by Janie Crouch
“Good. That’s what I want too.”
“But...”
She didn’t want to hear the but. She covered her lips with his to shut him up. And it worked. For a couple of minutes.
But then his hand wrapped more fully in her hair and pulled her back so he could talk.
“But,” he began again as if she hadn’t stopped him before. “You’re injured from what happened today. So if something starts to hurt too badly, you tell me immediately, okay?”
That she could handle. “Yes.”
His fingers eased from where his fist had gripped the roots at her skull. His other hand moved up from her hip and soon both hands were cupping her face, dwarfing her cheeks.
“And if anything else starts to bother you, darkness starts to creep in, anything gets too overwhelming, you have to tell me.”
“I thought that you believed I was strong enough to handle it.”
“I do. But part of that strength is being willing to speak up if it’s too much. You want me to let go? Fine. You’re not fragile and I’m not going to treat you like you are. But I have to know, hell, Caro, you have to know that at any point a single phrase can stop this.”
“Like a safe word?”
“I don’t care what you call it, but we’ve both got to know you’ve got the means to stop this at any time necessary.”
He was right. It was what they should’ve done years ago. What they should’ve worked through together from the beginning, but they’d been too stubborn and stupid.
Of course, they’d been that way before the attack too.
“Airplane,” she said.
“What?”
“Airplane. That’s what I’ll say if I’m getting too overwhelmed.”
He laughed. “Perfect. At least it’s not ‘Zane is a jackass.’”
She reached down and kissed him again. “I say that too often for it to be a safe phrase.”
“You promise you’ll use airplane if you need it.”
“I promise. You promise not to treat me like I’m going to break.”
He kissed her again and her breath whooshed out as he wrapped his arms around her tightly and spun them both so that she was pinned underneath him.
“I promise,” he said against her lips. “Tonight we both burn.”
Chapter Ten
Waking up with Caroline in his arms was something Zane had given up on ever happening again.
Happening in an alcove in the wilderness twenty-five feet off the ground after their plane had crashed and someone had been shooting at them didn’t make it more believable.
The sun was coming up, the worst of the storm had passed and at least rain wasn’t pelting them any longer, although Zane knew the low clouds would slow the rescue effort.
Caroline’s small body rested, sprawled almost completely on top of his. The low temperatures had demanded they get all their clothes back on before sleeping, but having her this close was almost like skin to skin.
Somewhere in the midst of their lovemaking he’d understood what she’d been trying to tell him. What she wanted from him. From them.
She hadn’t wanted him to hold back. But she hadn’t been talking just about physically.
Lovemaking between them had always been raw and passionate—rarely ever soft and sweet—and last night hadn’t been an exception, as visceral as always. But that wasn’t necessarily what Caroline had meant when she’d asked him not to hold back.
She’d wanted him not to hold back mentally. Not to let the past take any more away from them than it already had. To not look at her and wonder if she was okay, if something was scaring her, was hurting her, was bringing back memories of the attack.
She wanted him—them—to be like it was before those were ever questions in his mind.
She wanted him to want her. Zane wanting Caroline.
And he had.
God, how he had.
And he’d trusted her to tell him if things got to be too much. To use her safe word, airplane. It hadn’t been easy to trust her. At first he’d been studying her, pausing, moving with deliberate care to make sure everything was okay with her.
But then he realized that was exactly what she’d been talking about. That was exactly what she didn’t want.
So he’d let go. Trusted her. Trusted her strength.
Trusted that she would tell him if something didn’t work for her. But evidently everything worked for both of them, because once he’d let go, he’d really let go and Caroline had been right there with him.
He pulled her closer onto his chest, wincing for her when she moaned slightly in pain even in her sleep. Their escapades last night definitely had not helped all their minor injuries. But neither of them had complained at the time.
He would let Caroline sleep as long as she could, then get the bottle that had collected the water from the storm. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be enough.
As soon as the rain cleared, they’d need to make it the rest of the way up the ravine and try to light some sort of signal fire. It would be the most assistance they could offer the rescue plane that would come after them. And Zane knew they would as soon as the storm cleared. Which thankfully wouldn’t be too much longer. They had limited food, limited water and no shelter besides this crevasse.
Holding his arms steady around Caroline, staring up at the rock just a couple feet over his head, Zane knew he had to accept that his means of livelihood now lay as charred pieces of metal in the bottom of the ravine. Until he worked out the insurance paperwork and issues, he was without a job.
Which was fine, since he planned for his new full-time job to be protecting Caroline until this Damien Freihof guy was caught. It had nothing to do with not trusting her to take care of herself. Zane would be damned if he would leave her to face this alone.
He held her for the next couple of hours, dozing himself. When he woke again, the rain had completely stopped.
As much as he didn’t want to, it was time to get moving.
“Hey, sleepyhead.” He rubbed a hand gently up and down her back. “It’s time to get up.”
He could tell the exact moment she woke up. Her entire body tensed. Zane wasn’t sure what it meant: if she was scared, hurt, embarrassed. All?
He slid his hands off her so she wouldn’t feel like anything was trapping her in any way.
“Zane?” she asked hoarsely as she pushed away from his chest, then gasped, he was sure, at the pain it caused her shoulder.
He kept his tone even. “Just me, sweetheart. Hanging out with you here in our little alcove.”
He felt her relax as she remembered, although not nearly as relaxed as when she’d slept. “That’s right. I remember.”
He chuckled. “I hope so. If not, I wasn’t doing my job right.”
She snuggled a little closer to him like he’d hoped. “I think you did it just fine. But man, I need a toothbrush.” Her stomach growled. “And something to eat.”
“I have a packet of crackers in my backpack and hopefully the water bottle got filled in the rain. But no toothbrush, sorry.”
“Then you definitely won’t want to kiss me.”
He reached down and tilted her head up until they were face-to-face. “Believe me, I want to kiss you. No matter what the circumstances, I always want to kiss you.” And he did, not giving her a chance to get embarrassed and pull away.
He wanted it to go further. Could tell they both wanted it to go further. But he eased back after a few minutes. They couldn’t take a chance on missing the rescue plane when it came by.
“We need to get up to the top,” he said as he helped her sit up. “That last part is the steepest, and with your shoulder, it’s going to take longer.”
He crawled over and got the water bottle, glad
to see it was full. They both drank from it, then Zane got the cracker packet out of the backpack. Sharing three peanut butter crackers apiece wasn’t going to satisfy hunger very long.
“Do you think they’ll find us today?” she asked between bites of cracker.
“Yes. We need to build a fire if we can. Something really smoky will be easier for a pilot to spot than just two people.”
“That’s good.” She nodded. “Because with as wet as the wood is going to be, a smoky fire is going to be the only thing we can get.”
They finished their meager meal and began the slow progress of making it up the last ten feet of the ravine wall. Caroline’s arm had stiffened while she slept and the swelling from joint trauma had left her hardly able to move it.
To get her up, Zane stood right behind her, supporting her body with his as she hoisted herself up with one arm.
He could tell she was worried and uncomfortable as they made their way up. He didn’t blame her. She had to lean all her weight back on him as she moved her one workable arm from one holding point to another. If he lost his grip, they would both fall to almost certain death.
“You’re doing great, you know that?”
“Whatever.” Her tone was short. He had no doubt if he could see her face she’d be rolling her eyes. Caroline didn’t like feeling weak.
But he couldn’t see her face because he was behind her, with his body pulled flush against hers. He used that as a method of distracting her, nuzzling his face into her neck.
“I’m in no hurry to get up the wall if it means I can be this close to you.”
He felt her ease just slightly.
“You’re lucky I have to keep my grip on the rocks or you might be in trouble,” he continued. “Do you remember that shower in Houston?”
She’d had a weekend class she was taking to further her paramedic training. Zane had surprised her by meeting her at the hotel and upgrading the room to a special suite. The shower had a rock facade for one of the walls. And Zane had wasted no time getting Caroline’s body pressed up against it, not unlike how he had her pressed against the cliff now.
“Yeah, but there I wasn’t about to cause us both to fall to our death because I couldn’t get my stupid arm to work properly.”
“Trust me, darlin’, I’m not going to let either of us fall.”
She relaxed back against him more and then climbed the last few feet up to the top. He could tell the effort had taken quite a bit out of her. She needed painkillers, something to reduce the swelling, a full meal and a hot shower.
Zane prayed they had a capable pilot in whoever was working the rescue attempt. These low-lying clouds would make everything more complicated. If the pilot wasn’t good at his job, finding them would take a lot longer.
Starting a fire took a long time, since all the wood was wet. Once they did get it started—using every skill Zane had learned as an Eagle Scout and had him swearing he would trade his firstborn child for a set of matches—Caroline was right; it smoked like hell.
But it would be a signal. No one could doubt it was a man-made fire.
Which was good because Caroline’s pallor concerned him more with each passing hour. He knew she felt bad when she didn’t argue with him about resting rather than helping him gather more firewood. She just nodded.
So when they heard a low-flying plane a couple hours later, Zane’s relief was profound. He immediately began fanning the fire with his backpack. Caroline jumped up and waved her good arm. As the plane passed over them, its wings tilted back and forth like a drunk stumbling down the sidewalk. It then flew out of sight.
“Oh no,” Caroline cried. “Did they miss us?”
“No, the pilot saw us. That’s what the tilting of the wings signified. His best way to signal us.”
“But he just left.”
“As we found out the hard way yesterday, there’s no real place to land around here. Too many trees, and the ravine didn’t prove very fruitful as a runway. The pilot will radio in our location. Someone will be here as soon as they can.”
Zane was right. A few hours later a park ranger vehicle showed up at their location, complete with food, water and a first aid kit.
After twice the normal dosage of ibuprofen and a relatively full belly, Caroline fell asleep in the back seat of the vehicle as they headed to the ranger station.
“We appreciate the effort you guys put in to finding us,” Zane told the park ranger, whose name was Ron Nixon, as they neared the ranger station. They’d kept quiet much of the way to allow Caroline to sleep.
“We’re just glad you’re both all right. Captain Harris from the Corpus Christi police station had put in a special request to us to keep an eye on Ms. Gill.”
“You mean like having her check in with you every few hours?”
Ranger Nixon gave a guilty grimace. “Actually, he asked us to drive out to see her every day. Just make sure she was okay. Told us what had happened to her.”
Zane shook his head. Now he understood even more Caroline’s insistence on him not holding back, on treating her as if he trusted her to be able to handle the situation put before her.
Because evidently, based on Captain Harris’s actions, people were still trying to smother her.
But none of that was Ranger Nixon’s fault, so there wasn’t any point getting upset with him. He was just doing what had been asked of him. Captain Harris shouldn’t have been so quick to share Caroline’s personal story. She’d be mortified if she knew.
She just wanted to leave the past behind her. But evidently it was the people she cared about the most who wouldn’t let her do that. Zane had been one of those people until last night.
He turned to Nixon. “I think she would’ve been fine under normal circumstances. No need for anyone to look out for her. This was a case of someone specifically chasing us.”
“We’re just glad you were able to land the plane. When we got your Mayday, we knew there was trouble based on the location.”
“I think landing may be too polite of a word for what we did.”
Nixon shrugged. “Anything you walk away from is a landing, right?”
Zane smiled. “I’m thankful you could find us this morning. I’m surprised you had a plane out as soon as you did. I thought you might have to bring one in as well as a pilot.”
Ranger Nixon pulled the vehicle down the drive to the ranger station. “Normally, we would. But this morning a plane and a couple of pilots showed up on our little landing strip here. Evidently news about your Mayday had gotten around.”
“Let me guess. To Captain Harris?” The Corpus Christi PD didn’t have an airplane, but Zane wouldn’t put it past the man to beg, borrow or steal one to come look for him and Caroline.
“No, not Harris. Much bigger than that.”
Nixon didn’t need to say any more; the people walking out the door of the ranger station said everything Zane needed to know. Jon Hatton and Lillian Muir from Omega Sector. They’d been the ones who had delivered the plane. One of them had been piloting it, which explained how he and Caroline were found so quickly. There wasn’t anyone better in all the country when it came to search and rescue.
As Nixon pulled to a stop, Zane got out of the SUV. He went to shake Jon’s hand as the man walked up, but Jon pulled him in for a quick, hard hug instead.
“I’m glad you’re okay, brother,” Jon murmured. “You and Caroline both.”
Hard to believe this was a man Zane had fought with so hard when they’d first met nearly two years ago.
“Me too. She’s conked out in the back. Had a dislocated shoulder I had to slip back into joint. That helped, but she was still in a lot of pain.”
“Ouch,” Lillian murmured.
Zane smiled at the petite woman, a member of the Omega SWAT team. She was damn tough.
Zane wouldn’t doubt she’d had a dislocated limb at some point in her past. “Thanks for coming, Lil.”
“Glad to get away from all the wedding craziness happening at Omega. Steve Drackett got hitched last month. Now this one—” she nudged Jon “—and Sherry. Then Brandon Han and Andrea Gordon are scheduled for February. It’s like there’s something in the water.”
Zane smiled. “By all means, let’s get to some more fun stuff, then. Like catching the psychopath who’s trying to kill us.”
Chapter Eleven
Damien Freihof couldn’t have orchestrated this situation any better if he had planned the whole thing himself.
Oh, wait, he had planned the whole thing himself, and yep, it had worked exactly how he’d envisioned it.
Damien read again the report given to him from the secretive Mr. Fawkes, a mole inside Omega Sector working with Damien to take the organization down. Damien still didn’t know the man’s real name, but as long as he kept providing valuable information, he could remain as taciturn as he wanted.
Profiler Jon Hatton and SWAT team member Lillian Muir had rushed down to Texas from Omega Sector headquarters in Colorado to help when they’d heard trouble had found Zane Wales and Caroline Gill. To offer their assistance in any and every way possible, including the use of the search and rescue airplane.
Evidently a Mayday report had come from Zane Wales’s plane to the ranger station. The ranger station had notified the Corpus Christi Police Department, who had notified Omega Sector, who in turn, inadvertently of course, had notified Damien.
Damien didn’t much care if Zane Wales and Caroline Gill were dead already or not. If they weren’t yet, they would be soon. Besides, they were just a means to an end.
Making Omega Sector pay. Making the members of Omega Sector understand the agony of losing people they love. Damien had already taken the life of one Omega agent, but his plan wasn’t to kill off agents one by one.
He wanted to kill the people they cared about. Snatch them away. Gut Omega from the inside.
