Page 53 of Renegade (The Santini Assassins #2)

TAKING THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO NEW HEIGHTS

GREYSTONE

G reystone wanted to put his fist through the asshole standing in Caroline’s hallway, but this time, he’d play by the rules.

“Stan, what the fuck are you doing in my home?” Caroline bit out.

Fury poured from her eyes. Then, a flash of fear.

Stan was shaking, his entire body trembling in Greystone’s grip.

“You try something, she’ll kill you,” Greystone said. Instead of choking the life out of him, he let him go.

Stan rubbed his throat, started coughing. Caroline made a call.

“What’s your emergency?” asked the operator.

“I have an intruder in my home.”

“Where is he now?”

“I just told you,” Caroline said. “He’s in the hall to my bedroom and I’ve got a gun pointed at him. I need the police.”

“Ma’am, are you in danger? ”

“Send the police.” She gave the operator her address, hung up, then called the front desk. “I’ve got an intruder in my condo. How did he get in the building?”

“I don’t know,” said the concierge. “I stepped away for a minute, but someone could have buzzed him in.”

Greystone wondered if he’d been sleeping.

“The police are on their way. When they get here, send them up.” She hung up, glared at Stan. “How’d you get in?”

“I-I-I p-p-picked the lock,” Stan stammered.

“How’d you get into the building?” Greystone asked.

“I pressed a bunch of buzzers until someone let me in.”

“Where was the front guard?” Caroline asked.

Stan shrugged.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Greystone bit out.

Ignoring him, Stan addressed Caroline. “I’m in love with you. I wanted to talk to you, make you see that we’re perfect together?—”

With her weapon pointed at Stan, she said, “Sit your ass down.” After he complied, she said to Greystone, “Get dressed.”

In her bedroom, he pulled on his shirt and jeans, grabbed his own weapon. Anger had his blood boiling. If he hadn’t been there… pushing out that thought, he strode into the hallway, hauled Stan into the living room, sat his ass on the sofa.

Stan had left her front door wide open.

Caroline made her way over.

“No,” Greystone said. “They need to see how dangerous and stupid he is.”

Caroline rifled through her computer bag, pulled out an ID card, and showed Greystone. It was an FBI ID with her photo and her alias, Rebecca Slater.

“Got it,” he said.

As Greystone eyed Stan, he forced down the need to hurt him, to punish him for what he would have done.

Greystone didn’t believe for a second that Stan had broken in to “talk” to her.

He was going to rape her, possibly murder her.

Caroline was a fighter. Greystone knew she could be intense.

She would have fought back, but was she strong enough to overpower him?

Another wave of rage swept through him, the thought of losing her sent a growl roaring out of him. “You’re lucky I don’t shoot you,” Greystone muttered.

Two police officers arrived, a man and a woman.

Caroline identified herself as Rebecca Slater, showed them her badge, and explained the situation.

“Is that what happened?” the female cop asked Stan.

“I just wanted to talk to her,” Stan whined. “We used to be together. I love her.”

Though Caroline’s expression was stone-faced, Greystone could tell she was seething.

“Ms. Slater, is that true?”

“We hooked up twice at Lost Souls,” Caroline said matter-of-factly. “I regretted it, told him I wasn’t interested in him.”

“I gave you a ride home,” Stan said. “I thought we were friends. You were in that fender bender, and I made sure you got home okay.”

“Do you want to press charges?” the male cop asked as the female officer took their IDs and stepped away to make a call.

“Of course she doesn’t,” Stan blurted. “This is a total misunderstanding.”

“I do,” Caroline said, “and I need a restraining order, so there’s no confusion going forward.”

“Fuck,” Stan grumbled.

The female officer stepped back over, handed them their IDs. “Mr. Bowers, you’re got a history of stalking women. There’re three restraining orders out against you. You’ve been arrested twice before. But this B&E is new.”

She cuffed him, read him his rights .

Minutes later, they were gone, the scumbag an ugly memory.

Greystone pulled her into his arms. “I got you. You okay?”

“At first, I was terrified, then so enraged I would have shot him dead.” After a few seconds, she broke away. “I haven’t hooked up with anyone since college. I hook up with one guy and he’s a predator. I’m so disappointed in myself.”

With her keys in hand, she stormed over to the front door. After opening it, she slid her key into the lock. It appeared to work okay, so she stepped into the hallway, locked and unlocked the door.

She re-entered her condo, bolted it from the inside. “The lock is working. I’m too fired up to sleep. I’m going to see if we missed anything at the apartment complex.”

As she strode past him, he said, “I have a surprise for you.”

That stopped her. She pivoted toward him.

“I’m flying today and I got you on the approved list.”

She took a step closer, then another. “Approved for what?”

“Flying with me.”

Her eyes lit up, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “In a jet?”

“An F-18. I gotta take her up and run through some drills. I get warmed up, then circle back for you.”

Her expression morphed from excitement to disappointment. “I’ve gotta work.”

“It’s twenty minutes, babe.” He stepped close, flashed her a smile. “I’d love to take you up with me.”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“My first request got denied,” he said. “Same with my second, but I got a yes on my third.”

She sidled close, caressed his back. “You’re persistent.”

“Hell, yeah.”

“I’ll do it,” she said, a smile spreading across her face .

AT OH-SEVEN-HUNDRED, Greystone flashed his military badge at the gates of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in southwest DC.

Caroline handed Greystone her driver’s license, which he passed to the station guard. They were cleared, and he drove onto the base. As he headed toward aviation, a peace settled into his bones. As much as he liked taking out the bad actors, flying was his sweet spot.

On the drive over, he’d stopped at home to change into his flight suit.

After parking outside the aviation building, they made their way inside.

“Good morning, Commander.” The ensign signing him in glanced at his hair. “Sir, your hair and beard aren’t within regulation.”

“I’m on special assignment.”

The ensign got busy on his computer. “It doesn’t say where.”

Greystone chuffed out a laugh. “No, it doesn’t. Is Commander Jefferson around?”

“He’s in the ready-room.”

After Caroline received a visitor’s badge, Greystone brought her back with him. He knocked on the closed conference room door.

Seconds later, the door swung open and Greystone shot his CO a smile. “Damn good to see you, sir.” Greystone extended his hand.

“There is he!” Jamal replied.

The two men shook hands before Greystone introduced his commanding officer to Caroline.

“Good to meet you,” Jamal said.

“It’s a pleasure,” Caroline replied. “Thanks for allowing me to be here. ”

“This guy wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Jamal said. “You ready to fly?”

Caroline cracked a smile. “Definitely.”

Jamal regarded Greystone. “How’s the assignment?”

“Intense, slow going.”

“Time for drills,” Jamal said.

“Let’s do it.”

Jamal brought them into the conference room. Rather than work, Caroline watched as the two men discussed every maneuver Greystone would be performing, while reviewing it on their tablets.

An hour later, Greystone was ready… and eager to jump in the jet.

“Where can I watch?” Caroline asked.

Jamal asked one of the ensigns to escort her outside.

Outside, she slid on her sunglasses. “How fast do you go?”

“I’ll average around five hundred miles an hour,” Greystone replied.

She shot him a smile. “Nice.”

“The Hornets are catapulted off aircraft carriers at one seventy, but are built to fly at Mach speeds,” Jamal explained.

“Greystone loves to push them to their limits. He has no fear. I try to instill a healthy amount of fear, you know, to keep my aviators alive, but not this one.” He shifted to Greystone. “Ready to have some fun?”

“Let’s do it, J-man.”

He tossed Caroline a nod and a grin before making his way to the landing strip where the jets waited.

He said hello to his chief tech, asked about the jet, then he pressed his palm against the side of the craft.

As he walked through the pre-flight inspection, he focused up. There was zero room for error.

Thirty-minutes later, he was ready, the bird was ready, and the cloud-free skies and light winds meant thumbs-up. He climbed into the cockpit, pulled on his helmet, and connected it to the oxygen line. Then, he fired up the engines, closed his eyes, and listened to those babies purr.

For the next hour, two if he was lucky, he would become one with the jet. If he didn’t the results could be disastrous.

With the tablet strapped to his thigh, he went through his pre-flight checklist. He finished by rotating the stock in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions, looking over his shoulders to verify that all flaps were responding as they should.

He glanced to his left. There stood the aircraft marshaller directing him toward the taxiway.

As he inched the machine forward, excitement pulsed through him, but he kept himself in check.

Focus up.

He checked in with Air Traffic Control. “Tower, this is Cobra requesting permission to depart.”

“Cobra, this is Tower ATC. Proceed via taxiway two-A to runway one and hold.”

“Copy. Cobra proceeding via taxiway two-A to runway one with a hold.”

He taxied forward, turned right onto the taxiway for two thousand feet, then made two lefts onto the runway and braked.

“Tower, this is Cobra requesting take-off on runway one.”

“Cobra, you’re cleared for departure. Godspeed.”