“I can stay out of sight.”
“Caro and I will move to the crane. Clear any guards. Scout the placement points.” He tipped his head toward Caro. “You stay with me. If shooting starts, you get flat and stay flat. Understood?”
Caro ducked her head in agreement. “I’m in.”
“Rendezvous point should be the northeast corner behind the hydraulic manifold we passed on the way here, close to the crane. Good ground—sight lines on two approaches and hard cover if things go wrong.”
“Perfect.” Jen pressed her lips together.
“Twenty minutes. Don’t stop for anything.” He looked her in the eye.
“Yes,sir.”
His eyes snapped to her as she moved closer. “Just be careful, Jen.”
She lifted onto her toes and kissed him.
His brain stalled for half a heartbeat—the first time all night survival hadn’t been the only thing on his mind.
He caught her waist, fingers spreading against her hip through the damp coveralls.
Her lips were cold and chapped from the wind, and for an instant there was nothing but her.
Salt on her lips. The hitch of her breath when his thumb pressed into her side. The impossible warmth of her.
His hand tightened at her waist, holding her there a second longer than he had meant to.
Then she drew back.
His hand fell away, and cold air rushed into the space she’d left behind.
“I can do this,” she said.
They were still only inches apart. Her eyes searched his—looking for something. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know if she’d found it.
Caro cleared her throat softly.
Wyatt stepped back, creating distance he didn’t want, locking the taste of her mouth and the warmth of her waist into the same box as everything else he couldn’t afford to feel.
Crane first. Process later.If there was a later.
Jen’s voice steadied. All business now. “You clear those guards. I’ll get the charges. We meet at the crane.”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes.” She paused with her hand on the hatch’s locking mechanism. She looked back over her shoulder. “Wyatt?”
“Yes?”
He almost saiddon’t go.
Almost saidstay here where I can see you.
Instead, he just met her eyes and waited.
“Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
Then she was through the hatch and gone into the sleet.
