She’d screwed up. Big time. Her distracted thoughts on the women and their camp had taken her focus off the mission and allowed the pilot the window of opportunity he’d needed to sneak up.
“Calm down, Captain,” she said in a quiet, yet firm tone. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
Just to kidnap your handsome ass and haul it back to the future in an invisible ship.
“You’re American?”
Surprise lifted his voice, but the pressure of the gun remained constant.
“Yes, and like I said, I don’t mean any harm.” She wished she could turn around and see his face. Talking to the tree seemed pointless, although, the lizard appeared to understand for he spared her one last blink before scampering away. “Can I put my hands down?”
“No. And you’ll forgive me if I find a strangely dressed woman, lurking in the trees with a pair of binoculars a bit threatening. You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you with Gadomski’s rifle.”
“As if,” she said under her breath. Handsome, but clueless. If he thought he would’ve successfully taken a shot at her with the mechanic’s gun, then the gorgeous pilot surely was suffering dementia.
“What?”
The barrel ground deeper into her skull, knocking her barrette into the brush with a soft thud. Freed, her hair tumbled down her shoulders and back, adding an unwelcomed weight.
“Thanks, pal.” Her sigh ruffled the brown curtain blowing across her face courtesy of the warm breeze. “Like I wasn’t already baking.”
She shouldn’t have canceled her haircut to go sky diving last week. Who knew the impulse would come back to bite her in the ass today?
The ungodly temperature more dangerous than the captain, she risked movement by tucking the strands behind her ear and cursed the speed in which the thick mass incubated heat down her neck and spine.
“Get your hands back up!”
Sam grit her teeth, but complied.
“Good girl.” The pressure of the barrel disappeared from her head. “Now, turn around,” he ordered, then added, “Slowly.” The sound of cracking sticks signaled he’d stepped back.
Her mind immediately worked on retaliation scenarios. If she twisted into a roundhouse kick, would the momentum be enough to knock him out? Maybe. Would he get a shot off and alert the others? Probably.
Sam eyed the men working on the airplane a thousand yards out. She couldn’t take the chance. For the moment, she would allow Captain Mitchell to call the shots. With her offensive urges temporarily stifled, she turned around, hands in the air.
Holy friggin’ Black Sheep.
Her mouth skipped dry and went straight to parched. Thick, dark lashes surrounded the most amazing blue-green eyes she’d ever seen. The color of a clear Bermuda shore. So hot. So mesmerizing…
An image flashed through her mind of those sea blue eyes, smiling at her while the strangely familiar man donned a frilly white shirt, brown wool vest and jacket.
She shook her head to unclog her muddled brain. What was with this heat? Now she was hallucinating. A quick blink and she refocused on the captain, not at all happy at the way he affected her senses.
Could this day get any weirder?
His deep indrawn breath momentarily cooled the air between them. “Anna?”
Apparently.
Sam’s heart tumbled in her chest. She’d been called that before. Almost two centuries ago.
How the hell did I know that?
She cleared her throat and forced the words to her lips. “M—my middle name is Ann.”
His gaze intensified and never left hers as he lowered his gun and stepped closer. “Why have you haunted my dreams?”
Dreams? Damn. She’d like to do more than haunt.
Sam opened her mouth, but said nothing because Maria appeared out of nowhere and jabbed the sedative into the vein in the captain’s neck.
“What th—the…” His gun slowly dropped to the ground and eyes rolled into the back of his head before Captain Anthony Mitchell landed with a soft thud at her feet.
“And that’s how you knock out a hero.” Maria held the used sedative in front of her mouth and blew on the needle like a spent weapon.
Sam twisted around to monitor the airstrip. All three mechanics continued to work on the Corsair. Good. No one detected their presence. She turned and glanced down at the unconscious pilot. Poor guy. He was probably going to have one heck of a headache when he woke up.
“What a big hero he is, too.” Maria’s sultry tone grabbed Sam’s attention.
She lifted her gaze and pointed to her copilot’s hand. “Holster that thing and help me get him onto the Phantombird.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Maria saluted with her free hand, then shoved the gun-shaped syringe into a pouch attached to her hip. “Tell me, Sam, what were you doing? Deploying a new seize tactic? ‘Cause, from where I stood, you looked like you were about to melt into each other.”
“Just grab his legs.”
“I’m grabbing. I’m grabbing.” Her copilot scurried to their captive’s boots. “No need to get all huffy. It’s not my fault you spent the better part of the past year concentrating on your career. When’s the last time you got laid?”
Sam stiffened. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?” They were on a mission, not a holiday.
“Only everything.” Maria tossed her hands in the air. “Ever since Justin you’ve—”
“Leave Justin out of this.”
“Can’t, girlfriend. Ever since the jerk tried to screw your career, you stopped dating.”
“No I haven’t!” She grabbed her barrette out of the brush and secured her hair back. “I just stopped dating military men.”
“That’s a lot, considering all you’re surrounded by are military men. There are no others in your life.” Maria tsked. “Sure, you went out with one or two from town last year. But as I recall, their…performances left a lot to be desired. Literally.”
Boy, did they ever. Sam lowered her gaze to their unconscious prey. Bet he wouldn’t disappoint.
“Women have needs, Sam. You can’t ignore your needs. It ain’t right.”
She glanced at her friend. “This coming from a woman who caresses a metal object she’s named Brad. And I’m talking about a plane, not one of your sex toys.”
Maria smiled, her shoulders and brows lifting simultaneously. “Yeah, well…you know.”
“Look, let’s worry about the situation at hand. Not my sex life.”
“Or lack thereof,” Maria mumbled.
She let the truthful comment slide. “Just help me with him before someone notices. We have to move fast.” She pointed to the soldiers on the distant airstrip.
“You’re right. We’d better not stand in one spot too long, anyway. Damn!” Her friend grimaced. “It’s so damp. We may grow roots.”
Sam nodded. “And a veil of moss.”
As quiet as possible, she knelt down in the broken weeds, hooked her arms under and around the captain’s broad shoulders and struggled to lift him into a sitting position. “Man, he’s solid.” Very solid. She clenched her teeth. Too solid. Supporting him with her chest, Sam’s nipples hardened against his warm, taut back.
Stupid body. You’d swear she never held a man before. Maybe Maria’s right. I need to get laid.
While her friend turned around and positioned herself between the man’s legs, Sam quickly calculated the last time she’d had sex. Seven, no, ten months ago. She stilled. A new record, one she’d better get used to if NASA was to be in her future.
Maria was right, though. Ever since Justin, Sam had been extremely selective with her dates.
“Yes, cripes, he’s very solid.” Maria wrapped her arms around their abductees’ calves and lifted with a grunt. “You sure can pick ‘em, Captain.”
Brought back to reality, however strange, Sam focused on her friend’s head. “I didn’t pick him. Fate did when we were tossed between the Ace and his date with the grim reaper.”
Her insides twisted at the harshness of her words, but she refused to make room for compassion. Emotions had no business on a mission. She glanced at the man’s nametag. Embroidered Velcro had since replaced the leather patch currently sticking to her own forearm. Mitchell was a mission, nothing more.
Sam lifted her chin and stared straight ahead. “Now, let’s get the hell out of dodge.”
Maria nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Careful to keep trees and vegetation between their slow procession and the mechanics, their trek back to the Phantombird took longer than expected.
The warm breezes swaying the brush and massive palms did nothing to alleviate the island heat. By the time they boarded the plane with their unconscious prey, sweat glued the flight suits to their exhausted bodies.
“Why couldn’t fate have picked a shorter, thinner pilot?” Maria dropped the captain’s legs and slumped to the floor, panting.
“Good question,” Sam said between breaths, laying the captive flat on his back before falling down next to him.
How the men—and especially the women—managed tours of duty here was a testament to their unyielding resolve and patriotism. Sam’s respect for her grandfather increased ten-fold.
“I have a ton of questions for fate.” She paused to push fatigue aside and sit up. “But right now, our first priority is to get back home.”
If it was even possible.
She rose to her feet, unclipped her hair and twirled the thick mass into the same quick knot she had that morning before shutting the door. “I’m going to recreate the exact conditions to the best of my ability, which will mean, heading back into battle. So, be warned.” She jammed her helmet on and buckled into her seat. “Things may get rough.”
“Roger,” Maria replied.
Sam’s gaze drifted to their sleeping passenger. He should be safe enough flat on the floor. The Phantombird only contained two seats. She wasn’t too concerned. Even when she’d banked left or right, the cockpit remained stationary while the rest of the craft tilted.
With quick precision, she punched the ignition sequence into the keyboard on the control panel and glanced outside. All clear.
Powered up, she grasped the stick. “Let’s go home.”
“Do you hear that, Brad?” Her copilot caressed the panel in front of her and winked. “Take us home, baby. Take us home.”
A grin on the rise, Sam depressed the accelerator and pulled back on the stick, propelling them a few feet into the air.
“Radar’s clear. Nothing above us,” Maria announced, after checking her controls.
Sam squared her shoulders. Time to fly back to the twenty-first century. She increased their altitude and retraced the flight pattern straight back to the scene of their intrusion, and at a much faster speed.
“Oh…no…”
Air squeezed from her lungs in a painful gush. A battered, bullet-filled horizon tested her Marine resolve. She choked the control stick, one heartbeat away from firing her weapons. Smoke blotted out half the sun as Corsairs and Zeroes volleyed for lock-on positions. Combat chatter from the Black Sheep and other Allied pilots filled her ears.
The urge to retaliate bit deep and fierce into her fingers. I can help these men. I can help…
Equipped with more high-tech weaponry than any of the brave pilots would ever imagine, Sam and Maria had the ability to tip the scales of battle.
But this was not their fight.
Tears of anger and frustration blurred her vision. She had to hold steady. Even taking out one enemy fighter could have serious repercussions. No, firing her weapons was not a choice.
Unless they didn’t make it home.
She swiped at her eyes, and with radar guiding the way, carefully banked right, then left, back and forth, through the shooting planes to their entry point.
“Brad, you’d better get us the hell home. I—I can’t watch much longer,” Maria said, her voice hoarse with the same emotion pounding through Sam’s veins.
“You’re right. He’d better, because I’ll tell you right now, Maria,”—her finger trembled over the trigger button—“if he doesn’t…we’ll be changing history a damn site more than we have already.”
Her friend patted the panel with loving strokes. “You can do it, Brad. Make me proud.”
Sam inhaled, then blew out the breath. “We’re here. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to uncloak then cloak again and hope like hell that’s what it takes to send us home.”
“Okay.” Maria nodded. “Let’s go home.”
Sam’s pulse throbbed through her ears as she willed the stunt to work. “Here we go.” She hit the invisibility switch and the sudden change in flight patterns told them they were visible.
“What the hell is that?” A voice asked, fear evident in his tone.
“I don’t know! Maybe it’s some kind of new enemy weapon,” another anxious voice responded, banking his Corsair to the left.
With bottom lip clenched between her teeth, Sam flipped the button again and prayed the simple flick of the switch shifted them back home. Within the breath of a second, the horizon changed.
“It worked! The bogies are gone,” Maria exclaimed, pointing to the clear radar screen.
Bright sun and a cloudless blue sky stretched in front of them. “Thank God.” Her gaze snapped to the patches on her arm. Yes! The Black Sheep patch was back.
“Phantombird VL Zero Three. We have you on radar,” Command Central spoke into her helmet. “Captain Sheppard, you disappeared off our screen for sixty seconds. What happened to you? Over.”
“Only one minute?” Maria’s eyes narrowed as she twisted her wrist and glanced at her watch. “Sam, we’ve been gone two hours.”
“Two hours?” She shook her head.
Knowing their audio was still silenced, and unwilling to answer Command Central or be seen on radar just yet, she pursed her lips and quickly disengaged the tracking system. Now they couldn’t be seen or heard.
This garnered an immediate response.
“Phantombird VL Zero Three? Do you copy? We’ve lost you on radar, again. Do you copy?”
“Sam, uh, why’d you do that?” Her friend’s brows rose higher than her voice.
“Because of him.” Sam motioned with a flick of her head to the still unconscious pilot. “You might as well cut communications so we don’t have to listen to Command’s attempts to contact us.”
Her copilot switched off communications, a lop-sided grin stealing across her face. “What are we going to do with him? Actually…” Mischief gleamed in her friend’s dark eyes. “I can think of a few—”
“This isn’t funny, Maria.” Sam frowned so deep her forehead hurt. “We’re already going to get our asses chewed for not maintaining contact with Command. I’ll be damned if I’ll tell them we took a stroll through 1943 so Colonel Ballard can pull us from rotation on a psych evaluation.”
She’d worked too damn hard to get this coveted assignment. No way would she kiss NASA goodbye. Not for a malfunctioning plane, or a devastatingly handsome pilot.
No friggin’ way!
Sam drew in a breath and continued. “We need to find a secluded place to drop the Captain until I can get back to him to explain what happened.”
“Okay. Okay. Calm down. You’re right. I’m sorry.” Maria held up her hands and shook her head. “I’m new to this time-shifting stuff. It’s got me all balled up.”
Sam closed her eyes and exhaled. It wasn’t fair to take her tension out on her friend. She opened her eyes and sighed again. “Sorry, Maria. I’m uptight, too. Anyone ever finds out, we’ll be facing a lot more than a court-martial.”
Warm fingers covered hers and squeezed.
“No problem, Sam.”
Understanding passed between them like a routine breath. Maria pulled her hand away and shifted in her seat.
“Okay, so what’s the plan? We need to find somewhere isolated, right?”
Isolated…
>
Sam’s spine straightened. “My grandfather’s cabin in Colorado. The one he left me.”
“Yes! With the lake…in the middle of the woods.” Maria snapped her fingers. “Perfect! Give me forty seconds to reroute the wires to temporarily disengage the flight recorder.”
As soon as Maria put her tools away and re-took her seat, Sam punched in the familiar coordinates and flew at top speed to Colorado.
Eight minutes later, the Phantombird touched down in the tall grass in front of her picturesque one story log cabin. The secluded hide-a-way sat just at the mouth of the woods, a thousand feet back from a horseshoe-shaped lake.
Maria took off her helmet and stood. “This place is so peaceful and beautiful. Perfect for our stowaway to stew.”
“Yeah, well unfortunately, pretty scenery isn’t going to make the truth any easier for him to swallow, but at least he won’t stumble onto the twenty-first century on his own.” She removed her helmet and unhooked her seat belt.
“Good thing your grandpa and dad refused to bring a TV or computer up here despite outfitting the cabin with solar electricity.”
“Yeah, much to my squawking. Now I’m immensely grateful.” Sam hit the door release, stepped over to the captain, and knelt down by his head. “Let’s get him inside. The sedative was only a mild one and will be wearing off shortly.”
Maria scurried to his feet. “You’re right. The last thing we need is him waking up before we leave.”
Lifting him as before, the girls carried their charge into the unlocked cabin and straight to the bigger of the two bedrooms. Out of breath by the time they reached the bedroom, Sam and Maria fell onto the mattress after they dropped the poor, sexy, unconscious Black Sheep on the bed.
“I’ll say it again, why couldn’t fate have picked a thinner, smaller pilot?” Maria jerked her arm out from under the captain’s leg. “On second thought…strike that. Damn, Sam. Look at him. He’s…” Her friend paused to run her gaze the full length of the man. “Wow, they don’t grow them like this anymore. I wonder if he looks as solid as he feels?”
Her insides heated. Too bad we’ll never know.
10 Timeless Heroes; A Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Page 208