Excerpt 1
“How are we supposed to play out a fake engagement when we know nothing about each other?”

“We’ll have to manage. Your name is really Nyx? You didn’t lie to Vargas, right?”

“It’s really Nyx. I guessed his men would locate the Jeep I rented, search it, and find the rental paperwork. I thought it would go worse if I didn’t tell the truth.”

The merc nodded. “You’re smart and able to think quickly. Good. We’re going to need that to pull off this charade.”

They needed a miracle to get through this, but she kept that to herself. “You know my name, but all I know is Vargas called you Señor Case.”

“I go by Charlie Case.”

Go by. He might as well say he was using the alias Charlie Case. “Do you want me to call you Charlie?”

“No.” The answer came immediately.

“Charles? Chuck? Chas? CC?” No response. Yep, Charlie was not his real name. “Do you have a nickname I could use?”

“I have a handle, but it’ll sound strange to Vargas if you use it.”

The man was annoying the hell out of her. “I have to call you something. Tell me the nickname and I’ll offer my opinion on how usable it is.”

Frowning, he said, “My buddies call me Lurch.”

“Lurch?” It was sheer dint of will that kept her voice low.

Her brother’s best friend was Lurch.

It was a Special Forces thing that everyone had a handle of some sort. Although she’d never asked, she suspected it was about security, but her brother went next level. He’d given her a nickname when they were kids—one she hated—and he used it all the time. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually called her Nyx.

Was this the same Lurch? The one her brother trusted?

She’d only seen a picture of him once. Dylan with his three buddies. Nyx recalled him enlarging the image for her, pointing at them as he gave her their handles. “This is Ollie,” he told her. “That’s Mick, and that’s my best buddy, Lurch.”

Nyx leaned closer to the mercenary. The man in the picture had a military-short haircut and no facial hair, and she did her best to see through the merc’s scruff.

“I told you,” he said. “You can’t use my handle.”

Ignoring him, Nyx tried to superimpose the face of this man over her memory of that picture. Yes, this was Dylan’s best friend.

As surprise gave way to certainty, she tightened her lips. She’d talked to Dylan a couple months ago. He, Lurch, Ollie, and Mick had gone on a fishing trip, and he’d made an offhand comment about it being touch and go that Lurch would get leave.

Dylan wouldn’t be friends with a merc, especially one with loose enough morals to be a gunrunner. Mere weeks ago, Lurch had been in the Army. It didn’t take much to connect the dots.

She couldn’t tell Lurch she knew who he was, or that she was Dylan’s sister. Even with the shower running, the risk was too great. Nyx would pretend his cover story was truth even when they were alone. It was the only way to protect his mission. It was the only way to protect him.

Because this man was not a mercenary.

He was US Army Special Forces, and he was on a covert op.

Excerpt 2
“Hey, hon, is there something I should know about? You’ve been pacing pretty intensely since we finished eating.”

He stopped and shook his head. “No, sorry. Señor Vargas should have asked to talk to me by now. I’m trying to come up with why, and I think better when I move.”

“Maybe he’s busy with something else,” she suggested.

One side of his mouth quirked up. “That’s on the mental list.”

“Along with a dozen other items,” Nyx said, trying to ignore the way that sort-of smile made her heart beat faster.

“At least that many.” Lurch didn’t relax, but some of the tension left his face and it made his lips soften. She found herself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him. Really kiss him, not that fake goodnight brush of lips they’d done last night.

Clearing her throat, she got to her feet and stood in front of him. “What do you need me to do? I want to help.”

“You’re doing what I need—following orders, and not becoming overly emotional or demanding. That helps more than you realize.”

Nyx nodded. She understood more than he knew. Her dad told her all the time that emotional reactions got people killed. He’d also trained her to obey orders when the situation warranted it. Like now. Her dad would expect her to listen to Lurch, to follow his lead. And she would. If she came up with a plan to get them out of here, she’d run it by him. If he told her it wouldn’t work, she’d do more thinking.

What she wouldn’t do was go rogue.

“You’re in charge,” Nyx assured him, wanting him to understand she wouldn’t be a bigger liability than she was already. “You’re the one with experience. If we need research done, then I can take over. Grad school taught me my way around a library.”

Lurch smiled and Nyx nearly sighed. It was a good thing he didn’t do that often, or she’d be in big trouble.

“Thanks. I’m aware you like to call the shots.”

How did he know that?

His smile broadened. “Fireball, I realized the first time we met that you were strong-willed. It’s one of the things I appreciate about you.”

It was Nyx’s turn to smile. “As I recall, it irritated you when we met, not something you deemed a virtue.”

“You’re wrong,” he said. “If you’d walked away when I glared, I would have forgotten about you.”

Was he implying that he hadn’t put her out of his mind? Or was she reading too much into it because she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him?

Lurch’s hands went to her hips, and he pulled her closer. Although he seemed to be looking at her, his gaze was to his right. The balcony. One of the guards was peering in the window. Damn, she was glad he was cognizant of what was going on around them but disappointed that his touch was for show. Nyx put her hands on his shoulders and tried for an adoring expression.

“Our relationship will never be dull, since you like issuing orders, too.” Nyx forced the teasing tone in case he’d missed a microphone, but fear had returned. Her life literally hung on the whim of a drug lord.