Page 5 of Her Wicked Hero

“Young lady, I said drink it.”

“Fine.” Christie picked up the bottle and started drinking, and Debbie banged on the door of the hut. It opened.

“Keep your pants on,” Raymond laughed. “Oh yeah, you’re not, are you? Follow me, I’m your guide.”

Debbie grabbed Marcia’s hand in a death grip as they walked across the little clearing toward the lean-to that housed the communal toilet which was nothing more than wooden planks over a hole in the ground.

“Wait here.” Marcia looked inside before she would let Debbie go inside. She wanted to make sure there were no snakes or spiders. Marcia came back out. “Where’s the toilet paper?” she demanded.

“We’re out,” Raymond smirked.

“Kyle said he made sure there would be some for the girls.”

“He was wrong.”

Marcia grabbed Debbie’s hand. “I’m going to find him.” She started walking away with the girl in tow. Raymond grabbed her upper arm and whirled her around.

“Bitch. You’ll do what I say. We’re out of goddamn toilet paper. The little girl can go find a fucking leaf.”

“No!” a woman shrieked

Raymond, Marcia, and Debbie all whirled around to stare when they saw Mr. Hoff being dragged out of his hut with his sobbing wife following him.

“Raymond, get over here,” Kyle called.

“Come on, let’s join the party.” Raymond grabbed both of their arms and fast-walked them over to where the Hoff’s were.

“I have good news,” Kyle said grinning to the nine mercenaries standing around the Hoff’s. “We just made our first sale.”

Another man Marcia hated, his name was Kroeger, he pulled out his knife and started cleaning his nails. “So now that there’s less for us to watch, you going to start paying us off and letting us go on our merry way?” he asked Kyle.

“Is that what you want to do? Do you want to be released early from the job?” Kyle asked.

“I’m sick of the jungle. You’re getting paid now. It could be weeks before the other deals are made. So yeah, I want out early.”

“Okay, that can be arranged.” Kyle nodded to the bald man who was next to Kroeger, and somehow, he’d shot Kroeger in the head before Marcia even saw him pull out his gun.

Mrs. Hoff started to scream hysterically. Debbie started to cry. Marcia pulled her into her arms, shoving the young girl’s face into her chest, so she couldn’t look at the bloody mess.

“Nice going, Kyle, more for us. How much is Hoff going for?” Raymond asked.

“He’s small potatoes compared to the physicist and Brockman, he only went for six million.”

“Cool, he’s the six-million-dollar man,” the bald man said.

“You girls are going to be with us a while,” Raymond whispered to Marcia and Debbie. “Your daddy’s worth a fortune.”

Debbie whimpered, but Marcia had had enough. “If he’s so important, where the heck is our fricking toilet paper?” she said loud enough for Kyle to hear.

“Bitch,” Raymond said under his breath.

“You’ve got balls, Lesley,” Kyle chuckled. “I like that. Raymond, give them a roll of toilet paper to keep. They’ll have to make it last.”

Raymond let go of her arm and stomped off. Marcia breathed a sigh of relief. She knew it was going to be badly bruised. She watched as Raymond tried to go past Kyle, but the man shoved Raymond in the chest and whispered in his ear. Raymond paled, then he turned to glare at Marcia. Kyle pushed him away toward the mercenaries’ quarters.

“Come on, Franz, let’s get you and Lilith going. You’ve got a boat to catch. Need to start your trek through the jungle. Then you get to take a nice nap again. You remember that, don’t you?” Kyle asked.

Mrs. Hoff started talking in German to her husband. Kyle backhanded her. “English. Speak in English.”