Page 49 of Marked

She swatted his chest but rewarded him with another chuckle. If all he could do throughout this ordeal was keep her from crumbling and make her laugh, he’d oblige.

Hell, when had he ever made someone laugh before? Yeah, he’d made smart-ass comments that often got a guffaw. But the shy, playful kind of exchange he’d just had was entirely new.

Normally, with women, it was sex. Hard and fast. Not a whole lot of talk and sure as hell not a lot of giggles from them, unless it was of delight.

Either way, this was unchartered territory. And he needed to be careful as hell if he wanted to survive the next twelve hours or so until he could rid his life of Sophia.

***

Sophia stared at the living room full of people from her spot on the couch—men and women who, just yesterday, were strangers to her personally and suspects to her professionally.

She was on the other side of the law. A person this crew should detest, or at least not want to get involved with. Yet all of them were rallying to bring home Bella. A child they’d never met to a woman they shouldn’t care to know.

Dallas and Gemma, Lexi and Nash, Dare and Tess, and, of course, Cole—none of them had balked at the opportunity to help. They moved around the living room with ease, packing items and suiting up with weapons, a well-oiled machine. If she didn’t know any better, she’d believe they rescued children for a living. Gemma sat next to her, her attention diverted to something Dallas had asked her.

Nash tossed Cole a small box. “Earbud. Let’s do a test.”

The guys all plugged in their earpieces and communicated.

“Where’d you guys get all this stuff?” Sophia trailed her finger over a pair of night-vision goggles on the coffee table. Tess swooped them up and stuffed them in a duffel bag.

Her question hadn’t been directed to anyone in particular, but Dare made eye contact with her. “It’s not like we use equipment like this on the regular. Good to have, though.”

She nodded. The gadgets certainly weren’t something the average person would have access to, let alone have on hand. But this wasn’t an ordinary group of people. These were criminals with illegally gained money to spend on whatever crap they wanted.

Which should bother the hell out of her, but right now it didn’t.

“I think you guys should go over the plan again,” Gemma said, shifting on the couch next to Sophia.

“We’ve got it, babe.” Dallas winked.

Gemma’s eyebrows bounced. “Well, you might need to repeat it for the people in the back. Not everyone is used to following a plan.”

Dallas snickered as he pulled a bulletproof vest over his navy-blue T-shirt. “I think that jab was for you, Cole.”

Cole strapped a holster to his ankle and fit a Beretta at the small of his back. He shrugged. “Not going to argue.”

Lexi, standing close to Nash, leaned toward Sophia. “Cole isn’t exactly a team player.”

“You say that like I need to be.” Cole’s tone lacked an edge, but he shot a pointed glance at Lexi.

She held up a hand. “Well, there was that time in Colomb—”

Nash shoved a laptop into her arms, cutting her off. His hard stare told Sophia that Lexi had almost divulged something the rest of the team didn’t want her to know.

Sophia shrunk in her seat a little. Once again, she wished she was in the action, as usual. Not shoved to the sidelines like a wallflower. But she couldn’t expect them to trust her.

Tess grimaced at Lexi’s obvious misstep before speaking. “Okay, I’ll go over the plan for anyone who wants to listen.” She cleared her throat. “Nash and Dare will hit the ranch-hand building, coming from the east. First, they’ll take out the guard stationed near the house. Cole and Dallas will take the barn after striking the two guards on duty near the road. They’ll work their way into the property from the west.”

“No one”—Tess pointed a slender finger at Cole—“goes to the main house alone. The four of you meet after clearing the two outbuildings, and if Bella isn’t there, then you all move to the house. Any questions?”

Fresh sweat collected on the back of Sophia’s neck. “If Bella’s in one of the outbuildings, you’ll leave immediately, right?”

Tess swung her gaze to Lexi and then Gemma.

Cole stepped forward. His bulletproof vest made him look like a Navy SEAL or some other kind of wildly buff military dude. His black T-shirt stretched around his biceps, and another holster was tucked under his arm. His hair was combed back and his tattoos were on display. He was ready for action.

One word blipped through her mind on repeat: hot.

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