Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,40

“Ready?”

Her palms clapped over his shoulders. A dainty booted foot settled into his cupped hands. Her breath warmed his face when she kissed him again and said, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

“That’s the plan,” he whispered into her open mouth, loving the smell and taste of her. Wanting to know her better. It’d been ages since he’d felt this way about any woman. How could he let her go?

She made the decision for him. With one little push, she was out of his life and into the vent. “Sure wish I had that bin of yours now,” she teased. “Lots of cobwebs up here. I could use a big, square helmet.”

“I’ll let you borrow it next time,” he quipped, wishing it was him up in the vent, not her. Wishing he could see, damn it. Was she sitting there looking down at him? He doubted it. Ductwork wasn’t usually large enough to allow much movement but forward travel.

Since the incident, he’d come to believe that everything happened for a reason. Karma had to work that way, else there’d be no balance in the universe. No yin and yang. No reason for mankind to struggle like he did. No challenge for life to go on. But now? Maddie was the one Karma had singled out today, and that kiss might be his last. Just when he’d finally caught his balance.

“Be careful,” he told her one last time.

But she was already gone.

Chapter Nine

Alex stood with the fire chief while his men finished fighting the blaze outside Reagan National Airport’s private hangars. They ended up using more Class B fire suppressant foam than usual on the aircraft, but at last, the fire was under control. Since airspace over Reagan was restricted, no media helicopters hovered overhead to fan the flames. Which they would have done, if this had happened anywhere else.

What troubled Alex most was that Lucy Shade, an obvious stage name, was nowhere to be found. Yet Vladimir, who the fire chief had claimed was her personal bodyguard, was the person who’d placed the 911 call to report the explosion. He’d claimed two people were still on board. That he’d feared for their lives. Which Alex would soon find out. But if there were bodies in the debris, they’d be burned beyond recognition. DNA and dental records would be useless. To validate what his gut was telling him—that Maddie and Jameson were still alive—he’d requested access to Reagan’s security tapes. This portion of the tarmac was within view of several separate cameras. He’d know soon enough.

Also troublesome was Junior Agent Walker Judge’s high opinion of former CPO Tenney. Walker had bragged about the mad ninja skills Jameson had developed since he’d lost his sight. For a SEAL to brag up another SEAL was telling. Walker was as solid an operator as they came. Which meant Jameson was just as good. Alex hadn’t yet met him, but upon Walker’s recommendation alone, he’d told Mark to hire the visually impaired warrior. Hell, Alex would have done that sight unseen. No pun intended. It just didn’t feel right, that a trained special warfare operator of Jameson’s caliber, would’ve been trapped and burned to death in a fire on his first night at work. The entire scene stunk, and Alex meant to get to the rat behind it.

“Where’s my limo?” he asked Mark, meaning the vehicle Maddie had driven to Reagan.

“Over there.” Mark pointed to the south side of the airfield. “What’s left of it. The firemen moved the carcass before I got here.”

Alex stared at the smoking wreckage. There’d be no forensic evidence coming from that mess. “Is Mother able to track our people?” She tracked all TEAM agents’ cell phones when they were on active ops.

“No, which means they were frisked before they were abducted and their phones destroyed, or…” Mark let the obvious—or they were dead on the scene—go unsaid.

Turning his head, Alex glared at the glowing, smoking wreckage of what had been a luxury jet, not willing to accept defeat just because some reporter said so. Sparks still flared orange inside the burned fuselage, and the entire tail assembly lay detached, twisted, and charred on the runway. He had no doubt there’d been an explosion aft, possibly in the cargo hold. Which declared a bomb, at least that something explosive had blown the tail off. The cockpit was intact, but was a burned, hollowed-out shell. The portable stairs lay melted on the tarmac.

Maddie and Jameson were NOT on that jet. They WERE