Page 55 of Peace Under Fire

Suddenly wide awake, she glanced around the tiny room. The aisle he was carrying her down was narrow. White walls, covered windows, and leather armchairs in rows of two greeted her stunned gaze. He stopped next to a pair of chairs facing each other and settled her into one of the soft-as-a-cloud seats.

“We couldn’t wake you. So, it was either drag you off the couch and down to your chair by your hair or carry you.” He winked at her. “I was all for the caveman approach, but old man Brick over there convinced me to be civilized.”

He’d winked at her, honest to God winked at her.

Her head swiveled in the direction of his chin lift and her dazed eyes met Brick’s smiling face.

“We’re about to land,” Jacob continued, taking the identical chair across from her. “Seatbelts on.” He buckled his own as he spoke.

Still in a daze, Mandy followed suit. “We’re on the plane?”

“We’re about to disembark from the plane,” Brick corrected her. “You slept through the whole trip.” He paused to study her face before adding, “You slept so long and so hard, you had us worried. You look better though. The sleep did you good.”

She glanced around the sophisticated cabin. Man—she’d missed the entire experience. A once in a lifetime experience, and she’d slept right through it.

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asked, a frown chasing the amusement from his eyes.

“I missed the whole thing.” She winced at the whine in her voice. “It’s just that I’ve never even flown before, let alone on a private jet. I can’t believe I missed the whole trip.”

Jacob shrugged, his frown disappearing. “You’ve still got the return trip to Los Alamos ahead of you.” He leaned toward a small window to his left and lifted the shade. “We’re low enough you can see the lights of civilization below.”

Mandy rolled up the shade on the window next to her seat, leaned closer, and found herself instantly transfixed. The landscape below was strung with thousands of glittering lights—white lights, red lights, the periodic blue or yellow lights. Thousands and thousands of lights against a backdrop of white.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

“It sure is,” Jacob agreed soberly.

But when she glanced in his direction, his gaze was locked on her face, not the lights below them. Unsettled by the solemn darkness in his eyes, she turned back to the window.

“Those are the lights of Coeur d’Alene below you,” a man’s voice said over the plane’s loudspeaker. “We’re on time for a 9 p.m. arrival. The temperature is a brisk twenty-six degrees.”

Jacob glanced at the watch strapped to his left wrist. “We’re ten minutes out.” He turned to Mandy again. The solemn look in his eyes shifted to calculating. He frowned and studied her face. “We need to go over some ground rules before we disembark.”

Mandy’s eyebrows rose in suspicion. Ground rules? That sounded both bossy and arrogant. Her eyes narrowed. “What rules?”

“Rules for how we’re going to proceed when we reach your…” he broke off, before shrugging. “Home.”

She looked out the dark window and scowled. “Can’t we go over these rules of yours tomorrow, before we go there?”

“We’re headed there tonight.”

That snapped her head around.

“But it’s dark out,” she told him, just in case he hadn’t noticed.

His lips quirked. “Special operators do their best work in the dark.”

She started at the quip. She could swear there had been something in his voice, even glittering in his eyes—something sensual—something that turned his response into a sexual inuendo. She must have hit her head harder than she’d realized. Maybe she really did have a concussion. There was no way he’d waste a sexual inuendo on her.

“I’m just saying,” she said slowly, forming her words carefully, ignoring the scenario her imagination was happily creating. “It makes more sense to look for Jo tomorrow morning when it’s light out. When we can see what we’re doing.”

Jacob was already shaking his head. “We’ll be able to see just fine. Tex equipped everyone with NVDs.”

“With what?” Mandy asked, although she suspected he was talking about those goggle things that allowed the wearer to see in the dark.

“Night vision devices,” Brick and Jacob said in unison.

Yep, she’d guessed that right. Not that it mattered. Heading off on this mission at this time of night just seemed counterintuitive. But whatever, she’d acquiesce to the professionals.

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