Sunday. Hôtel Tfeila Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Felix opened his eyes. Part of his brain was still asleep, but something had brought him out of a deep sleep. He sat up and blinked. Light flooded the room from two sides. The thin curtains didn’t do anything for blocking out the post-dawn sun.

A person stood at the foot of the bed. His brain registered them as nonthreatening, but out of place.

“Val, go away.” Jackie groaned and tugged at the blankets up over her head.

He glanced at the woman next to him and the woman at the foot of the bed.

Fuck, he must have been sleeping hard.

Val doubled over laughing, at what, he didn’t know.

“You’re a terrible person, Val,” Jackie yelled from under the linens.

“As amusing as this is, your guys are looking for you?” Val grinned and thumbed over her shoulder.

Oh, damn. “Why? What’s going on?” He shifted and his bare ass slid across the sheets.

“I don’t know.” Val shrugged and took a step backward. “He answered the room phone then started calling out names. I figured something was about to happen and I hadn’t seen Jackie alive yet. You coming?”

“In a minute.” Felix kept a grip on the sheets.

Val’s grin widened, and she backed out of the door, closing it behind her. He had a feeling she was enjoying this far more than was necessary.

“Is she gone?” Jackie peered out over the sheets.

“Yeah. Go back to sleep.” Felix had never slept that heavily while on a job. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stepped on his shorts. Well, there was one thing he didn’t have to go looking for. He pulled them on and stood all in one go.

Jackie sat up, her arms stretching toward the ceiling. She had his white shirt on, the one he wore with the shorts he had on now.

“I need that, if you don’t mind?” If Kyle was yelling names, something must have happened.

“Oh.” Jackie glanced down at herself. Another time he’d admire the view. The thin shirt didn’t hide anything. “Right. Sorry.”

She pulled it off and tossed it at him.

“Your clothes are over here.” He pulled his shirt on and nodded at the pile. He remembered making that.

“Thanks.” She slid out of bed, one arm across her breasts. “What’s going on?”

“No idea.” He cocked his head, listening for voices, but couldn’t hear them. “You okay? Need anything? Want anything?”

She paused stepping into her panties and pats to frown at him.

“No. Go. I’ll be right behind you.” She pulled the clothes up, gifting him with probably his favorite view so far. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time with her breasts last night. “I’d say take a picture, but don’t. Go.”

“I’m going. I’m going.”

Felix ducked out of the room and into the hall. He had a straight view into the next suite, and the line of men entering it in black tactical gear. He paused, barefoot and without a weapon on him, but no one glanced his way.

“Duke!” Kyle called out, the rest of his sentence lost in the low hum of voices.

Friendlies.

It was about time they caught a break.

Felix padded forward, conscious of how being out of his greens and coming from the asset quarters looked. Well, it was the truth, and they were all adults. Isaac never apologized for sleeping with a VIP, so why did Felix feel like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t?

He ducked into the suite packed with people. Kyle and a dark-skinned man were in the middle of it all, giving orders and pointing people in different directions.

Someone jabbed an elbow in Felix’s ribs.

He glanced at Isaac that stupid grin on his face.

“Thanks for joining us, Val-holla.”

“Fuck you.” The reply was more automatic than anything else.

“I’d say you fucked someone else last night.”

Felix headed for his room before he punched Isaac. This wasn’t a notch in a bedpost or a trophy to brag about. This was Jackie’s life, and Felix was part of it now. He’d known after meeting her, after seeing what made her tick, that he liked her. Things were just happening faster than he’d intended.

He stepped into the room he was supposed to share with Adam. The other man nodded by way of a greeting while putting on his vest and tactical gear.

“We moving out?” Felix asked. He grabbed his last pair of greens. Supposedly the hotel laundry service would have the other two pair back to them today, but he wouldn’t hold his breath.

“Hope so,” Adam replied.

“Everyone up?” Felix shed his shorts and shirt, then began pulling on his company issue clothing.

“They are now. Figured we’d let you and Jackie sleep as long as possible.”

Felix stared. Was it his imagination, or was Adam smiling at him?

He ducked out of the room while Felix was still too shocked for words. Adam did something besides sit and stare. Who knew?

Felix finished dressing, shoved his feet in his boots and pulled his vest on to be safe. Just about ready for anything. He ducked out of the room. It had thinned out somewhat, most of the newcomers spreading out into the other room.

Kyle, the rest of their team, Jackie and Val, plus two black men stood at the two dining tables they’d pushed together from the suites to make a command center. Felix approached the group and peered at the creased, old map spread out on the surface.

“Our men are still here, with the sick.” The bigger of the two newcomers leaned forward and tapped an X on the outer part of the map. He put his finger on a spot roughly six inches away. “We got as close as here before we had to abandon the idea of getting to them.”

“Why?” Jackie’s face creased, the lines of worry back.

“The military is pulling back to the city center. They don’t have enough manpower to fight the PPM forces on all fronts.”

“What? How is that possible?” Jackie glanced at the rest of them.

“Duke, are we sure there aren’t more forces headed this way?” Kyle asked.

“No.” Duke stared at Kyle, his face grim. “They’re abandoning the city.”

“Because General Taleb is pulling them back,” Jackie said.

“What?” Duke frowned.

“We might have a little intel.” Kyle blew out a breath. “Felix?”

Felix nodded. Kyle wanted a moment to mull things over and the easiest way of doing that was handing off the intel dump. As the tactical officer, it was Felix’s responsibility to keep a running tally of what the hell was going on.

“We believe this whole civil war is the brain child of Zeina Razqa,” he said. Might as well get that out of the way.

“The jewelry designer?” Duke’s brow furrowed and his expression might have been comical were it not for the severity of the situation.

“She’s funding the PPM.”

“How do you know that?” Duke pinned him with a steady stare. The man wasn’t buying what they were selling. Yet.

“We were in a unique situation to overhear Zeina talking with General Taleb. He knows she’s funding this, and the general wants her to partner with him instead for a military coup. The general won’t support the PPM’s leader as president and he plans to make things difficult for Zeina.”

“Are you serious?” Duke glanced around the table at the rest of them.

“I heard the conversation and translated it for the others.” Jackie raised her hand.

“Ms. Davis.” Duke held out his hand. “I wish I could have met you under better circumstances.”

“Me, too. Kyle’s said nothing but good things about you and your team.”

“Why would a jewelry designer want to disrupt an entire country? And what evidence do you have of this?” Duke straightened, glancing from Jackie to Felix and back.

“Gold. She wants the gold mines.” Felix glanced at Kyle.

“We might have the personal assistant to the leader of the PPM handcuffed in our bathroom,” Kyle said slowly.

“You—what?” Duke shook his head. “I wish I couldn’t believe it, but working with you, it’s always an experience.”

For a moment, they all stared at the map. Someone had drawn the military line around the city center that comprised the presidential palace and important government buildings. If they lost the seat of power, the rest of the country would follow. The population was too concentrated here.

“Let’s just say it.” Felix sighed. “Whoever controls the city center controls the country. Do we agree?”

“Yes,” Duke replied, echoed by the rest of them.

“The new government needs support, people to acknowledge them.” Felix stared at Jackie. “That’s why PPM wants Jackie. She’s a bargaining chip.”

“They won’t need her if the president doesn’t make an appearance soon.” Duke leaned an arm on the back of a chair. “No one has seen him since the shooting yesterday.”

“Where would they take him if he was injured?” Val asked.

“We don’t know, but the rumors have started.” Duke shook his head. “He’s dead. He’s fatally wounded. He’s running. If the president doesn’t make an appearance soon and a show of strength, they’ve lost the city, and if they lose the city, they lose the country. This was so much less troubling when we thought it was an uprising. If this is an organized coup...”

“You want to talk to our informant?” Kyle asked.

“Yes. I’d like to see this man for myself.” Duke glanced at the rest of them. “You need to get out as soon as possible.”

“We’re working on it,” Felix said.

“Adam?” Kyle nodded at the other man, an unspoken command passing between them.

“Novak.” Duke frowned at the name stitched on Adam’s shirt. “I knew a Doctor Novak once.”

“CDC? Probably my wife.” Adam turned and strode toward the bathroom where Lemine was bound.

Kyle, Isaac, the others all found somewhere else to look.

“Did he just say...wife?” Felix asked.

“We don’t talk about Heidi Novak,” Kyle said softly.

“Yeah, don’t go there,” Isaac said.

“I didn’t know...” Duke seemed as lost as Felix.

Shit. Felix had worked with Adam for over a year and he was just now hearing the guy was married?

Adam returned, hauling a pissed-off Lemine after him.

“Duke, meet our informant, Lemine.” Kyle gestured at the bound man. “We did trick him into helping us, so keep that in mind.”

Jackie couldn’t listen to Lemine anymore. She wandered away from the tables, through the conjoining door, but couldn’t go any farther. She might not want to hear what he was saying again, but she didn’t want to be too far away from Val.

The words coming out of his mouth were vile. Disgusting. If she’d had any idea what was going on before she’d planned this trip she’d have pushed harder for more support. If the PPM took power it would be a devastating blow for so many people.

“Hey.” Felix stepped into her path.

“Are you listening to that?” She glanced at where Kyle and Duke were asking Lemine questions.

“I don’t speak Arabic, remember?”

“But you get the gist of it?” Jackie’s gaze snagged with Val’s. She could see how much the situation affected her. It was in the creases of her brow, the pronounced frown, how tight her arms were crossed over her chest.

“Yeah, but until someone gives me a map or numbers to work with I’m probably better helping... I don’t know, pack?”

“Felix? This is bad.” She stopped and stared up at him. “We’ve gone into some scary situations, but this?”

“Hey. We’re going to get out of this.”

“What about everyone else? What about the people who live here?” She gestured at Lemine. “He’s talking about enacting the strictest interpretation of Islamic law and bringing back slavery.”

“Do you think the PPM can take power without the support of the military?”

“I don’t know.” She chewed her lip and crossed her arms over her chest. “What if the general wants the PPM to be briefly the party in power? If he stages a coup, then he’s the savior and not the usurper.”

“Would military rule be better?”

“I have no idea. To be honest, I haven’t paid attention to the politics here since the election. We’ve been focused on the natural disaster relief lately. I can’t imagine that military rule would be better. The president is probably the most forward-thinking that’s ever been elected. To the rest of the world, yeah, he’s still ultra conservative, but it’s a move in the right direction.”

“What were they saying earlier about the fighting in the outer areas of the city? I missed what was going on.” Felix nodded at Duke leaning over the table.

“Just that residents were doing everything possible to make it difficult for the PPM buses and forces to move through the streets. Can you blame them? They just elected a president who thinks in terms of the whole country and not the upper class and he’s taken away from them.”

“I see.”

“Have we checked on flights yet?” The most responsible thing to do would be to get her team out of here. They hadn’t signed up to pitch in to help the wounded of a civil war. Not to mention the whole powder keg scared her.

“Yeah.” Felix grimaced.

“Nothing?”

“They said they were booking what they knew they could land and get out, that there might be something opening up later in the day if the winds cooperated.”

“Shit.” She pivoted just to do something and stopped facing Felix again. It wasn’t unheard of for planes to struggle to land, what with winds coming off the ocean and desert meeting here on the coast. “What’s the right thing to do? I don’t want to leave the rest of our people out there.”

“I think the rough plan was to get as much intel as possible and then they are going to go get everyone. Don’t forget, they have four guys out there caring for those people.”

“I know. I know. It makes me feel worse about leaving.”

“We’ve been over this—”

“I know. The best thing for me to do—for everyone involved—is leave. It just feels wrong.”

“Your feelings don’t matter,” Val said from almost right behind Jackie.

Jackie flinched and turned toward her friend.

Val stared back at her with those hard, unyielding eyes.

“You’re a liability to everyone else, Jack.” Val stared into Jackie’s eyes. There was some compassion there, but not much. “Everything we find out says they wanted to use you to force your dad to support the opposition. I’m a nurse, not a politician, but even I know that’s bad. Power follows money. We see it time and time again. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if you were forwarded those pictures to get you here.”

“You really think that’s a possibility?”

“A month ago, I’d have called you crazy if you’d told me what has happened the last two weeks. I’m not a good judge for what’s possible and isn’t anymore.” Val threw up her hands and sighed. The whole scope of the situation was overwhelming.

“We have to go. I know.” Jackie swallowed. She didn’t like the taste of truth right now.

“No, you have to go,” Val said softly.

“Wait—you aren’t coming?” The idea of leaving here without Val was like asking Jackie to leave her left arm.

“The PPM forces are looking for you. The rest of us, not so much. Duke has two guys in the hospital that nearly died because it took them too long—”

“Val...”

“—to get to the hospital. They need someone with them who has the kind of medical and field training to handle combat situations.”

“Christ.” Jackie squeezed her eyes shut. If she’d done more homework, waited longer to move, or even gone in faster, would they be at this crossroads?

“Felix?” Shane beckoned the Viking from the other room.

“Go.” Jackie nodded at the door. Felix didn’t have to be here for this, and she’d rather talk to her best friend alone.

Val leaned in and wrapped her arms around Jackie, giving her a tight squeeze. “If you had your head screwed on tighter, you’d point out that I’m making the same kind of emotional decision you make. That I look at this full blown civil war and I see the same horrific thing I grew up in. And you’d be right, but you’re so twisted around you can’t take advantage of this unique opportunity. So I guess I have to be my own bad guy.”

Jackie snorted a laugh even as the first tear fell. This was her best friend. The one person who mattered most to her, and Val wanted Jackie to leave her behind? How could she ask that?

“It sounds like Duke’s group has a plan.” Val leaned back, her arms still around Jackie’s waist. “Now, I don’t speak Arabic, so I’m going on what I’ve heard so far, but I’m staying. No matter what happens, they’re going to need a lot of doctors and nurses here to help with the wounded. I’m worried those same doctors and nurses they need have fled the country. I have to stay, Jack.”

“This is a completely different situation than what you grew up in.” Jackie swiped at her cheeks.

“It is, and it isn’t. I’m still staying. I’m not the one who is a liability here.”

“Okay.” Jackie turned toward the kitchenette where the other two nurses and doctor had set up to check out the few guys who had injuries. “Are they staying, too?”

“We talked. We’re all staying.”

What an odd turn of events this was.

“If the PPM do seize power, you know—”

“I’ll be fine, Jack. I’ve lived through worse already, okay?” Val grasped her hand and squeezed. “Besides, at some point you have to dish on the deets about your new guy and tell me how right I was.”

“Oh, my God.” Jackie covered her face with her hand. Her cheeks practically burned her fingers.

“That good, huh?”

“I’m so not talking to you about that now. And here. You just walked in this morning.”

“Would you have preferred me, or one of his meathead friends?”

“You.” Jackie squeezed her eyes shut.

“Only you would have to go halfway across the globe to find a decent guy who lives in the same city as you do. Just saying. You have to be difficult.” Val wrapped her arms around Jackie and squeezed tight.

“You’re one to talk.”

Jackie stepped back and blew out a breath. Moments like these, she wanted to be anyone else. She’d taken the cards dealt to her as a kid and chosen a path she believed in. It wasn’t always easy, there were gallons of tears, but she’d gotten to know people who made the world a better place. Like Val.

“I need to say goodbye.” Jackie cleared her throat and turned.

Dr. Lefebvre and the nurses were packing up their gear. They all hoped to be heading out today at some point.

“Val said you’re all staying.” Jackie pressed her hands to her hips before she remembered that yoga pants did not have pockets.

“We are.” Dr. Lefebvre nodded. “You brought us here to help.” Dr. Lefebvre gestured at the windows and the city spread out around them. “There’s a lot of need here. You? You should leave.”

“You don’t think—”

The crackle of a radio and the frantic words sent a chill through Jackie’s veins. She held up her hand to stall Dr. Lefebvre from speaking and listened to the newcomer’s radio.

“What? What are they saying?” Dr. Lefebvre whispered.

Jackie’s mouth was dry. Her throat wouldn’t work.

All around them men got to their feet. They yelled orders.

“Jackie, what the hell?” Val grabbed her arm.

“The military is pulling back to the palace. PPM forces are breaching the barricades.”

Sunday. Hôtel Tfeila, Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Zeina would not lose control of the situation. She couldn’t. Not after the amount of money she’d sunk into supporting Samba Hamadi. Which was why she was opting for the hands-on approach.

The driver pulled up to the doors of the Hôtel Tfeila and eased to a stop.

She opened her door, and the others followed suit.

“Ma’am? Is this a good idea?” the driver asked.

“Wait here.” She stood, the scent of smoke thick on the air. The barricades were burning and the hands holding the power changing.

Her mercenaries stuck close to her sides. They at least understood that payment was contingent on her survival. Samba’s men said a team of five were responsible for stealing the Davis girl away, so she’d brought ten men with her.

The leader barked orders, sending some to the left, some right, and the rest to the elevators with her.

No one was behind the desk and the lobby was otherwise empty save for them. Even the ambient music was off, leaving only the thump of boots.

Zeina slowed to a stop and frowned at the gleaming surface of the marble desk.

“Where is everyone?” she asked.

“There probably aren’t many people working right now.”

“Check outside.” She couldn’t ignore her gut.

“Ma’am—”

“Do as I said,” she snapped.

If even a whisper of the PPM attack during the daylight got out, a smart team would move their charge. For all she knew, her intel on the whereabouts of the Davis girl could be old.

“Over here,” someone called out.

Zeina strode toward the man.

The glass door gave her a view out onto the side lot. A truck idled, the back open and people climbing in. she only needed a flash of too pale skin to tell her these were likely her targets.

“Get them,” she barked.

The four men at the doors charged forward. Feet thundered down the hall behind her, more people responding to the orders.

The last of the people jumped into the back of the truck.

One of the mercenaries fired off a shot, pinging off the back of the truck.

“Don’t shoot! She’s worth nothing dead.” Zeina shoved through the door.

“They’re headed around to the front. Cut them off.” The leader pushed past her and sprinted down the hall.

The truck turned, following the parking lot.

A figure swathed in white tumbled out the back, and the vehicle didn’t stop.

“Get him,” she said to the nearest guard.

Whoever it was couldn’t be worth much if his friends had left him. Then again, in difficult times it was every man for himself.

She clenched her hands and stepped back into the hotel.

What a waste.

They wouldn’t stop the truck at the entrance, and Samba’s forces were not coordinated well enough to ensure they caught the truck on the streets. If General Taleb found out about the Davis girl he would understand her worth when it came to bargaining.

Perhaps she’d backed the wrong horse in this race. Doubling down on Samba might have been the wrong thing to do, but there was no way she would marry an old man like Papis Taleb.

“Ma’am?” one of the mercenaries called out.

She turned, glancing at the dark-skinned man held between the two.

“Lemine?” She frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“They kidnapped me,” he snarled.

“Let him go.” Zeina closed the distance between them. “Who? The Americans?”

“Yes, and they’re trying to escape.” He flung his hand out toward where the truck had disappeared.

“How? Did you hear where they’re going?” Her luck could be changing.

“The airport.”

There were only two paths to the airport traversable by vehicle now. If they were fast—and lucky—she could pull this off. But she would need help.

Who did she trust more? Samba, or Papis?