Page 20 of Sheltering You

“You’re going to be able to fly this thing by the time we land.”

She laughed, the sound lighthearted. Apparently, she’d forgiven him for not jumping right on board the let’s go to DC train. So that was something.

He still wasn’t sure they were doing the right thing, but he’d spent some time on his knees the night before, praying for guidance, and all he’d felt was a compulsion to help Jasmine come to her friend’s aid. Derrick wouldn’t claim he felt peace about this course of action, but he didn’t feel peace about not doing it, either. He definitely hadn’t felt the Lord telling him to stop.

That must mean he should go on. Or maybe it meant he’d do anything for Jasmine, even if the thing was stupid and reckless.

Less than two hours after takeoff, they landed at Dulles, and he taxied toward the private terminal. He nodded to the cell phone she held on her lap. “Did your friend give you any more details?”

She’d found out the name of the hotel where Basma and her brother were staying—a Marriott near Embassy Row. He knew the area well, having been to DC many times. He’d suggested Basma and her brother sneak out in the middle of the night. Jasmine had emailed them before they’d taken off.

Now, she opened her phone while he followed the ground crew past private jets of every size and flavor imaginable.

“Basma and Rabie are going to a lunch today.” Jasmine scrolled her email. “And then to a fancy dinner. She says guards watch the doors of their suite all night, so they will not be able to sneak away after dark. The best time, she thinks, will be in the afternoon. Her aunt will nap, her uncle will be in meetings, and she and Rabie can go to the lobby for a snack. She believes they can slip away then.”

“The guards will let them go alone?”

“Maybe she thinks she can lose them?” By the way the words ticked up, Jasmine wasn’t sure. “I don’t believe her aunt and uncle suspect her of planning to run. I believe the guards go with them for their protection more than anything.”

“Protection from what?”

Jasmine’s shoulders lifted and fell. “Perhaps there are enemies here? I do not know.”

“Hmm.” Derrick doubted there would be an attack on the niece and nephew of an Iraqi diplomat at a hotel in DC. Maybe the aunt and uncle were paranoid. More likely, they did suspect that Basma planned to run.

He didn’t like this. Not at all.

He was directed to a spot between an old Embraer Legacy—he’d only seen photos of that particular jet—and a Gulfstream. He powered down his Cessna. “You need help with your seatbelt?”

“I got it.”

“This’ll take me a minute, if you want to freshen up.”

“All right.” She climbed from the right seat and headed toward the cabin.

When he finished his routine, he lowered the door with the built-in airstairs, letting in a chill and the stench of exhaust and diesel fuel. Intellectually, he knew the scents were off-putting, but to him they smelled like everything he’d ever wanted.

Jasmine joined him, and he thought, almost everything.

Beside him, she took in the acres and acres of jets as if she gazed at the mighty Rocky Mountains. She aimed those wide eyes at him. “It is amazing, is it not? To step on in Maine and step off in a whole different place?”

He used to feel that joy at flying. Still did, sometimes. But right now, the beauty beside him overshadowed everything else. “Amazing.” When the urge to pull her close nearly overwhelmed him, he cleared his throat and inhaled the chemical-tinged air.

Man, when she looked at him like that, those giant, gorgeous eyes filled with trust and wonder, it was all he could do to keep his hands to himself.

Take it slow, Wright.

Or you’re gonna blow it.

He scooted past her in the small space and grabbed their bags from where he’d left them on a couple of passenger seats. They’d each packed enough for a few days, just in case, but if Basma thought they could escape this afternoon, it was possible they’d be able to fly her and her brother to wherever they needed to go and return to Maine by midnight. Not that he’d mind extending his time with Jasmine, but the sooner this task was over and she was back where she was safe, the better.

With their bags slung over his shoulder, he nodded to the stairs. “Ladies first.”

It took an hour to fill out the airport’s paperwork and rent a car. Finally, they were headed east for the forty-minute drive into DC beneath an overcast sky. In the passenger seat of the silver midsize sedan—he’d chosen a car that wouldn’t stand out—Jasmine watched the landscape pass. “It is not very different from Maine with all the trees.”

“It’s warmer in Virginia, though.” The high was predicted to be in the midtwenties in Portland, while it was already forty-one here and headed to the fifties.

“Less extreme,” she said.