Page 60 of How Much For a Life of Lies?

“Set up to Chechen rivals,” he cursed as if he couldn’t find the words. “For Kozlov, not so tight grip on power.”

I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease settling in the pit of my stomach.

“Why so elaborate, why not kill him?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Yuri slumped in his seat. “My brother, my sister. People place to kill them. Kozlov’s buyers will know Chechens, discredit then…” He mimicked a gun to the head.

As much as I could when I was trying to evade fuck knows what was rigged to blow in the ’korsky, I think I understood. Drugs meant for other contacts were given to Kozlov’s rivals, and somehow, that was the dangerous game Yuri had begun, and I was caught in the middle.

I kept us on course for the base, waiting until the last moment to veer off toward the navigation heading that Zach had sent. We had a few moments at most to get down and out of the ’korsky if their tracking was good and if they wanted to blow up the helo, and the coordinates were five minutes away in the middle of the expanse of wilderness. I hoped to hell Zach could get exfil in place to get us out of there because, however this worked, we were going down hard. The engines screamed as I pushed her to the max, landing skids close to the trees.

“Get back, open the door, and when I say jump, you fucking jump,” I shouted over the engine noise, weaving one of the largest and most powerful helicopters as much as I could and climbing, relying on dumb luck, and getting enough height to enable safe deployment of parachutes—too fucking high and exposed for my liking because if she blew, then it was a long way to fall.

“I fly, you jump,” Yuri snarled at me.

“My bird! My decision!” I yelled back at him. “Get back!”

He let out a string of curses, then unbuckled and made his way back, gripping the sides as the ’korsky bucked and swayed beneath us, its massive frame straining against the forces of gravity. We were hurtling up through the air at breakneck speed.

“Yuri, get ready to jump!” I shouted over the roar of the engines, my hands tightening on the controls as I wrestled with the aircraft’s momentum.

With a herculean effort, I eased back on the throttle, the roar of the engines diminishing slightly as the helicopter slowed. It was a precarious balance, each change fraught with the risk of sending us careening out of control.

“Go!” I yelled, my voice strained with effort as I fought to keep the helicopter steady. Yuri wasted no time—launching himself from the open door and disappearing into the darkness below.

As soon as he was clear, I slammed the throttle, and the helicopter lurched forward with renewed speed. Adrenalin surged through my veins when I pushed the aircraft to its limits, the wind whipping through the open door. As we screamed toward the ground, metal tore as sparks flew in the cockpit, the rotors groaning, and the helicopter lurching to one side.

I spared a quick glance down, hoping he was safe, at least for now. Then it was my turn. I had to lose height, make sure it crashed into the forest and didn’t head on to fuck knows where. Time slowed as I engaged the limited autopilot, which would keep it heading down as long as the ’korsky stayed whole, and then scrambled back to the rear. Another small explosion in the rotors yanked the whole thing sideways, and I fell out, tumbling, pulling on my cord as soon as I was clear, an explosion so loud when the rotors sheared off that I couldn’t make sense of falling.

And I hit the ground.

Hard.

TWENTY-FOUR

Zach

My heart raced as I watched Luca track the helo his fingers flying over the controls.

“Sierra Three?” I asked. The piercing scream of the Sikorsky engines cut through the airwaves, followed by an abrupt silence. Luca’s brow furrowed as he lost sight of them, and he shook his head.

“Sierra Three, come in,” I called, my voice tight. But there was no response, just a deafening quiet hanging heavy in the air.

A knot formed in the pit of my stomach, a sinking feeling of dread settling over me like a heavy weight.

“Do we have a location?” I asked Luca, who was flicking through screens and talking to Sierra Base.

“Nothing.”

“A fucking helicopter went down, we should have something.”

“It’s called the wilderness for a reason,” the sheriff said next to me.

I rounded on him, and I didn’t have to warn him to shut up; he subsided and slunk back to sit next to a hyperventilating mayor. The two of them had arrived an hour ago, demanding we cease operations, and fuck, I’d been dealing with that all while Kai was out there putting his life at risk.

Was Kai dead? The thought was a dark shadow threatening to engulf me. To lose a team member was hell, but worse… to lose Kai? That wasn’t worth contemplating. Five minutes passed, ten, then Luca cursed.

“We have a location,” he announced. "And movement near the crash site."

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