Shielding Gillian (Delta Team Two #1) - Susan Stoker Page 0,3
“FBI gathered background info on all the US passengers on the manifest. The spokesperson is identified as Gillian Romano. Thirty years old, single, event planner from Georgetown, Texas. She checks out clean. Five-seven, blonde hair, green eyes, a hundred and eighty-five pounds. Got her undergraduate degree from UT-Austin and worked a series of entry-level jobs before starting her own company about four years ago. Both parents are living and still together; they live in Florida. She was in Costa Rica for seven days, apparently in charge of a big shindig put on by Pillar Custom Homes out of Austin. The guests all left the day before she did.”
“You think she’s in on this somehow?” Lefty asked.
“No,” Brain said immediately. “I’ve got some of the transcripts of the calls she’s had with the negotiator, and she’s way out of her league. She’s doing as good a job as she knows how, but the ass-wipe she’s been talking to definitely hasn’t helped.”
“We taking over negotiations?” Doc asked.
“Fuck yeah, we are,” Trigger answered for Brain. He’d also seen the transcripts. Gillian Romano was clearly scared, but she’d still done what she could to keep the hijackers calm and to get the passengers what they needed to be comfortable. He supposed her skills came from being an event planner.
“We’re landing at the same airport, on the one runway they’ve still got open,” Brain informed them. “But we aren’t allowed to step foot off the airport property. The government doesn’t want us in their country, and especially not out wandering around.”
“Assholes,” Oz said under his breath.
“So what’s the plan?” Doc asked.
Trigger cleared his throat. “Get there. Get the asshole off the phone with Ms. Romano and see if we can’t pull as much information from her as possible. Ideally, we’ll pose as delivery men for supplies. We’ll take out the hijackers and get the passengers to safety.”
Grover chuckled. “Well, that sounds easy…not.”
Trigger didn’t even smile. “It won’t be. We all know it. Those assholes could get tired of waiting. Most likely this is all a red herring, and they’re a diversion from whatever their real agenda is. We have to stay on our toes. Trust no one. They landed in Venezuela for a reason, but whatever that is doesn’t matter until those passengers are safe. Understand?”
Everyone immediately agreed. Their mission was hostage rescue. Nothing else. It was up to the CIA, FBI, DEA, and whoever else was involved to figure out the reasons behind the hijacking.
But even as the team fell silent, lost in their own thoughts about the upcoming mission, Trigger couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Everything felt off about this op. And getting into an airplane undetected was impossible. Innocent civilians were going to die, there was no getting around that fact.
Trigger’s thoughts returned to Gillian Romano, the appointed liaison for the hijackers. Just by reading the transcripts, he could tell she was smart. She was doing her best not to panic, which he admired. Not a lot of hostages he’d dealt with over the years kept as level a head as Gillian. While he hadn’t heard her voice, and he couldn’t read her emotions through her words, he could still tell she was terrified. And for some reason, that bothered him.
It was ridiculous. Trigger had no idea what she looked like or who she was as a person. She could be a harpy, or some vain chick only concerned about how many selfies she could post on social media. But he didn’t think so.
Maybe he’d been hanging out with Ghost and his team for too long. Maybe he’d been wishing a bit too hard that he’d find a woman he could love and cherish as much as the other team cared about their women and families. He couldn’t deny he was ready. At thirty-seven, he felt as if his life was passing him by. He wanted what his friends had.
He wanted someone to be there when he got home after a hard mission. Someone he could laugh with, completely let down his tough façade with, and who could make him feel as if the dangerous job he was doing was worth it.
He’d always thought he had plenty of time. But now he was closing in on forty. That wasn’t old by any stretch, but Trigger still couldn’t help feeling as if a vital part of life was eluding him.
Shaking his head, Trigger tried to get a grip. In the middle of an impossible op, which would most likely end in the deaths