by Pamela Clare
Jin was curled into herself, shaking.
He kissed her and said, “Don’t move, no matter what.”
Patty unlatched herself from the pilot seat and braced herself on the cabin wall as she stepped around to stand over Stan as he unhooked her parachute from its moorings. He stood and helped her into the yellow harness and loaded the pack onto her back, then unlatched the jump door and rolled it up out of the way.
Wind and engine noise sharpened and cold air lashed through the fuselage.
Patty caught Stan’s arm and yelled, “What about the timer?”
Stan gave her a thumbs up, then turned to reach for the green harness and parachute.
Now or never.
Tanner eased up, hunched over as he unlatched a clip on the heavy-duty cargo netting strung like a web across the rear compartment. He led with his weapon.
Patty had just snapped her helmet strap and turned around to face the jump door when she and Stan noticed Tanner.
Stan dropped the pack and yelled, “What the fuck?”
Tanner said, “Hands up. We know about your plan. It’s done.”
Patty took a step toward the door.
Tanner shouted, “Freeze or you’re dead.”
“How could you?” Jin screamed beside Tanner, yanking his attention away from Stan for a second.
Jin clung to the netting, trembling, with tears pouring down her face.
“Put the gun down or she dies,” Stan shouted.
That split second Tanner had let his guard down was all Stan needed to draw his Glock and point it at Jin.
Tanner held his weapon on Stan, but he didn’t want to kill the one person they probably needed to disarm the thing.
Or risk a stray bullet striking the bomb.
Patty stared at her sister. “What are you doing here? You’re helping him? An American? You’re a disgrace to our people.”
Tanner used the time while Patty ranted to figure out his next step, which was what? Hell if he knew. If he took his gun off Stan, he risked Jin being hit.
“Me?” Still clutching the swaying net, Jin stood up straighter and grew a steel backbone. “I do not murder people. How can you do this?”
“These are Americans. The man who left us to be sold was American.”
“Mother did not sell us.”
“Yes, she did and I thank her spirit for it every day.”
Stan warned Patty, “Six minutes. Do something.”
She nodded and told Jin, “How can you care about Americans who are not Orion Hunters? They are our only family. The Korean Hunters fed and raised us. They educated us and how do you repay them? By betraying all we stand for. You are not my sister. You are nothing more than a wasted sperm.”
Jin shouted, “You are not my sister.”
Stan shouted, “Fine. Nobody is anybody’s sister. We’re done here, Patty.”
The plane hit a patch of turbulence and lurched up and down hard.
Patty bounced against the side once and fell out the jump door.
Tanner flew sideways toward the door, but twisted and lunged for the floppy netting that Jin was using to stay upright.
Jin shrieked, “No!” and grabbed his arm, yanking him to her with more strength than he’d have thought possible.
Good thing or he’d have missed the handhold and slid out the door behind Patty.
Stan grabbed his parachute as he tumbled back toward the machine. He stabbed an arm through the shoulder strap and tried to stand at the same time.
The airplane dipped and he tripped, sliding across the cabin floor and half out the jump door.
Tanner lunged with one hand and grabbed the free strap on Stan’s pack, jerking it back.
Stan swung around wild-eyed, gripping the single strap as he fell all the way out the jump door, dragging Tanner with him.
Tanner held onto the strap with one hand and the netting with his other. His shoulders screamed with pain. He prayed the netting wouldn’t break.
Wind battered Stan’s body. He fought to push a hand up and get a double grip on his side of the pack. His terror-ridden gaze whipped into view just as the plane hit another air pocket and dipped.
The tension on the pack was slack for a microsecond, then Stan’s weight plunged down in a vicious yank on Tanner’s muscles.
That broke Stan’s hold on the strap.
His scream died in the brutal wind whipping his body through the air. Tanner had lost his HK in all that, but a weapon wasn’t going to save him and Jin.
He dragged himself and the parachute backpack over to her and yelled, “Help me put this on.”
Her eyes glazed with shock.
Oh, hell. He was not losing her now. He roared, “Jin.”
When she snapped out of her daze, he shouted, “Help me put this on.” With her hands shaking so hard every effort took twice as long, they managed to get him strapped in.
The airplane leveled off.
Tanner had to get to that machine now. It was on the other side of the jump door. Only a few feet away, but one bump and they’d both slide out the door.
He grabbed Jin’s arm and started toward the machine.
“No!” Jin had a death grip on the webbing.
He didn’t have time to coax her. “Do you want to die?”
That might have been the wrong question considering she had a look on her face that said she was ready to end this terror. He asked, “Are you willing to let me die?”
A strange look came over her face and she finally let go of the webbing. He held her arm in a grip that would probably leave bruises, but if he got tossed out the jump door, she was coming with him.
He pulled her to the machine and lowered her to the floor, keeping her on the cockpit side of him so she couldn’t fall out of his reach. “Open this thing up and take out the canister.”
“I don’t know if I can do it without setting off the detonation.”
He’d lost the chance to save Martina and now he was going to have to watch his family and everyone anywhere close to water influenced by the Ogallala Aquifer lose everything.
What had Margaux said? You can’t save them all, cowboy.
“If we can’t take the canister out, then I’m getting you out of here.” He started to stand.
Jin gripped his arm, pulling him back down. “I will not live just to let all those people die. You would never forgive yourself if we did not try.”
That’s how he’d be looking at this if he were alone right now. He’d move his family to save them, but he’d move heaven and earth to protect Jin. “I won’t forgive myself if anything happens to you.”
“I love you, cowboy.”
What a time to find that out. “I love you, too, sweetheart, but I’ll love you even more if you’ll get moving.”
“Let me try to do this.” She reached for a latch.
He put his hand on hers before she opened the machine and she smiled at him. “Have a little faith, cowboy.”
This was the woman he wanted by his side forever. If he could just keep them both alive. He took a look at the timer. “You have ninety-eight seconds.”
Without another word, she turned into the determined ninja he’d fallen in love with. She read the Korean scribble, then unhooked each latch. She continued, reading quickly and moving her hands just as fast.
She was so precise about every movement that he could feel his heart slamming up against his chest with every second that flew out the jump door.
“Eighty seconds, Jin. We’ve got to go.” They still might not survive the explosion.
She pulled out a silver canister and held it like a newborn. “I have it. Now what?”
“We jump.”
Her face fell and she started shaking.
He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Do you trust me?”
She stared up at him with those silver-blue eyes. “Yes.”
He stood her up. “I trust you to hold that canister so I can hold you. I won’t let you go.”
She
cupped the canister to her chest. He picked her up beneath her elbows. “Wrap your legs around my waist.”
He wrapped his arms tight around her and dove out of the airplane, and her throat-ripping scream split his left eardrum as he let them free-fall to put as much distance between them and—
Ka-boooom!
Yeah, that.
As they fell faster, Tanner buried his face in Jin’s shoulder to shield her as the wave of heat and concussion from the explosion knocked him sideways in the air. When he looked up, far beneath the line of thunderheads, a streak of sunlight was trying to peek over the horizon. Tanner had no freaking idea where they would land, but they’d gotten out of the plane in time.
Jin’s words popped into his mind… the Orion Hunters said that my sister would die and she would never see it coming.
What if they’d planned Stan’s death, too, and the parachutes had been sabotaged?
Chapter Forty-Three
Dingo set his duffel bag on the ground near the jet and turned to the footsteps clipping the pavement, coming toward him.
“This has been fun,” Val said with her signature snarky tone. “Almost like old times. You know, back when you came to see me for different reasons.”
Two days with her had been a blessing and a curse.
She’d made this job easier, found information they had to have fast, and had not wasted a minute of the time negotiating a deal.
The curse had been spending hours so close to her and not being able to touch her.
“Thank you for everything, Val. I mean it.”
“I’d say you’re welcome, but—” She looked up, tapping her cheek in thought. “You’re not welcome. You don’t deserve my help, but your friends do. I like them.” Her gaze flitted everywhere as she spoke, except at him.
“Look at me, Val.”
That yanked her gaze to him.
She had too much pride and backbone to ever let him think he made her uncomfortable or intimidated her. He’d loved that about her. She was strong and gutsy. She wasn’t cut out to be a high-maintenance woman. But she’d forgotten that he knew her “tell.” She’d look all around when she was on edge.
He took her hand and she snatched it back, leaning in with a glower. “Nothing has changed between us other than you owe me big time for this.”
The last two days had shown him that he couldn’t leave things the same way with her any longer, but now wasn’t the time to make amends. Not when he had to fly back and face Sabrina first. “I’ll give you an email to send your bill to, Val.”
“Email isn’t safe.”
She was screwing with him. He said, “Then I’ll snail mail it to you.”
“The post office loses my stuff all the time.”
He stepped up close, daring her to back away, but his girl never backed away. His girl? Not for a long time. Never again. He would not lose his patience and end this on a bad note. “Tell me what you want and I’ll have the money wired to your account.”
Her eyes had started flitting about again, but she stabbed a piercing glare at him. “Nothing. I want nothing from you.” She turned to walk away.
Fuck patience.
He grabbed her arm, spun her back and cupped her face, kissing her finally. Yes, Jesus, finally he could taste that mouth again and feel that part of his world he’d missed more than he could ever explain to her.
When he finished and stepped back, he took a bit of pride in the awe-filled look on her face.
That lasted the whole five seconds she let him enjoy it. “Nice try, Dingo, but I’m not interested. My price is much higher than something so negligible.”
Way to kill the moment and carve out a section of his heart at the same time. He ground his back teeth. “Then what do I owe you, Val?”
She found her first real smile. “I’ll be in touch.”
His stupid brain jumped to a potential clandestine visit when no one would know he was near her. Maybe he could find a way.
He watched the sway of her hips as she walked away from him and all at once, reality crashed in.
She’d just given him the same words he’d left her with seven years ago. The words he’d intended to make good on before the world was yanked out from beneath him and she’d found someone new.
The words she’d just spoken had been an intentional and all-too-clear message.
She would never call him again.
And that was the way it should be, because he would only bring danger to her door.
He sucked his pain inside where it belonged, picked up his duffel and climbed the steps to enter the cabin of Sabrina’s jet. The first thing he noticed was the yellow, leak-proof biohazard container that was twice the size of the deadly seeding canister that it contained. That was thanks to Blade, who’d made a call to have the container delivered.
“You okay, man?” Tanner came walking up to him.
The cowboy had cuts and bruises from a rough parachute landing, but he was alive.
Dingo dug out one of his convincing smiles. “Yeah, I’m right fine, mate. What about you?”
“Just hung up with Sabrina.”
“Got any ass left?”
“A little, and getting chewed out was nothing compared to everything Sabrina has done.” Tanner looked around at Jin who was curled up on one of the sofas with a giant stack of magazines and books, all of which would have been forbidden to possess in North Korea. Before they’d boarded, she’d asked to stop at a newsstand. She’d bought one of everything light and fluffy, including two romance novels, both with cowboys on the cover. She looked up and caught them watching her, then met Tanner’s eye and grinned.
When his attention returned to Dingo, Tanner said, “I’ll owe Sabrina for the rest of my life, but I’m happy to pay that debt. She hammered out a deal with the State Department.”
“Tell me she came out on top,” Dingo said. He could use some good news right now.
Tanner’s face lit with the kind of happiness that came from deep inside. “Sabrina agreed to never tell anyone that the United States had contracted to bring terrorists into the country if they agreed to give Jin asylum. Jin’s going to tell Sabrina everything she knows about the Orion Hunters and Sabrina’s CIA friend is creating Jin a new identity. The State Department could do it, but Sabrina agrees that we don’t know who we can trust there right now.”
Dingo nodded that he agreed, but didn’t know if it was wise for Sabrina to ask Gage Laughton for anything. “She find out who set us up at the safe house?”
“No and she’s pissed, too. They sent a new guy from the State Department to finalize the details with her. When she asked about her original contact and who would be heading up an investigation to find the leak about her safe house, she was told that he couldn’t reveal details of any investigation and her first contact had died last night of a heart attack. No one knew he had a weak heart.”
“Weak heart my ass. I bet she is pissed, mate. Hell, I’m pissed. That means we can’t use him to find out who screwed us. Her contact was probably just a front man for the one pulling the strings.” Dingo cursed, shaking his head. “That limits our chances of finding out if there are Orion Hunters in the State Department.”
“Exactly, but you know Sabrina. She isn’t done with this by a long shot.”
“True.” Thinking about Orion Hunters living here as sleeper cells, Dingo asked, “So Jin’s sister was in it the whole time?”
Heartache pulled at Tanner’s gaze. “Yep. Her sister paid for trusting the Orion Hunters. Patty’s husband had to be in on killing her. Her chute had been sabotaged, but obviously, his worked since we’re both still here. I just want to get Jin cleared through headquarters then she’ll have time to grieve in private.”
“Think the Orion Hunters can find Jin?”
“Not where I’m taking her.”
Dingo pulled on his ear, thinking. “What about the little girl your family wanted to adopt?”
Tanner’s grin dimmed a bit. “Her mother died last
night, but Sabrina wrapped clearing the adoption into the deal. When things were looking bad for cashing in my deal with the State Department, I contacted a former Delta buddy and asked him to go down to Mexico. He’s kept an eye on Martina and he’s handling the funeral arrangements for me. Once that’s done, he’ll escort Martina to my mom’s home this week.”
Dingo found a real smile for that. A sharp pang of jealously punched him in the gut, but Tanner had believed in Jin when no one else did.
He’d earned her.
And from what Dingo had figured out about Jin, she would protect her cowboy whether he liked it or not.
Chapter Forty-Four
Chatton sat in her Lexus rental and watched a jet taxi down the runway for takeoff at the Ogallala airport while she waited on Wayan to come on the cellular call.
“I hope you have news for me,” he said when he answered.
“I do.” News came in two forms. She doubted he was going to like his. “Har is dead and Pang was captured and taken into custody during a raid on an Orion Hunter complex.”
Wayan’s silence slithered around, looking for a victim. “What of the woman?”
“She was on the aircraft sent up to seed toxin-laced silver iodide into a storm. The airplane exploded. The only bodies found were a woman whose chute failed to open and a man who took the dive without a parachute.”
Wayan could form his own conclusion about Jin. Chatton watched Sabrina Slye’s jet soar into the skies and fly away with Chatton’s only hope of fulfilling this deal with Wayan.
Tanner’s woman had battled the odds to escape North Korea and saved millions of people. She deserved her freedom, and Wayan had lied to Chatton about Soo Jin’s wanting to defect to China.
Wayan finally said, “That is unfortunate, Chatton. This means you have broken our agreement.”
“I did what I could, Wayan. I lost, too.”
“I do not lose, Chatton. And when someone fails me, they must pay a price.”
She lifted her sunglasses and sat them on top of her head, thinking. “Are you threatening me, Wayan? I proved my value to you by keeping an eye on The General so he doesn’t screw you.”
