Page 37

Chapter 36

If you like high class escorts, squawk 7500.

Colin couldn’t contain the fear punching through him as he flew north, desperate to get to Mari.

“We’re going to get there in time.” Gino was sitting next to him, had jumped into the plane despite Colin’s protests that he had things handled.

Not that he’d wasted much time, not when Bradford had told him Mari was likely with the man who’d wanted her dead. Gary Sewall, one of her longtime clients, a man she considered a friend. It didn’t make sense to Colin, but it didn’t have to make sense.

He just had to get to her before anything happened.

He’d called in a favor to a friend at ATC who’d confirmed when Mari had left and what her flight plan was. So he simply had to beat her, to get there faster and be there when she landed. If Sewall had anything planned, Colin doubted he’d do it with witnesses around.

Though at this point, he didn’t know shit about the guy except that he’d likely sent hired guns after them and was apparently the mastermind behind a cartel. So maybe he didn’t care about witnesses.

“I know,” he said to Gino, even though he wasn’t sure at all .

“I’m impressed you stole Frank’s plane.”

“I borrowed it.” Big difference. His client’s plane—which Frank took out eight times a year—had just been sitting there. And the Mooney would get him there faster than his own Cessna.

Gino simply grunted.

Colin didn’t care. He’d have stolen an F-22 if he’d had access to one. Anything for Mari. He loved her, simple as that. He’d set the world on fire for her and he should have just shown up at her place, demanded she listen to him.

He’d been too worried about all the wrong things, like not pushing her too fast. Apparently he should have pushed her harder, locked her down, made it crystal clear how important she was to him.

He refused to accept that it might be too late now. He was going to find her and make sure she was safe.

“That’s the Cirrus,” he said into his headset as he and Gino flew a thousand feet above the plane Mari was piloting. He wished he could reach out to her, check in with her. Hell, if he was wishing, he wished she was at his place in bed with him right now instead of up here.

But reaching out over the radio to her was far too dangerous. He couldn’t risk accidentally tipping off Sewall by saying the wrong thing. She was currently piloting for the guy so she was safe.

She was alive. And he was going to make sure she stayed that way.