Chapter Two
Zinc had to push away his anger. Losing his temper was only going to make the fucking mess of a situation worse. For two days, he had wined and dined David into trusting him. Less than a single minute with Sarah, Zinc threw all caution to the wind.
It should have been hours before he blew out the camera, after he lulled the man into a blissful state of voyeuristic hotness. Only, Sarah had been on the floor, and for two days, he’d been forced to bide his time when all he wanted to do was chuck the mission and get her the hell out of there. Fuck it. Her safety was his mission. So what if he had to improvise on their way out. David could be halfway off the island.
He grabbed on to Sarah’s soft hand and tugged her along. “There’s a room ahead. I’m going to stash you in it while I handle things.”
“No.” She let go of his hand. “I’m not hiding. There are other women here. I heard them. I’m going to go find them.”
He admired her backbone. Most people would be shaking in their boots after the ordeal she’d suffered. “You’re the only kidnapped victim here. David got rid of the girls before I got here or I would have saved them, too.”
She nodded. “I’m still not hiding in a room while you take care of business.”
A noise around the corner warned him they weren’t alone, and he motioned to Sarah to stop. She tugged his jacket closer around herself, and he wished he had more clothing to give her. They’d have to wait until they got through whatever happened to find her clothes and have what he was sure would be a very intense conversation about exactly what was going on.
Walter David had a secure island home for his maneuverings and it wasn’t exactly Fort Knox. Including the dead guard outside Sarah’s room, there would be four more armed problems and David himself. Although having spent two days with the drunk, Zinc didn’t think the fool would prove much of a problem without his guards to do the dirty work for him.
Zinc darted to the side as they rounded the corner and a pop exploding the wall next to his head let him know how close he’d been to being shot. You never hear the one that hits you. He’d been lucky.
“Zach.”
“Got it, sweetheart.” He had full visibility of the shooter and took him seconds later.
Sarah closed on his left. “You almost got hit.”
“Nah. I’m hard to kill. Trust me.” He took her hand again and pointed with his gun. “Through those doors. They’re locked on the other side. We’ll have to bust our way in.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve got it.” She still had one cuff from the handcuffs around her free wrist. Damn, she’d really not had time to pull herself completely out. She’d had to dislocate her thumb to have managed to be out at all.
Impressive.
She picked the lock using the end of her open handcuff.
Very impressive.
The mission parameters were simple. Open the doors. Eliminate the guards. Take out David. Find her clothes. Get the fuck out of Dodge. Although he did appreciate seeing her long legs stick out of his jacket. God, it had clearly been too long since he’d had a woman if he entertained thoughts about her legs while mid-mission.
“Got it.” She turned and nodded. “Door should open. Have at it, Zach.”
“I will. Move.” He nodded her out of the way, and she followed orders. “I still can’t get over the idea you’re agency and can pick locks. How the hell did that happen?”
“Asks the dead man.” She raised an eyebrow, a challenge in her dark eyes “Q and A will have to wait for later.”
“Fair enough.” He grabbed the door handle, twisted, and then pulled it open. “Stay.”
He put two bullets into the guard waiting for them, which turned out to be more than he needed—better safe than sorry when it came to it. Apparently, without Red Wolf around, his former people were getting slack in their security.
“You’re a good shot.”
“Started when I was a kid, shooting with your brother and our dads on weekend hunting trips.” He preferred not to think of those times, and the pang of pain in his chest as he spoke the words reminded him why. Ouch. Good memories could suck as much as bad ones.
“I remember. I used to hear about them at school. Adam would write me.” There was a sigh to her voice, and Zinc wondered if she also hated thinking about the past.
He moved forward, confidant she would follow him as she had done the whole time. “A single guard left, then David himself unless he wised up and fled already.”
“He’s a coward who hides behind people with guns. Straps electric collars to women who don’t want it and keeps them prisoner.”
“And then kills them.”
Her little gasp confirmed she hadn’t had access to that last piece of information. If he’d known she’d been unaware, he’d have kept it to himself. Sarah didn’t need to know how close she had come to death.
They’d gotten lucky.
Shouts echoed from within the private office suite. Zinc recognized the voices from earlier. David and his last guard—Walter David was afraid and he had reason to be.
“I pay you to handle crisis,” David wailed.
His guard didn’t seem to care. “You don’t pay me enough to be dead.”
Zinc rolled his eyes. “It’ll take a minute, sweetheart.”
“Don’t act cocky. You’re the cocky ass who’ll get dead.” She motioned toward the door. “Have at it.”
Did he hear boredom in her voice? They were in mid-escape, she’d been collared, shocked, and they’d been shot at, and she was naked save for his jacket yet Sarah Steele hadn’t broken a sweat. What had happened to Adam’s little sister to make her so badass?
Zinc kicked open the door. The shock jarring his bad knee, but he ignored the pain. Maybe his move had been a little showy. Was he trying to impress Sarah? God, he needed his head on straight. He’d known her since she was four years old.
Of course, she was a grown woman now.
A press of his finger discharged the bullet from his weapon right into the guard’s head. The man fell backward with a jolt, his lifeless brown eyes staring at the ceiling.
“You should have hired better security.” He advanced on David. “Do you know who I am yet?”
“No…” David was short and stout with a pig nose, which had probably gotten him teased in school. He wore a mustache, a la Adolf Hitler. “Although, I’m starting to suspect you are part of the group responsible for my problems with Red Wolf.”
“I’m not going to educate you. I was curious to see exactly how far your intelligence went on the subject. Intel matters.”
David shook and he held his hands in front of him. “I’ll tell you anything you’d want to know. Don’t kill me.”
“Maybe I should make you beg. For all those papers you got moved for Red Wolf, all the things you did to make his illegal dealings seem okay. All the pain your actions caused so many people.”
Zinc wasn’t thinking about himself. He was thinking about all the nameless people—the souls they’d never known, the ones they couldn’t save, the blind eyes they’d been forced to turn. The man in front of him had played a role.
“I’ll beg.” David dropped onto his knees. “I have no shame. All I have is information. Money transfers. Who, what, when, where, why.”
The bang from behind, accompanied by the bloody hole in David’s forehead startled Zinc, and he whirled around. Gun in hand, Sarah shook her head.
When he could manage words, Zinc spoke. “He might have known something.”
“There’s nothing he can tell us those papers won’t contain.” She pointed to the desk. “He’s a lawyer. We’ll out find more from his paper trail than anything he’d know or invent. And he kept me collared in a room against my will for a month.”
Staring at her for a moment, Zinc recognized the hard look in her eyes, had seen it in the mirror many times over the last three years. She’d been pushed as far as she was going to go.
“Let’s get his shit together, and get out of here. Then I’m going to have some questions for you, sweetheart, about how your kidnapping went down. David wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch. If he found you, someone helped him.”
“Right. You can then start with explaining to me how you’re alive and where you have been.”
“Of course.”
It was going to be a long day.
***
Three hours later, Zinc sat back in his seat and stared out the window. They were two hours from Texas. Sarah had been in the shower of the plane for an hour, and he wasn’t going to rush her out. She should take as much time as she wanted to make herself comfortable after her ordeal.
The woman didn’t rattle.
Her brother would be so surprised.
He pushed thoughts of Adam aside. As it were, Zinc was entertaining some seriously inappropriate thoughts about Sarah Steele. Like how her long legs looked wearing only his jacket. His cock jumped to attention. The girl was so completely off-limits. He took a sip of his water, wishing it were whiskey. Given his family history, desire for alcohol was not one he could feed. Shit, his head hurt.
Where had he stuck his pills?
“Do you know when the last time I saw you was?” Sarah’s voice startled him and he turned. She leaned against the wall, dressed in his pajamas. He hadn’t had anything else to give her. It took him a moment to find his voice. How could she be both so hot and so soft in his flannel pants and Yankees T-shirt?
She’d asked him something. The last time she saw him? “You’ll have to remind me.”
“The last time I saw you, or I guess didn’t see you, was when I stared at your closed coffin being lowered into the ground.”
Well, he had walked right into her justified response. “And you want some answers.”
“Immediately.”
“Okay.” He stood. The plane was flying smoothly, so far they hadn’t had a bump in the air. It was all right to move around. Titanium’s private fleet was nothing if not luxurious, and the pilot currently operating the metal box sailing through the sky had come highly recommended.
“Tell me something right off the bat. Is my brother still alive, too?” Her eyes widened when she asked the question, the only outward indication of the stress asking the question caused her. He waited a beat, watching. Three years of being a Ghost had improved his people skills. A muscle in Sarah’s jaw twitched. She was proving to be a woman who could keep her cool, only her outward demeanor didn’t mean she wasn’t freaking on the inside.
There was no easy way to do what it fell to him to tell her. Damn you, Adam.
“Yes. He’s alive.”
She put her hands on her hips. “And the two of you thought it was okay to fool all of us? To let anyone who gave a damn about you learn of your deaths? Tell me you’ve been on some kind of mission, some kind of top government, national security, can’t do without you deal.”
“I suppose that’s questionable, depending on how you look at it. Although what I’m going to say will confuse the fuck out of you before it makes any sense. Please know it was not a decision Adam and I made together. We didn’t plot.” In fact, in his case, all he did was die.
His head throbbed and he reached to rub his forehead. Sarah took a step toward him. She smelled clean, of the soap she must have used in the shower, and it wafted over him. He’d forgotten how a warm, sensual woman could fill all the space in the room.
“You’re in pain.”
He waved his hand. “It’s a constant. Comes and goes.” Pressure in his ears drew his attention. They needed to finish their conversation and also delve into the deal with her and the agency. First…why the fuck was the pilot changing altitude so quickly? “Buckle yourself in.”
“What?” She asked as she made her way to her seat. “Everything okay?”
“Probably.” He was no longer a guy who assumed all was going to turn out all right. If the pilot had encountered some weather and needed to adjust the plane, he should have let them know over the speaker. There were rules when on a mission, and Zinc’s heightened sense of self-preservation was making all his warning signals blast right then.
He turned and charged toward the front of the plane. If nothing was wrong, at least he was going to have a five-minute break from having to tell Sarah why she had thought he and Adam dead for three years. And he’d take a breath while he tried to forget how awesome her breasts appeared in his T-shirt. Fuck, how hard up was he?
***
Sarah didn’t really know much about flying. Though she’d always considered herself a smart woman and found learning relatively straightforward, the science of aerodynamics confused her. Truthfully, she still couldn’t make sense of exactly why airplanes did what they did. As long as they took off when they were supposed to and landed safely, the progression was good enough for her. She’d chosen to leave the mechanics of air travel a gap in her education and never thought to fill it.
Pilots adjusted altitudes all the time. Maybe Zach was trying to avoid her questions, although he didn’t set off her coward alarms. She drummed her fingers on her lap. Adam was alive. Her eyes filled with tears and she pushed them back. When she saw her big brother, she was going to kick his fucking ass.
And then hug him to death. It had been everything she could do to resist rushing at Zach and throwing her arms around him in utter relief when she’d come out of the shower and seen him sitting there, proving she hadn’t invented the whole thing in her head. He lived, he was real.
She wiped the lone tear slipping along her cheek. Her ears popped and she rubbed them. They were descending and quickly.
Sarah looked out the window and sweat broke out on her palms. They were still over the ocean, which meant they absolutely should not be descending.
Zach had told her to buckle in and stay put, only if she was going to crash into the Atlantic she’d rather not be taken by surprise. Quickly, she undid her seatbelt and abandoned her seat to head to the cockpit.
I am Sarah Steele and I am not sitting on my ass when something is really wrong.
The door to the cockpit was open and a body was strewn on the floor. She stumbled, narrowly avoiding stepping on it, then clutched the wall. Sarah forced herself to breathe. The body lying face down wasn’t Zach. The person had dark hair, which was not as light as Zach’s looked. The blood on the floor wasn’t his. She kept repeating those facts for a moment before she calmed.
Other than herself and Zach, the only other person on the plane had been the pilot. She’d not met him because Zach had brought her to the back of the plane so quickly so she could shower and change.
Shit. The pilot was dead. So who was flying the plane?
“Zach.” Her voice croaked. She knew she’d berate herself for it later. Sarah always credited herself on being steady in a crisis. Only, flying a plane was beyond her capabilities.
“I thought I told you to strap in.”
“I’m not good at following directions.” She stepped over the body. Zach sat in the pilot’s seat, and seeing him there eased some of the tension in her jaw. Was he qualified to fly? “Do you have a pilot’s license?”
“It’s got to be similar to riding a bike, right?” He turned and winked at her. “The pilot was going to crash us into the ocean. I got something about Red Wolf and loyalty before I broke his neck. All would be well, except he programmed the autopilot to bring us down and I can’t seem to make it to stop. Our plane is Titanium’s. You don’t know him, so trust me when I say he’s a very rich dude and we’re in a very expensive plane. It has after-market upgrades Uncle Sam doesn’t know about yet.”
He sounded so calm. They were crashing into the ocean and he’d said it with a smile. “So I should make my peace and be ready to meet my maker?”
“Not yet.” He shook his head. “Sit in the co-pilot’s chair. I’ve managed to slow the descent. Bought us some time. And if I can continue to fuck with the electronics here, I should be able to very shortly convince the autopilot to give me back control of my baby here. I’m good with tech, sweetheart. Trust me.”
She sat because really, what other choice did she have? Zach hadn’t affixed his seatbelt, and she leaned over to attach it for him before she did her own. He had to take care of himself. If he managed to save them and then went through the windshield because he didn’t wear a seatbelt, she’d kill him.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already died once in a fiery explosion. Can’t happen to me twice so we’re both golden.”
“What do you mean?” He’d died in a fiery explosion?
“Later.” He reached over and handed her his cellphone. “I want you to take my phone. I need both hands to hold us steady for a minute while I mess with things. If you press button three, it’s going to dial a man I want you to refer to as Chrome when he answers. After you identify yourself, you’re going to let him know you’re with Zinc—me. He’s bound to be a little upset with me, still he’s a very good guy and he’s not going to let our personal shit be in the way of what’s happening here.”
“What exactly am I to tell him is happening?” Because she wasn’t a hundred percent certain and she didn’t want to get it wrong. Details were important.
“We’re descending against our will from twenty thousand feet. Hold my phone against the computer in front of you. My phone will take the readings from it and send it to Chrome’s after you call him. Go on.”
“All right.”
She did as she had been told, and seconds later, she did hear someone answer on the other end of the phone. A male voice, fortunately, since she didn’t want to have to wait while he was found.
“Am I speaking with Chrome?”
A pause. “Who am I talking to?”
“My name is Sarah. I’m with Zinc, and um, we’re likely about to have a plane crash.”
“Not a crash, exactly,” Zinc corrected.
“Where are you, Sarah?” Whoever Chrome was, he really cut to the chase.
“Zinc said his phone will send the information to yours.”
“Hold on. Checking.” A brief pause. “Yes, got it. What does he need?”
Zach actually hadn’t told her what to say. She looked at the man piloting the plane. His expression seemed unreadable. Once when they were young, she would have claimed she knew him extremely well. How true was it anymore? She hadn’t even known he was still alive. Well…does it matter right now, Sarah? “What do you need?”
“Put me on speaker. You’re doing well, Sarah.”
“Don’t patronize me, Zach.” She clicked the button to change the phone so Zach could hear Chrome and vice-versa.
“The pilot Titanium contracted for the mission turned out to be working for what’s left of Red Wolf’s people. Titanium clearly has some problems on his end. I’ve eliminated the pilot, and in about thirty seconds, I’m going to have enough control over the plane I should be able to make our landing a bail out situation rather than a full-on crash.”
Chrome cleared his throat. “I didn’t know you were on a mission.”
“Yeah, well, Titanium likes his secrets and he keeps them close to his chest.”
Sarah couldn’t help but hear the bitterness in Zach’s tone. The sneer forming on his mouth did nothing to lessen the effect.
“Can’t get full control?”
“I think an engine is totally broken. Whoever the pilot was didn’t plan on a return trip. What concerns me is he waited until we got onto the plane to begin with. Anyway, we’ll deal with that shit after we’re on the ground. Basically, I need a retrieval.”
“On it.”
“Chrome?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
Sarah disconnected the phone. She happened to have a degree in psychology, among other things. Only, she didn’t need the years of study to tell her there was much not being said between those two men.
Either way, if the man called Chrome was sending help, she’d be grateful for it.
“What do you need from me?”
“See the button right there in the center console? Above the GPS? It says bail out. Do you see it?”
She did. She also noted how the plane continued to descend. It had been at twenty thousand feet when she’d called Chrome. It read fifteen thousand now. She took a deep breath. Zach had asked her a question.
“I do.”
“When I tell you to, press it.”
“That’s it?” She’d take on a whole slew of activity and responsibility if it would allow her mind to think about anything other than what was about to happen. Whatever he’d said to Chrome, it boiled down to one inescapable fact. He was going to crash the plane.
“Yep.”
“I…” What did people talk about when they were so close to death? There had to be things to be said. “I had a real thing for you when we were younger. You had to know.”
“I didn’t, actually.” Zach smiled. “You were not someone I could look at in a physical way, even if I did think you were hot.” He shook his head. “Adam’s sister? He’d have killed me where I stood.”
She’d always wondered if he noticed her. “Hot?”
“Totally. Hot. Smart. Quiet. Sweet. And off-limits.”
For real? All the time she had spent in the dorm room of her boarding school, alone, and thinking about Zach’s blue smiling eyes and he had thought she was hot and off-limits. Well, that was the way the cookie crumbled, she supposed. Or the plane crashed, as the case turned out to be.
Goosebumps broke out on her skin. They were really close to the water. She hadn’t considered she would die when she was on her knees at the mercy of a madman. In a fiery plane crash? There was a very real chance.
And Zach looked cool as a cucumber. What the fuck was the matter with him?
“Hit the button, sweetheart.”
With a shaking finger, she pushed the button and closed her eyes. If she was about to die in the Atlantic Ocean, she didn’t want to watch it happen.