a heart attack.” She glanced behind her before saying with a bit more urgency, “In fact, if we could be up in the air within the next ten minutes, that would be great.”
Ten minutes? He had to file a flight plan, gain clearance... Hell, he had to drain his bladder and grab his meatball sub from the fridge. He chuckled, pumping the brakes. “Let’s start with the basics. How about you tell me your name, where we’re going, like a normal chartered excursion, and then we’ll schedule your flight.”
Her green-eyed gaze narrowed with irritation. “I don’t have time for that. We need to be in the air now.”
“Well, too bad. We have protocol, rules. I can’t just go willy-nilly into the air like a drunken bird. I could lose my license.”
“Mr. Carmichael...”
But whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sudden screech of tires.
“Shit,” she muttered, her calm and precise demeanor crumbling quickly. “There’s no time to argue. Let’s go!”
A black car sped toward them, mindless of the tarmac, and J.T. got a real bad feeling. “What the hell?”
She shocked him by roughly pushing him. “We have to move, now! They are not coming this way to shake hands. Trust me—let’s go!”
The way the car was barreling toward them, J.T. had to agree with the woman. Hell, he didn’t even know her name yet, but there was no time for niceties. He grabbed her bag and tossed it into the cabin, then helped the woman in afterward.
“I hate when Teagan is right,” he muttered, quickly buckling in and securing the cabin doors. He rushed through his preflight ritual—a quick prayer and a gentle swipe at the hula girl stuck to his cockpit dash—and gunned the engine. Taxiing, he hit the throttle and quickly picked up speed, but the distinct sound of bullets being fired put a whole new spin on things.
“They’re shooting at my plane!”
“Yes, and if you don’t get it in the air, we’re going to end up in a fireball!”
“Who are you, lady?” he shouted, pushing forward on the throttle, his adrenaline running like jet fuel through his veins. “If anything happens to my plane—”
“Get us out of here alive and we’ll talk! Until then, focus on getting us out of here!”
Couldn’t argue that logic. J.T. wiped at the sweat gathering at his brow and pushed the plane to gain altitude. The sound of bullets hitting the frame was hard to ignore. He could just imagine the holes. Teagan was going to freak.
Resale value, J.T., he would no doubt yell. No one’s gonna want a shot-up plane!
After what seemed an eternity, J.T. cleared the airfield and gained enough altitude to escape the trajectory of the bullets, but now that he was sure he wasn’t going to die, he was pissed as hell!
If he’d wanted to be shot at he would’ve remained in the Air Force! He’d already done his share of tours in the combat zone and he was finished with that shit.
“You want to explain what the hell just happened?” he shouted. “Why are people shooting at you? Who are you? It’s drugs, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, actually, it is,” she shot back, surprising him with her blunt answer.
He hadn’t expected her to cop to it so easily. “Heroin? Meth? Pot?”
“Nothing illegal. Pharmaceuticals. I hate to burst your bubble, but what they’re after is totally legal.”
“Yeah, like I buy that,” he shot back derisively. “Don’t let my baby face fool you. I’ve been around the block enough times to know that people don’t hand out bullet sandwiches for Tylenol. What the hell is really going on?”
“Look, nothing has changed. I’m still willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money for you to transport me to South America. We’ve lost the people who were shooting at us, so let’s just stay the course.”
“Stay the course? Are you kidding me? People put bullets in my plane. There’s no course I want to travel that involves bullets. You hear me? No way, lady. I’m finding the first open airfield and dropping you off. You can find a different chump to peddle your story to, because I ain’t buying.”
“No? From my research, Blue Yonder is dangerously close to shutting its doors. You’re teetering on bankruptcy. I’m offering you one job that could put you in the black.”
“How do you know my personal banking information?” he demanded, chafing at his privacy being invaded. He’d had enough of the government knowing his every move when he’d been property of the good ole US of A.
“Trust me—it’s not as if you’re living off the grid. A simple Google search with the right query and I found everything I needed to know. Am I right?”
“That’s not the point,” he groused, feeling exposed. “The point is, it’s none of your business to go poking around in my private affairs.”
“Look, I’m not the enemy. I’m just a scientist and I need your help to get to my company’s lab in South America. Can you do that?”
“I can, but I won’t,” he answered, still thinking about the holes in his plane and how he was going to repair them when the bank account was dangerously dry.
She must’ve sensed a break in his resolve. “I can’t express to you how important it is that I get to my destination. Make your offer and I’ll pay it. My company will authorize a handsome sum to get what I’m carrying.”
“What are you carrying?”
“Part of the deal will be no questions asked. It’s safer for you that way.”
“Well, now you’re just leading me on. Either you tell me or I turn around.”
“Your business will be toes up by next month,” she countered firmly. “And then what? You have the opportunity to stave off the inevitable or maybe even pull out of this skid. But if you drop me off, your business is certain to fail because I didn’t see anyone else knocking down your door to throw money at you.”
He hated that she was right. Hadn’t Teagan pounded that point into his head last night? Hadn’t his brother’s reasoning rung in his brain in spite of J.T.’s attempt to drown it out with Cuervo? By the bottom of the tequila bottle, things had seemed pretty hopeless.
Until the hot, troublesome redhead had walked onto the property.
But now he didn’t know if he was about to make a devil’s bargain.
“What kind of money are we talking?” he asked with grudging curiosity. He was already up in the air. Maybe it wouldn’t be too much trouble to get her to where she needed to go, drop her off, then take the money and run.
“Enough to keep you afloat for a few months, maybe six if you’re frugal. My company has very deep pockets.”
Damn, that was persuasive. “And I’m just supposed to drop you off, no questions asked, and that’s it? I never hear
