Page 110 of Maximus

“I know. I just want this over and all of us back on the plane headed home.”

“Home,” she mumbled. “I like the sound of that.”

Fucking hell yeah.

“Wait.” I stopped us outside of the ADA’s office. “Are you positive you want to do this?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and smiled.

“You don’t—”

“I know I don’t have to do anything. I want to do this. I’m ready to do it. Besides, you’ll be next to me the whole time, what can go wrong?”

She shrugged her shoulder, completely oblivious to what her trust meant to me—how desperately I needed her to know that I would protect her with my last breath.

“Nothing will go wrong,” I confirmed. “Let’s do this.”

A legal secretary offered a rushed greeting and she quickly ushered us into a large conference room where a woman sat until she saw us enter. She stood, walked around the large table, and thrust her hand toward a startled Eva.

The women shook hands and made introductions. “Eva, I’m ADA Bernard. Thank you so much for making the trip. My office received the audio files your representative sent. We’ve already reviewed them, however I need you to listen to them with me, so you can swear to the authenticity.”

“I understand,” Eva replied.

“Mr. Brown.” The ADA turned her gaze to me but didn’t offer to shake my hand.

I wasn’t sure what that said and I didn’t care to contemplate the slight. I simply wanted this meeting over so we could be on our way.

“Before we begin, I’d like to review the immunity deal,” I told ADA Bernard.

“Of course.” The woman turned to the legal secretary still standing in the doorway. “Melissa, if you wouldn’t mind closing the door on your way out,” she said, dismissing the other woman.

Wordlessly, the door clicked shut and the ADA walked to the table, then opened a file folder, spreading several pieces of paper out. “Here you are. As you can see, we’re offering transactional immunity. As it is clearly written, Eva Dawkins, AKA Eva Dawson, is protected from future prosecution in regard to this case. We’d normally offer relocation and a new identity after testimony, however your representative declined.”

I bet Tex did. He could hide Eva better than the state of Alaska could. However, she wasn’t going into hiding—I’d be the one providing all future protection.

After I read and reread the documents, I collected them off the table and folded them in half.

“Eva? Are you ready?”

With a twitch of her lips, she nodded.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

ADA Bernard fired up the laptop and a few moments later, a woman’s annoying, high-pitched voice filled the room.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Boss, it’s me. The job is done. Now I need the money you promised me.”

“Not so fast. I need details. Where’d you leave them?”

“Mark fell asleep right after I took off, thank goodness. If he’d been as hyperaware as you said he was, he would’ve known we weren’t flying southwest toward Juneau. I flew straight west and circled a bit before heading down into the Lake Clark Preserve and Wilderness. I went down between two mountain ranges and landed on a tributary of Two Lakes.”

My stomach roiled hearing Eva’s soft sad voice as she explained what she’d done.

“And he didn’t suspect anything?”

“No. I don’t think so. Not until it was too late to do anything. I cut the fuel to the engine and made it seem as if we were crash landing. They went into brace position. I landed on the lake and told them I had to check things out. I had them get out, then when they were on shore, I backed up and flew away.”