“Brace for impact!”
The pilot’s voice sounded high-pitched for a man, his fear obvious.
“Tighten your belts, remove all sharp objects from your pockets, and bend forward.”
Dusti clutched her sister’s hand tightly while her heart beat erratically from adrenaline and terror. She turned her head to stare into Bat’s terrified blue eyes. Her older sister, usually so calm, appeared as panicked as Dusti felt. Bat’s aloof attorney façade had fled, replaced by sheer fright.
The small plane engines droned loudly as the cabin shook violently. The overhead compartments rattled, a dull background noise that made the grim situation more realistic. Dusti peered through the window to her left. It revealed dense foliage far below, a testament that they’d flown far from civilization.
The pilot came back on the speaker to make another announcement, as if telling the twenty-some passengers the plane was going down hadn’t been bad enough.
They’d reached Alaska, but it seemed they’d die there too.
“Mayday, mayday!” The pilot yelled now. “This is Brennon Twelve. Mayday.” The plane took a sudden nose dive after a loud pop tore through the cabin. “Fuck!”
People in the seats around Dusti cried out and one woman in the row behind her frantically began to pray aloud.
It was just a guess, but Dusti figured the pilot wasn’t aware he’d left the microphone on as the conversation between him and his copilot was broadcast throughout the cabin via speakers.
“Pull up, Mike! Fuck, she’s fighting me. Help!”
“I am!” the other pilot responded. “I don’t see a place to land, do you? Christ! The yoke feels like it weighs a thousand pounds. We’re going to break apart before we ever hit the ground.”
The nose of the plane leveled off somewhat but the plane was definitely losing altitude. Dusti glanced out the window again to notice the trees had become more defined now, instead of similar to a distant carpet of green bushes. Her gaze swept the ground to confirm there wasn’t a clearing within sight for the pilots to try to use as a runway.
“I’m so sorry,” Bat whispered. “This is all my fault. I love you.”
Hot tears filled Dusti’s eyes when she turned her head to lock eyes with her sister’s fearful gaze. “I love you too—and don’t you dare blame yourself.”
“Fire in engine two,” one of the pilots yelled. “Shit! The extinguishing system is offline. It’s not responding. We’re only twenty miles out but we’re not going to make it to the airfield.”
“Level off,” the second pilot harshly demanded.
“Got it.” The pilot cursed. “Do you see anything? Do you?”
“It’s just trees. We’re going down too fast. Why in the hell aren’t they answering? I know it’s a tiny airport but Jesus! Where are they? Maybe we lost communications and they aren’t receiving our mayday.” The copilot sounded both angry and frightened.
“Damn those cheap bastards for not giving us a backup system,” the pilot hissed. “Shit! We’re definitely going down. Seventeen hundred feet and falling.” He paused. “Sixteen hundred.” He paused again for several long seconds. “Fifteen hundred. Oh damn!”
“It’s been good knowing you, Mike.”
“You too, Tim. Drop the landing gear but I don’t know why we should bother. We’re going to be shredded to hell and back.” There was a pause. “Oh shit. Cut the mic!”
Movement from the aisle startled Dusti when two tall, massive-bodied men wearing leather jackets and faded blue jeans suddenly stumbled next to their seats. They used the chair backs to keep themselves upright on the slanted floor of the plane by gripping the edges.
She immediately recognized them from the Anchorage airport. She and Bat had to change planes there to catch the smaller connecting flight. The two burly men had stepped out of one of the bars they’d passed while walking from one concourse to another. To Dusti, it had seemed as if the guys were following them. She’d even pointed them out to her sister, fearful that the men might be planning to mug them.
Bat had laughed, assuring her airport security was too tight for that to happen. Dusti had kept glancing back though, nervous. She remembered thinking how big and threatening they’d looked at the time.
Now they were right in the aisle, so close she could almost reach out and touch them.
The one in the lead turned his head to peer directly at her. Dusti stared up into a rugged, masculine face displaying strong cheekbones. His thick, wavy black hair fell to his shoulders, brushing the front of his leather jacket. Generous lips were curved into a frown, but it was his seriously dark blue eyes—framed by long black eyelashes—that held her attention the most.
He moved quickly to slide between the small space where she and her sister’s legs were and the backs of the seats in front of them. He stepped over Bat to plant his body between Dusti’s feet.
She watched in stunned shock as the other guy, almost a twin in sheer body mass to the first one, wedged his frame literally between Bat’s spread legs and the seats. Dusti’s confused gaze returned to the man whose crotch now hovered in front of her face. She felt his jeans pressed against her bare legs from the knee down, where her skirt didn’t cover them.
Her first fear resurfaced, that they were about to be mugged, but that didn’t make sense. They were all going to die when the plane crashed.
“What—”
The one in front of her cut off her words when he turned his head to look at the other man, this one with short, spiked black hair. “Good luck, Kraven. Love you.”
“Love you too, bro,” the other man replied.
“I’m Drantos,” the long-haired guy informed Dusti when he looked down to hold her stunned stare. “We’re hopefully going to save your asses by protecting you with our bodies. We might survive this if we don’t blow up or get ripped apart on impact like the pilot thinks.” The cabin shook violently and he swayed on his feet. “I’m hoping he’s wrong about that.”
Dusti was mute and definitely confused. A gasp from Bat drew her attention.
As she turned her head, she was too horrified to do anything but watch as the spiked-haired man leaned forward, slid to his knees and shoved Bat’s legs farther apart to fit his hips between the cradle of her thighs.
He grabbed her sister, jerked her against his chest, and then wrapped his arm around her back in a tight hug. She heard a click as the stranger unfastened her sister’s seat belt, and then he clamped a hand around Bat’s thigh. He yanked it up until her knee was bent enough to nearly touch her shoulder, then used that arm to hug around Bat’s back, too.
He had totally covered her body with his, smashing her against the seat.
Bat’s cry of alarm jostled Dusti from her stupor. She recovered enough to find her voice. “Let her go!” They weren’t muggers. They seemed to be rapists.
Like they didn’t have enough to be afraid of before?!
Dusti lunged to attack the bastard assaulting her sister. She tried to claw at his arm but two big hands grabbed her wrists. Her full attention returned to the huge bastard who quickly slid to his knees between her legs, his hips pressing against her inner thighs. The move pushed the bottom of her skirt high up on her lap.
He moved fast for such a beefy guy. Dusti screamed but it didn’t stop his attack. He held her wrists together with one of his hands, shackling them, while he used the other to shove her feet up on the seat. It kept her legs spread wide apart to make room for his hips. His body nearly crushed her to the seat when he collapsed against her.
Her mind instantly filled with horrified thoughts. Am I really going to be raped before I die? Is this asshole serious? I’ve heard men joke about wanting to go out nailing a woman but this can’t be happening. These assholes are really going for it.
Screams suddenly filled the cabin that hadn’t come from Dusti, the noise so piercing it made her remember the plane was about to crash into the rugged Alaskan wilderness.
The man assaulting her shoved her hands at his crotch to pin them there when he pressed more of his weight down, trapping them between the seat and his jeans. He let go of her wrists and it gave him the freedom to grip both of her legs near the knees and force them up against her chest until she sympathized with a pretzel. His jeans were rough against her inner thighs and his belt buckle painfully dug into her panties.
His two strong arms locked against the sides of her thighs as he reached around her body too. He adjusted her under him in a way that made her comprehend her seat belt had been unfastened as well. He wouldn’t have been able to yank her to the edge of the seat otherwise.
He gripped one of her ass cheeks and tucked his head down on top of hers, to force her chin lower, until her forehead smashed against the cool leather of his jacket. She struggled but he effectively held her in a tight ball, his bulky body keeping hers trapped between him and the seat.
All hell broke loose in the next instant.
Dusti screamed when she felt both of them being violently flung forward. The plane must have hit the trees. Shrieks rose in the confined cabin and air blasted through it, whipping around as though they’d been tossed into a wind tunnel.
The sick feeling of being thrown rolled through her as the plane bounced before it brutally slammed into something again. The belly of the plane hit hard enough to toss their entwined bodies back against the seat.
His heavy weight crushed down on her until breathing became impossible. She swore she heard an animal growl next to her ear when the screams in the plane cut off after the horror of the initial impact. Maybe everyone has died, her dismayed mind considered.
The strong arms around her tightened even more as the plane violently bumped over the earth. An image flashed through her mind of them skidding across the ground, mimicking a sled from hell.
An explosion ripped through the cabin, deafening her with its intensity, a second before they were thrown sideways.
The man holding her didn’t let go, and his body must have hit something solid and unforgiving. The force of the impact reverberated through his body right into hers. He grunted loudly, as if he’d had the air forced from his lungs.
She didn’t know which direction was up or down anymore, just continued to experience swift movement and blinding terror until everything came to a lurching stop. Her back hit something soft before the man’s heavy weight squashed her once more.
Dusti couldn’t move. She was too stunned to do anything but wish for air while it sank in that she’d survived.
The stranger’s hand on her ass eased its bruising hold when he lifted off her a little. She heard him gasp in a breath and his upper chest pressed tight to hers when his lungs expanded. The second the pressure eased as he expelled the air, she gasped in her own lungful.
She slowly became aware of sensations. Her ass hurt from the man’s near-sadistic grip on it and her chest ached a little, probably from him crushing her a few times. She also realized one of her knees painfully throbbed.
Dusti took another deep breath and smelled the leather of the jacket under her nose. The texture of hair on her tongue made it apparent that either some of her long blonde hair or some of his shoulder-length black mane had ended up inside her mouth. She promptly spit it out, not caring who it belonged to, but just wanting it gone. His head lifted off hers.
Panic shot through her instantly as things came into focus and she glanced to the right. They were actually still in her seat—but the one next to hers no longer contained her sister or the spike-haired stranger.
Her mind refused to accept that Bat’s disappearance meant she hadn’t survived.
Her gaze lifted more to stare beyond that empty seat. She gaped as she saw the other side of the plane.
The cabin wall across the aisle had been torn completely open to reveal trees and blue sky, in place of windows and overhead bins with stored luggage. The jagged, torn metal of the fuselage was splayed obscenely to reveal the scenic view. Something had demolished that side of the plane.
The guy who still held Dusti slowly eased more of his weight off her when he leaned back a bit to look around too. Distress made her focus on him instead of the certainty that her sister had been thrown from the plane.
Blood marred the man’s face from a cut on one of his pronounced cheekbones, an injury a good inch long. He wasn’t classically handsome, too rugged and masculine to ever be considered a pretty boy with those dominant features. He needed a shave too, since stubble showed on his lower jawline, his chin, and shadowed his cheeks. His dark gaze swept across more of the plane than she could see while scrunched down inside the seat, where he still kept her pinned.
“KRAVEN?” He roared the word, his voice harsh.
“Fuck,” an equally cavernous male voice responded, sounding close. “We’re alive. Did yours make it?”
The stranger lowered his chin to peer into Dusti’s dazed stare. He studied her from face to chest, and finally locked gazes with her again. “She’s alive.”
“I hate flying.” Kraven sounded irritated. “I mentioned that, right?”
The man continued to watch Dusti and he actually smiled. “Several times, but we’re not flying anymore, are we? I don’t mind flying but I hated the crashing part. I bet you wish you were still in the air right now. Quit bitching and let’s see how bad the situation is. We survived. That’s all that counts in the end.”
“Get off me. You’re crushing me!”
Relief swept through Dusti at hearing her older sister’s aggravated voice and it tore her from her traumatized state. “Bat? Are you okay?”
“Dusti! Thank goodness you’re alive. Are you all right? Get off me, asshole! You weigh a thousand pounds. I need to check on my sister.”
“Maybe I would get off you if you weren’t gripping my dick. That’s not my thigh you’ve been clutching in terror, woman,” Kraven snarled. “Let go!”
“Ewww!” Bat squealed. “Get off me! My hand is trapped there, damn it.”
The man still pinning Dusti to her seat chuckled. “Did I introduce myself? I’m Drantos.”
“Let me go. Please get off.” Dusti hated the way her voice trembled enough to make it sound more like a feeble plea than a demand.
He arched an eyebrow. “That’s all you’ve got to say to me after I saved your life? I believe this is where you’re supposed to say thank you and tell me your name.”
Dusti was still suffering from shock but this had to be the strangest conversation she’d ever had. “Your belt buckle is digging into my…um…” She tried to wiggle her hips away from his but it only caused more discomfort. The metal object pressed against her panties pushed in deeper, causing her to wince.
He jerked his hips back to put a few inches between their bodies but he glanced down. His smile turned into an outright grin. “Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t damage you down there. That would be a crime. I love bright red, by the way. Is that a thong? I can only see the front.”
Her mouth hung open and she gawked speechlessly until she realized he continued to stare at her exposed lap. She shoved at him with her hands, pushing hard against his massive chest, and tried to put her feet on the floor to scoot back in the seat and away from the obviously deranged pervert.
He let her go, still grinning as she grabbed at her skirt to shove it down the tops of her thighs to regain her modesty.
The sound of a sobbing woman filtered through Dusti’s shock-hazed brain and her jumbled thoughts. Other noises slowly penetrated and she became more aware of her surroundings when Drantos rose to his feet to loom over her, no longer touching as he stepped aside to stand in front of Bat’s empty seat. He surveyed the plane, his features set in a grim expression. Dusti heard soft whispers then someone cursing from the back of the plane. It sank in that the four of them weren’t the only survivors.
She peered up at Drantos, since he kept her trapped in the row with his body planted between her and the aisle. He sniffed the air, made a distasteful grimace, before peering over the seats in front of them. He turned his head, staring down at the floor of the aisle.
“Are you going to just lay there on top of her or are you going to get up? It’s no time to take a nap, Kraven.”
“Go to hell. I think she crushed something vital when she squeezed my dick. I’m trying to recover. She’s got nothing on a cock ring, that’s for sure.”
Drantos shook his head. “You’re going to give her a bad impression if you don’t watch your mouth.”
“Like I give a damn what she thinks,” Kraven grunted as he climbed to his feet.
Dusti stared at the other man when he appeared in the aisle a row ahead of where she sat. His black hair looked worse for wear, some of his spikes crushed flat on one side of his head. It gave him the bedhead look of a punker gone bad. Maybe a punk biker, considering the leather jacket he was sporting. He frowned down at something below him.
“What are you? A masseuse?” He lifted his chin and shot Drantos a dirty look. “I swear she crushed my dick.”
Bat struggled to her feet, her blonde hair in a messy ponytail now that her neat bun had been loosened from the crash. She glowered at the man, who gave her that angry look right back. “Why did you grab me like that? What the hell is your problem?”
“I was protecting you. I’m Kraven. You can thank me later, by the way.”
“Thank you?” Bat gawked at him. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t have your ass arrested for sexual assault, battery, and…hell, bad hair! Move out of my way. I need to check on my sister.” Bat tried to shove him aside, her gaze locking on Dusti. Relief showed on her features.
Dusti forced her body to move and she tried to stand but Drantos held out his arm, holding up a hand as if to tell her to stay. She stared up at him.
“Could you please move? You’re in my way.”
He arched a black eyebrow at her. “My brother can take care of your sister. He’s in charge of her now. You just stay put while I deal with this mess.”
Shock rolled through Dusti again. In charge of her? His words played through her mind. They left her even more confused as her gaze flickered back and forth between the two men standing just feet apart, with only a seat between them. They both had tan skin, huge bodies and black hair, but she wouldn’t have previously pegged them for brothers.
Now, as she stared, she started to see some similarities—the strong bone structure for one and the generous lips for another. The spiked-haired guy had light blue eyes though instead of dark.
“Help me,” a man called from the back of the plane. “Please, help!”
Drantos sighed. “I’ve got it.” He inched out from between the seats and into the aisle. “Kraven, watch them and keep them both where they are. We’ve got dead bodies in here, and panicked types who I never trust not to go crazy in a crisis.”
Kraven nodded. “I have the women.”
“Have this, you jerk.” Batina sounded riled still.
Dusti flinched when her sister nailed the unsuspecting guy in the chest with her expensive footwear. Kraven staggered back in astonishment and Bat lunged around him to reach her. Dusti rose to her feet on trembling legs, a moment of wooziness making her see spots, but she pushed the sensation back to hug her sister.
Bat clung to her tightly, both of them enormously relieved the other had survived.
Dusti pulled back enough to get a really good look at her sister’s face. There was a red mark near Bat’s right temple. It wasn’t bleeding but it looked as if it might become a bruise. Her complexion was unnaturally pale but Dusti figured she probably had that in common with her. They’d just been in a plane crash, for God’s sake.
“It’s okay, Bat. I’m okay. Are you hurt?”
Bat eased her hold on her a little. “Nothing a good drink won’t fix. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Dusti gave a little nod but then looked away from her sister to stare in dismay at the cabin around them. Injured people were still strapped in their seats, but worse, a guy lay sprawled in his seat across the aisle next to the torn-away section of the fuselage. He was bloody and definitely dead. No one could be missing an arm that had been sheared off at the shoulder and survive. Bright red drenched his chest and lap—fresh and wet looking.
Dusti heard someone gag, only to realize she’d made the sound herself as bile rose.
Bat grabbed her face by cupping her cheeks. It jerked her horrified gaze away from the sight and forced her to stare at her sister instead. “Look at me and not that.”
Tears welled in Dusti’s eyes that she tried to blink away. She stared into her sister’s gaze, very much resembling her own since they looked so similar. “Oh God!”
“I know,” Bat crooned. “We survived though. We’re Dawsons. We’re tough, remember? Just take deep breaths. In and out. Remain calm.”
Dusti didn’t feel very tough at all. She was in shock, and she knew it. It was difficult to think, a surreal feeling fogging her mind. Too many awful things had happened in a short timeframe and everything seemed a nightmare at that moment. It helped to concentrate on her sister’s face. Bat caressed her gently with her thumbs.
“It’ll be fine. We both made it. We’re okay.” Her sister always knew how to keep her head—if not her tongue—in a bad situation.
“Sit down,” the spiked-haired man ordered harshly. “And I’ll spank you if you hit me with another shoe, you little hellion.”
Bat released Dusti’s cheek without missing a beat to raise her middle finger at the guy behind her. “Take a hint and get away from me, you perverted bastard. You should have picked another woman to molest.”
Kraven, if that was his real name, stepped closer. He looked dazed when Dusti glanced at him. He didn’t seem like someone you could be rude to without dire consequences, but her sister dealt with the dregs of humanity and didn’t seem overly concerned. She was used to stressful situations. Plus, her sister could be a first-rate bitch. That’s how she’d made partner at her law firm by the age of thirty-three. She defended the worst criminals, and had made a name for herself as a cold-hearted ball-buster in the courtroom.
Her reputation out of court had become even worse. A man had hurt Batina when she’d been younger so she avoided relationships now, treating all men equally—as if they were dog shit.
“I saved your life,” the clueless man said, not knowing he’d probably regret it. “I covered your body with my own to protect you, Cat.”
“It’s Bat, you moron. B.A.T.” Her sister turned her head to glare at him. “Back off, asshole. I refuse to deal with you right now. Can’t you see my sister is freaked-out? I’m trying to calm her down.”
“Crazy as a bat or bat-shit crazy. It fits,” the big guy said.
Dusti saw her sister’s nostrils flare and knew she had to act quickly. Her sister had a tendency to be harsh with her words when it came to men. The spiked-haired guy was bodybuilder-size, had to be at least six feet four, towering over them. The last thing she wanted was for him to attack Bat. The full-time bodyguard that usually stuck near her sister wasn’t along on the trip to intervene.
“Let it go,” Dusti ordered. “Let’s help the injured.”
Bat’s blue gaze narrowed when she turned her head to stare at Dusti again. “He’s irritating me and he felt me up!”
“That’s the least of our worries.”
“You’re right. I’ll ignore the big ape just for you this one time because I’m in shock too. I hope I’m not as pale as you look. You’re doing a hell of a ghost impression.” Bat cringed. “I shouldn’t have said that, considering the circumstances. Sorry.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s help out. People are hurt. Just breathe and focus on that, okay?” She released Dusti to reach inside her inner jacket pocket and then whipped out her cell phone.
Dusti felt a rush of relief. Her older sister was always the one to remain coolheaded in a crisis. They needed help, and Bat was obviously thinking the same thing. “Do you think you’re going to get a cell phone signal out here?”
Bat flipped open the case. “I hope so.” Her mouth curved downward into a frown a second later. She spun suddenly to glare at Kraven.
“You broke my phone with your gorilla-sized body.” She shoved the phone upward to show him the crushed face, parts of the broken screen falling to the cabin floor. “You owe me a new one. Give me yours.”
“It’s in my bag.” He pointed up to where the overhead cabinets had once been. “Wherever that is now.”
So much for that plan.
Bat was confronting the spike-headed guy yet again, who stood way too close to Bat as he argued back. Dusti turned away from them both. Kraven was the one who had grabbed her sister before the crash, after all, so Dusti figured if anyone deserved to be a target of Bat’s anger, it was him.
She got her first glimpse of the back of the plane and her heart nearly stopped.
“Oh God.”
“I know! I can’t dial 9-1-1.”
“Shut up, Bat,” Dusti whispered. “Look. Oh my God.”
Bat moved beside her and clutched her hand, which hung limply at her side. Her warm fingers laced with Dusti’s while they both stared toward where the rear of the plane had once been.
A big, craggy hole glared at them from five rows back, the tail section just gone—along with a few rows that had contained people.
The dreadfulness of it hit Dusti full force as she stared at the line of broke trees and scarred ground the plane had created when it had been dragged along the forest floor. A body remained still strapped into a lone seat in the near distance. It had broken free from its twin and the rear of the plane. No one could have survived that. The poor victim resembled bloody hamburger wrapped in soaked red clothing. It was impossible to tell if it had been a man or a woman.
A big body suddenly stood in the aisle, blocking Dusti’s view of the dead person a good fifty yards away. Drantos’s expression looked grim when he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his shaggy mane of hair. His lips twisted into a grimace as he approached Dusti. Their gazes remained on each other until he stopped a few feet in front of her. He shifted his attention to look at his brother behind her.
“There are ten survivors besides us in the cabin. Most of them will make it but I’m doubtful about a few. One of us should go hunt up the back of the plane to see if any of those people made it. We also need to check on the pilots.”
“Fuck,” Kraven sighed. “What a damn mess. I’ll go search for the tail section of the plane.” He paused. “You watch the bitches. The one in the dress suit is a terror, so don’t turn your back on her.”
Bat squeezed Dusti’s hand painfully as she turned her head to glare at Kraven. “I’m going to rip off your nuts if you call me a bitch one more time.”
Dusti jerked on her sister’s hand. “Batina Marie Dawson, enough!” Hot tears filled her eyes when her sister met her gaze. “I know bitchiness is your defense mechanism when you’re scared or mad but please stop! I can’t deal with it right now.”
A wave of dizziness hit, making her knees go weak. She swayed on her feet.
Bat grabbed her before Dusti collapsed. Her sister struggled to hold her upright until two strong hands gripped her. She opened her eyes to see the big guy, Drantos, lifting her until she was cradled against his chest.
“Where’s my purse?” Bat asked, clearly panicked. “It’s black. I need it!”
“I’m okay,” Dusti whispered. “It’s just a dizzy spell.”
“My purse, you big gorilla! Move out of my way. My sister needs her medication,” Bat yelled.
Drantos frowned while he stared into her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”
He was strong, easily holding her in his arms while he stood in the aisle. She appreciated that he’d prevented her from falling on the floor and taking her sister down with her when he’d swept her off her feet.
“I’ve got a rare form of anemia. It’s bad sometimes and makes me dizzy. I have iron shots in my purse but Bat keeps a few of them with her, too, in case of emergency.”
He paled a little, lifting his face to stare at someone behind her. “She’s defective. I think we saved the wrong two women.”
“Shit,” Kraven cursed softly. “They were the only two single females aboard. I was positive they were the ones Filmore sent for. That blows every theory we had.”
Shock tore through Dusti while she stared up at the man holding her. “You know my grandfather?”
He swiftly looked back at her. “You’re Decker Filmore’s granddaughter?”
She nodded, feeling a little stronger and less lightheaded. Maybe it wasn’t her anemia kicking her in the ass but just the shock that had gotten to her. She’d also been battered around and nearly crushed by the big man who currently held her. “He’s my mother’s father. We were on our way to see him. He’s terminally ill.”
Rage tightened the man’s features, making Dusti feel more fear than when the plane was going down. He looked really scary.
“That’s a lie. That bastard will never die until someone takes him out.” He jerked his head up to glare at his brother. “We’ve got the right women. I never saw this coming, did you? Granddaughters? But we can stop him now that we’re the ones who have them.”
A soft growl came from behind Dusti, making her startle at the chilling animalistic sound Kraven had made. “I wouldn’t have risked my neck to save one of them if I’d known they were related to him by blood. Now we’re going to have to kill them ourselves.”
Terror struck Dusti as she stared into Drantos’s furious blue eyes, which were fixed on her. He blinked once, then twice. His plush lips pressed tightly together to show his displeasure. He finally looked away and shook his head.
“I don’t kill helpless women, and you aren’t going to either. I know it’s tough to get a good read in here, what with all the blood and everything else filling the air, but they smell just like the other passengers.” He paused. “You know what I’m saying. You’re just angry and it’s been a bad day. We’ll find out what they know and crush that bastard’s plan. We’ll use them against him. They’re his blood, even if it is faint enough that we can’t pick it up. That means they’ll be valuable to him.”
Kraven glared at her and his nostrils flared. “How can they be his blood?”
“We’ll figure it out later, after we deal with this mess, but do you know anyone who would purposely claim to be a relative to that bastard unless it was the truth?”
“I found it!” Bat rushed to them, gripping her purse. “Hang on, Dusti. I have some of your shots.”
Dusti flashed a terrified look at Bat, trying to convey that things were much worse than just being in a plane crash. She tried to catch her sister’s eye but Bat remained too intent on finding the iron shots, digging inside her purse with one hand. She jerked out a small black case with a grin.
“Here it is. They aren’t broken.”
Dusti glanced at Drantos, only to discover him glaring down at her. She and Bat were in a lot of trouble.
Her grandfather was rich—and she had a sinking feeling they were about to be held for ransom.
Can this day get any worse?
Drantos watched the sister inject the woman in his arms with a small syringe. Then he looked at his brother, attempting to conceal his rage and dismay.
These women were the granddaughters of their worst enemy. He knew his brother hated Decker even more than he did, which was the only reason why Kraven would even contemplate killing the obviously helpless sisters.
Decker Filmore had sent a woman to seduce Kraven months before, and then she’d attempted to murder him. She’d failed, but it had left his brother with a hair-trigger abhorrence toward any females associated with Decker’s clan.
Drantos didn’t blame him for being leery. It would be unnerving to have a woman attempt to stab him in the heart during sex.
Still, one thing was clear. The ultimate fate of the sisters wasn’t to be decided until he found out what they knew.
He’d hate to have to kill them. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t if he was left with no other choice.
He peered down at the one he held in his arms. Dusti. She had pretty blue eyes, confusion and fear shining clearly in them. It was easy for him to read her emotions, but he couldn’t make sense of either. Decker had to have warned them that they might be met by the enemy. She could be faking whatever physical flaw she seemed to have just to appear weak. It could be a cunning game they played, hoping to get him and his brother to let down their guards. They wouldn’t escape, if that was their plan.
Dusti had said her mother was the tie to that family, and he tried to remember details about Decker’s daughter, but Antina Filmore had run away from her father shortly after her mother’s death. Nobody had heard from her again. It was assumed by Drantos’s clan that the girl had known or suspected her own father had murdered her mom, and she had also likely known what he had in store for her future. Antina had never resurfaced.
It was possible she hadn’t told Dusti or Bat the truth about their grandfather. Did Antina want to save herself from the fate her father had planned for her badly enough to offer up both of her daughters instead? She could have sent them herself, making some kind of deal with Decker. He wasn’t the type to forgive anyone for what he’d consider a betrayal, but he’d bargain for something if he wanted it bad enough. The bastard was totally ruthless.
Drantos studied the woman staring back at him with fear. She trembled in his arms and a sudden sense of protectiveness hit him.
She was the best actress he’d ever met, if it was indeed an act. Then again, she really might not know what her grandfather had in store for her—but Drantos could guess.
Decker would use his granddaughters to begin the bloodbath he so desperately wanted.