“You get to stay right where you are. The help is for a friend.”
“What kind of help?”
“The off-grid kind.”
Shit. That did not sound good. Someone who’d called on Mai’s expertise to go to ground must be in a metric fuck-ton of trouble. “What can you tell me?”
“Not much. She doesn’t know what she’s into. Her business partner got their company mixed up in some shady shit with unknown entities. Not government.”
“Well, at least she has that going for her.” That left drug cartels, various mobs, and white-collar crime rings. Fuuuck.
“I have a teammate running down the details.” Mai referred to someone from the covert ops team she never discussed and we all pretended she wasn’t on. “You’ll know more when we do. In the meantime, she’s coming your way.”
I took a good look at the people streaming toward me. But surely Mai didn’t mean that literally.
“I mean that literally,” she said. “She’s at the airport. Obviously, your leisurely train ride across the country is OBE.” Which meantovercome by events, the event in question being doing my sister’s dirty work. “Rent a car. Your ID only, not hers. And—”
“Christ, Mai, do you want to run me back through boot camp while you’re at it? I’ve been off the job for a couple of weeks, not a decade.”
She laughed. “Sorry, forgot myself for a minute. I’ve been dealing with civilians on the ground here and then trying to help my friend from a couple thousand miles away. I told her you’re the best, and I meant it.”
“You remember I’m putting that behind me, right? Becoming a nine-to-fiver. Living life in the slow lane.”
“I know you think that.”
I bit back my smart-ass response because the last time we’d had this discussion—in fact, the last dozen times—I’d promised myself I’d stop arguing with my sister about the trajectory of my life. My new plan was to get the last laugh by proving her wrong.
“And I know you’ll help me because this woman is in trouble,” Mai added.
She knew she had me. Hell, we both knew it.
“Where does she need to disappearto?” I asked.
“She needs to come east so I can get her under my team’s protection if this whole thing is as dangerous as it sounds.”
“I have to be in Chicago by Monday night.”
“Last time I checked, Chicago is east of California, little bro. Please. There’s no one else who can do this for me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, pushing my aviators up off my face. “I’ll make it work. Give me her name and description.”
“No need,” Mai said. “She’ll be looking for you at baggage claim.”
“You know damn well I don’t travel with checked luggage.” Because standing around like an idiot, waiting for bags, was a colossal waste of time.
“So, how’s that slow lane working out for you?”
I grunted because speaking my mind would probablyoffend the very sweet-looking middle-aged ladies I’d caught up to and was now passing.
Mai chuckled, no doubt interpreting my meaning. “Gotta run, Ben. I love you. Rangers lead the way!”
Since I was past the nice ladies, this time I didn’t hold back. “I love you, too, but fuck off because I’m supposed to be following, not leading anymore.”
“Sure. Keep telling yourself that.” Mai clicked off on her end, depriving me of the satisfaction of hanging up on her.
I slid my phone into my pocket and picked up my pace, weaving around my fellow passengers and, damn my sister, taking the lead. I was the first one to arrive at the carousel belt where my flight’s luggage would appear. I hung back, waiting for my new mission to find me.
This is not a mission. This is a favor, I reminded myself. I pulled off my aviators and baseball cap so the woman would easily be able to match me to the description Mai must have given her.
