by Anya Nowlan
“I think I took a few breaths, but I’m feeling better now.”
The airplane stuttered and veered to the left again, dipping down noticeably. Her pilot senses kicked into gear and her eyes went wide when a stark realization came to her. Everyone without the mask had seemed to be affected by whatever the shit in the air had been, and if it was everyone, then…
“Who the hell is flying this plane?!”
“Hmm, good question,” Grim said, and for an insane moment, Kelis thought she saw amusement in him, like this was all some grand joke.
Grim offered his hand and Kelis took it, not trusting her legs. They wobbled through the aisle, littered with bodies, and Kelis could count at least three dead among them, all tall, blond, and built like brick houses. When they made it to the front of the plane, one of Grim’s friends was just getting done taping the stewardess to her seat.
The woman, Ashley by her nametag, had been so sweet and mild when Kelis had talked to her, and now she it was as if she was possessed, the whites of her eyes pink and her body convulsing as she thrashed against the bindings.
“So this is new, huh, Thatch?”
“Yup, can’t say I’ve seen this shit before,” the man noted with a chuckle.
Kelis was floored by how blasé the men were about the situation. This was like something out of a real nightmare, and she’d been on plenty of horrific battlegrounds to know the difference. There, even the destruction seemed to have a reason. Here though? It all seemed entirely senseless because she couldn’t understand what on earth could drive someone to try and manipulate people in such a horrific way.
The plane made another sudden change and Kelis was thrown into Grim’s arms and against the wall, his strong grip locking around her and keeping her steady.
“I’ve got you,” he said with a small smile, sending butterflies flying in Kelis’s gut, further exasperating her current intense and utter confusion.
“Thank you,” she muttered lightly as he pulled the door to the cockpit open, revealing the prone bodies of the pilot and the co-pilot and a slightly bloodied Grant, sitting at the helm with another one of the squad thoughtfully standing behind him.
“There you go, apparently Grant’s a pilot now,” Grim said, the humor disappearing in his voice.
“Is he really a pilot?” Kelis asked, getting three firm and fast answers of “No!” in response. “Oh that’s good then,” she said with a sigh, pushing herself away from Grim and slipping into the co-pilot’s seat.
She hadn’t flown anything bigger than a SuperCobra in a while now. The Marine attack helicopters were beefy and serious machines, but no match for a Boeing. Her hands went to work swiftly enough, checking fuel and oil pressure and the set course.
“You know what you’re doing, Miss?” a firm voice asked, belonging to the third guy in the room, his words slightly muffled by the mask.
“I’m a US Marine Corps helicopter pilot. I get the feeling I know more than you guys do,” she said, flicking a look over her shoulder.
She couldn’t see his lips, but his eyes warmed and she pegged him immediately as the squad leader. There was a certain air around men like that, calm under the worst of conditions, and he seemed to carry himself with all the certainty of a man who knew what he was doing even when the world was falling apart around him.
But she still preferred Grant and Grim better.
“She got an Arctic off my back, Lieutenant. She’s one of the good guys,” Grant said, obviously relieved when Kelis took over, correcting the axis and getting the plane flying straight again.
“Well then, boys, looks like we have a guardian angel on our hands. Miss, if you wouldn’t mind, please get us down on solid ground at the nearest airport. I trust you know the drill?” Connor asked, and Kelis nodded.
Her vision was still swimming a little, but she could muscle through it. Adrenaline was pounding in her veins now, drowning out the aftereffects of whatever shit had gotten into her system in the first place, and she could feel the deadly calm of a woman on a mission fall on her again. She’d always been good under pressure, and this time it seemed to come in more handy than usual.
“Yes, sir,” she said lightly, garnering chuckles from the men.
Connor nodded his head to Grim and Grant as he slipped out of the cockpit, and Grim came to stand behind Kelis. She felt his presence distinctly, as she did Grant’s, and her breath stuttered in her lungs slightly as she felt their eyes on her, watching her work.
“A Marine, huh? Damn, and I thought we’d have a future together,” Grim teased, falling into the navigator’s chair.
“What? Can’t handle a little United States Marine Corps excellence?” she shot back.
“Oh, we can handle it fine. The question is, can you handle SEALs?”
Of course they’re SEALs, she thought with a grin.
That kind of ego was saved for the Marines and the SEALs and it always seemed like the SEALs had made off with the vast majority of it. She rolled her eyes slightly, opening up comms with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. As much as she loved flirting with incredibly hot sailor-boys, she had a plane to land as soon as possible.
But she would have been lying if she claimed to be less interested in them now than she had before the whole madness went down. There was something about a man who could handle himself as well as those two had, and it didn’t hurt that she and Grant had exchanged some pretty big favors with that madman back in the seats.
“I think the SEALs aren’t quite ready for this Marine,” she said with a smirk.
A little bit of false bravado never hurt anyone, right?
CHAPTER FOUR
Grim
Grim was enjoying himself a hell of a lot, that was no lie. Even a little bit drugged up and worse for wear, Kelis was a breath of fresh air and she got his motor running in more ways than one.
He wasn’t particularly needed in the cockpit, but he stayed around for long swaths of time regardless, bantering back and forth with the surprise addition to the team, and exchanging looks with Grant that spoke of more shock than anything else. Whatever he’d expected from this mission, he certainly hadn’t thought he’d run into a woman quite like Kelis.
In fact, the reason why she was on the airplane was becoming more and more curious to begin with.
“So you’re telling me that you were boarding your flight and then all of a sudden, you were told that you got rerouted to a different plane altogether and it ended up being this one? And you hadn’t made any changes in your flight plan or anything?” Grim queried as Tex appeared at the door for the umpteenth time, hissing at him to get back in the cabin and help secure the scores of people wanting to either kill them or rip each other’s heads off.
“He’ll be right there,” Grant said over his shoulder, playing the role of the second pilot though he was as much of a pilot as Grim was a belly dancer.
“He better or I’m stuffing everyone we can’t tie up in here with you three lovebirds,” Tex grunted, slamming the door shut behind him.
“Is he always in such a good mood?” Kelis queried, getting a round of nods in response. “Anyway, yes, that’s the story. I was looking for an uneventful trip home and hours upon hours of glorious sleep.”
“And instead you got to meet us. I think that’s a pretty good trade,” Grim commented wryly, moving toward the door with heavy steps, a tinge of jealousy burning in him as Grant got to remain in Kelis’s rather radiant presence.
The hell’s wrong with you, man? She’s hot, sure, and badass, but you’re drooling like a kitten over cream here. Snap out of it.
The one thing that made him settle a bit was that Grant didn’t seem to be faring much better. Grim hadn’t seen him discussing anything quite so animatedly since that one time they managed to let out some sort of super virus in Cape Town and everyone was hours from dying. Fun mission. Great paragliding there, too.
“Yeah, well, if I wasn’t going to be stuck in Pennsylvania, I might be more driven to agree with you,�
� Kelis snorted as static broke in through the comms, signaling another incoming message from the airport they were approaching.
Securing a private runway and the right kind of emergency services to meet them had been a task in itself, requiring some emergency communications with The Firm and its branch offices in the region. The fact that The Firm had a branch in Pennsylvania was another shocker for the day. What ever happened in Pennsylvania, anyway?
Grim stalked out of the cockpit, closing the door behind him softly. He stepped over the body of a man, hogtied and gagged, who seemed to be coming to slowly and looking none too happy about it. His face was red and he was grunting something into the gag that had been stuffed in his mouth, but that might have been on account of his right shoulder being obviously and painfully dislocated.
“Shouldn’t have tried to block Dutch then, man,” Grim said with a chuckle, recognizing the resident sniper’s handiwork.
The stewardess’s pretty eyes were watering a little and she was breathing heavily in her seat, bound up with duct tape like she was someone’s discount Christmas gift. By the looks of things, the effects of the drug were beginning to wear off and when Grim made it into the cabin, he saw Connor taking his mask off after a moment of discussion with Thatch. Grim followed suit.
“Lieutenant, everything okay here?” he hollered, skipping over a duo of struggling defensive linesmen, strewn out in the aisle.
“As good as one can expect,” Connor said with a shrug. “I think someone needs to go relieve Grant. Some of the victims need medical assistance before we land.”
“Kelis is about to put the bird down on the ground, though,” Grim said absently, looking over the outcome of the scuffle.
The white walls and blue seats were dotted with blood, and every single member of Squad Six was a bit tattered at the edges. Someone had tried and almost succeeded in breaking Connor’s nose and Tex had a very real black eye, swelling as they spoke, and a busted lip. The two football teams’ worth of blocky steroid-pumped man-beasts on the floors and seats were all tied up with rope and gagged, some still passed out, some stirring slowly.
Someone with a sense of humor had made a pile out of The Arctics guys, a stack of six tall. He assumed it had to be either Tex or Dutch and he was somewhat miffed he hadn’t done it himself. Must have been too preoccupied with Kelis for antics.
Damn what a woman, he thought, but caught himself from gushing about her further.
Easier said than done, of course.
“I’ll go get Grant,” Thatch said with a sigh, skipping over some guy who was battling against the knots like a fish out of water.
Thatch had a limp. Definitely a hoot of a mission so far.
“Do we think we got all The Arctics?” Grim asked, checking on a guy who seemed a bit too still, but a quick hand to his neck confirmed he was still breathing. “And the civilians are all fine?”
“We found the source of the gasses and Tex shut it off with half a canister of that purple shit still in it. But I think we got all of operatives, yeah. Shame none of them lived,” Connor mused lightly, casting a glance at the decorative pile of Aryan race wannabes.
“Real shame that,” Tex snorted.
“My heart bleeds,” Grim added on.
“You know what I mean. I’m sure The Firm’s going to want to go over everyone involved with a fine-toothed comb too, but I think we’re getting an early night. I understand the last-minute add-on was a pilot?” Connor asked, turning his attention to Grim.
The lieutenant’s hard gaze always made Grim stand up a bit straighter. They were all buddies outside of the missions and Connor and he sparred a lot together, but during work, the chain of command was clear. It helped that all of them had a lot of respect for Connor, and for each other.
“Kelis Murdoch, aye. United States Marine Corps, flies attack helicopters.”
“The fuck was she doing on a charter plane leased for football teams?” Tex asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Your guess is as good as ours is, or hers,” Grim said, his mood stilling slightly. “She said she got sent back from her gate when she was boarding a commercial flight to Boston, told to come here. The stewardess walked her in so she was obviously on the manifest, but I don’t know why. When we got the lists, there was no mention of any women, let alone someone in the service.”
The three men exchanged looks as Grant appeared around the corner, his steps rather light for a man who’d gotten his ass partially handed to him by some enemy operatives. But Grim did not have to ponder too long to understand his brother’s good mood. It was all Kelis. Apparently she had an effect even on the seemingly constantly grouchy medic.
“Grant, what do you think of this Kelis Murdoch?” Connor queried as Grant came to a stop at their side, though his eyes were already tallying up the carnage around them.
“What do you mean?” he asked, echoing the question in Grim’s mind.
“Well, don’t you think it’s rather peculiar we suddenly found ourselves with a fully combat-trained pilot on board, despite having no inclination that she would be here to begin with? She is not one of our agents and the original assumption was that whatever The Arctics planned on using would not be given to the pilots, which was obviously wrong. And since we got a bit carried away here,” Connor noted, pointing a thumb at the hill of dead commandos, “we would have been up shit’s creek without a paddle if she hadn’t been here.”
“I’m sure we would have landed the plane fine,” Tex said dismissively, though the tone of his voice told Grim that he wasn’t entirely sure of that.
“I think she had no idea why she was sent to this flight. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say this has Spade written all over it,” Grant commented, his expression clouding over slightly.
“Anyone agree with Grant?” Connor asked, looking at Grim and Tex.
“Sounds about right to me,” Tex said, wiping his bloodied knife against the headrest of the chair behind him.
“I can’t argue with that. Either she’s an enemy operative and she didn’t reveal herself or The Firm sent her here. We can’t let her walk out on us without making sure, though,” Grim said with a heavy heart.
It pained him to think that the spunky, delicious morsel of a woman currently flying them to safety could have anything to do with The Arctics. But on first sight, even he had thought that her blonde hair and blue eyes were too good to be true. His rational side had to consider the possibility, but his emotional side was thoroughly convinced that she had no ties to the werewolf wackjobs that had orchestrated this whole mess. And his cougar agreed. That was all the confirmation Grim needed.
“It’s settled then. While our happy campers go to medical checks and some conditioning to forget that all of this ever happened, Kelis comes with us. I assume you two want to take up guard duty?” Connor queried, his gaze flicking between Grant and Grim.
“Sir, yes sir,” Grim said with a smile, earning a chuckle from Connor.
“Very well then.”
As if on call, Kelis’s soft voice came over the intercom, full of confidence and knowing exactly what she was doing. Grim wasn’t sure if she could be any sexier if she tried.
“Gentlemen, buckle in. We’re going in for a landing and it might be a rocky one.”
Grant was already crouching next to a leaner-looking man, possibly one of the teams’ quarterbacks, who looked slightly worse for wear. No wonder, considering a smaller man probably couldn’t have held up very well against all those human mountains that had been swinging their fists around like drunken Irishmen on St Paddy’s Day.
“He’ll be fine, man. Sit down,” Grim said, finding a seat that seemed more clean than bloody and putting the seatbelt on.
“Duty first,” Grant grumbled, making sure the man’s airway wasn’t constricted.
It had been a hell of a day. They’d smuggled themselves in on the plane, expecting a small scuffle with a potential Arctics’ drug test, and they’d found themselves in something
straight out of some sort of Marvel movie, chemical agents being used to turn common humans into frenzied killing machines. Grim had to figure that the reason the football teams had been chosen was to see how much damage they could really do with the neurotoxin, while The Arctics kept a watchful eye over all of it.
But as it sometimes happened, The Firm was one step ahead of the baddies and Squad Six got to have some fun. Not that The Firm was particularly squeaky clean or made of angel dust and butterfly wings itself, but as far as Grim could tell, it was at least more on the side of good than it was on the side of evil. Granted, The Arctics weren’t much of a measuring stick to use to confirm that.
Grim relaxed against the seat with a sigh, feeling the aftereffects of going blow for blow with not only trained Arctics operatives, but some pretty hard-hitting football jocks as well. He was certainly going to feel those bruises. But it didn’t seem to matter that much this time. Usually, Grim would be somewhat sour at the end of a mission, not at all enthused by the paperwork and reports they had to file on the accounts.
This time, it meant that any minute wasted might mean one moment longer with Kelis. And that was oddly enticing.
“So what do you really think about Kelis?” Grim asked as Grant sat down in time for the airplane to let its landing gear down.
“As long as she gets us on the ground in one piece, I have nothing but admiration for her,” Grant said, giving Grim a pointed look.
“That’s not what I’m asking, man.”
“I know.”
Grant smirked and Grim caught hold of that, shaking his head slightly with a grin of his own. The twins had not really discussed what would happen if they ever found a woman that interested them both. In general, cougars rarely had Alpha twins to begin with, as they were more solitary creatures, but Grim and Grant had been the first of their parents’ children and most definitely twins, so that was one convention they’d broken as soon as they could.
It rarely seemed like an option, really, finding one woman that would satisfy them both as well as tie them together more. While they were close, they’d mostly kept their love lives separate because they had vastly different tastes. Grim liked women with attitude and drive, crazy girls who could start off drinking tequila at the beginning of the night and then lead him to bungee jumping in Brazil by the next morning.