Ethan set his jaw. “It won’t.”
Logan had returned from the melee and said, “The local cops,” as he pointed through the crowd of cars and personnel to a group of local sheriff deputies who had formed a distant semi-circle around Dunhill’s landed plane. “The local boys are trying to turn everyone away.”
Yelling was heard, voices crying out words like “fall back” and “disengage.”
“Fucking alphabet soup,” Jackson muttered. “Should have just ignored them all.”
The yelling was briefly halted by the sound of what could have only been described as a muffled gunshot, the sound coming from inside the plane. It was quiet. Perhaps silenced. One gunshot.
Kalani thought the worst, the sick wonder of who out of Tucker and Lea had gotten hit.
More yelling from the gaggle of law-enforcement agents.
Had there really been a gunshot? Or was it something else?
Jackson said something, a single word that she couldn’t hear, but she could tell caused their plan to be set in motion. Kalani was pushed back toward a large black SUV.
She didn’t bother wondering about it, because she had Ethan with her. He was the one holding her arm, haloing her in.
Were they taking cover from enemy fire?
She sat in the middle seat next to Ethan. Logan was behind the wheel. “The car has armored plating,” Logan said, putting the SUV in reverse. He pulled back, making room to sweep around and exit the immediate cluster of vehicles before threading through.
“What are you doing?” Kalani said. “Go back.”
“I am,” he said. “I am going back.”
“Put your seat belt on,” Ethan said.
“Ethan, what is he trying to—?”
“Put your seat belt on!” He reached around her, grabbing it and hauling it over her shoulder.
When she looked up after clicking the buckle, the SUV was on a fast collision course with Dunhill’s plane.
Kalani could hear nothing but the wail of the engine, though she assumed the latest stunt had pulled more cries from the crowd. She didn’t hear any gunshots, at least didn’t notice any hit the SUV.
Ethan yelled at her to draw her weapon and brace for impact. She followed his suggestion, seeing the side of the plane zooming toward them. She closed her eyes and made sure she’d stopped biting her tongue for the impact.
She unbuckled her seat belt and flew straight up into the air, slamming up against the ceiling, then sliding halfway down the side of the SUV.
Rather, she’d fallen down onto the roof. The SUV had been toppled over by the impact into Dunhill’s plane.
Ethan was talking to her, calmly, his legs stuck through the bottom of the seat in front of him.
“I can’t move out of this seat,” he said to her.
Finally she could hear the yelling back at the crowd. The van’s windows had shattered.
Where was her gun?
Ethan asked her the same question, but she couldn’t come up with an answer. It felt like she’d forgotten how to speak.
Kalani was slipping, both in her mind and her body, sliding down the side of the SUV and out through a missing front windshield. She landed on the hard tarmac in a pile of shattered glass, her palms stinging red. She swung around and looked back at the SUV, on an odd-tilted angle, upside down and sideways. Logan, the driver, lay still, his face bloody and not moving.
Ethan called to her again. “Ready?” he said.
His gun flew through the air, and she caught it in a mist of blood. Her hands were cut up and bloody, but the gun felt good. The gun felt familiar.
She had her training to fall back on.
She had motivation to energize her and lift her off the ground, rising from all fours to a hunched defense jog toward the side of the plane—or what was left of it, smashed along almost the whole side from the impact.
There was a loud slap of metal behind her, in the van. Another, thudding. Gunfire. Incoming.
Stuck in no-man’s land between the two vehicles, she had nowhere left to go but inside the plane. She was ready.
Kalani climbed over the landing gear, then dipped down into an opened escape hatch that had blown open at the back of the plane. There was smoke inside.
Gun smoke, too. She knew the distinction. She knew what was waiting for her.
The first thing Kalani saw was Tucker lodged between a row of collapsed seats, not bloody, but not conscious. The hood off, he looked peacefully asleep in the early morning light. The low sun had glowed through what was left of the windows, illuminating beams of dust and smoke through the fuselage.
The glint off Dunhill’s handgun caught her attention as he fired several shots through one of the porthole widows.
Kalani yelled his name. Then she yelled, “Drop it!”
He didn’t.
When Dunhill moved to swing his weapon away from the window and toward her, Kalani fired as many shots as it took to drop him flat and unmoving on the ground.
Where the hell was Lea?
She heard a chorus of “Hold your fire” being shouted from outside.
She herself shouted the same. She didn’t want any bullets coming in and hitting her or Tucker, or Lea—if she was still even inside the plane.
She heard it again outside: “Hold your fire.” And then, putting a lump in her throat, she heard, “Hands up and turn around!” Her heart began thumping even faster. Then she heard, “Now walk backward to the sound of my voice.”
Lea . . . it had to have been Lea. They had to be talking to Lea. She leaned over and caught a last glimpse of her sister walking down the tarmac, arms outstretched.
She scrambled her way out of the wreckage of Dunhill’s plane, but she found no sign of her sister. Ethan, however, was front and center. He’d crawled out from the SUV and straightened himself up, looking almost like nothing had happened. His legs weren’t crushed. His face, perfect. So damned perfect. Kalani ran into his arms and he held her solidly against him. For a brief moment, the world went away.
The tears she’d held back for hours spilled over, and she started crying in his embrace. Ethan let her cry, and then finally squeezed her arms gently. Kalani collected herself. The mission wasn’t over yet.
She turned away from him to scan what was left of the scene—mostly people in uniforms rushing around. Smoke still rising from Dunhill’s empty plane. Kalani looked up, right into Ethan’s gaze. “Where is she?”
33
Kalani
She stayed in the car for a moment after what would surely be the first of many police interviews, watching Lea in the rearview mirror. As with all police cars, Lea was safely locked in. A cage between them. Kalani didn’t know the woman in the back seat. Not anymore. Maybe not ever. She could have been a stranger. Some thug that the cops had picked up before rushing to the airport.
Kalani had asked permission to speak with her one last time. They were nice about it. In exchange, she had promised to try to get some information after the initial questioning had gone nowhere. But half of her didn’t care about the answers.
She watched in the mirror as Lea’s head drooped forward. She had a bloody nose that leaked down to her shirt. Handcuffed behind her back, she could do nothing about it. Even if Kalani could reach her to help with the bloody nose, she wouldn’t have. Let her bleed. It was the least she should suffer through.
Finally, Lea said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know,” Kalani said. “But I am.”
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere away from this,” she said. “And away from you.”
Lea let out a sad little sigh. “No matter how far you go, or whatever you do, it won’t change the fact that I’m still your sister.”
It was enough to make Kalani almost retch. “Let’s stop talking for a while,” she said.
And they stopped.
The silence between them was welcomed.
She wondered how long she would need. Perhaps a lifetime. A li
fetime would be okay.
Soon, a federal agent would be at the car to take Lea—and maybe her, too—away in cuffs. Soon, the silence would be elongated through distance, brick walls, and iron bars.
She refocused her attention out the windshield, watching the scene unfold. Her heart warmed when she saw a glimpse of Ethan walking by a space between two black SUVs. He had a serious look on his face but a casual lightness to his stride.
Her heart warmed even more when she saw Tucker being pushed in a wheelchair toward an ambulance. No more bag on his face. He was conscious and smiling up at someone next to him. Macy, his girl.
Tucker stood from his chair, without any signs of serious injury. He placed his hands on Macy’s shoulders.
The sight warmed away the chill that had been wrapped around Kalani for hours—perhaps days.
She looked away. They deserved privacy.
How long would it be before she’d be able to have some privacy of her own, with Ethan?
She looked for him in the crowd again.
They’d want to question him for hours, no doubt. Her, too. She was not looking forward to that part. But it would all be worth it, as everything leading up to it had been—worth it for their future. It hardly mattered where that future unfolded, only that it was with him. He’d talked recently of quitting the news industry. He’d become too sick of life, and she couldn’t blame him. The idea was to write fiction, little everyday escapes. Spy novels, he’d said. So a little reality pulled from past experiences, but a manageable, fun reality, where happy endings ruled the day.
The guy would get the girl. She’d be his.
Sitting in the car, Kalani thought more of happily ever after. She knew she would be happy.
It was just a matter of time for all the questions to be done with.
Deep in thought about their future, Kalani didn’t notice when Ethan was at the side of the car. He stood at her door, knocking on it. Smiling. He’d come from behind, from another of the many unmarked, black cars with impossibly dark tinted windows.
He opened the door and he waved her out. “Step out a minute?”
Two plainclothes officers were already at the back doors, opening them and offering polite instruction for Lea to get out, turn around, and lean against the car. It was time for her to switch vehicles. It was time for her to talk to the FBI.
Kalani barely heard her name when Lea called it again. She kept her back turned until the voice got quieter and quieter, and then disappeared.
Ethan squeezed her shoulder, and then with a muttered “Fuck it,” dropped his lips to hers, thrusting his tongue inside and taking what they both desperately needed.
She reveled in his touch, until the last of the chills were swept away, carried off in the strong breeze blowing down the tarmac. She finally broke away with a gasp. “What about the guy in the trunk?” she asked.
“Everything’s taken care of,” he said. “Everything except for you.” He took her hand.
She squeezed his hand back. “How will I be taken care of?”
Ethan grinned. He looked proud. And a little hungry.
“And who will do the caretaking?” She grinned.
The early morning sun fell on his stubbly, unshaven chin. “We’ll take turns.” He leaned again and kissed her, politely and sweetly that time. But she wanted more. And she wanted it much more private.
They broke from their kiss, but he still held her hand. He seemed to always do that, wanting to guide her somewhere. To just be with her.
“Everything okay with Tucker and Macy?” she said.
He nodded.
“And everything with the Feds? And Jackson?”
He nodded again, then pulled her by the hand, taking her away from the car and the unfolding law-enforcement scene. Lea tried calling out to her again, but the voice was foreign and muted. A cold nothing.
A little distance and time wouldn’t be the worst thing for their sisterly relationship. Maybe it could even be saved one day. But not today. Lea was finally going to answer for her entire life.
“I want to show you something,” he said, speeding up. Kalani almost had to jog to keep her shoulder from dislocating.
He was in a hurry.
And she liked it.
If it was with him, and heading somewhere opposite from a crowd of federal agents, then she preferred to hurry. In fact, she wanted to run. But he was leading. That was okay, too.
He led her up the stairs of Jackson’s private jet.
“No,” Kalani kept saying, not even comprehending what was happening. She kept saying no, but an escape was all she’d wanted. It was a tease, no doubt. At some point, reality would come crashing down. The plane would never lift off.
“I didn’t exactly get Jackson’s okay with this,” Ethan said, “but I really don’t care.”
“His okay for what?”
“He might be mad, but I guess he’ll just have to get over it. Besides, I’m not a full-fledged member of DARC just yet, so he can’t fire me. What are you doing?”
She had stopped at the doorway to the jet. It just seemed so crazy . . .
“Come on,” he said. “I’m serious about this. Come on and get in before they see us.”
“Won’t they kind of notice?”
“It’ll be too late by then,” Ethan said. “We’ll be off in the sky. We’ll be alone.”
She laughed nervously and entered the jet with him. The engine had been running the whole time and the circulated air inside was cool. Behind them, Ethan pulled back the stairs and shut the door.
They wouldn’t have much time to do whatever crazy thing Ethan had on his mind.
Were they really about to take off?
“He was nice enough to leave it idling in all the hurry,” Ethan said, moving up toward the cockpit. “Come on!”
She joined him in the cockpit, Ethan already sitting with the headset on, talking to a perplexed-sounding traffic-control agent. Outside the jet, on the ground below, she could see a few turned heads. She scanned for Jackson’s.
“Thanks, Control,” Ethan said.
“This is absolutely fucking crazy,” Kalani said. “And I’m loving every minute of it. Only I’m a little scared. You understand that, right? I thought you only flew crop dusters. I think there’s a little difference with a jet.”
“There is?” he said. Then he laughed almost hysterically for a few seconds. “Just kidding. This isn’t my first time.”
“He’s gonna kill you,” she said. Watching with pure glee with the precision and confidence he used working the instrument panel, moving the dials, talking to confirm takeoff.
The voice in the radio said, “You’re getting some flak on the ground.”
Ethan ignored it.
They had gotten flak last time, even without running away from the investigations and interviews. After Hawaii, they’d practically raked them over the coals with questions. They hadn’t even done anything wrong, but were treated like they were the ones to cause the tsunami and the destruction of evidence.
Screw it. If they were going to be mad, it was better to give them a reason. Better to actually get something out of it. In this case, some private one-on-one time.
She looked to him. “This thing has autopilot, right? In case we need to step away from the controls for a minute?”
Ethan grinned.
“It’s going to be one heck of a ride, Kalani. All of it. It won’t ever let up.” He reached for her hand. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
She thought she heard Jackson’s voice, probably inventing new swear words as it came dimly through the radio. Kalani didn’t care. She and Ethan were on their own. Finally.
The rest of her life was starting, and sitting there, in the peace and quiet, still holding Ethan’s hand, it was already wonderful.
Thank you so much for reading Kalani and Ethan’s story. Click here to be the first to know when the next DARC Ops books is published.
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sp; Also by Jamie Garrett
Marked By Desire
Books 1 - 5
Southern Heat
From the Ashes
Fighting the Flames
Burning the Past
Trial by Fire
Line of Fire
Dreamcatchers
Emily
Keila
Payton
Lainey
Sienna
DARC Ops
Darkest Hour (0.5)
Dark Secret
Dark Web
Dark Heart
Dark Control
Dark Threat
Dark Lies
Dark Salvation
Dark Discovery
Riley Reid Mysteries
Books 1 - 3 (first book free!)
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to you—all my readers, subscribers, and social media followers. Thank you for choosing to read my books!
Thank you to my ARC team, for all your support. You’re all amazing!
Lisa, Kate, Adele, and all the badass babes. You make my day on a regular basis. Thank you!
A special thanks also to Anette King and Kristine Piiparinen, for all that you do. You are both incredible ladies.
Come and hang out with me, plus authors Lisa Ladew and Kate Fargo, along with the fabulous badass babes in our Facebook romance group, Books, Babes, and Badasses. We talk about anything and everything, and there’s plenty of yummy eye candy too. Stop by and say hello anytime! You can also subscribe to my newsletter, send me an email, find me on Facebook, or visit my website.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Jamie. I live with my husband, two beautiful children and three cats. I loves to read almost as much as I loves to write, and can’t imagine anything better than getting to be an author and writing every day. There is at least one cat draped over the keyboard at all times.
I love hearing from my readers, and feedback is what makes these books better. Please reach out on social media, or send me an email through my website. To be notified about my upcoming release schedule, upcoming promotions and sales, sign up for email updates at http://www.jamiegarrett.com/newsletter/.
Dark Discovery (DARC Ops Book 8) Page 23
