by Angi Morgan
Therese Ortis’s family had not raised a helpless girl. She’d never be a woman who was dependent on any man’s whim. Especially this terrible, sick man. Her eyes met Rushdan’s across the aisle, then darted to the staircase.
The plane rolled forward, leaving the brightness of the hangar, only the dim lights from the controls illuminating the cabin. Rushdan reached for her seat belt. Therese scooted forward in her seat, blocking his hands.
This is going to hurt.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The plane taxied forward from the hangar. Wade had run across the giant parking lot. He was about to pull the door open when someone slammed into him. He hadn’t seen anything out his bad eye.
Sal was all over him. Wade kicked out, shoving the crazy man off. Sal turned, jumping on him, forcing the gun from his hand. They both fell to the cement floor and rolled, only stopping when they hit the metal hangar wall.
Wade landed on top and got in the first punch. Sal no longer had a smirk on his face to wipe off. He shoved with both hands and Wade’s injured head banged against the wall. Hard. Wade thrust the pain aside and threw his weight into pinning the bigger man down.
The plane kept moving. He could see Reval through the doorway as it passed. Could see Therese through the window.
Sal freed himself by rolling. He wanted on that plane.
“Not so fast.” Wade jerked on his legs. Sal kicked out, keeping Wade a leg length away, then rolled and twisted to his feet.
The man’s eyes were narrow slits as he used the back of his hand to remove the blood dropping from the smirky tilt to his mouth.
“You want a rematch? Come on. I’ll teach you a thing or two.” Sal gestured for Wade to come at him. Taunting.
Wade didn’t want to engage. He needed to stop that plane from taking off. He needed to save Therese’s life. But this man was in his way.
His fingers curled into fists. Then he relaxed, steadied his breathing, found his center and waited for Sal to advance.
“You think you can beat me?” Sal danced from side to side like they had all the time in the world.
Wade kept his good eye focused on his opponent. He watched for the first kick and deflected it with one of his own. He followed with two punches that connected with the center of Sal’s chest. Sal absorbed some of the momentum when he took steps backward but quickly charged.
Wade received a right cross that he hadn’t seen coming. It stunned him enough that he staggered, giving Sal time to run to the back corner of the hangar.
* * *
RUSHDAN MUST HAVE seen the direction of her gaze and made a move to restrain her. She stood slightly, shoving her shoulder into the fat man, keeping him off balance. She took a step forward and he fell back to the seat he’d been occupying.
She stepped over his sprawled legs and leaned against the doorway. She’d nearly fallen trying to step up. How would she get down now that the plane was on the move?
Worrying about how to get down the gangway was a bit bizarre. She had no way to grip anything, with her hands cuffed behind her back. The plane would only gain in speed. She had to go now.
Two men fought at the edge of light from the hangar. She recognized Wade as he swung, connected with the other man’s ribs, spinning him sideways. But the other man countered by slamming the back of Wade’s thigh, forcing his knee to the ground.
“Therese,” Wade shouted between defensive grunts. “Get out of the plane! Now!”
The other man—Sal—removed something shiny from his waist.
“He has a knife!” she shouted to warn Wade.
It was ridiculous to wait for a better opportunity. Each second seemed to flash by. A huff behind her let her know Rushdan was on the move. She took the first two steps. Then the madman was at the door, trying to grab her.
Sal suddenly soared away from Wade, running to catch up with the plane. Therese took another step down. Sal’s arm stretched toward the ramp.
One more step. Just one more step. She had to jump. Before she could, her body lurched in reverse, her back falling across the steps. Rushdan jerked her hair, pulling while she screamed.
Having completed its turn, the plane revved its engine and sped up. Therese had no way to hang on. The handcuffs on her wrists were caught on the metal rungs as she twisted, trying to get free. She tugged and pulled her hair from Rushdan’s grasp.
The plane sped up a fraction more and she lost her regained footing. She slid free, slamming to the concrete, taking Sal with her.
He landed an arm’s length away. In the time it took for her to get her bearings, he straddled her and had the knife raised.
The knife descended while she rolled to her side, trying to deflect the blade from her chest as much as possible. Pain. Her own hiss and scream blocked out all the other sound.
Then a deep shout of pure rage echoed around her. Sal took it as a warning, jumped up and pulled the knife. Coming out was worse than going in. She screamed again, twisting in pain, blinking away the wetness in her eyes.
“You okay?” Wade asked, his hands gently cupping her face. “You’re bleeding. Bad.”
“Catch him,” she gritted through her teeth.
“I think the help can take care of him,” Wade knelt next to her. “I need something to put pressure on the wound. Now, don’t think I’m trying to be sexy.” He joked as he took off his shirt and stuffed it between her arm and ribs.
Each time she opened her eyes, she could see the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles. She had to convince Wade to go after Rushdan. “I’m fine. Go. They don’t know him,” she got out after a groan. “He’s crazy.”
“The plane’s surrounded, sweetheart. He’s not going anywhere. Dammit, No one can see us. I need help getting these cuffs off.”
“He has a copy of the algorithm.” She squeezed her hands into fists, trying to control the stinging pain. “You’ve got to find it.”
“Stay conscious, Therese. You need to tell me when we supposedly met.”
* * *
WADE RAN AFTER the plane to get help. It was the only reason he left Therese lying alone in front of the hangar. He caught up with the cars that had brought it to a halt and caught his breath on the hood.
“My partner. She’s bleeding. Need ambulance.” He pointed behind him. “The man...armed with a knife somewhere around that building.”
“You Hamilton with the Rangers?”
He nodded. “Yes. Can you take me back? Got a handcuff key and med kit?”
“Your team is almost here.”
“I can’t wait, man. Get her an ambulance.”
“Hello out there,” Rushdan called from the plane. “We’ll surrender, but only to Ranger Hamilton.”
“Aw, hell.”
Therese needed him. Rushdan Reval was crazy. She’d said it. He agreed. What could he possibly accomplish by going to that plane and taking the man into custody?
He might be able to save lives. And if he didn’t try, he was totally sure about one thing... Therese would never forgive him.
He pulled the DFW police officer in close. “You take this car and find my partner. You get her to the hospital no matter what she says. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need your restraints and your weapon.”
“Ranger Hamilton?” Reval shouted.
“I can’t—”
“Yes!” Wade nearly grabbed the officer by his shirt front, but dipped his head and regained control. “Please. I’m trusting you with her life.”
The officer moved and moved quickly, handing Wade what he needed and jumping in his car. He pulled away like the plane was about to blow.
Oh, damn. What if the plane was rigged to blow?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Wade stuffed the gun down the back of his pants and slapped together the Velcro of the protective vest the officer had
shoved at him. He walked with his hands raised toward the stairs of the plane.
“I’m here. You can come out and surrender. Pull off your jacket, hands on your head so we can see you’re unarmed.”
“Wade, I can’t say it’s good to see you alive. Come on in.”
“Not gonna happen,” Jack said from Wade’s right side.
“I guarantee you that ain’t happening,” Slate said from his left.
Heath nodded from his position, pointing a long gun at the nose of the plane. The pilot cut the engine and placed his hands on his head.
“Time to join the party, Reval!” Wade called out. He had to focus on getting Reval out of the plane and finding the second copy of the algorithm. Get this done. But his real attention was on the ambulance that had pulled next to the police car at Hangar Four. If he could just finish this, he could center his attention on Therese.
“You are surrounded,” a voice called through a bullhorn. “Come to the door with your hands on your head.”
Wade took a step forward. Jack and Slate pulled him back.
“Don’t, Wade,” one of them said.
Wade’s mind was with Therese. He looked at the blood on his hands. The man in the plane had caused all this.
“If she dies...” he ground out in anger, marching forward before his fellow Rangers could stop him. “Get out here, you filthy coward.”
He stopped at the bottom of the stairway, one hand on the rope that would have pulled them closed, one foot on the bottom rung. Rushdan Reval appeared in the doorway, hands in the air and no longer smiling.
“Get out.”
“I’m on my way. Don’t let them shoot me.” Reval took his time, handling the steps carefully.
A lot more carefully than Therese had been able to manage. If she hadn’t fallen onto Sal, she might just have a few scrapes and bruises instead of a deep knife wound.
Wade jerked him from the last step, spun him around and raised his fist. “If anyone was going to shoot you, it would have been me.”
“Whoa, buddy,” Jack said, blocking Wade’s right hand. “I’ll take it from here. You go see about your girl.”
Jack placed the restraints around Reval’s wrists. Then turned him, searching his pockets, pulling the shoulders of his jacket down to limit his movements more.
“Where is it?” Wade shouted.
“What?” all the men asked, including Reval.
“He has a copy of the algorithm. Therese said it was on the plane. And there’s a second phone with all his terrorist contacts. He had it on his person before we left in the chopper. So where is it?” Wade demanded of Reval. Dammit, he wanted to leave.
Jack found a phone but not a second. Wade remembered Therese’s dying declaration that they needed the phone.
“We’ll take it from here.” Steve Woods, Therese’s handler, stepped forward to take Reval off his hands.
“He’s been using a second phone. It’s probably hidden somewhere on that plane. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to look for it if I were you.”
“You’re right,” Steve answered, handing off their domestic terrorist to another ranger. Then he slapped Wade on the back. “Great job. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“She lost a lot of blood. The officer said they’re moving her to Baylor Grapevine. We cleared to go?” Heath asked behind them.
His friends stared at him and he stared at Therese across the parking lot as they strapped her to the gurney. Jack’s hand came down on one shoulder, Heath’s on the other.
“She’ll make it,” one of them said.
Wade couldn’t speak. He was willing her to beat the odds and survive. She had to live. They were a good team. She thought so, right?
The ambulance doors shut. God, he could only assume she was still alive, because they were rushing away. Lights flashing, sirens loud and fierce.
The idea that she might die hit him. His knees buckled. If his friends hadn’t been on either side of him, he would have fallen to the ground.
He fought the emotion to keep it from his voice, “Get me out of here.”
“Sure, man. We got a car waiting.”
They walked him to a vehicle. At some point during the ride to the hospital, one of them peeled the vest off him and handed him a T-shirt. Major Clements met them at the emergency entrance and told him the tower security guard was fine. He’d be reprimanded, but he would live.
“She’s going to be okay, Wade,” Clements said.
Sometime in his haze and daze, he began believing they’d both be fine. Even if the eye injury kept him from working as a ranger in the field, things would be great if Therese was with him.
God, he really was in love. They barely knew anything about each other, but they knew enough. She was definitely the woman for him.
Therese would live. He deserved some good luck. They both did.
* * *
“IT’S ABOUT TIME you woke up, sleepyhead.” Wade’s face filled Therese’s vision.
“I think that’s the first sound sleep I’ve had in years. Painful but sound. What time is it?”
They were both alive. Wade raised a straw to her lips and she took a long sip. The cool water felt almost as good as his skin next to hers. It was just his arm, but she used her hand to rub it comfortingly.
“You should ask what day. It’s been two.” Wade scratched his chin covered in stubble. “You’re going to be okay. Sal missed everything vital.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.” She tried to joke but the words sounded rough.
“I bet. But before you convince me to play that question and answer game... Or before the nurse comes in here and they kick me out... You’ll want to know what happened after you lost consciousness.”
“I didn’t pass out.”
“I assure you that you did.” He kissed her quickly on the lips and sat back down, taking her hand into his. “Reval surrendered and they caught Sal trying to climb out over the barbed wire fence of the airport. Steve searched the plane, found the phone with all the contacts and the algorithm. I had Andrew’s copy. Reval swears there were only two. Homeland’s priority is to verify that.”
“That’s good, but—”
“Turns out Andrew was the sole programmer—according to him. Something else DHS is checking into. It looks like his algorithm was just a fancy word for a highly capable decryption code that was designed and modified to take over air traffic control stations. If terrorists had gotten their hands on it, they would have brought down planes, or worse. Unfortunately, Andrew didn’t make it. He fired on the tower guard and I had to shoot.”
“Can we get back to what’s important?”
“I can give you more details later. All you need to know is that Reval is going away for a very long time. No deals.”
“I’m glad we managed to succeed with both of our goals. Now you owe me...” She couldn’t believe he looked puzzled. “You don’t remember our first fight? Come on. You wanted him put away. And I wanted the programmer?”
“Oh, yeah. That conversation seems like a lifetime ago. Your lifetime, to be exact.”
“I wasn’t going to die. Not when I finally have the chance to live,” she whispered. “Speaking of which. It’s your turn.”
Wade’s face relaxed into a smile. He knew exactly what it was his turn to say.
“And you have a story to finish. Talk about drama. You tell me we met years ago and then you promptly get abducted.” He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it.
“You first,” she prompted.
“Sorry. When did we meet? Did I pull you over when I was with the highway patrol and issue a ticket?”
“Actually, you pulled me out of a wrecked vehicle nine years ago. It was May 31, near San Antonio.”
“Damn. You must have just been a kid. That was a long time ago. And you knew where I
lived because you were keeping tabs on me?”
“I would never,” she lied.
“I bet you would, Therese Ortis. I bet you would.” He leaned forward to kiss her properly on the lips, then sat again. “I wish I could remember you from back then. How come you kept it a secret? Did you have braces or something like that you didn’t want me to remember?”
“I thought I’d find you here. Ranger Hamilton, you have to spend some time in your room for us to check on you,” a nurse said, walking to a whiteboard to write.
“But Debbie, she just woke up,” Wade whined dramatically and winked at Therese.
“Oh my goodness, you are awake. Fantastic. I’ll page your doctor as soon as I get your vitals.” The nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Therese’s arm but looked at Wade. “Seriously, Ranger Hamilton, they’re debating if they should add restraints to your bed. You’ll have to go back to your room now.” She put her hands on her hips but she still didn’t look very authoritative.
“Room?”
“We kept him for observation,” the nurse supplied.
“I have a little concussion. Nothing’s wrong.”
Debbie smiled at Therese. “And yet they’ve kept him here for two days.”
“Two days? Were you shot? You’ve really been here for two days?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t miss anything by getting some rest. And they’re kicking me out today so I can officially sleep on your chair.”
Did he really think she was more interested in the task force operation than him?
“I’ll be back after the day shift does their poking and prodding.” Wade stood and kissed Therese sweetly on her forehead and then her lips. “Don’t go anywhere without me this time.”
He smiled and left before she could get a word out.
The nurse pumped the blood pressure cuff, shaking her head. “That man is too stubborn for—”
“Oh, yeah.” He stuck his head through the door opening. “I love you, too. Hell, I’ll even buy a couch.”
* * *
