“My father’s waking up the President, and he’ll get ahold of the FBI director and see what’s going on. Hopefully buy us some time.” Gray’s announcement was tempered by orders to exit the plane. The command, delivered by an agent outside over a speaker, was jarring and abrupt, ratcheting up the tension once again in the cabin. “We’ll have to do our best to talk our way out of this until the director can call the special agent in charge here.” Gray removed his 9mm from his side holster and set it on the front-row seat. “Let me handle this.” He nodded at me as if to say, “don’t worry”—too late for that—before he disappeared from my line of sight. A moment later, I spotted him outside the window on the tarmac, confronting the man I assumed was in charge.
“Give me a second.” I let go of Charley, stood, and made my way toward the cockpit to get closer to the door to hear what was going on outside.
“Your father won’t be too happy you were harboring a fugitive,” the agent said, and there was no way he’d spoken to Admiral Chandler already. He must’ve recognized Gray. If the cartel had our photos from the game show cameras, of course the Feds did, too. “We’re just here for the fugitive and her sister. Give us Charlotte and Lucy Lennox. We’re not here for you. Not even your buddy, Carter Dominick. Kind of wild, you of all people are working with him.”
I rested my sweaty palms on the door of the cockpit as I tried to rally and find my breath. Figure out next steps.
“I hate splitting up from them,” Jesse said from behind, sounding resigned to our fate, and I turned to look at him, my body tensing, “but if the Feds aren’t coming for the rest of us, we can follow them. Intervene when Erik and Brant’s men try to ambush the Feds.”
No, because Charley still dies. How in the hell do I change this? Fuck these visions, damnit.
“The FBI may not be taking us, but like hell are they letting us leave this airport anytime soon,” Carter added, breaking away from Camila to confront me.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, hating I felt as unsure as I had my first day outside the wire in an active war zone. “I’m not thinking clearly, but I do know we can’t go up against those uniforms out there. It’d be a bloodbath, and that’s not—”
“Of course we won’t,” Jesse cut me off, then deferred to Carter for an alternative. Glad I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t even sure of what that was.
“We track them. If the admiral can’t stop them from leaving in time, the second Admiral Chandler orders the FBI to stand down and let us fly out, we find them. Then we come back for the missing women.” Carter’s tone was confident, but he didn’t know about Camila’s visions about Charley’s fate.
I looked over to see Gwen clasping her charm bracelet to Charley’s wrist. “Just in case,” she said, and Charley stared at the bracelet before looking my way, distracting me from Gray now arguing with the agent outside.
Spotting Gray’s 9mm on the seat, I moved around Jesse to pick it up, then tucked it at my back beneath my shirt and went outside before anyone could stop me.
“What the fuck do you mean you’re staying on the island tonight before flying them back to the States?” Gray hissed, fearlessly going head-to-head with the agent.
“Orders are orders,” the agent snapped back.
“And who gave you those orders?” I shot out, both sets of eyes cutting to where I now stood on the tarmac. “Who tipped you off? Brant and Erik Luther? The same men who accused Charlotte of killing the undercover Fed eleven years ago?” I stepped closer to the man, presumably the special agent in charge, and three of his men came up behind him as if worried I’d go for the jugular. Hell, maybe I would. “Charlotte didn’t kill that agent. The man who gave you the tip we’re here did.”
The clench of his jaw and the shifty way he looked toward the jet and back at me struck me in the gut. “Money. The universal language. The Luthers paid you off.” I tilted my head, studying him as rage violently ripped through my body. “How long have you been working for them?”
“That’s why the Feds closed the case and never looked into the Luthers again despite two of their agents being killed that night,” Gray added, picking up on my line of thought. “They had help on the inside then, just like they do now.”
“Don’t listen to them,” the special agent remarked, addressing the other men. His voice wavered the slightest bit as if worried they might switch sides and join us.
Please God, let them do that.
“Board the jet. Get Charlotte and Lucy Lennox,” the special agent commanded, then signaled to two agents to head inside. “Don’t think about trying to stop us from leaving here.” He tipped his head toward the six local PD cruisers, his threat clear.
Remaining in control, not lost to my rage at the moment, only lost to my sole focus of needing to stay at Charley’s side, I grabbed the pistol from the back of my pants and went for the traitor, punching his smug face before pointing the 9mm his way.
The asshole held his jaw while another agent pulled his Glock on me. “You’re under arrest for assaulting a federal agent, and you’re coming, too,” the man directed before the agent in charge could protest.
Game on.
“Jack,” Gray hissed—knowing exactly what I’d done—while I surrendered my weapon without a fight.
I quietly lowered to my knees. If this bastard traitor planned to take Charley and her sister from there, they’d be taking me, too.
I looked to my left to see Charley and Lucy joining us. The agent escorting Lucy appeared to be treating her with civility and not like a criminal. The other guy, though, shoved Charley to the ground like he believed her to be a murderer.
I attempted to lurch his way, snarling in disgust at his treatment of her, but hesitantly backed off when he pulled out a taser. I couldn’t help her if they hit me with that damn thing.
I bit back a few dozen curses as they cuffed Charley’s hands behind her back, pushing her to her knees next to me. She appeared to be in a bit of a daze, and it killed me that I could only comfort her with my words and presence.
“They’re innocent.” Gray approached the lead agent again, stabbing a finger at the air. “Do not take them from the airport before you speak with my father. I guarantee you’ll regret it.”
The special agent in charge waved his hand in the air, ignoring Gray’s attempts to stop him. “The women are coming in my Tahoe,” he said, motioning to one agent to get a move on. “This animal can ride with you two.”