The Mercenary: The Savage Seven. Katherine Garbera

peace there. Ooo-rah. The companies that were trying to ship oil and other freight through the region had to be good and pissed at the hijackings that had taken place over the last six months.

      “Why Jo’burg?”

      “Anna’s on the horn with a high-profile witness to a murder. It happened on Onyx Diamond Group property, so the local authorities have no jurisdiction.”

      “What do you want us to do?”

      “It appears the shooter was the woman’s fiancé,” Savage said.

      “Bodyguard and extraction duty?” Laz asked. God, he hated doing that kind of thing. “We aren’t babysitters. We are guns for hire.”

      “I know that,” Jack said.

      “Why can’t Liberty Investigations handle this?” Kirk asked. He really didn’t want to have to go to Johannesburg right now. “Send her to her embassy and tell them to keep her safe.”

      “Liberty doesn’t have anyone close enough. Look, she’s scared and freaking out and she’s a friend of Anna’s. Just keep her safe until we can get there,” Savage said.

      “What’s her name?” Kirk asked.

      “Olivia Pontuf. She’s an American but recently lived in London. She’s been in Johannesburg for the last six weeks with her fiancé, Ray Lambert, managing director of Onyx Diamond Mines.”

      “Do you have mission specs on this?”

      “I’m sending a file to you both right now.”

      Kirk received the file on his satellite smartphone and opened it up. The woman was beautiful. Breathtaking, really, even on the tiny display screen of his smartphone.

      “Well, hello,” Laz said. “Forget about my needing time off.”

      Kirk laughed. Laz was always on the make. Of all the guys on the team, he was the closest thing they had to a playboy. Most of the men were like Kirk, more interested in the job.

      Kirk didn’t know if Olivia Pontuf was anything like Anna Sterling. If she was, then Kirk could understand Laz getting excited over her. Anna was one of the few women Kirk had met in the last few years who had held his interest.

      Looking at that woman, he wondered why she’d thought about getting married. She didn’t look like the wife-and-mother type. But then who was he to judge someone by their looks? He remembered his sweet little wife—Abby. He’d once wanted a family, but that desire had died with his young wife and stillborn son more than twenty years ago.

      That event and the USMC had shaped him into the man he was today.

      Chapter Four

      AUGUST 1, SANDTON

      Olivia couldn’t stop panicking as she drove back to the house she’d shared with Ray—a murderer. She tried in her mind to justify what he’d done. Maybe he had some sort of explanation that would make it all okay.

      But she highly doubted that. He’d pointed a gun at her. How was he going to explain that?

      He’d killed a man. No matter how she sliced it, she couldn’t forget that. Anna had promised to send a man from her husband’s team to protect her.

      The irony of this situation wasn’t lost on Olivia. Ray, the one man she’d relied on to protect her in this hostile, beautiful world, was now the one she needed protection from.

      She still had the envelope he’d asked her to bring to the mines and she had nothing else. Her handbag. A nice designer clutch that held only her lipstick, coin purse, and one credit card. Hardly enough to get her out of the country. And though Anna had said to go directly to the airport, Olivia knew she needed clothes and more money.

      She drove with a purpose, no longer enjoying the scenery but instead flying through the city streets until she reached her residential neighborhood. She pushed the button that activated the gate to her community.

      The guard smiled and waved at her and she forced herself to wave back. She felt her breath getting shorter as images kept flashing through her mind. Images of Ray shooting someone—she still didn’t know who. And images of Ray glaring at her as she drove past his car, aiming his gun at her.

      He would have killed her.

      Her hands started to shake and she almost lost it, but there was no time for that. She forced everything to the back of her mind and found a kind of calm that she knew was false. She only had to keep it together until she got to the airport. Then she would get on the plane and get the hell out of South Africa.

      She pulled into the circle drive of the house she shared with him. Burati came to the front door as she came up the walk.

      Her bodyguard…would he protect her? She had no idea, and she didn’t want to take a chance that Ray may have called him and asked him to keep her here.

      “Shall I bring the car around back, Ms. Pontuf?” Burati asked.

      She shook her head. “I’ll be going back out soon. I have a lunch date with a friend of mine.”

      “Very well, ma’am.”

      “Burati? Has Mr. Lambert called?”

      “No, ma’am.”

      Olivia nodded. She felt safer knowing that Burati hadn’t talked to Ray. He might not like her, but she didn’t think he’d kill her.

      She walked calmly into the house, not wanting to alert the guard if what he said was true. She went straight to her office and found her backup flash drive, then she went to her closet and took down her Louis Vuitton duffel. She grabbed clothes randomly and tossed them in. Then she changed her shoes from the heels she had on to her running shoes. She went to the bathroom and grabbed toiletries off the vanity.

      And walked out the door. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard the rumble of Burati’s voice. She didn’t speak Afrikaans well enough to understand what he was saying. But she didn’t take any chances. She went back into Ray’s office and opened that middle drawer again. This time she took everything in there and put it in her duffel.

      She had no idea if it was important or not, but she wanted everything she could find on Ray. Anything she could use to figure out what was going on.

      She walked into the hallway, pulled her sunglasses on, and made her way to the front door. In the large foyer with its marble floors and gilt-framed artwork she heard Burati’s voice.

      “Ms. Pontuf?”

      She kept walking. This foyer represented what she’d always thought of as security. How foolish had that been? Things couldn’t protect her. Money couldn’t protect her, either, she realized. She walked out the door, hearing Burati behind her but very afraid to stop and talk to the man.

      She got in the car as he came to the door. She noticed he had his hand on the butt of his handgun as she climbed into the car and locked the doors. Her car was bulletproof and she knew Burati wouldn’t waste a bullet on the car.

      She started the engine and put the car in drive. She wondered if they’d let her leave the compound. She didn’t worry about that right now. She just had to get away. If Burati had been alerted to what had happened, that meant Ray knew she’d seen something.

      Her mobile phone rang and she glanced at the caller ID. Ray.

      Should she answer it?

      She had no idea what to do, but went ahead and answered the call because she needed to know what he was going to do. If he believed she had seen him kill a man or if she’d simply driven by him and noticed the gun.

      “Hello,” she said, trying to sound calm and as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about her day.

      “Olivia,” Ray said. “Where are you? I need you to go to the house and wait there for me.”

      “I can’t do that, Ray.”