Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,34

fallen. He dropped on the tarmac to her side, needing to get her as far from the conflagration as he could. The heat billowing from the rear of the jet was unbearable, and his skin felt as if it were on fire. “We can’t stop yet. Hook your arm around my neck. I’ll help.”

The instant she obeyed, he regretted the order. The skin on the back of his neck was burned. Not like it would slow him down. Scooping her into his arms, he ran with her, away from the sizzling, popping, booming explosions. In seconds, they were yards from the heat. They were safe and alive. He bowed his head, so damned grateful for that uncanny sixth sense he’d developed since the incident.

“You… okay…?” he asked between great heaving breaths.

She curled under his chin, her entire body quivering. “Y-y-yessss. I think so.”

“’S okay. We’re alive. That’s what counts,” he told her as he smoothed a hand over her head.

His fingers tangled with long hair, a plus in his little black book from so, so long ago, back when he’d actually dated. His nostrils detected the slightest hint of lavender mingled with feminine sweat, ash, and smoke. She was a trembling mess. Somehow, that was another plus.

“Good grief! You’re smoking,” she cried. “The back of your jacket’s on fire.”

Well, so it was. “Does that mean I’m hot?” he asked, joking to keep her calm while he slouched out of his business jacket, curled it inside out, and smothered whatever flame was there.

“Do you always joke in life and death situations?” she asked, her tone bordering on hysteria.

“Mostly, yes,” he answered as he slipped back into his extra warm jacket.

“You’re so calm and I’m so—not.”

“I’ve been trained, Maddie. It’s what I do.”

Another wicked explosion shook the ground, knocking him to his knees. He rolled just in time to grab Maddie and save her head from impacting with the tarmac.

She burrowed under his chin.

He could barely speak. Just held onto the trembling woman in his arms until the intense heat subsided. The vicious dragon breath hovering over them seemed like it came from a living entity intent on roasting them alive.

Jameson rolled to his back when it dissipated. His ears were ringing, and his skull was scrambled from the fall. Now, when he needed to be on his best game, he was compromised. Maddie tilted up from where she’d landed on his chest. She cupped his face between both hands, but if she was talking, he couldn’t hear her. Damn this blindness.

He turned his face to the jet, seeing nothing, but straining to hear everything. Something! Only muffled ringing filled his head. Where the hell was his client? Come to think of it, where were Lucy Shade’s crew, the flight attendants, and pilot? Jameson hadn’t encountered anyone inside the jet. Hadn’t they survived? Then who had she spoken with on the drive here? Who’d she tell there was a change of plans?

Gradually, his hearing came back online, thank God. By then, Maddie was sobbing out of control. Her intermittent words didn’t make sense. “…all my fault… sorry I dragged you into... after me, not you. Oh, God! I’m not even married! I lied! What have I done?”

Except for that bit about not being married, Jameson didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. He pulled her flat against him, and together, they breathed hard at their harrowing escape.

“What’s going on?” he asked after a few minutes, needing her to slow down, take a breath, and start over.

“This is all my fault. M-m-my ex. He owes some loan sharks a lot of money. They can’t find him, and now I’m supposed to pay his debt. They’ve threatened me, said his debt was my problem, and that’s why I’ve been late to work. Only I don’t have that kind of money, and they won’t accept payments, and they want it all at one time, and they threw a brick through my picture window last week, and they slashed all my tires today, and…” Her chest heaved with a great breath after that amazing string of run-ons. “And… and they’re going to kill me, and this is all my fault, and now I’ve dragged you into my mess, and… and…”

“Shush. Quiet Maddie. We’ll figure it out. It’s okay,” he said even as he clamped a hand over her mouth, needing her to be still, so he could hear the argument coming from across the tarmac.

Canting his head, he listened for the human sounds that