Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11) (15 page)

Two.

“Put on these handcuffs or Angela will blow your friend’s head off and then I’ll take out Malone anyway. I’ll lock us up in the cockpit and we’ll deal with the other two later.”

“What about Alan?” Angela asked.

“Taggart killed him or he would be here. This bitch is lying. She knows exactly where Taggart is.”

She didn’t but she was about to.

He gave Fain the go.

The mercenary didn’t hesitate. He stepped out and before anyone registered he was there, he’d planted his knife in Angela’s neck.

Case briefly saw the woman as she dropped the gun and reached for her throat. It was useless. Fain was damn good at his job. Angela pulled the knife out and the deed was done.

The world seemed to slow down, though Case knew he was moving quickly. Hutch looked across the cabin and then jumped for the side. Michael was already reaching for Mia to pull her away.

Case focused. One breath in. Turn and fire. He wasn’t firing with a gun, but he let that knife fly like it was a bullet.

He was rewarded with a groan as the knife lodged in the pilot’s shoulder. The pilot dropped his weapon and fell to one knee. Case stood over him with a gun.

“Don’t fucking move. Both your partners are dead.”

“You did such a good job, babe.” Mia sounded bouncy and happy. “Really awesome. But you could have mentioned to Ezra about the blood on the carpet thing.”

“Later, Mia.” She thought her sunny attitude in the face of danger was going to save her ass? She was so wrong. “I want to know who you’re working for. Talk.”

The pilot pulled the knife out and blood started to flow. “I think not. I don’t think you’re going to use the gun and now I have a knife.”

“You’re outnumbered.” It should have been obvious.

The pilot paled. “Ah, but I also have one last duty.”

He turned and ran toward the cockpit, the door standing wide open.

“Shit.” If he let the pilot lock himself inside, god only knew where they would end up.

“Take the shot, Taggart!” Fain yelled.

Case let instinct take over. He fired into the man’s back and the pilot fell, dropping to his knees right in front of the control panel. His body slumped over it.

Case took a deep breath. The cabin hadn’t depressurized. He hadn’t fucked them over. Yes, they were still in trouble, but he had a few hours to figure out how to land the plane. And what to do with all the bodies.

Case watched in utter horror as the pilot used his last breath to press a button on the panel and then pull down on a lever.

The plane went into a dive and Case realized they were about to die.

“Hutch! Can you get us out of this?” He looked over at Mia as the plane began to shudder. He reached for her, but she was moving even as the plane bucked up.

As cool as a cucumber, she pushed the dead guy out of the way. “Give it a sec. We’ll be fine.”

Hutch sat up, not looking at all like a man in a big hurry to save them. “You need help with that?”

“We’ll be good. Just needs to reconnect.” She sat down and he watched as she pressed a few buttons and the plane leveled out.

“What the hell?”

She grinned back at him. “This isn’t some Hollywood movie, Taggart. This is a top-of-the-line Bond Aeronautics jet. It course corrects and without some serious reprogramming, it’s asshole proof.”

Hutch stood up, straightening his clothes. “All that jerk was ever going to do was make us pee our pants. Which I did not do, by the way.”

Mia smiled Case’s way. “Did I mention how awesome you were?”

“It’s not going to save your ass.”

“Who said I wanted my ass saved?” She turned back to the control panel. “Could you move him? And maybe get a mop or something. What’s with you and all the blood?”

“Please tell me you know how to fly this thing.” Michael had managed to get himself into one of the seats, his leg propped up as Hutch offered his hoodie to stop the bleeding.

“Of course she doesn’t,” Case replied. “I was hoping Hutch could figure it out.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Wanna see my license? You do not go into my line of work without picking up a few things. We’re going to climb back to our cruising altitude, I’ll put this baby on autopilot, then I’ll dig that bullet out, Malone. I’m also pretty good at first aid.”

“I knew you could do it, boss,” Fain said in a big old kiss-ass voice. “I’ll see if I can find the first aid kit. I’ve helped out in the field before. I can be your nurse. Maybe Taggart can deal with the bodies.”

“And the cleanup,” Mia said. “There’s a mini steam cleaner somewhere. The faster you get that blood up, the better.”

She winked his way before turning back to the panel.

Fuck, she was going to kill him one of these days. He just knew it.

CHAPTER FOUR

“You want to tell me what’s really going on?” Fain sat down across from Case.

They would land in a few hours thanks to Mia’s expertise with a plane. She was utterly confident she could take care of things.

He was confident they were going to have a very long talk that would end with her bare ass over his lap. He was still a little shaken from how close he’d come to losing her. He hated that. He was always ice cold during an op, but Mia shook him up in every way possible. And maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. “We’re going to Colombia. I thought you knew that.”

Fain frowned, his eyes steady on Case. “I thought I knew you, too.”

Case sat back, wishing he’d just stayed in the cockpit with Mia. He could be watching her. She was pretty freaking hot when she was flying a plane. He’d never been the kind of man who was attracted to needy women.

Maybe it was time to rethink his stance on the future. He was treating Mia like the women he’d dated back in Georgia. They’d all wanted out of their small town and Case’s double-wide existence wasn’t going to get them there. They’d been more than happy to have sex, but when it came time to get serious they looked for better options.

A woman like Mia would know what she wanted. If she was here with him, it likely had nothing to do with a rich girl indulging her fantasies and everything to do with a wild woman who happened to want a man who could handle her.

He might need to have another talk with Drew Lawless. But first he had to deal with Fain, who wasn’t as big an asshole as Case had suspected but could still be obnoxious.

“Why would you think you know me? We’ve never met.”

“I suppose I thought I knew you by reputation,” Fain allowed. “You’re a Taggart. That name alone means something in our community. You’re supposed to be a hardass when it comes to protecting your women. Are you trying to tell me Mia isn’t your woman?”

Michael groaned a little as he shifted in his chair. His leg was propped up. Mia had not only gotten the bullet out of his thigh, she’d sewn him up. She’d explained her adoptive mother was a doctor and Mia had gone on several charity tours with her that ended with Mia playing nurse and learning how to stitch up a wound as a teenager. “I’d like to know the answer to that question.”

“Since when do you care about my love life?”

Michael grinned. He’d had a whole bunch of tequila. “Since you actually have one. Also, if you don’t want her, I’ll take her. She’s hot and I think she might be able to handle my momma. My momma looks sweet on the outside, but she’s mean. Don’t let that upper-crust British accent fool you. She’s got the Southern momma thing down. Many a woman has run from her. And I get shot way more than I like to think about. So skill with a medical kit is a real plus when it comes to looking for a bride.”

Yeah, all his friends would be after his girl. Damn, but that felt good. This time there were no lies between them. This time the only thing between them was his distorted view of her. He’d thought about it the whole time he’d cleaned up. As he rolled up bodies in tarps and mopped up blood, he’d given careful consideration to why he’d pushed her away in the first place.

She was rich and he wasn’t. She’d had a fiancé who looked like he fit more into her world than Case did.

That lawyer boy likely couldn’t handle Mia. And her world seemed to be a much more fucked up place than he’d imagined.

It was time to let go of his past. He wasn’t the poor kid from the other side of the tracks anymore. So what if she had more money than he did? Why the hell would that matter? If Drew Lawless wanted to think he was a gold digger, Case didn’t care. Now he couldn’t remember why he’d thought he cared in the first place. It was Theo. He’d been so lost without his brother. If Theo had been alive when he’d met Mia, he would have spanked her lying ass, slapped a collar around her throat, and dragged her off like a caveman without any thought to what her brothers would think of him.

He came from a long line of men born with very few fucks to give.

“I’m afraid she’s mine, Michael,” he said, glancing into the cockpit and catching a glimpse of her. She had headphones on and seemed to be swaying to some music.

Hutch looked up from his computer. “Told you he wasn’t that stupid.”

Case had no idea what they were talking about. “Stupid?”

“Michael thought you were a dumbass to let her go in the first place. All that ‘she lied to me’ and ‘she’s just a rich little princess who can’t handle a real man’ shit was just a big old front because you’ve never had a girlfriend before,” Hutch explained.

“I’ve had girlfriends.” It wasn’t like he was a virgin or anything.

“You’ve had Hooters girls,” Michael corrected. “You’ve had chicks you banged for a few months and didn’t think about them outside of banging, and the minute they started to get serious you would apply for the most dangerous duty in the world just to get away from them.”

“That was about protecting my country.” He definitely hadn’t taken that assignment in Fallujah for fun. Though he had to admit, it did get him away from a clingy hookup.

“That was about protecting your ass,” Michael shot back. “I’ve worked with you most of my adult life, Taggart. I see through you. You’ve always needed a woman who can set you on your ass. Soft and sweet wasn’t ever going to do it for you.”

But Mia could be soft and sweet when she wanted to. She could care. Mia might be the exact right mixture of crazy bitch and sweet sub he needed.

“This is exactly what I’m saying,” Fain interrupted. “You care about that woman. So I want to know why you’re letting her go through with this. You do realize she could have been killed.”

He knew that. It would likely haunt his dreams for a while. He would see Mia walking out of her hiding place like a sacrificial lamb, offering herself up to save his friends.

“He knows exactly what happened here,” Hutch snorted. “And he’s not letting her go through with whatever crazy assignment she’s on. Trust me. We’ll land in Colombia and he’ll throw her over his shoulder and haul her straight back to Texas. He’ll tie her up and do some nasty shit to her. I’ve already found a company who can turn this plane around in an hour. I’m still working on what to do with the bodies. Might be easier to leave them in Colombia, but you know Big Tag likes a present every now and then.”

“He’s not planning on turning around,” Fain said with surety.

Fain was sharp.

“Of course he is.” Michael sat back. “He’ll have her under lock and key until he figures out who tried to kidnap her and why. But we’re not going to tell her that. That honey can be a little mean. We’ve got to sneak up on her. Then we’ll rope her and take her down. You think she’s got a sister?”

He was going to be a blast later on. Michael couldn’t handle his liquor and now Case was a man down.

And Case had some serious thinking to do because Fain was right. He couldn’t turn around. In a world where his brother wasn’t being tortured on a daily basis, he would have done exactly what Hutch had said. He would have carted her back home and locked her up until he could figure out what was happening. He couldn’t do that now and his friends weren’t going to understand.

“It’s an important story to Mia. We’re still going. I’m going to need to find a cleanup crew, Hutch, and a quiet one. Moneybags in there can pay for it.”

“What am I paying for?” Mia stepped out, yawning behind her hand.

He reached out, pleased when she slipped her hand in his. He tugged her into his lap. He was done playing the hardass with her. He’d been wrong. She’d been right. They belonged together. She was his natural match and her brother could go to hell. If Lawless cut her off, then Mia would have to learn to live on a budget.

If there was one thing he’d learned from the last few hours, it was that he didn’t want to lose this chance with her. She meant something to him. He could count on her in a way he’d never thought he would be able to count on a lover.

“I need to find someone willing to deal with the bodies, princess.” Yeah, this was not a conversation he’d ever thought he would have with a girlfriend. “That’s going to take cash and we’re going to have to deal with some not so nice people.”

“Cartel would be best,” she said without hesitation. She cuddled down in his arms. She smelled like soap and fresh laundry after cleaning up. He wished he’d been able to squeeze into that shower with her. “They have cleanup crews who’ll know the area and how to avoid the police. They’ll also know which of the police are bribable. They shouldn’t be too hard to find. I’ll call some friends when we touch down.”