Page 69 of High Seduction
Well, now. “You knew about that, did you?”
Erin closed her jacket while she answered. “Of course I knew. Marcus and I had a bit of a fight over it initially, but in the end he agreed it was a good idea.”
For the first time in a while Tim actually felt like smiling. “I wasn’t talking about you having a gun. I was talking about the one I have hidden in my medical supplies.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope.”
She snuck under his arm briefly, putting their heads close together. “I knew I liked you. You’re devious.”
“So are you. We fit well together.”
Their smiles faded, though, as the reality of their situation grew clearer again. “Look around, right?” she asked.
There wasn’t much there. A couple of smaller old barrels. A bunch of rags. Tim tried the door, but for a run-down old shed, the thing barely budged, even when he slammed his shoulder into it. There was nothing that could get them out. “Great. Well, we can burn the place down around our heads if we want to.”
“Let’s save that one for tomorrow,” Erin suggested.
He tipped the empty canisters over and created a seat of a kind. The rags became a layer of cushioning that he sat on, then he tapped his lap. “Come, conserve body heat.”
She slipped in next to him and curled up tight. They tucked their hands between their bodies and tilted their heads down, a small bundle of humanity keeping as much of their body heat in as possible.
“So. Any plans?” she asked.
“They need you to fly them somewhere else. That’s the only reason I can think of for the refueling.” Tim made sure they were speaking softly enough to not be overheard even if someone stood right outside the shed. “Sounds as if they’re treating Matt a little better—looking for the extra cash.”
“I hope he’s okay.” There was real fear in her voice.
“I hope so, too, but he’s a smart guy, and he does have the money if it comes to that. But mostly we’re trying to buy time for someone to help us.”
“Which is not going to happen very quickly, Tim.” She sighed. “I never got out a distress call—I was too scared to try anything. That means the chopper not showing up is our only warning to anyone. Which means no one will even be out looking until tomorrow.”
“Which is why I think your idea of the nearest airport is a good one. Doesn’t matter if Matt and I are lashed to chairs. Go in low, out of air traffic range but high enough to get on radar. You set down on the edge of a runway, and our kidnappers will have nowhere to go but through the security that will show up.”
“There’s a ton wrong with that, though. Even with security blocking them, they could hole up in the chopper. They could shoot you. They could shoot Matt. What the hell are they running from, anyway?”
“I thought smugglers first, but they said they were out of Anchorage and headed to Seattle. There were no drugs on the plane, and they barely took anything with them when we left.”
“Bullshit on them being out of Anchorage.” Erin’s breath brushed his neck, a steamy stroke that warmed him deeply. “The pilot had to have registered the flight, but there was no way they would have been passing over the mountain they were when they went down. Anchorage to Seattle is an all-coastal route, and we were inland far too much, even changing direction to head toward the new coordinates once they were in the air.”
“Interesting.” Tim pulled his arms free to rub her back slowly. “Possible starting points?”
“Major airports? Offhand, only Whitehorse comes to mind. Yellowknife, maybe—the route would make sense if the pilot was trying to avoid cutting over any main air traffic routes, staying off the radar. Private airstrips could be anything between those two points.” Erin sighed. “I wonder if he had the heart attack because of being hijacked.”
He soothed her the best he could. “Don’t. We can’t change it, and we’re not going to focus on that now. Now we’re all about getting out of here in one piece.”
“Okay. Landing at a major airport—safer for civilians than a shopping mall or main highway.”
“They can’t take off and hide as easily, either,” Tim pointed out. “But if a highway is all you get, take it.”
“They can still shoot you. I don’t think they have much respect for life at this point.”
He agreed, but that wasn’t what she needed to hear. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “I wish this hadn’t happened. I wish to God we were back home and safe. But we will get through this. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open, and the next chance we get, we’re going to do what we can to get out of here.”
She slipped her hand from her glove and cupped his face, her palm warm against his cheek. “We’ll do what we can.”
CHAPTER19
