Redstone Ever After Read online

  “Lockner.” Surprise crossed the man’s face. “Yes, sir. Out at the airport.”

  There was a pause on this end as the deputy listened; Draven guessed he was wondering why he was getting a call from the captain of detectives when he was in uniformed patrol.

  “Oh. Okay. Yes, sir, absolutely. I will.”

  When the call ended and he put away the cell, the deputy looked at him. “You knew that was coming, didn’t you?”

  Draven didn’t dissemble. “Yes.”

  The man lifted a brow, then nodded, a glint of appreciation for the honesty showing in his eyes. “He said I’m to give you anything you need, and to not give you anything you don’t want.”

  “How do you translate that, Deputy Lockner?”

  “Loosely? Hand you my gun if you ask for it, and then get out of your way.”

  Draven smiled inwardly; he liked this guy. Smart, quick, and no ego to get in the way of getting the job done.

  “I have to ask if there’s any risk to the locals in why you’re here.”

  Draven understood both the question and the subtle message beneath it; the man would do what he was ordered, but only insofar as it didn’t conflict with doing his job, which he saw as protecting the people of his county. Draven respected that. His job, after all, was to protect Redstone in much the same way.

  And in that moment he decided to trust the young deputy.

  “Any problem will be restricted to this airfield,” he said, his gaze flicking toward the slate-gray-and-red Hawk V parked downfield. “But if you could keep the population around here to the minimum, that would give me one less thing to worry about.”

  “I can keep the population around here to zero, and nobody’d notice much.” At Draven’s look he explained, “Gary has a habit of putting out a recorded notice on the airport frequency that the landing strip is temporarily closed when he wants a long lunch. I’ll go tell him he’s hungry.”

  The smile broke through to the outside this time. “You ever get tired of the public trough, you call me,” Draven said.

  “I just might someday,” Lockner said. “Redstone sounds like my kind of place.”

  “And you might just be Redstone’s kind of person,” Draven said.

  “What will Draven do when he decides to move?” Tess asked.

  “The best thing possible,” Josh answered.

  It wasn’t really a helpful answer, specifically, but Tess knew it was the absolute truth. Because that was what Draven always did. That sometimes the best thing possible wasn’t very good, such as the trauma he’d had to inflict to save the woman who would become his wife, didn’t change that.

  “Josh,” she said, suddenly filled with a dread unlike anything she’d felt in a very long time.

  He turned to look at her. She said nothing more, just as he had uttered only her name a while ago.

  “It’s going to be okay, Tessie. I promise.”

  The long ago, almost forgotten nickname—allowed to only two men in the world, Eric and this man—echoed in her ears. She hadn’t heard it since Eric had been killed, as if it had been buried with him. Hearing it now, from Josh, stirred her already roiling emotions into chaos.

  She wanted more than anything to go to him then. To cross the three feet between them and throw her arms around him. But that yard of distance might as well have been a mile-deep gulf, full of years of memories and grief and friendship and respect and all the things that made what she was wishing so impossible.

  And then Josh moved, did what she’d wanted to, covered the yard of space between them in one, long stride. His strong arms enveloped her, and she was suddenly where she’d longed to be.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he said. “We can beat these two with our eyes closed if we have to.”

  Tess shivered. Josh’s arms tightened. She knew it was only to comfort her, knew he meant only to reassure her, but for a moment, just for a moment, she let herself savor it, revel in it. Just for a moment she did something she’d never before allowed herself; she let her thoughts, her fantasies run free, let herself imagine what it would be like.

  She let herself because there were two armed men outside, and she might never get the chance again. The reality was as out of her reach as ever, but it would be a shame to die without even having indulged in the fantasy.

  She was barely aware that she was hugging him back, and that he was letting her. She knew only that he filled the deep, empty space inside her in a way no one else ever could.

  “I don’t like not being able to see Josh and Tess,” Reeve fretted.

  “But at least we know they’re safe, and together in one place,” Alvera said.

  “And probably plotting like mad,” Sam said, with a glance at Draven.

  He nodded. “We have to take that into account. Neither of them is going to be content to just sit back and wait to be rescued.”

  “But they’ll wait for us to move, won’t they?” Beck asked.

  “Maybe,” Draven said. “Josh has infinite patience, but if a chance arises, or these guys do something that triggers him…”

  “He didn’t get to where he is by being a pushover,” Mac said. “If an opportunity presents itself, he’ll take it.” His mouth quirked. “For that matter, so will Tess.”

  “Amen,” Noah Rider said, somewhat fervently.

  “This is crazy,” Brown Shirt said, sounding angry enough that Draven turned around to look at the image on the monitor. “I’m sick of waiting.”

  The tension in the group ratcheted up a notch as the words echoed from the speakers in the main cabin.

  “If they get impatient enough, they might cut their losses and try for what they can get for Tess, and the plane,” Rand said, shoving back the stubborn lock of platinum-blond hair that was a perfect match to Sam’s long tresses; obviously, he’d gotten all the details on the flight. He’d been up to speed from the get-go.

  “I hope not,” Beck said quietly.

  Something in his voice made them all look at him. Only St. John immediately nodded in understanding.

  “Makes the…mechanic expendable.”

  “He’s no use to them then,” Draven said, arriving there on St. John’s heels. “Maybe even a hindrance.”

  “We can’t give them the time or chance to even think that,” Alvera said.

  “Agreed,” Draven said. “So we give them something else to think about.”

  “But what?” Reeve asked. “What can we do that’ll distract them from the fact that they don’t have what they came for?”

  “What they came for,” Mac said suddenly.

  Reeve glanced at him. “What?”

  “We give them what they came for.”

  “You know Josh’s rule—”

  “I don’t mean money.”

  The others fell silent. They all knew Harlan McClaren was, in his own way, nothing less than a genius, worth listening to on any subject.

  “Then what?” Grace asked, gently.

  Harlan nodded as if he’d thought through his plan and found it acceptable. He looked at Draven.

  “We give them Josh.”

  Chapter 16

  Tess told herself to pull away. She told herself if she stayed, she was going to start reading things into this long embrace that Josh never intended. Then she made it an internal order, and finally managed to step back.

  “I—”

  Her voice was impossibly tight, and she knew she couldn’t trust it not to break. She turned from him, staring unseeingly out the window as if the view of the tiny airfield was fascinating.

  “Tess—”

  He stopped when she shook her head.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She almost asked him for what, but wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She—

  Her thoughts broke off as something outside finally registered. Chastising herself for being distracted by such things when they were in a perilous situation, she leaned forward to make sure of what she’d seen.

  �
�There can’t be another man here now with hair that color,” she murmured, almost to herself.

  “What?”

  “Rand,” she said.

  Josh blinked. “But he’s up in—”

  “He’s here. I just saw him go into the terminal building.”

  Josh walked swiftly across the cabin. “Alone?”

  She turned to look at him. “No. With Gabe Taggert.”

  Josh blinked. “What the hell is Gabe doing here?”

  “I was about to ask the same thing about him,” she said, pointing at another man who, clad in the overalls of the fuel company whose logo was posted prominently, was busying himself near a fuel truck parked about thirty feet away.

  “Noah,” Josh said when he saw his premiere point man. But he didn’t sound nearly as surprised as when he’d seen Gabe, who at least was ex-navy. Noah Rider, Tess knew, had a reputation for many things: efficiency, details, organization, once globe-trotting for Redstone as few others did until he voluntarily slowed his pace to spend more time with his wife, stepson, Kyle, and to prepare for the imminent arrival of their twins. He hadn’t had a reputation for danger until the day he’d been forced to it, when that yet-to-be wife and stepson and a classroom full of children had been taken hostage by drug-running terrorists at the Redstone Bay Resort.

  “You’re surprised about Gabe, but not Noah?” she asked.

  “Noah,” he said, glancing at her, “owes you his life.”

  Startled, she looked at the lean, dark-haired man. He always stirred memories of that day in Colombia when they’d barely made it out of the jungle, the helicopter taking rounds from the drug lord’s forces—so many she’d wondered how it stayed aloft. She’d trimmed a few trees in that one; her orders had been not to land, not to touch a skid on Colombian soil, and that’s what she’d done, hovering like a juicy target while Noah and John Draven, sent to obtain his release in whatever way necessary, scrambled aboard.

  “For that matter,” Josh added, “so does Draven.”

  It was so close to her own thoughts that she blinked, startled. Told herself it was logical that he be thinking of the same thing she’d thought of when he’d mentioned Noah owing her his life.

  “Draven got him out of there. All I did was—”

  Josh cut her off with a shake of his head. “Don’t belittle what you did. It was an incredible piece of flying. Under fire as you were, it was nearly impossible. Those eleven bullet holes you brought that chopper back with prove that. But you did it.”

  “My job,” she said, not knowing what else to say in the face of his effusive praise. “Still sorry for the cost of the damage.”

  “I would have paid a hell of a lot more to have you back safely.”

  Tess forgot to breathe for a moment. Told her suddenly racing heart to just calm down. It was the aftereffects of that unexpected embrace; it was messing up her mind.

  Of course that had been an all encompassing “you.” He’d meant them all, Draven, Noah and her, not just she personally. She meant a lot to him, she knew that, by sheer dint of longevity and shared history, if nothing else.

  She didn’t know what was showing in her face, but it made him say quietly, “I couldn’t do without you, Tess.”

  Her breath stopped completely then. She stared at him. Wanted to say something, anything. She saw his eyes widen slightly, guessed that this time she had betrayed herself, fool that she was. And that wasn’t something she was used to—playing the fool.

  “Josh,” she whispered.

  She barely managed not to reach out to him, wanting his heat, his strength again. For an instant, she thought something different sparked in those familiar gray eyes. Something beyond the usual warmth and appreciation he always gave her. And in that instant his hand moved, as if he were going to reach out to her.

  “Hey! They locked the door!”

  Pinky’s exclamation shattered the moment, and Tess belatedly realized she’d been hearing muffled exchanges between the two men for several seconds before. Tess looked at Josh, realizing with no small amount of shame she should have been planning what they were going to do to get out of this, not dwelling on all that emotional drek.

  “Wait,” he said. “Draven’s team isn’t all in place yet, or there would have been a signal.”

  She nodded.

  Then, with the oddest expression she’d seen on his face in all the years she’d known him, Josh Redstone leaned down and kissed her. Quick, but hard, hot and fierce, taking her breath away. For a split second he held her, and she felt his grip tighten, as if he’d somehow sensed the explosion of fire that had shot through her.

  Or felt it himself.

  His hands slipped upward, his fingers tangled in her hair as he tilted her head back. For an instant he deepened the kiss, and something heavy and molten moved through her when she felt the briefest brush of his tongue over her lips, as if he were tasting her.

  The door handle rattled loudly. He released her. She nearly staggered backward. For a moment he stared down at her. Tess felt her heart hammering, hoped what she was feeling wasn’t showing in her face. Something hot and alive flickered in Josh’s eyes, something she hadn’t seen in so long she couldn’t remember exactly when or where.

  Then, with a cool that would have done his security chief proud, he turned and walked toward the door. And, amazingly, opened it.

  “Geez,” he said ruefully, looking down at Pinky from his full six-foot-three, “you practically order me to make a move on her, then you interrupt?”

  Pinky looked utterly disconcerted. His gaze flicked to her, and she knew what she must look like, her lips swollen, her hair tousled. He looked her up and down avidly, and she had the definite feeling he was searching for something left unbuttoned. His stare made her skin crawl, even as she realized that had Josh looked at her that way, it would have sparked sensations she’d never felt before.

  She knew Josh had done it as cover. Knew it didn’t mean…anything. But she barely managed to resist lifting her fingers to her lips, as if somehow she could replicate the feel of his mouth on hers.

  “Get her out here,” Brown Shirt was ordering from behind Pinky. “I want her to call that pilot again.”

  Tess sensed Josh tense for a split second. Then, casually, he suggested, “Let me talk to him. I know John, we’ve had a drink together now and then. Maybe I can get him to tell me more than he’ll tell her.”

  Tess didn’t react to his emphasis on the last word, clearly relegating her to the paid-servant class despite the fact that he’d just kissed the stuffing out of her; the persona she was presenting probably wouldn’t even realize it. And it continued to play into the obvious perceptions of their two captors.

  And Brown Shirt bought it. The glimmer of realization flickered in her mind. She’d wondered how he could think that he could order “Michael” around, shut him up in a guarded room and still think the guy wouldn’t get that something huge was wrong.

  Because he thinks everyone is stupider than him? she wondered, watching the man as he eyed the supposed mechanic carefully, then finally nodded.

  “You got his number?”

  Say no, Tess urged silently, knowing if the man saw Josh’s phone and paid the slightest bit of attention he could figure it out.

  “No,” Josh said. “My phone’s back in the hangar. Didn’t figure I’d have to spend all day on this.”

  “Tell me about it,” Pinky muttered.

  “Just give me her phone, and I’ll hit redial,” Josh said.

  In that moment Tess was grateful Brown Shirt had kept her phone instead of either giving it back to her or telling her to put it back in her bag; if he’d gone digging around in there he would have found her pilot’s log and her ID—including her pilot’s license—and the game would have been up. And she didn’t think he’d take kindly to having been fooled so badly.

  The man pulled it out of the shirt pocket he’d placed it in. Whatever they’d been discussing before Pinky’s shout obviously had been h
eard by Draven, either over the phone or with the webcam mics. Tess only hoped that with them out of the way, they’d been indiscreet enough to let something helpful slip.

  Brown Shirt studied the mechanic for a moment. Josh was giving off a completely believable air of it mattering nothing to him one way or the other. And then, incredibly, as if he’d shared her own thoughts, he lifted a hand to his mouth and rubbed his lips with his thumb, as if remembering the feel of their kiss.

  “So was she hot?” Pinky asked, as if she weren’t standing right there.

  “Incredibly,” Josh said softly, but loud enough for her to hear. She didn’t try to fight the color that rose in her cheeks, figuring the Tess they thought she was would react in just that way. That she’d never in her life blushed at such things before didn’t matter, except to inwardly rattle her a bit.

  “In fact,” Josh added with a grin that was almost rakish, “I hope you’ve got some more private business to discuss.”

  Brown Shirt made a disgusted sound, but he handed over the phone. “I pushed redial. You just talk,” he ordered. “And hold it so I can hear.”

  “Sure,” Josh said easily, as if it all made sense. It suddenly dawned on her that these men thought they could get away with all these arrogant, arbitrary actions and orders because that’s how they thought a man at Josh’s level worked. No lowly mechanic would question they were who they said they were, because they were, in their minds, acting exactly like someone who worked for the legendary Joshua Redstone would act.

  Fools, she thought again. Wrong on so many levels. But it would be, she promised silently, their downfall.

  Chapter 17

  “Hey, John. Mike here.”

  Every person back on board the Hawk III froze at the sound of Josh’s familiar voice coming through the speakers in the instant before Ryan Barton cut it off by plugging in his headphones again.