Chapter 8
“Cancelled?” Natalia’s jaw fell open with disbelief as she stared up at the airport’s flight information display board.
Flying commercial had been a purposeful choice to help keep Natalia’s role as a Homeland agent concealed. But now…
This wasn’t happening. Not today. There must be some sort of computer glitch or human error causing the inaccuracy. Her flight home to D.C. had not been cancelled. It simply wasn’t possible.
Not. Freaking. Today.
She had meetings to get to. Important ones. Ten to be exact. Of course, what she called meetings some may refer to as interrogations. But what was it Jagger said last night?
Guess this is one of those potato, patahto situations.
Except the excuse she’d given Jagger as to why she couldn’t join him for lunch was a bit more than an issue of semantics. The claim of needing to rush back for a “meeting” was admittedly more than a little white lie.
It was a bit ridiculous, given the man’s knowledge of how ops like this worked. But even if she’d wanted to tell him the truth—and she absolutely did not—Natalia hadn’t been given permission to read him in on anything beyond the scope of last night’s op.
As far as Homeland was concerned, Delta Team had fulfilled their contractual duty regarding this particular job. Natalia, however, was the leader of the agency’s secretive, off-the-books team that had been hunting Arlo Sanchez for quite some time.
Not only was she expected to be present when it came time to interrogate his men, she wanted to be there. To be the one in those small, windowless rooms as she asked all the right questions.
Most importantly, she needed to sit across from those men, look them square in the eyes, and explain the one and only way to help themselves was to give up what they knew about Sanchez.
Between that and wanting to see if Scarlett could get anything useful from the picture—or better yet, the hotel’s security footage—the urgency she felt to get back to D.C. was growing fiercer by the minute.
You do know Jagger and the guys could find the answers you’re looking for, right? All you’d have to do is ask.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t toyed with the idea of turning to Jagger for help. She had. Several times, as a matter of fact. But if Jagger and the others knew of the details surrounding her departure from the CIA, the trust she’d worked damn hard to earn could be irreparably broken.
They have to know I’m qualified to do this job. They need to know they can trust me to keep them safe.
Another passenger accidentally bumped into Natalia’s shoulder, sending her backpack and purse into a slide down the length of her arm.
“Sorry,” the middle-aged man mumbled low as he hurriedly brushed past.
The unexpected—and much needed—jostle snapped her back to the present. After repositioning the bags’ straps, she straightened her spine, pulled in a deep breath, and took a moment to regroup.
Standing here, staring up at a board that showed no signs of changing was getting her absolutely nowhere. Her mind raced to figure out the best next step.
New plan.
Natalia would see if another flight to D.C. was scheduled for today. If not, she’d have no other choice but to rent a car—again—and haul ass back to D.C. Not ideal, by any means, but the situation was out of her hands.
Decision made, she swung hastily around to begin squeezing her way out of the growing crowd. But with her focus split between her bags and the people around her, Natalia only made it half-a-step before slamming smack dab into a giant wall of muscle.
Hard. Sculpted. A spicy male scent that was shockingly familiar.
“Whoa.” Two strong, gentle hands held her shoulders steady to keep her from falling. “Easy there, darlin’.”
That voice. I know that voice.
Every muscle in Natalia’s body froze. She had to be wrong. It couldn’t possibly be him. But as she followed the row of small buttons running up the center of the man’s dark blue shirt, she realized—
I definitely know that shirt.
She’d actually spent all morning pretending she didn’t love the way that exact shirt moved over the toned biceps and chest it covered and that she wasn’t wildly attracted to the man who’d been wearing it.
“Jagger?” Natalia finally forced herself to meet his dark, alluring eyes. “Wha…what are you doing here?”
That mouth of his curved in the way she was starting to like a little too much. “I came to offer you my services.”
“Services?” The clarifying question came out a bit high and squeaky. “What, uh…” She cleared her throat and tried again. “What type of services are you offering, exactly?”
I could think of a few, just off the top of my head.
Natalia cleared her throat again, along with the unexpected thought.
“I got an FCC alert about a cancelled flight from Chicago to D.C.” Jagger motioned to the electronic board behind her. “You said you needed to get back there ASAP. I tried calling, but it went straight to voicemail, so I headed straight here.”
He slid his hands into his pockets with that same, cocky grin that sent her heart fluttering and her lower belly tingling with need. Natalia blinked, still trying to process the fact that he was here, in the airport. And he was offering to…take her home?
“You rushed all the way here so you could offer to personally drive me all the way back to D.C.?”
Eleven hours in a car alone with Jagger Brooks? The thought was both utterly terrifying and tempting as hell.
“Oh, I’m not offering to drive you anywhere.” Jagger snorted. “Nah, that would take far too long.”
“But you just said—”
“I’m talking about flying, Talia.” His sexy grin widened with the use of her shortened name. “My team’s private jet has a hangar here, and it’s ready to roll. Just say the word, and I’ll have you up in the air and on your way back home in no time.”
The unexpected offer nearly left her speechless. “You’d…really do that?” She added a belated, “For me?”
“Of course.” A quick shrug.
The man acted as if he’d just agreed to buy her a pack of gum rather than fly her home on a multi-million-dollar plane.
“Hang on.” A thought struck her in that moment. “I may not be a pilot, but I do know that you can’t just decide to hop on a private jet and take off out of O’Hare without first submitting a flight plan and then getting prior approval.”
“In most cases, you’d be right.”
Most cases.
“Meaning it’s different where you’re concerned?”
“Let’s just say, when you play an intricate part in the locating and rescue of a beloved member of the FCC chairman’s family, you tend to have a few perks tossed your way.”
The man seemed to have an answer for everything. A trait she found both frustrating and endearing.
“Listen, Jagger. I truly appreciate the offer—”
“But?”
Natalia released a soft exhale. “But I can’t ask you to drop everything just to fly me back home.”
“You didn’t ask, I offered.” There was that cocky grin again.
“Besides, it’s seriously not a big deal.
I have a slew of vacation days stacked up, and it’s been a while since I’ve been to the nation’s capital.
Figured I’d get you home, then spend a couple of days to take in the sights before heading back here. ”
Now he was planning on staying in D.C.? She watched him closely, hating that she couldn’t tell if the man had ulterior motives.
“I never really pictured you as the sight-seeing type.”
“You kiddin’? I’m a total American history nerd. All those museums and monuments…” He sounded genuinely excited by the idea. “Plus, I thought I’d use the opportunity to swing by and check out Echo Team’s new office. You know, make sure it’s not better than ours and all that.”
She was pretty sure he was kidding about that last part. As for the rest, Natalia stopped trying to figure out the man’s true motives long enough to do some mental math.
Flight time from Chicago to D.C. was roughly two hours. Probably shorter on a state-of-the-art jet like Delta Team’s.
And since her flight was still showing cancelled…
“How soon could we leave?”
The smile on Jagger’s ruggedly handsome face lit up the browns of his eyes. “The jet’s ready whenever you are.”
Natalia glanced down at the two rolling suitcases she’d kept close by.
You need to get home. The man has a jet and knows how to fly. Is it really that hard of a decision to make?
Thanks to her position, she was familiar with Jagger’s past piloting experience back when he was still active-duty Air Force. His knowledge, skills, and experience were impressive to say the least and left her with zero qualms about how safe she’d be with him at the controls.
“Are you sure?” Natalia searched Jagger’s magnetic stare one final time.
With a glint of something unreadable in his gaze, he reached for the telescopic handle on one of her two bags.
“Come on.” He spun the piece of luggage around on its three-sixty wheels before motioning toward one of the airport shops up ahead.
“We’ll stop and grab some snacks for the trip on the way. ”
One hour and forty-seven minutes later…
“Watch your step.”
Natalia took Jagger’s offered hand as she stepped down from the last of the jet’s metal stairs. The thick heels of her black leather boots created a soft, almost muted click as they met the private hangar’s smooth, concrete floor.
“Thanks.” She kept her smile tight and her expression perfectly schooled.
The last thing she wanted was to reveal just how much she loved the way his hand wrapped securely around hers.
“Hang tight. I’ll go grab your luggage.”
Natalia pulled the phone from her back pocket as she waited. Relief eased some of the tension in her back, neck, and shoulders when she saw the new text she’d been hoping to find.
“The car should be here any minute.” Jagger reappeared with her two suitcases in tow. “Just need an address to give the driver, and we’ll take you to wherever you need to go.”
“Oh.” Natalia’s lashes fluttered with surprise. “I, uh… I didn’t expect…” She held up her phone. “I have a colleague picking me up. She’s less than five minutes out.”