.
    “You’re thinking about it. Good. Let the guilt get real deep in that noble brain of yours.”
    “Oh my God.”
    She wasn’t just blowing smoke up his butt, though it was likely working. She was right. Her work was good. It was beneficial to her. It was beneficial to the farmers. Anyone shady enough to steal money from that ought to get punched in the kidneys. Melody sized up Pierce’s fist and smiled at her good judgment. He looked like the kidney punching type. “Pierce?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I can’t waste time staying in a hotel while bad things are happening to people and to my money. If there’s solid proof here of something dirty, I need to find it. The evidence I need to nail the bastard to the wall is in the jungle. You’re going to take me there.”
    “And we’re supposed to magically find...what? A compound? A business office?”
    She dug in her heels, refusing to back down. “You took a picture of my face and discovered my life. You could find freaking Brigadoon on that phone if you wanted to. Plus, I have the address. It’s in that phone you saved,” she said, sucking her teeth with a loud smack. “Unless you want to hurt the little children.”
    “Enough. I’ll help.”
    “Doesn’t it feel good to do the right thing?”
    “Not really,” he said, with his head rolled back and his eyes closed. “It feels a lot like unemployment.”

Chapter Three
    P ierce waited in the jeep they’d rented while Melody leaned against the hood and called her credit card companies. Plenty of other people would have been in hysterics over what she’d gone through. The woman was tough. He liked her, though he had no good reason to tell her the truth that his heroic government job had very little to do with the government.
    Or heroism.
    This noble quest of his involved breaking into a monastery and stealing a priceless artifact. Well, not totally priceless. Therein lay the rub. To raise funds for the parish, local monks were selling off some Olmec pieces. The treasures had been property of the church since the days of the conquistadors and before then, in the hands of the Maya. Now they were on the auctioning block.
    Pierce had to get them. One of them anyway.
    The Knights of Ambra had very rigid rules about their work. His organization did whatever was necessary to save cultural treasures. They’d kept Sassanid vases and Greek triremes safe in their warehouses, while returning lost royal jewels and Fifth Century books to the descendants of former owners. It was a dignified livelihood and a harsh one. It was why so many of his teammates were former military or intelligence.
    And then there was him. He’d left his life of luxury and joined the Navy to help others. Then some terrorist bastard had left him with a near worthless knee. The injury resulted in a medical drop from the front lines.
    He’d recovered after countless