Dangerous Mission (Team Falcon: Agile Security & Rescue Team 2 #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

The sick feeling in my gut worsens as the small plane dips.

“Griff…” I carefully rest my hand on my brother’s damp shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”

Not like he’d tell me if he wasn’t going to be okay. Griff’s tough as nails and more likely to jump out of this plane without a parachute than share his feelings.

When a groan is his only answer, my blood runs cold.

Lightning flashes ominously, backlighting the wing tip outside his window, casting him in an eerie halo.

No! Not a halo.

Griff’s going to be fine.

He is not leaving this earth. I don’t know what I’d do if…

Pain squeezes my heart like a vise.

“Is the pain worse?” My voice is weak and wobbly, when I need it to sound strong .

“Yeah.” He rocks in his seat, his elbows resting on his knees, his shoulders hunched forward. “Bad.”

Panic sweeps through me, tightening my toes against the insoles in my shoes.

Griff is truly the hardest person I know. He’s a Delta, a hardened combat veteran, a gunshot wound survivor, so the agony on his face makes my heart race and my mouth dry.

“Don’t panic, A.” He fists his hair. “I’ll live. This isn’t like you to be so upset. You’re usually Ms. Sunshine.”

“Well, I’m not always. Especially when you’re hurting so badly. Truthfully, it scares me.”

Swallowing, I look away. He does not need to deal with my emotions right now.

Griff squeezes my knee. “I’m not dying.”

“It’s just?—”

“He’s not going to be able to dive.”

What the hell?

I want to turn around and smash something over Timothy Brundage’s ugly head. What an asshole comment to make when my brother is in extreme physical duress.

Jesus.

I try to rein in my temper, but I’m not used to dealing with the kind of anger Brundage makes me feel. “Let’s get on the ground without one of us expiring before we have this discussion.”

Griff buries his head in his hands. “I know, I can’t dive. Fuck. I know.”

Griff isn’t just a hard man, he’s an honorable man. And when his company is hired to do a rescue dive, he’s not stopping until the person he’s hired to help is safe.

This situation is going to make him crazy.

I catch a glimpse of Brudange watching me, malice clear in his dull green eyes, the heat of his fury on my skin .

I exhale, my lungs shaking, and focus on Griff. Brundage can go to hell.

The next few minutes are wretched. My brother’s pain increases more and more as we drop toward the runway, slicing through the clouds with rain hitting the fuselage like bullets.

I grab the armrests as the plane pitches and yaws. The storm is unrelenting. Wind makes the engine strain. Barely a few seconds pass between flashes of glaring light that tear through the cabin.

It’s a scene straight out of a nightmare.

I’ve never been religious, but right now feels like a good time to make the sign of the cross over my heart. Maybe some guardian angel will hear.

My pulse alternately races and stalls. Stutters and jerks to a start again.

Please let us live.

Give me dark, cold water any day over stupid turbulence.

“Hang in there,” Griff says with a dark laugh.

How can he be laughing when he's in agony?

“Just worry about yourself, big brother.”

“I’m fine.”

A yelp of pain from him makes me jump in my seat. Heart racing, my sweaty palms clutch the armrests. I’ve never felt more helpless in my life.

When I look at Brundage in the seat behind Griff, his eyes are closed.

“Brudgage, we have to do something!”

“Nothing we can do, but get on the ground.”

Tears roll down my cheeks, tightening my throat until I can’t breathe.

Griff moans, growls. Contorts on himself. I wrap my arms around his shoulders. “This will be over soon. We’ll get you to a doctor and everything will be okay.”

Not only do I feel helpless, a wave of fear presses me back into my seat.

The weight of this job is going to be on my shoulders. Brundage is a liability.

Griff needs me. A woman is missing.

The pressure couldn’t be higher.

And then the wing tip catches on the ground…