Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
At that moment, I saw Gina walking past. I caught Kian’s eye and nodded. It was time.
We caught up with her in a quiet corner of the parking lot, and she looked suspiciously between the two of us and then at her cocktail. “What is this, an intervention?”
“Listen to him,” I told her gently.
She turned to Kian, eyes narrowed.
“I was wondering what your plans were,” said Kian.
Gina caught on immediately. “Oh, no—”
“You need a job—” started Kian.
“Nooo, no no,”
“—we need a pilot—” Kian continued.
“Not for all the—”
“—you’ve got the experience,” Kian finished, bulling through. “Night Stalkers. I’ve seen your record.”
Gina scowled. “There are plenty of flying jobs that don’t involve getting shot at. Stunt pilot. Cargo. Passengers. What makes you think I’d want to join your bunch of do-gooders?”
Kian leaned in. “I also read up on that incident that stopped you coming back to the US for so long. Smuggling medicine. Getting the cheap generic stuff to the people who can’t afford the branded stuff. You probably saved some lives.”
She snorted. “The money was good.”
Kian glanced at me for help.
I looked Gina right in the eye. “You didn’t have to come get us, when Gantz abandoned us. You didn’t have to help Olivia rescue us. You didn’t have to help us save the village. I think you did it because you still need this.” And I touched her Night Stalkers tattoo. “You need to be part of something.”
For a second, she just looked shocked. Then she looked at the grill for a second, staring hard at the flames. When she looked back at me, she was scowling. “That’s your pitch? Appeal to my better nature?”
I watched her steadily. I’d glimpsed her heart enough times now, that I knew it was there, hidden beneath all those layers of grumpy armor. But she wasn’t ready to acknowledge its existence.
“Also,” I told her, “The money’s really, really good.”
She pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “How good?” she asked at last.
We had her.
As Kian led her away to talk specifics, I went to rejoin Olivia. As I marched through the party, eyes locked on her, a sudden rush of emotion caught me off-guard. I’d been away from her for just a few minutes but there was this wave of happiness, just from the anticipation of touching her again, holding her again—
I reached her and took her hand, but when I went to speak, my throat had closed up. She blinked at me in concern. “Everything okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I croaked and squeezed her hand. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.” God, the feelings I had for this woman…For the first time, I thought about how hard it would be, leaving her behind when we went on a mission. I’d never had that before, I’d never had someone to miss. But then I’d never had someone to come home to, either.
I stood there for a while, just gazing into her eyes and holding her hand, my thumb rubbing slowly over her knuckles. She balanced me. She was the good to my bad. The angel who’d nudge me back onto the right path if I strayed. And maybe I balanced her a little, too.
I wrapped her in my arms and held her close, my chin on the top of her head, rocking slowly to the music. I closed my eyes. I’m at a small-town barbecue, I realized. Dancing with my girl. Sitting in my jail cell, I’d never imagined anything so…wholesome. But…I could get used to this.
When I opened my eyes at the end of the song, I saw Kian standing watching us. “Follow me,” he said quietly.
We followed, and he led us away from the party, not stopping until we were in the moonlit forest behind the base. Then he turned and held something out in both hands. It was about six inches long, wrapped in cloth. As I reached for it, he warned, “Careful. It’s heavy.”
I lifted it from his hands. It was heavy. Really heav—
Wait. Excitement rocketed up inside me, but I didn’t dare to hope. I clawed at the cloth wrapping, trying to find the end, nearly dropping the thing—
The cloth slid back, and I stopped breathing. I was looking at mirror-smooth metal. The moonlight made it gleam silver, but I knew the real color was a warm, rich yellow.
“Oh my God,” said Olivia in a strangled voice.
I looked from the bar to Kian. I’d left him alone in the saloon, just before Agent Jackson and his men had gone in there. He must have run down to the cellar and put one of the small ingots in his pocket—
“It’s not four hundred million,” Kian said. “But it’s something.”
I nodded, unable to speak. Kian patted me on the shoulder and strolled off to rejoin the party.
I stared at my own shocked face, reflected in the shining surface of the gold. We wouldn’t be rich. But it was enough to put down a deposit on a modest house, with maybe enough left over for a cheap trip down to Rio. The emotion swelled in my chest, stealing my breath. I got to keep a little piece of the prize after all. And more importantly, I got to share it with her.