Free Liberty Begins (The Liberty Series) by Leigh James

order — I’m guessing you’ll appreciate that.” He mock-rolled his eyes at me and I had to laugh again. “Number one, our taped-up guest is named Darius, and he is no friend of Cruz’s. Cruz has retained my company’s services to take Darius back east, to see if we can acquire any interesting information from him. We are to await further instructions.”
     
    I sat there with my brow furrowed. “You said you were in ‘acquisitions and repurposing,’” I said. “I don’t know what that means, but I remember you saying it. It intimidated me, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with kidnapping .”
     
    “That’s exactly why I say acquisitions and repurposing! No one knows it includes kidnapping.” He smiled again, but noted my disapproving look. “To answer your second question: I am really named John. John Carter Quinn. I run Quinn and Son Enterprises, which is my father’s company, of which he is the President and CEO and I am the Vice President.”
     
    “And?” I asked. “Your company does what?”
     
    “Well, it was true what I told you — acquisitions and repurposing. We acquire assets, like Darius,” he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the back, “and we repurpose them.”
     
    Just then Corey showed up with a tray filled with large mugs of steaming coffee, cream, sugar, croissants, scones, bagels and cream cheese. My stomach howled and I felt a blush starting. Just perfect.
     
    John pulled down a tray table from the seat in front of him, reached across the aisle and did the same for me, and started serving us both. “Corey, like me, is a Retaliation Operative. All of us are. We are hired by private clients and sometimes the odd government to capture assets.”
     
    Corey nodded and walked quickly towards the back. I made myself take a sip of coffee. Black. Normally I took cream, but I needed as high a concentration of caffeine as I could get right now. My stomach growled again and I shoved some croissant into my mouth gracelessly. I couldn’t be worried about how I looked eating while I was being told that my first-ever love interest was some sort of bounty hunter.
     
    “And the repurposing?” I managed to whisper out, past my croissant. I was starting to worry about what that might mean.
     
    “It’s not what you might think,” John said sympathetically, generously spreading raspberry jam on a blueberry scone. “Well, sometimes it is. But we only take cases that we believe in. We screen them carefully. The cases we accept involve what we believe is a real injustice, where the asset has done something really wrong. So we believe that punishment is necessary.”
     
    I finished chewing before I asked my next question. “What about just leaving it to the proper authorities? The police? The FBI?”
     
    “We don’t interfere with their work,” John said. “We take cases that they might not be able to prosecute for various reasons, and also cases where they can’t properly make arrests. Clients come to us when they can’t find justice through the normal channels.”
     
    I sat and finished my croissant, drinking more coffee. I had a lot more questions about this, but I wasn’t sure if he would answer them. I wasn’t really sure I wanted the answers.
     
    “As for question number three, we are in Colorado, heading east. Cruz has agreed to give you a paid leave of absence as part of his arrangement with us.” John smiled at me and finished his scone.
     
    “Colorado?” I asked. “Huh?” I shook my head, confused. “I have to work tomorrow. I don’t want to lose my shifts — and I have to pay rent at the end of this week,” I said, starting to panic. “I need to go home.”
     
    “Don’t worry about any of that,” John said, sitting back in his chair with his coffee. He looked gorgeous and relaxed. “Everything is taken care of.”
     
    He was starting to irritate me. He didn’t understand. There were no vacations when you lived paycheck to