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Prologue
February: Over the Persian Gulf
"We’ve been hit!"
The aircraft coh Senior Master Sergeant JT "Tag" Price’s headset Ricocheted around in his brain Settled with molten-lead heat as JT sat in his solitary loado plane
Not that he even needed the aircraft co thuh the C-17 Yet up to that last second, he hadn’t given up hope of a hts blazing across his control panel told him otherwise "Details," he quizzed, quick Brief Never one to waste words even on a good day
This sure as hell wasn’t a good day
Aerodynamics went to crap The craft already rattled, strained
"Missile hit," the aircraft commander, Captain Carson "Scorch" Hunt, answered from the cockpit above "Probably a man-portable, fired from a boat, I think"
The plane bucked Shuddered His checklist vibrated off the console "Are we gonna have to put down somewhere bad or can weto make it to Europe"
Silence echoed for two seconds, cut only by the ruressive tenor of pain
Crap
JT pivoted toward the cavernous cargo hold containing a pallet full of top-secret surveillance equipovernence froive away field agent identities "Plan of action?"
"We’ll have to circle back and haul ass toward the coast to land in Rubistan"
Definitely bad But not as bad as it could be Relations with the country were strained, yet not outright hostile Still, the equipment on that pallet made for a serious ti land "How er ’til feet dry?"
"Ten ht, but workable Scooping his sh to the destruction checklists "All right, then Stretch it if you can while I destroy asit in the ocean"
Then pray like hell they didn’t end up ditching the plane, too
"Make it quick, Tag I can buy you one, maybe two extra oing all to hell"
"Roger, Scorch" JT unstrapped fro destruction checklists Get the back ramp open"
He pivoted toward the an--also an OSI agent undercover as a second loadht, another potential land mine if the Rubistanians discovered the man’s real job "Stay out of the way ’til I’"
Spike flashed hi froent’s perspective He raked his hand over his head, normally spiked hair now in a buzz cut for his undercoverdeck thanks to twenty-four years in the Air Force and five thousand flying hours, JT charged toward the pallet He flipped red guard switches, started hard drives erasing data about terrorists financing operations by trafficking opium out of Rubistan And somewhere on their own base in Charleston was a leak Thus the involveation
As he destroyed data, JT tried not to think about all the governation He hooked his fingers in the er Foa out
The load raht swept the ines swelled
Now to finish the last of the destruction the old-fashioned way He yanked the crash ax off the wall Hefted back Swung
Hack
What a helluva way to miss an appointment with his wife at the divorce attorney’s office Sorry I can’t ht now
Or worse
He jerked the ax free of the cracked ain God, he’d worriedRena a , knew she had prepared herself for it, as well But how the hell did anyone prep for a peacetime front-door visit from the commander, nurse and chaplain?
He’d already caused her enough grief over the years, and now to end it this way Damn it She deserved better
But then she’d always deserved better than hiain, endlessly Sweat sheeted down hiht suit to his back Air roared and swirled through the open hatch Still, perspiration stung his pores, his eyes:
The aircraft’s tail end swayed more by the second His muscles flexed, released, burned until the surveillance computer equipment lay scattered, split into a pile of metal and wires
"Destruction checklist complete," he reported, then nodded to Spike "You ready?"
"Roger" The undercover agent charged forward to push, no help forthco from the screwed electrical system
They tucked side by side behind the pallet Air and ocean waited to s the equiprunted Ra out over the gulf Boots planted Muscles knotted, strained, until…
The pallet gave way, hooked, caught, lu, rolling, tipping
Gone
Swiping a sleeve over his forehead, JT backed fro the tracks "Quickest you’ll ever throay a billion dollars Now get your ass strapped in upstairs"
"Roger that" Spike clapped him on the back on his way toward the front
JT jogged past his loadmaster perch, up the steep stairwell to the cockpit For a crash landing, the higher up, the better Two seats waited behind the pilot and copilot JT darted right, Spike left, and buckled into the five-point harness
The clear windscreen displayed coastline and desert ain, reconnecting to the voices of the two men in front of him Their hands flew over the throttle, stick, instru craft
Scorch, their aircraft couy who looked od froht-suit pocket, a book he’d packed in anticipation of the quiet time out over the Atlantic Hell Scorch would need to tap into soet them out of this one
Bo, the copilot, sat directly in front of JT The dark-haired kid must be all of maybe twenty-five or -six Not much older than his two kids, for God’s sake Nikki was just finishing up her junior year at UNC Chris was still in high school
Regret seared Daraduate, the first e education Of course, he’d attended Rena’s graduation a couple of years ago, been proud as hell of her honors grades and quick landing of a job as a civilian counselor employed by the Charleston Air Force Base hospital
But educational successes were expected for her since all her siblings had already sported a few diplomas triple matted on the hen he’dhiainst the seat Ih speed as if to ja into the next four ain
Never ht now he’d even settle for fighting with her, so love, which was s
Scorch thu to make it to an airstrip We’ll have to put her down in the desert Strap in tight This one’s going to smack so hard your children will be born dizzy"
JT braced his boots And if they survived the landing? The Rubistanian government would detain the shot, but they wouldas the tribal warlords didn’t get them first
Chapter 1
May: North Charleston, SC
The doorbell echoed through the house
Rena Price resisted the urge to duck and run upstairs to keep fro Instead, she kept her feet planted to the floor for a steadying second while she tipped the watering can into a potted begonia by the sofa
Yeah, that sure wouldunder her bedroom quilt And all because she was scared spitless she wouldn’t be able to resist ju on the other side of her oak door But then her emotions had never been easy to contain Especially around JT
Water gushed Niagara Falls style over the sides of the porcelain pot
"Daundy throw pillow from the sofa to blot the water off the floor She’d just wash the pillow later
Sheesh She wasn’t the sa over a hot airht suit She was a ain
A mature woman who needed to answer her door so her soon-to-be ex-husband could start his weekend visitation with their teenage son
She Frisbee-tossed the soggy pillow across the roo hair over her shoulder Whew Coh to pass muster outwardly for at least five minutes
Rena tucked around and past the ficus tree beside the overstuffed ar Just, uh--" her eyes fell on the telephone "--finishing up a call"
Liar Liar Her heels chanted with each click along hard-wood floors, thenas shethe stained-glass inset
Regret pinched, not for the first time How sad that she’d co the bell at his own house He deserved so much better than this
Better from her
They’d sure as hell tried for years until she’d booted hio Taken him back once he returned fro captured Only to have him walk out on her a few days later
She slowed in front of the door, pressed her hand to the glassand settling up toward her elbow He wouldn’t think anything of the gesture if he saw her on the other side since she was unbolting the lock with her free hand But she let her fingers linger on the coloredfor a second longer over the place where his body shadowed the pane
After twenty-two years of sleeping with this ered for the comfort and pleasure she could find in his arms Her mind, however, reminded her of the heartache
Her hand fell away frolass
She opened the door "Hi, JT"
Whew She got thatover his hard-ht suit Still, she couldn’t stop herself froe of him to reassure herself that yes, he had survived the ordeal overseas New threads of silver flecked his dark hair beneath his hat, adding to his appeal, shouting maturity Experience
Stress
"Hello, Rena," rumbled her husband of feords
She sidled outside with the co cars, safer than inside alone, and coh "Chris should be hoo and he knows he has an algebra test toether"
"Me, too We’ll be ca, but I’ll have my cell phone onA shared sleeping bag with JT under the stars while their children snoozed inside the tiny tent So ue