Page 55 of Training Rain
“Rain and I were scheduled to meet Will at a small Louisiana airport. When we got there Will was nowhere to be found and two mercs surprised us. We managed to immobilize the enemy, but…”
“But you can’t land that plane.” She finished for him. They’d worked together for years. Tessa knew his strengths and his weaknesses.
“Have you heard from Will?”
“No. I’ll put Piper on finding him.”
“Good. Start with a small airport just north of New Orleans. That’s where he was heading the last time we saw him. Since the mercenaries stole his plane, I assume he made it that far.”
“Will do. How’s Rain?”
Rain stepped into the cockpit and climbed into the copilot’s seat. Her cheeks were flushed with healthy color and her eyes were bright and alert. He was in big trouble. “She’s fine, better than fine.”
“Joshua is in a meeting. Hang tight. I’m going to pull him out and then I’ll connect you.” Without another word, the other end of the phone went silent.
Jess put the phone on the console and pressed the speakerphone button. He looked at Rain. “What did you find?”
She shook her head. “You’re right. Will is a gun nut. This plane is armed for bear.”
“And our guests?”
“Starting to stir, but they’ll be hard-pressed to move more than an inch or two. This looks like a pretty fancy video game.”
“It is.”
“So what do we do?”
He loved that she talked about them as if they were a team. He couldn’t help basking in the fact that in a dangerous situation she had risked opening her mind and that leap of faith had saved them. Well, so far. “We wait for Joshua to tell me how to get us on the ground in one piece.”
She didn’t say anything for a long time, only quietly scrutinized the colorful panels and screens in front of them. “How long do you think we can stay up here?”
The minutes ticked by. Jess checked the fuel and luckily they had enough to stay in the air for hours. “Quite a while.”
“Will Tessa be able to get Josh?”
“Probably.”
“Will he be able to get us on the ground?”
He sucked in a deep breath and reached across to take her hand. “Maybe.”
She turned and looked at him. “You told me you loved me.”
A knot formed in the middle of his chest that had nothing to do with their impending doom and everything to do with her change of subject. “I do love you, Rain.”
Her grip on his hand tightened. “Then you’d better get us on the ground so you can prove it, because I love you too.”
He knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he couldn’t help it. He never thought something so sentimental could make him so happy. He wanted to jump up and down. Managing to keep his seat, he lifted her hand and kissed it.
She hadn’t put her jacket back on. The sleeveless cotton tee-shirt she wore allowed the very edge of black and red ink to peek out just at the back of the arm hole. “Tell me about your tattoo?”
She followed the direction of his stare. “What do you want to know?”
He didn’t want to think about what might happen if he had to try to land the sophisticated plane on his own. Better to talk about other things. “When did you get it?”
She glanced down at the Garmin navigational screen for a long second and then back at him. “I was seventeen. For most of my life I’d been able to communicate with animals. I’d been on and off the street for a few years and the guy I was with took me to a tattoo competition. I saw an artist inking a black and red Haida-style tattoo. It intrigued me so I spent the day hanging out at his booth. After the competition, I tracked him down and worked out a deal for my art.”
Jess couldn’t help cringing at what kind of trade she’d made. She must have noticed.
