Bound by Honor: Mercenary's Woman

“Recognize anybody?” Cy asked.

Eb shook his head. “None of them are familiar. But I’ll bet if you looked in the right places, you could find a rap sheet or two. Lopez isn’t too picky about pedigrees. He just likes men who don’t mind doing whatever the job takes. Last I heard, he had several foreign nationals in his employ.” He sighed. “I sure as hell don’t want a drug distribution network out here.”

“Neither do I. We’d better go have a word with Bill Elliott at the sheriff’s office.”

Cy shrugged. “You’d better have a word with him by yourself, if you want to get anywhere. I’d jinx you.”

“I remember now. You had words with him over Belinda Jessup’s summer camp.”

“Hard words,” Cy agreed uncomfortably. “I’ve mellowed since, though.”

“You and the KGB.” He pulled his hat further over his eyes. “We’d better get out of here before they spot us.”

“I can see people coming.”

“They can see you coming, too.”

“That should worry them,” Cy agreed, grinning.

Eb chuckled. It was rare these days to see a smile on that hard face. He wheeled his horse, leaving Cy to follow.

THAT AFTERNOON, EB DROVE over to the Johnson place to pick up Sally and Stevie for their self-defense practice.

Sally’s eyes lit up when she saw him and he felt his heart jump. She made him feel warm inside, as if he finally belonged somewhere. Stevie ran past his aunt to be caught up and swung around in Eb’s muscular arms.

“How’s Jess?” Eb asked.

Sally made a face and glanced back toward the house. “Dallas got here just before you did. It’s sort of unarmed combat in there. They aren’t even speaking to each other.”

“Ah, well,” he mused. “Things will improve eventually.”

“Do you gamble?” she teased. “I feel a lucky streak coming on.”

He chuckled as he loaded them into the pickup. No, he wasn’t willing to bet on friendlier relations on that front. Not yet, anyway.

“How much do you know about surveillance equipment?” Sally asked unexpectedly.

He gave her a look of exaggerated patience. “With my background, how much do you think I know?”

She laughed. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Can a microphone really pick up voices inside the house? Jess tried to convince me that they could hear us through the walls and we had to be very careful what we discussed. I mentioned that Lopez man and she shushed me immediately.”

He glanced at her as he drove. “You’ve got a lot to learn. I suppose now is as good a time as any to teach you.”

When he parked the truck at the front door, he led her inside, parking Stevie at the kitchen table with Carl, his cook, who dished up some ice cream for the child while Eb led Sally down the long hall and into a huge room literally crammed with electronic equipment.

He motioned her into a chair and keyed his security camera to a distant view of two cowboys working on a piece of machinery halfway down a rutted path in the meadow.

He flipped a switch and she heard one cowboy muttering to the other about the sorry state of modern tools and how even rusted files were better than what passed for a file today.

They weren’t even talking loud, and if there was a microphone, it must be mounted on the barn wall outside. She looked at Eb with wide, frankly disbelieving eyes.

He flipped the switch and the screen was silent again. “Most modern sound equipment can pick up a whisper several hundred yards away.” He indicated a shelf upon which sat several pairs of odd-looking binoculars. “Night vision. I can see anything on a moonless night with those, and I’ve got others that detect heat patterns in the dark.”

“You have got to be kidding!”

“We have cameras hidden in books and cigarette packs, we have weapons that can be broken down and hidden in boots,” he continued. “Not to mention this.”

He indicated his watch, a quite normal looking one with all sorts of dials. Normal until he adjusted it and a nasty-looking little blade popped out. Her gasp was audible.

He could see the realization in her eyes as the purpose of the blade registered there. She looked up at him and saw the past. His past.

His green eyes narrowed as they searched hers. “You hadn’t really thought about exactly what sort of work I did, had you?”

She shook her head. She was a little paler now.

“I lived in dangerous places, in dangerous times. It’s only in recent years that I’ve stopped looking over my shoulder and sitting with my back against a wall.” He touched her face. “Lopez’s men can hear you through a wall, with the television on. Don’t ever forget. Say nothing that you don’t want recorded for posterity.”

“This Lopez man is very dangerous, isn’t he?” she asked.

“He’s the most dangerous man I know. He hires killers. He has no compassion, no mercy, and he’ll do absolutely anything for profit. If his henchman hadn’t sold him out, he’d never have been taken into custody in this country. It was a fluke.”

She looked around her curiously. “Could he overhear you in here?”

He smiled gently. “Not a chance in hell.”

“It looks like something out of Star Wars,” she mused.

He grinned. “Speaking of movies, how would you and Stevie like to go see a new science fiction flick with me Saturday?”

“Could we?” she asked.

“Sure.” His eyes danced wickedly at the idea of sitting in a darkened theater with her….

CHAPTER SIX

SALLY FOUND THE WORKOUTS easier to do as they progressed from falls to defensive moves. Not only was it exciting to learn such skills, but the constant physical contact with Eb was delightful. She couldn’t really hide that from him. He saw right through her diversionary tactics, grinning when she asked for short breaks.

Stevie was also taking to the exercise with enthusiasm. It wasn’t hard to teach him that such things had no place at school, either. Even at his young age, he seemed to understand that martial arts were for recreation after school and never for the playground.

“It goes with the discipline,” Eb informed her when she told him about it. “Most people who watch martial arts films automatically assume that we teach children to hurt each other. It’s not like that. What we teach is a way to raise self-esteem and self-confidence. If you know you can handle yourself in a bad situation, you’re less likely to go out and try to beat somebody up to prove it. It’s lack of self-confidence, lack of self-esteem, that drives a lot of kids to violence.”

“That, and a very sad lack of attention by the adults around them,” Sally said quietly. “It takes two incomes to run a household these days, but it’s the kids who are suffering for it. Any gang member will tell you the reason he joined a gang was because he wanted to be part of a family. But how do we change things so that parents can earn a living and still have enough free time to raise their children?”

He put both hands on his narrow hips and studied her closely. “If I could answer that question, I’d run for public office.”

She grinned at him. “I can see you now, mopping the floor with the criminal element on the streets.”

He shrugged. “Piece of cake compared to what I used to do for a living.”