Page 45

It was a damned good thing she was tied in her chair, or Piper would have fallen out of it on the spot. I love you, Piper?

She never, in a million years, expected to hear those words tumble out of Ian McCloud’s mouth. And he said them so naturally, too. Like they were second nature to him.

A craving to hear them again washed over her. Maybe when he had his arms around her. Or over a romantic, candlelit dinner for two. Or…heck, any time when she knew he actually meant it.

“Yeah, well, I love you too, you big galoot,” she threw back at him.

It was all part of their newlywed act, right? But crap, those words felt good coming out of her mouth. Like confessing a guilty secret she’d been carrying around for a long time and finally unburdened herself of.

Hah. His gaze shot to hers for an unguarded instant. And then the mask fell over his expressive eyes and he grinned lopsidedly at her. “Glad to hear it, darlin’. Once your dad’s done punishing us for trying to sneak up on him, I’m gonna show you just how glad I am.”

She gulped. Dang, that man could give as good as he got.

“Speaking of which, how long does your father usually hold a grudge? Before long, I’m gonna have to return some of that water he gave us to nature. If you catch my drift.”

She allowed a brief glint of humor to enter her expression.

Ian acting as dim as a bulb without a filament was quite an experience.

“I catch your drift,” she retorted dryly.

“I dunno. Dad can stay mad a good long time. But usually reason prevails in a few hours. Can your bladder hang on that long, hon?”

He winced theatrically. “I’ll try.”

Was he angling to get their captors to untie him? To mount an escape attempt? With all these armed guys standing around in broad daylight, that seemed like a foolish plan. But at this point, she didn’t question his judgment. He’d proven over and over that he knew his stuff in special ops.

“Don’t worry, buddy,” one of the gunmen commented. “We’ll be out of here pretty soon.”

Piper’s gaze met Ian’s momentarily. Soon, huh?

What was up with that? She craned to look out the window toward the airfield.

It looked like the helicopter was being pre-flighted.

But not by her father. The dark-bearded guy—the chopper pilot with the Section 8 whose name she didn’t remember at the moment—was doing the inspection on the helicopter. Where was her father?

She looked over at one of the guys she’d known since she was a child. “Hey, Granville. Any chance my dad has a minute to come in here and talk with me?”

“Naw, punkin. He’s busy right now.”

“Doing what?”

“Getting ready for the big show. I’m sure he’ll come in to say good-bye to you before he takes off, though.”

“Takes off as in flies away or takes off as in gets in his truck and leaves the airport?” she asked curiously

Too much. The guy shrugged apologetically and didn’t answer. She smiled politely and settled back to wait for the PHP’s big show to unfold. They didn’t have long to wait. In about five minutes, the radio behind the FBO’s counter crackled to life.

“I’m ready over here,” a voice she didn’t know announced.

“Ready here,” her father answered. “I’ll sit tight until you radio that your mission is complete, and then I’m off.”

“Roger that.”

Granville, the talkative guard, moved over to the radio and picked up the microphone. “Whaddiya want me and Otto to do? We’re supposed to go with the chopper, but we’ve got Piper and her husband in here…”

Piper held her breath as a lengthy pause ensued. Then her father answered, “Take them with you. Dump them in the desert far enough from anywhere that they can’t stop the attack.”

Attack? Some small part of her wailed in disbelief. The part that still wanted her father to be a hero. To be a man she could look up to.

“You wanna come see her before you go, Joseph?” Granville paused. “You know. To say good-bye.”

Another long pause ensued. Then, “We’ve said all we need to say to each other. Y’all go on. Get going. We’re on a schedule, here.”

She ought to be relieved. But instead, she was just…

hurt. No matter what a bastard he’d been and no matter how crazy he’d been over the years, he was still her father.

The only parent she’d ever known. Something really bad was about to happen—something potentially life threatening—and he didn’t want to walk a few steps to hug her one last time.

To say goodbye. Maybe tell her for once that he loved her.

Damned if her eyes weren’t burning like fire and swimming like water. Something brushed against her left calf and she looked down. Ian had craned in his bindings and managed to twist his leg to the side enough to barely rub his pant leg against hers.

She glanced up at him, and he mouthed, “Be tough.”

He was right. They were in a difficult situation and she needed to keep her mind on the mission.

But, dear Lord, it was hard to set aside that hurt, abandoned, little girl and be a warrior.

Ian knew her well. Invoking her determination to prove that she could do this job was the one thing that would move her beyond the pain of her father’s rejection.

She took a deep breath and nodded her thanks to him. A tiny smile curved his lips briefly.

“Okay, you two. You heard the boss. You’re coming with us,” Granville announced.

“Coming where?” she asked as casually as she could muster.

“On a ride.”

Yikes. That didn’t sound good. Unfortunately, Granville and his partner were too well trained.

Instead of each man approaching a chair from behind to untie them simultaneously, Granville untied first her, then Ian, while the other guy stood well back out of arms’ reach, his weapon pointed at them.

No chance, then, for her and Ian to overpower their captors, or for her to overpower Granville and free Ian.

She made brief eye contact with Ian and he shook his head faintly in the negative. Message received. Now wasn’t their moment. Weird how she’d come to trust his instincts so implicitly.

“Okay, boys. Where to?” she asked jovially as Ian was herded to his feet and his hands tied behind his back. She was scared half to death, but she only had a few minutes to reestablish some kind of rapport with these old comrades of her father’s and maybe save Ian’s life and hers.

“You’re going for a helicopter ride,” Granville announced.

“Cool!” she gushed. “Speaking of which, what are those whacky steps for on the side of it?”

Her captor grinned at her. “You’re gonna find out firsthand in a few minutes. Go on, now. Don’t make your daddy mad.”

Ian’s gaze snapped to her in sharp question. As they made the long walk out to the chopper, he murmured, “You old man ever lay a hand on you?”

Really? They were possibly about to die and that was what he wanted to talk about? “Yeah,” she answered impatiently. “From time to time.”

Something cold and final flickered in Ian’s gaze. “Noted.”

Something warm and fuzzy flickered in her heart in return.

If she wasn’t mistaken, Jospeh Brothers had just earned himself a big can of whup-ass from Ian down the road.

But then reality set in. Her father never, ever let go of a grudge.

She muttered back to Ian, “It’s not worth it.

I’m who I am now, and regardless of how I got that way, I’m good with myself. Let it go.”

“Sorry, babe. Kids and animals,” he ground out.

“Excuse me?”

“Kids and animals. In my world, they’re off limits for abuse, neglect, mistreatment, or emotional pain.”

She liked the sound of his world. Too bad the both of them likely only got to live in it for a few more minutes.

They arrived at the helicopter and she noted that a logo had been freshly stenciled on the side of the chopper.

The local electrical power company’s name wreathed the logo. What was up with that?

Granville gestured her and Ian to climb in the back of newly painted bird. When her father had said to dump them in the desert, did these guys actually interpret that to mean shoving them out of a helicopter from hundreds or thousands of feet in the air?

Jimmy, Granville’s cohort in crime, poked her in the back with his rifle. “Get in,” the younger man bit out.

“Jeez, Jim. Your mom would have your head if she knew you were pushing me around. I babysat you, for goodness’ sake.

Relax. We’re all friends, here.” She scrambled awkwardly around the metal stair assembly welded to the skid and climbed into the helicopter’s cargo bay.

She flopped down on the floor and Ian flopped down with a grunt beside her.

“You okay, babe?” she asked him.

His gaze swiveled to hers. “Did I mention your family’s a little out there?”

They traded grins that she hoped their captors interpreted as either ignorance or outright dimwitted unawareness of the trouble the two of them were in.

The pilot yelled into the back. “Everybody strapped in?”

Granville flashed a thumbs up.

“Hang on, then,” the pilot shouted. “Let’s go make some history!”

Ian didn’t like the sound of that. He and Piper were going to be history soon if they didn’t do something radical to change the odds against them.

Thing was, these guys were all military or para-military trained.

And cautious. They weren’t making the kinds of amateur mistakes he could exploit.

With a gun pointed at Piper, his hands were tied.

Both literally and figuratively. He wasn’t willing to do anything that might get her shot.

She was doing a fantastic job of building rapport with their captors, of reminding them that she was one of them, that they were all on the same side. Friends. Family. But if he overpowered Jimmy and shot Granville, all bets were off as to what would happen to her.

Frankly, he was curious to see what, exactly, these guys were planning to do. Assuming the bastards didn’t push them out of the helicopter before they showed their hands.