Page 47 of Her Wicked Hero

“Don’t think you’re getting away, Girly.” Marcia saw the van beside her. Oh God, Raymond was trying to push her in. She grabbed the side. No, she wasn’t going. She wasn’t. Her face met cement.

Was that a siren?

He was getting pretty damn sick of seeing her face bruised and scraped. Marcia looked so damn tiny in the hospital bed.

“I don’t think we’ve met before,” the older man said as he got up out of the reclining chair in the corner of the hospital room.

“Zed Zaragoza,” he said as he held out his hand.

The man nodded. “Harold Brockman. I haven’t heard enough about you, Master Chief.”

“Something tells me, you’ve read a lot about me though.”

“You’d be right.” He set down the book he’d been reading.

“How is Marcia doing?” Zed asked. “I came as soon as I heard.”

“About that, how did you hear?”

“Kane McNamara, he’s a member of Night Storm, his specialty is―”

“I know what his specialty is,” Brockman interrupted. “My department tried to recruit him a couple of years ago. So, you had him watching Marcia, did you? Did you think Raymond would come after her? And if you did why in the hell didn’t you give me a heads up?” his tone turned to ice.

“I didn’t think Raymond would come after her, Sir. If I did, you can be damn sure I would have had ensured she was protected,” Zed said with calm authority. “I expect you and I are going to be kicking ourselves for years we didn’t see this coming.” Zed noted Brockman’s flinch.

“Yes, I will,” he agreed. “That still doesn’t tell me why you had her under surveillance.”

“Not under surveillance. Just had her flagged so if anything came up, I would be notified. As soon as the police report came in, I had a copy and was making my flight arrangements.”

“I heard something about her dance card being full?” Brockman gave a half smile.

“I’m taking her back to San Diego with me as soon as she’s discharged from the hospital.”

The man’s smile disappeared. “You are not.”

“Yes, I am. You don’t want to put your family at risk.”

“Marcia is part of my family,” Brockman said tightly.

“Look, I’m not trying to be an ass about this, but you live with two minors, and Marcia’s been damned worried about Lesley coming home. It doesn’t sound like she’s in any shape to take on the stress of having twenty-four/seven guards.”

“Even if Marcia goes with you, my family is still going to have round-the-clock protection.”

Zed rubbed his neck and rolled his stiff right shoulder. “Sir―”

“Call me Harold.”

Zed nodded. “Harold, we need to get to the bottom of why Raymond still wants someone close to you. Is it money? Is it to blackmail you for information? What? But whatever it is, I think we can both agree on one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Marcia bested him in Borneo. You read his file. He hates women. Marcia is now his target to get to whatever he wants. Now, Harold, what does he want?”

“It’s not him, it’s Jefferies,” Brockman sighed. “He used to work with me at the NSA. He was on assignment in Beirut and supposedly died in a car bomb. When Marcia said Raymond mentioned him, we knew we were in trouble.”

“So, Raymond has focused on Marcia to get to you because he’s a sociopath, and he’s the conduit Jefferies has employed. That still doesn’t tell me what Jefferies wants.”

“The projects we worked together on are complete. He shouldn’t know about the things I’m doing now I’ve retired.”