Page 44 of Her Mercenary

“Information? What information?”

“Conor Cussane, have you met him?”

She frowned. “That’s the name the dying man called you.”

“Yes. But I’m not him, as I’ve already told you. Did you meet anyone named Conor Cussane during your captivity?”

“I don’t know ... I mean, I don’t think so.”

She didn’t know? What the fuck did she mean, she didn’t know?

“The name sounded familiar when the guard said it.”

“How familiar?”

“I heard the name from the guards a few times,” she said. “I gathered that he was someone of importance, but ... that’s all.”

“Do you mean to tell me that you’ve really never even met the man?”

“Not that I’m aware, no.”

What the fuck? Was the intel of her being taken as Conor’s personal slave and future wife wrong? How could that be?

I shook my head. There was no fucking way.

“I need to repeat this, and I need you to really think hard. Samantha, in the two weeks you’ve been missing, you’ve never met a Conor Cussane?”

“No—I ... no. Not that I know of, no.”

“Was there one man that showed a particular interest in you?”

“No ... no, they all treated me the same. Like dirt.”

I regarded her closely for the first time, questioning her honesty. I’d been told the intel that she’d been taken as his personal slave was solid. Yet she hadn’t met him? Or had she, and was protecting the monster for some crazy reason?

“I don’t understand,” she said, her thoughts obviously spinning. “What are you asking me?”

“Did you see a USB drive at any time during your captivity?”

“A USB drive?”

“A thumb drive, whatever. Any kind of computer data storage device?”

She thought for a moment. “No. I was rarely let out of my cage.”

“What about the guards? Did you ever see any of the men holding one?”

“No.”

“Did you see a computer? A laptop? Did you see anything like that?”

“No.” Frustration boiled in her tone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was held in a damn cage in a basement. I never saw anything like that.”

Truth? Or lies? I wondered.

If truth, what led the government to think Samantha had been taken as Conor’s personal slave? And why the hell had one of the guards thought I was Conor Cussane?

Something—lots of things—weren’t adding up.