Jessie jerked her arm out of his hold. “I’m going to take another look. I don’t care if we have to tear it down but they were protecting something that we haven’t found yet.”

Trey hesitated. “Hurry. Tim is on his way and he’s really pissed at you.”

She ran up the stairs. The men were guarding something . Her gut was screaming it at her. The guy who owned this guesthouse was associated with Mercile Industries. He was obviously a rich bastard and probably not a nice guy if he hired mercenaries to guard his property.

She reached the first room, found no furniture at all and searched the open closet.

She used her flashlight to search every inch of room, kicked all the walls and found them solid. She bounced a little on the flooring inside the closet and the room but nothing indicated any loosened floorboards.

The next room had a card table set up and two dead men were sprawled on the floor. The table and four chairs were the only furniture in the room. She went for the closet first, not looking forward to having to roll the dead bodies to test the floors under them. She searched it with the flashlight but saw nothing. She kicked one side and heard a solid sound. She kicked the back wall but it didn’t sound right. She frowned and kicked it again. Hollow.

Jessie crouched down and used her flashlight to study the floor carefully. She spotted slight scratches a few feet from the molding. Her fingers brushed over it.

“Goddamn it, Jessie! I f**king warned you,” Tim yelled from behind her. “I’m going to turn you over my knee.”

“Shut up. I found something.” She didn’t bother to look at her boss, too focused on the wall in front of her.

There was silence behind her. Jessie bit her lip and pushed on the wall but it didn’t move. She stood, backed up and studied the wall from a new angle. She glanced back at her team to see that Tim waited in the doorway, glaring at her. Trey and a few of the other guys had followed him up.

Jessie turned, kicking out at the wall hard. Her foot made contact and punched through the plaster a little. The plaster was an inch thick but only darkness appeared in the small hole she’d made instead of wood beams or insulation that should have been behind it. She crouched down and aimed her flashlight into the hole.

“What is it?” Trey was at her side.

“Take it down,” Jessie ordered softly. “It’s a false wall.” She backed up out of his way.

Trey yanked her flashlight out of her hand and crouched to aim the light at the small hole, nodding. “She’s right.” Trey stood. He shoved her flashlight at her as he took a step back. He kicked the plaster wall. “Back up more.”

Jessie gave him room to do his thing. Trey was a big guy, stronger, and he had the kickass military boots on. In minutes he’d destroyed enough plaster to make a hole big enough for a man to crawl through. He reached for his own flashlight clipped to his belt, dropped to his knees and his other hand yanked out his sidearm.

“It’s another room,” he confirmed, inching closer.

Jessie’s heart pounded as Trey disappeared into the hole on his hands and knees.

Seconds passed as slowly as if they were minutes. Trey suddenly called out.

“Jessie, get in here. She’s alive.”

Chapter Six

Justice yawned and glanced at the clock. “It’s after three.”

“I’m ready to call it a night.” Tiger stretched on the couch. “That was a good action film.”

“Thanks for staying with me.”

“Not a problem. Any time.” Tiger met his gaze. “Females are trouble. Never forget that. We’re better off without them.”

“I’m not sure I agree.”

“Do you want me to stay in the guest room?”

“Do you feel like driving home?”

“Not really.” Tiger yawned. “I’m not used to these late nights.”

Justice clicked off the TV and the DVD player, rose to his feet and dropped the remotes on the coffee table. “Stay. We’ll have breakfast together and discuss the new cameras you want installed at the gates.” He withdrew his cell phone and flipped it open.

“Who are you calling at this hour?”

“Homeland. Our human task team went out on a mission and I want to see if they recovered one of our females.”

“They’d have called.” Sadness filled Tiger’s eyes. “You know how these things go.

We would have heard if they’d found one. I know they meant to hit the location at two.

It must not have been a good lead.”

That meant that Jessie had been called away for nothing. It had at least been comforting, thinking he might be without her for the retrieval of one his women.

“Right.”

“Hopefully next time they’ll find one.”

“We can hope. Good night.”

He spun on his heel, walked quickly down the hallway and closed the door softly behind him. His gaze lingered on the fresh bedding on the new bed they’d put in his room. No trace of Jessie’s scent lingered and he had no one to blame but himself for that fact. He’d sprayed the area too damn well with air freshener.

The good news was, Jessie was safe. He began to strip off his clothes, yawned and hoped wherever she was, she thought about him. If she were in his bed she’d be comforted over the failed mission. He’d make damn sure of that.

His c**k twitched at the thought of how he’d distract her and he hissed out a curse.