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The endearment did nothing for her the way sweetheart did when it slipped out of Will’s mouth with a hint of Georgia twang. They walked toward the airplane. At least she didn’t feel like she was going to throw up anymore. All she had to do was pretend it was a car, right?
A giant car with wings.
She was too nervous to even appreciate the fact that this airplane was nothing like the commercial planes she saw on television. It wasn’t until Jackson had settled her into a cushy chair that she realized the plane felt more like a living room. She stretched her legs out as far as they would go and they still didn’t touch the chair across from her, which was facing her instead of forward.
There was a big screen TV to her right on the wall, and to the left was a couch that would comfortably seat three.
She craned her neck around to look at the rest of the plane and saw Tank fiddling with new zip ties, his meaty fingers struggling to thread the plastic as they tied Yuri to a chair in the back corner of the jet. She was kind of surprised they didn’t have a special jail cell room. The plane seemed to have everything else.
“Excuse me, miss. Can I get you anything?” Hannah whirled around to find a well-dressed woman with slick-backed hair in a tidy bun. She was suddenly self-conscious of her own undoubtedly frizzy mass of waves. “On the menu today, we have a chicken Caesar salad, assorted charcuterie, or flatbread pizzas.”
Hannah blinked, overwhelmed. And starving.
“Pizza sounds amazing,” she said honestly. “And a ginger ale?”
“Right away.”
Hannah watched as the stewardess walked toward the rear of the plane and took the orders from some of the guys, who she’d obviously met before based on their interactions. She silently pointed at Yuri and Will rolled his eyes.
“Water,” he said reluctantly. The graceful woman nodded and began to walk away. Room temp,” Will added, making Hannah laugh.
A voice came over the intercom. “Hello, everyone. Welcome aboard. This is Captain Jeff, happy to have you aboard again. With the late notice, we just need about fifteen more minutes here to conclude our final checks, and we’ll be on our way.”
“Thanks, Jeff!” yelled Jackson from his seat on the couch next to her, his hands full of salami. He had apparently already found food somewhere. Sweet-talking the stewardess, if Hannah had to guess.
She could hear the captain laugh down the hallway. If he was so close, why did he bother using the intercom?
“Do you guys fly often?” she asked, curious about their way of life. “That seems… expensive.”
Jackson shrugged. “Sometimes. Depends on the mission. You know Flint?”
She shook her head. She’d heard of him from Will, but never met him.
“Well, he’s loaded. RavenTech? Yeah, that was him. And now Black Tower is his thing, so we don’t worry too much about the bottom line, you know? Although, with as many rich clients as we have, we don’t really have to.”
Hannah’s head was spinning. For the second time in a week, she was thrust into an alternate universe. For some reason, the leftover-eating team in a crappy motel or rundown safe house was a lot easier to come to grips with than this high-end security team with a private jet.
She’d seen their equipment and knew they weren’t some two-bit operation. Obviously. The president wouldn’t exactly call on a bunch of ragtag volunteers to take out Darkshade. But this was a whole new level.
The stewardess brought her the ginger ale, in a real glass tumbler no less. If she had the opportunity to fly somewhere in her life, she should be eating bagged pretzels and shoving a sleeping, heavyset man off her shoulder because she was stuck in the middle seat.
Jackson kicked his foot up on the seat across from her and leaned his head back with a loud sigh. “Ahhh. That’s better.”
She hid the smile behind her glass and took a sip of the sweet, bubbly beverage.
Someone came up beside her in the aisle. She tipped her head up to see Will standing there.
“Hey. Can we talk?”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
Will sawthe hesitation and hurt flicker across Hannah’s face. Thankfully, she stood and followed him to another set of chairs.
Captain Jeff came back on the intercom and asked everyone to fasten their seatbelts. It was time for takeoff.
Will felt like a jerk after his outburst. He’d been a little demanding, that was certainly true. It was just… The idea of leaving her behind made him panic a bit, and he scrambled for a reason she had to come.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think Syndicate would come after her. There was no doubt that if they thought she could disrupt their plans, they wouldn’t hesitate to remove her from the board.
