by JA Huss
I have always been intrigued by bad-ass girls. Especially assassins. I loved that movie Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda. It always intrigued me because when you think of bad-ass assassin, you think of men like Merc. Or James. You don’t think of Harper Tate, or Sasha Cherlin, or Sydney Channing. And that’s what makes them so interesting. You never see them coming. When Ford walked into that antique mall in Cheyenne in Slack and chatted up twelve-year-old Sasha while he waited for Merc to make an illegal arms deal with her father, you weren’t supposed to picture her with a gun, facing down dangerous men. Or the only girl in the world with the ability to bring down a global shadow organization. But she was that girl from the minute I decided she was wearing tactical pants as she sat quietly in her chair reading Little House in the Big Woods.
Add in the fact that I set Slack up for a Merc story and included a “present” to Ford from Sasha at the end, and well… yeah. This shit was happening. I just didn’t know it yet.
Sasha is my favorite female character so far. And she’s had that title since Slack published in December 2013. Her role in Come Back is what makes this whole Company story sing. Just a little girl. Maybe scared. Maybe alone. But definitely not done fighting.
And I loved every interaction she had with James. He’s the big brother and the missing father all wrapped up into one insane package. Sasha made James into the guy you all fell in love with, not Harper. It was Sasha who tamed him. It was Sasha who tugged on his heart strings. It was Sasha who put the sane back in sanity for James Fenici. She rolls with the punches, but she hits back too. How could you not fall in love with this kid?
And I always knew, ever since the end of Slack when her father was killed, that Ford was her forever father. But after all the gut-wrenching scenes she had with James in this Company story, it was really hard for me to make James do the right thing give her up. I imagined an entire scene when he and Harper left the Aston house after dropping her off. And there were tears in James Fenici’s murderous eyes. Sasha was his moral compass, even if she never knew it.
I have so many favorite scenes in this Company story, it’s ridiculous. And every single one of them are with James and Sasha. The pick-up on the prairie. Sasha pulling a gun out on James when she catches him talking to Merc in Palm Springs. The roof-top scene when she’s missing her father and James gives her his gun to cheer her up. Sasha eating sticky gummy worms in the desert while James and Harper have sex in the visitor center bathroom. The “dinosaur talk” out at Cabazon where James explains what it really means to be a Company kid. And of course, the end of the book when James takes her out to Bighorn National Park and they become spokes in the wheel.
I love this story. And I am so thankful that Podium Publishing picked it up for audio and gave it new life.
But there’s even more to this story than you realize. Because when Podium picked it up for audio I asked Greg (Podium’s CEO) to ask Tad Branson to be the voice of James. Tad was already the voice of Jax in Wasted Lust and Nolan Delaney in Mr. Romantic, and since then he’s gone on to lend me his voice for Case Reider in the Anarchy Series and Quin Foster in the Turning Series. Tad is basically my favorite audio narrator ever. So Greg did me this favor, Tad said yes, and it was fantastic.
Hold on, there’s one more thing you need to know about Tad. That’s not his real name. His real name is Johnathan McClain and he’s an actor. A damn good actor. He was just using this Tad name for the more sexy books he’d been narrating. I knew he was Johnathan McClain from the beginning because I asked for him specifically for the Wasted Lust book back in 2016 after listening to the audiobook of a young adult sci-fi called Illuminae. But after finishing the Company he sent me an email. We’d been chatting a little on Twitter and in email since the release of Mr. Romantic… so he sent me this email telling me his loved this Company story and would I like to collaborate with him and write a TV pilot about the Company?
Um. Yeah. Not just because I love this story and pretty much every writer dreams of seeing their books come to life, but also because Johnathan and I just… click. He gets me. I get him. And he’s a very talented fucking writer.
So that’s what we did. We wrote a TV pilot and it’s done. We’re already working on other projects together as we shop that thing around Hollywood. We made a video about it and released it on my website and our social media last week. So if you’d like to hear the whole story about how we became partners, be sure to check that out on my website, www.jahuss.com.
I am thankful to Johnathan for lending his voice to James and Ava Erickson for being the perfect Harper/Sasha. And I’d just like you to know… I’m not done with these people. Not at all. I love them way too much to let them fade into obscurity.
Thank you for taking a chance on this Company stuff. For sure, it’s not your typical romance. But it’s very romantic. And if you’d like to continue reading about James, Merc, Sasha, and Harper (as well as meet Sydney Channing), then be sure to check out Meet Me in the Dark next and get all your final questions answered in Sasha’s grown-up book, Wasted Lust. (Both of which are available on audio.)
Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing, and I’ll see you in the next book.
Julie
JA Huss
MERC IS UP NEXT IN BOOK SEVEN, MEET ME IN THE DARK!
GRAB IT HERE!
Meet Me in the Dark - Merc
Edited by RJ Locksley
Copyright © 2015 by J. A. Huss
All rights reserved.
ISBN - 978-1-936413-82-9
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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DESCRIPTION
He’s empty, inhuman, dishonest, and cruel.
She’s never wanted anyone more.
Sydney has lived in fear for eight years after freelance assassin, Merc, failed to rescue her from a cult-like militia group. Left in the hands of a sadistic man, she did whatever it took to survive. But Merc’s last words gave her hope. Hope he’d be back to finish the job.
Merc knows just what to do with a fearful girl like Sydney after he was betrayed by her father that night. He wields sex, drugs, lies, and love like weapons—and Sydney is his target.
He’s in control. He’s always in control. But Sydney Channing is not what she appears. And Merc’s only redeeming act, the very one that made Sydney’s life a living hell, might just be his worst mistake yet.
Prologue - Sydney
Christmas Eve
Eight Years Ago
Somewhere between Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming
“Fear is not your enemy. Fear keeps you alive.” – Sydney
The darkness is my friend. How many times have I said this to myself over the years?
I see the shadows off in the distance as they make their approach. Two men. Two? Really? Who do they think we are?
“Anyone, Sydney?” Garrett is right behind me, his hands on my waist. But that’s not where they stay.
I don’t turn when I answer, “Nope, nothing as far as I can see.”
He pinches the skin over my ribs. I’m not fat, so this hurts. But I know better than to react.
He leans into my ear and breathes out his words. “Your dad will never keep us apart.”
I turn into him, smiling. “Never.” And then I rise up on my tiptoes, even though I will never be able to reach his lips unless he bows down, and offer him
a kiss.
“I’ve got a plan to keep you with me forever. All you have to do is trust me. Do you trust me, Sydney?” He stares down at me with those green eyes. It’s like they can see me in ways I cannot even see myself.
“Yes,” I whisper up to him, willing him to believe the lie so bad. I wait patiently for the kiss, for a response, but his eyes hold back. They are mysterious and dark, even though the green is bright. That’s what attracted me to him in the first place. Those green eyes. They sparkle. They sparkled that night I first met him too, but tonight it is with the promise of violence and back then it was with lies.
My calves begin to burn from standing on my tiptoes, but he never gives away what’s in his mind. He never does. If I am transparent, he is opaque.
“Turn around and keep an eye out,” he says, walking away.
I do as I’m told, not letting out the long breath of relief that I feel from his shunning me, but I picture it in my head as I spot the two shadows on the move again.
I don’t know who the bad guys are here. Hell, I’m not even sure there are any other people in this world but bad guys. But I’m pretty sure Garrett is the worst of them all.
Twenty-four years old to my sixteen, he is a man and I am a girl. He is tall and I am small. He is angry and I am desperate.
Isn’t that what they say those men look for? Men who prey on young girls? They like us angry. They like us defiant and wild. They like us desperate for a way out of the fucked-up world some other man put us in.
And I am all those things. Or at least I was.
Two years on and off under Garrett’s influence and I’m beginning to think all the fight has been beaten out of me. He never wanted a partner in this shit he’s got going here. He wanted someone to fuck and control. And when I refused—told him I was a virgin—he held me down and—
A dog barking outside pulls me from my thoughts. Then there are more dogs barking. We have a lot of dogs here at the compound. They scare the shit out of me.
“You see them?” Garrett calls out from the other room, where the men are loading weapons.
“No,” I say back. And I don’t. I just know they’re there. So it’s not a lie.
The door opens and Garrett’s friend Jared comes in, pulling his coat tight around his body using his fingertips. “Just a coyote. He ran off.” The wind blows in some snow and a gust of cold air flashes past my face, making me blink as I take a deep breath.
It wakes me up.
This is really happening, Sydney. Your one chance is here. Don’t fuck it up.
I don’t hear any more from the next room over, aside from the sound of weapons loading, and I turn my thoughts back to the dark. The moon rises as the time passes, but the shadows are gone now. Maybe the report Garrett got was wrong? Maybe it was only a recon mission tonight?
The attack comes just as I finish that thought. The window shatters in front of me and a gas canister comes flying through.
But I’m ready. We’re all ready. Because these guys who came tonight have a traitor in their gang and Garrett was warned. I’m not sure how that makes sense, but my head is foggy from the drugs he makes me take every night.
I pull my gas mask up from the floor and put it on, then point my gun through the broken glass, nervously looking behind me for Garrett. He’s yelling orders to Jared and Clide, so I know this is it. My escape is imminent. I break the window with my elbow, feeling a shard slice right through my thick canvas jacket, and then look behind me again. Jared is still in the other room and they are shooting.
I sling my rifle up onto my shoulder and then brace my hands on the window sill and jump up.
Hands close around my waist, pulling me back. “What the fuck are you doing, Sydney?”
I gulp some air as I turn to Garrett, the gas mask making him seem like something out of a fucked-up war movie. “I saw them!” My voice comes out nasally through my own mask. “I saw them in the trees. I’m—”
He smacks me down onto the ground and then rips my mask off. The chemicals immediately begin to penetrate my mouth and nose. My throat starts to constrict, and then I take a boot to the stomach. “Did you let them in, Sydney? Are you trying to leave me?”
I shake my head frantically, and I look up in his direction, but I can no longer see anything but the cloud of gas that surrounds me.
Shooting starts from outside. Bullets are flying through the window I was going to climb out of. Garrett’s boots thud across the wood cabin floor and I reach for my mask once again. It takes me several seconds to get it fastened, but the damage has already been done. My eyes are burning.
I stand up, trying to get above the cloud, but I’m not very tall, so I have no hope. I feel for the walls and find the window again. I hold up my hands and keep my rifle slung around my shoulder in case those guys outside are still watching this window, but no calls to drop my weapon come. I blindly press my hands on the sill again, and this time when I draw myself up, the cruel hands never stop me. I fling myself out and onto the hard-packed snow. It’s wet and cold and feels wonderful on the exposed parts of my face.
I crawl a few paces and then get to my feet and run wildly towards the trees. An explosion erupts behind me, but there is no heat and no flying shards of wood from the cabin, so I know it’s one of ours. A distraction. They are making for the trucks with the dogs, just as planned. They care more about those damn dogs than they do me, even though I have a gun and I could stop them.
No one calls my name, and for that I am grateful.
I trip and fall, stumbling over the thick tree trunk that marks the edge of the flat land behind the cabin, and my rifle goes flying from my hands and I only keep it by reaching out with the tips of my fingers on the shoulder sling.
Fuck! Do not lose the gun, Syd!
I shoulder my gun, thankful I still have it, and then fling my mask off, convinced that the tear gas is trapped inside it.
I force myself to open my eyes. It seems that the moon has become brighter in my moments of darkness, but I know that’s not true. I’m just fucked up.
I squint them down, so I’m almost blind, just a sliver of ground visible as I look down at my feet. I stumble forward and reach a tall pine tree and fling myself behind it.
“Sydney!” Garrett calls my name and then I hear the crunching of snow as he heads towards me.
I panic and unsling my gun, point it in his directions and squeeze the trigger without aiming.
“You bitch,” he says, reaching me clearly intact. He grabs my rifle from my hands and pushes me face first into the snow, his muscled body straddling my back to keep me pinned. “You almost hit me, you stupid cunt. Come on,” he says, getting off me and pulling me to my feet. “Phase one is over. We gotta run to the extraction point for Plan B. If you’d done your job properly we’d be in the truck right now.” And then he grabs my face between his thumb and fingers and squeezes. “I better not find out you broke my trust, Sydney. Or else you will pay for this. I will—”
The gunfire interrupts him. Bullets spray around me, hitting the branches of the tree, flinging needles everywhere as the scent of pine invades the air. I struggle against him and get free. But only because he is busy shooting back.
My vision has cleared a little, so I open my eyes as best as I can and run.
I run.
My feet sink into the deep snow when I cross that boundary between yard and brush, and it feels a lot like those dreams I used to have where I was walking through deep mud.
But I don’t care. The only thing worse than getting away is not getting away. Either way, my life as I once knew it is over. And if this is the end, I’d rather meet the assassins out here in the dark than be kept as Garrett’s plaything at the next camp.
“Sydney,” he calls again. But I keep running. I hit a patch of ice and stumble, my knee twisting painfully as I catch myself before going down, and then I’m on hard-packed snow again. Gliding across the top like I’m a rabbit running across a frozen river.
&nbs
p; Be the rabbit, Sydney, my mind says. Be the rabbit.
It works, because the snow holds my weight as I make a curve back towards the cabin, hoping to throw Garrett off my trail.
The few minutes of fresh air do wonders for my eyesight, and by the time I’ve circled back to the grove of short pines on the west side of the cabin, I can see a little better.
There is one truck left. The truck Garrett and I should’ve been in if things had gone according to plan.
I eye it for several seconds and in that time all the shooting stops.
He does not yell my name. No one is screaming. No bullets are flying.
Whoever is left here, we’re all in stealth mode.
My heart, which has done a fair job at taking this all in stride because of the drugs he feeds me, begins to beat so fast, I think I might have a heart attack.
I hear a helicopter off in the distance and wonder if it belongs to us or them. And then I shake my head. I’m not part of this anymore. No matter what happens, I’m not part of this anymore. There is no more us.
It’s only them.
I look for a way to get to the truck. If I can get there before Garrett, I can leave on my own. The keys are tucked under the wheel well, in a magnetic box. If I can just get over there…
I bolt towards a rock formation, my feet slipping down into the deep snow a few times, making my dash look a lot more like a slow lumbering than anything else, and then throw myself behind it.
