by Mary Winter
“Anyone tell you if you snore? Or do you usually not stick around long enough to find out.”
Ooh, that barb would have hit its mark if he’d been one of those playboy flyboys. “There hasn’t been anyone for a few years,” he answered truthfully. “Too busy on missions. You? Anyone tell you that you snore?”
She shook her head. “Too busy working.”
Well that made two of them. Also meant hopefully they’d keep their wits about them and not do anything stupid. Though he doubted making love to Cali would ever be a bad decision. He bit back the snappy comeback; judging by the look in her eyes, she didn’t want to hear it anyway.
“So what’s your plan, Wings?” she said, arching an eyebrow at his nickname. Someday he’d explain it, that back when he first joined AFSOC he seemed to fly across the sky as if he had wings and land just as lightly. Not the last time though. That landing had been more than a bitch.
“That depends on yours. You passing through or thinking of staying? Any jobs lined up?” And more importantly would he have to fly with her. A commercial airliner was bad enough. He’d flown first class to meet with some specialists at a big veterans hospital in Texas who helped him regain mobility in his hip and leg. Luckily, he’d had a football game to listen to on the way to keep his mind off of things. Big Ten college football, Ohio State vs. Michigan State, so the rivalry was huge. Not being from either state, he didn’t have a team to root for, more was interested in the distraction. He couldn’t even remember who had won.
“Not sure,” Cali admitted and for the first time he heard her voice wobble. “I should take some jobs. Then again, there’s big business in chartering planes for hunting and fishing trips, especially if I want to take people to Alaska or even charter in Alaska. But…” Her voice trailed off.
“But what? You don’t want to freeze your ass off? I grew up in Minnesota. I know all about freezing, and it’s not fun. Too many clothes.” He added the last to try and create some levity. Heat flared briefly in her gaze, then left so quickly he might have wondered if he’d seen it. Except, his life had depended on his powers of observation. They’d failed him once. He’d made sure they wouldn’t fail him again.
She laughed. “So that’s why you’ve ended up in Montana. Got it.”
“It’s prettier than Minnesota,” he conceded, liking a woman who gave as good as she got.
“That is true. I don’t know. I never thought much beyond where I wanted to go and if I had a job that could take me there. Now, with the recent issues, I kind of feel like I ought to stay put and I don’t like it.” She drank from a water bottle with a faded logo from some air show. “I stayed in Germany for twenty years. Since then, I’ve been in the air. I don’t want to land just yet.”
“So don’t.” He understood where she was coming from. Thinking about the future, especially one in the same place year after year suffocated him. “Why don’t you check with your message system and see what jobs are waiting? We can take our next steps from there.” His stomach rumbled. “Have you had lunch yet?”
Cali shook her head. “The cafe is pretty close.”
“Let’s go. I’ll get my things later.” He stood, holding back a wince at the twinge in his hip. Damn, he hoped he wouldn’t have to run anyone down. Hank knew what he was doing, and if he looked over those medical reports, he must have found nothing to deter him from this hiring decision. Which was good, because his savings were starting to feel a bit thin around the edges. He glanced at Cali as she shut the door behind her. If he had to be a leaf in the wind, at least he had beautiful company. He glanced down the hallway and kept pace with her to the cafe.
Chapter 3
Shelby grinned and refilled his iced tea. “Bull told me the good news. Congratulations.” She turned to Cali and topped off her water. “Wings here will take good care of you. I’ll bring the check by in a bit, but take your time. Want some pie to go?”
Cali shook her head. “I can’t, but thank you.”
Wings agreed. “We’re good here, I think. Thanks, Shelby.”
She winked at him. “No problem. I’ll let you focus on the job.” She hurried back to the kitchen and he watched her go, thinking she was as unsubtle as a freight train.
“Who’s that?” Cali asked. “Friend of yours?”
“She’s engaged to a friend of mine. We were on the same team in AFSOC. I’m the last one to arrive here, so they’re treating me like their long lost kid brother or something.” Wings polished off his mashed potatoes, sopping up the last bit of gravy with some wheat bread. He’d already finished the meatloaf and the house salad.
“Must be nice. I’m an only child. No siblings or anyone to fuss over me. Dad died ten years ago. Service-related cancer.” She cleaned her plate about the time Shelby brought the check and took their dirty dishes.
“Only child. My parents and I don’t talk much.” And that was saying something. Never mind that he’d graduated top in his class from basic training to special ops. He didn’t offer any more, and she didn’t ask. He liked that about her. “I’d like to go to the hanger and look at your plane, see what security is like there, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d be happy to show you my baby,” Cali replied.
Shelby came and took his debit card, ran the transaction, and returned with the receipts to sign. A few moments later they walked back to the hotel where he convinced her to take his rental car. He was going to have to purchase something, but unlike the rest of the guys, he didn’t plan on living on a ranch. The truck life kind of didn’t suit him. He’d seen some nice Jeeps at a dealership in town and contemplated one of them. Then again, he wanted something with some sport to it and wondered if he shouldn’t go into Billings to find something that suited him better.
He mostly knew the direction to the airport, with Cali filling him in along the way. He kept the conversation light, talking about her flying and why she didn’t go for being a commercial airline pilot. She didn’t want to be tied to one company, told to go where they wanted her to go on their schedule. She’d been lucky enough to have family support to go to college and get her pilot’s license and a friend of her father helped her get the job where she currently worked. A bit more freelance and less formal.
Wings understood. He’d gone into the military as an escape, a way to get away from parents who didn’t really want him and weren’t supportive. There he’d found his calling, and when he found his team in AFSOC, he’d finally found his family. If Mustang and Domino hadn’t convinced him to give Montana and the Brotherhood Protectors a try, he wasn’t sure where he’d end up.
He pulled into the airport’s long driveway and followed her directions to the hangar where she kept her plane. They stopped at the guard shack where she showed her credentials, and he showed his newly printed Brotherhood Protectors ID badge. The guard nodded and let them pass. Wings glanced in his rearview mirror and saw the guard on a two-way radio, probably calling ahead to alert someone that they were coming.
He thought nothing of it until he pulled up in front of the hangar. The door stood ajar.
Cali opened the door. “This should be closed.” She frowned. “Crap.”
“Let me go ahead.” He motioned for her to stay by the car.
“It’s my airplane.” She fell into step behind him.
“Fine,” he muttered. Some training never went completely away, and it didn’t take long for him to cross the space between the car and the door, pausing just outside. He glanced around the corner. The dark interior made it difficult to see, though he heard scuffling.
Cali poked her head around the corner. “He’s back by the engine,” she whispered.
“I know that,” he growled and entered the building. It wasn’t far to the nose of the airplane and he sniffed, the acrid sent of oil in the air. Pulling a small flashlight from his pocket, he held it, ready to look under the plane. In the sliver of light from the open bay door, black boots were visible near the end of the plane.
Turning, h
e motioned for her to open the door and climb in to check things over. Only she’d know what was messed with, and it’d keep her safe. She nodded then mouthed “be careful”.
He was planning on it and flipped the snap on his holster. Good thing he’d put it on before leaving the hotel. He hovered his right hand over the grip, then stepped around the back of the plane. He grabbed the man’s arm, noting he was dressed in tan overalls, a cart of tools by his side. Wrenching the man’s arm behind his back, he shoved him against the plane, quickly patting him down for weapons. “Who are you and what are you doing with the airplane?”
“I’m Danny. With maintenance. Had orders to work on the plane.”
“Doing what?” Wings knew nothing about plane engines, but figured whatever he was doing, Cali could verify.
“The usual. Making sure the fan blades are tight. Changing oil. That stuff.”
And Danny, if that even was his real name, didn’t sound too convincing. “Anyone with you?”
“Just me, sir. You better let me go. The foreman will come if I’m not back soon. I was almost done.”
Even better. Wings tightened his hold on the young man and marched him toward the cockpit door. “Man says he was doing some maintenance for you. He needs to check in with the foreman.”
Cali poked her head out. “I didn’t order any maintenance and none was scheduled for today. What were you doing?” She pulled her cell out of the pocket and dialed a number. “You send a tech to work on my plane?” Whoever was on the other line was speaking. “Didn’t think so. Better get your ass down here.”
“Better call—” A gunshot interrupted his words. “Shit. Cali, get down!”
The plane door slammed shut. He hoped she had signal in the cockpit. His eyes had adjusted, but he couldn’t see to return fire. He pulled Danny back toward the maintenance cart. Damn. He hadn’t expected to apprehend anyone, and he wasn’t even sure what his limits were to do that. He grabbed a long strand of wire from the cart and wrapped it around the man’s wrists, then kicked his legs out from beneath him and secured his legs. Pulling his weapon, he peered around the plane at two uniformed guards.
“You okay, sir? We heard shots.” One of the guards yelled.
Funny, they got there awfully fast to not have been the ones to shoot.
“Why don’t you and the lady come away from the plane? I’d hate for anyone to get hurt.” The other guard said.
And that answered that question. They weren’t from the field, and that also meant they were between them and the car. He holstered his gun and stepped out hands open at his sides. “So, who sent you?”
Now was not the time for Wings to be cute. She hadn’t hired him to be cute. Especially since she’d consider him more a brooding sexy if it weren’t for the laugh lines around his eyes. At some point in his life, Wings had enjoyed having fun. Not now. Not when those weren’t the regular guards; she had no clue who they were.
He repeated his question. As if they were going to answer, give a monologue and everyone could go home happily. Life didn’t work like that. She kept out of sight and dialed 911. The operator answered. “I’m at the private jet hangar at the airport and I think someone’s tried to sabotage my plane. There are two people in guard uniforms, but they didn’t seem to be the regular guards on duty. My bodyguard took care of the saboteur but we need help.”
“Your bodyguard?”
“From the Brotherhood Protectors.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I’m sending law enforcement. Stay where you are.”
Cali’s heart pounded. She’d seen a sheriff’s car not far from the terminal. Surely it wouldn’t take that long to get here. From her position scrunched down between the pilot and copilot’s seats, she couldn’t see or hear anything. Whoever had been in here had sabotaged her plane. She was certain of it.
A gunshot sounded, the bullet close enough to ricochet off the plane. Damn it! She was still making payments on this thing and would for a long time. Anger boiled within her. She had nothing to do with the feds picking up that guy; she’d just been the transport. In the distance, sirens wailed. Coming to this hanger she hoped, and she peeked out the windows. The two guards still held their gun trained on Wings. Slowly, she made her way to the other side of the aircraft, thinking that he must have left the other guy tied up. She opened the door a crack and saw two twisted wires laying on the ground and no prisoner.
Police burst into the hangar. “Drop your weapons!”
She quietly shut the airplane door and hurried back to the other window. A moment later the clatter of metal hitting the ground sounded and she realized the guards had turned and were having a casual conversation with the deputies. Was everyone in on this? The plane door opened. “It’s safe to come out. Looks like we may have had a misunderstanding.”
“No we didn’t.” She fought to keep her voice level. “I didn’t order any maintenance. I want to go over this plane with a fine toothed comb. Whatever he did, it wasn’t authorized.”
Wings laid his hand on her shoulder and she fought against her impulse to shrug it off. “I know. But the two guys really are guards here and there’s nothing the police can do. We’ll have to give our statements and you can go over the plane.” His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at it. “Hank has the information for us. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
She sure as hell hoped so. She scowled as she exited the plane, shook hands with the officers, gave her statement including the fact that she hadn’t ordered maintenance and the guy got away. They said they’d check work records and personnel and let them know if they found anything. Fat chance of that, she thought. The Feds didn’t arrest people for no good reason and something had to have gone down.
The tool cart was still there, and she made the police take pictures of it, and of the liquid underneath her plane before they left. She also took pictures, as did Wings. “If he really were maintenance,” she insisted, “he would have taken his cart with him. He’d get in trouble for leaving it here. Those tools are expensive.”
The police finally admitted she might have had a point, though they exchanged one of “those looks” with Wings. She wanted to shake them all. As soon as they were gone, he turned to her.
“You don’t believe me.” She jabbed a finger in his chest. “Do you?”
“I believe you,” he insisted. “Though this seems very random. Why don’t you look over the plane? We’re already signed in here, and I’d like to document whatever happened. Talk to me. Tell me what you see. I only jump out of planes. I never maintained them. Okay?” The warmth filling his eyes won her over.
“You mean that, don’t you?” She swallowed hard and tucked strands of hair behind her ear. After working so hard in a male dominated field, she felt as if she had to prove herself and she questioned the motives of everyone.
He nodded. “You know your job. Why would I think anything else?”
“Because I’m a woman?” She admitted before ducking beneath the engines to take a look.
Silence met her words. Aware that he could see only her legs, maybe an arm and shoulder, she wanted to look out from beneath the craft, see if he were looking at her, really seeing her as a woman.
His phone buzzed. He answered it. “Wings, here.” Then a few moments later. “Cali wanted to go over her plane and check for interference. We found a maintenance guy here, though she says she didn’t order anything done. She’s checking the craft over now.”
It grew silent outside. If it weren’t for the fact that she glanced out and saw his boots still here, she’d think he had slipped away through the open door. “I’ll tell her. Thanks for the heads up.” A moment later he poked his head in her direction. “Your last client made bail and has booked a flight from Vegas to Brownsville. We’re due in Vegas in twelve hours.”
She cursed because that would hardly give her the time she wanted. With roughly three hours flight time including taxi and landing, not to mention catching some sleep and ch
ecking in. If anything had been done to the plane, she’d have little time to fix it.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” he said, answering her pithy language. “Let me know what you need.”
Chapter 4
Wings ran the itinerary through his mind, just as he’d done before the big missions. If they left at four in the morning, they’d make it to Vegas by seven with about an hour to spare before picking up their passenger. He’d gone back to the hotel long enough to check out and move his belongings while she’d been going over her plane and then he’d swung by Hank’s office to get the information.
Michel Devanati was indicted on money laundering, extortion, and racketeering charges, and although he was considered a flight risk, somehow his attorney had convinced them to set bail artificially low. He’d easily made it. His ties ran internationally and cared nothing for country borders. He worked primarily in Eastern Europe, not so much as an agent of Russia, but rather a contemporary of their forces. He billed himself as a lone wolf, and it’d been quite the coup for the financial crimes unit of the FBI to finally catch him.
According to her scheduler, she was to pick up Michel and a companion in Vegas. He’d grabbed a burger and fries from the cafe before heading back to the hotel. Sitting in the rapidly darkening room, he watched Cali sleep. He’d come so close to kissing her in the hangar. The color on her cheeks when she’d accused him of not believing her, the spark in her eyes, she’d been feisty and fierce and he’d wanted to kiss her. He hadn’t. She was his assignment, someone to protect, not take advantage of. Never mind that they’d already discussed the fact that neither one of them had romantic partners or that he’d purchased condoms while he was out. Part of his cover, he’d told himself. He knew Michel wouldn’t allow her to have a bodyguard on the plane. A boyfriend, however…that might work.
