Ransom (Benson Security 4)

“We wait,” Lake said, in that tone that brooked no argument. “We need more information first.”

“They’re out of contact right now anyway.” Rachel held her ever-present iPhone in front of her as her red talons tapped at the screen. “Their flight to Brazil is in the air. They won’t land for another four hours.”

“Then you have four hours before I tell Joe,” Grunt said.

Everyone in the room, bar Harvard, looked at Grunt. The man was huge and built like the Hulk on steroids. He rarely spoke, and when he did, he generally could not be moved. Ryan noticed that even Callum and Lake were leery of arguing with him. There was an uncomfortable silence.

Megan let out an exasperated sigh. “Claire, you want to deal with this?”

Claire looked up at her husband with suspiciously convenient tear-filled eyes. “Baby, this is upsetting me. And the baby. I agree we should tell Joe, but a few more hours won’t hurt. Will it? Can’t we wait until the team knows more? For me?” She

pouted as she rubbed a hand over her swollen belly.

Ryan felt his jaw drop. There was no way Grunt would fall for that act. She wasn’t even trying to be believable. He watched in awe as Grunt wrapped an arm around his wife and pulled her into his side. “Don’t cry, baby. I hate it when you cry.”

“What the hell?” Ryan whispered to Elle.

“Love is a mysterious thing,” Elle whispered back before she grinned.

Grunt grunted. “Ransom time,” he told Lake. “You have until midday.”

“Thank you.” Claire pressed a kiss to his chest while she gave her sister a thumbs-up.

Everyone else looked on with bewilderment.

“Elle,” Lake said, “you keep working, narrow down a search grid. Dimitri and Megan, arrange transport. If we’re going into the rainforest to get them, we’ll need a helicopter, a boat, and a guide we can trust.”

“That’s asking a lot,” Dimitri said. “We don’t know who’s taken them, and we don’t know who to trust.”

Elle’s fingers stilled on her keyboard. “We do know someone we can trust. Someone who knows Peru inside out.”

Ryan groaned. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who she meant. David was one of Lake’s shady contacts. He had skills that very few men on the planet had, which meant some government somewhere had put a whole lot of time into training him. The thing was, they didn’t know for sure which government he worked for, although Elle had been obsessed with finding out ever since they’d met in Peru.

“I’ll call him,” Lake said. “See if he’s close enough to help out.”

Elle actually blushed as she went back to tapping her keyboard. Women? Who knew what they were thinking? Ryan’s thoughts turned to the one in his bed. Maybe she’d be there when he got back and they could pick up where they’d left off. Yeah, that would be perfect. He shifted in his chair and hoped no one would notice that his mind wasn’t on the operation.

“Ryan, Harvard,” Lake said. “We need weapons, comm equipment and jungle gear. I don’t know how long we’ll be in that terrain. You also need to assemble supplies for Belinda and Beast.”

Ryan nodded. They had contacts in Peru who could help them out. They’d made sure to establish them after their last mission in the country had gone balls up.

“Rachel,” Lake said. “You run interference with the authorities, act as project coordinator, seeing as Julia’s on honeymoon.”

“Seriously? Rachel?” Callum was outraged.

“Like you’re more tactful,” Rachel scoffed.

“I don’t offend everyone I talk to,” Callum snapped.

“No, you punch them.”

“Mummy and Daddy are fighting again,” Ryan whispered to Elle, who smothered a laugh.

Callum opened his mouth to argue, but was distracted when the ballroom doors crashed open. A man flew through them. He landed in a groaning heap on the floor. Two seconds later, one of their newest team members strode in after him. Violet Lee, a miniature Scot with Chinese ancestry, stood over the man. Her hands were on her hips and there was a look of disgust on her face. When she realised everyone was staring at her, she cocked an eyebrow.

“What happened?” Callum barked.

“Nothing to worry about,” Violet said. “The driver and I had a little talk on the way here. He was reluctant to tell me what he knew. I helped him to get over it.”