Chapter 17 #2
I wasn’t going to walk through the front. The mechanic would undoubtedly look up and spot me that way. So I stayed low and skirted the hangar’s outer wall, keeping the corner of the building between us like a shield. Luckily, the side entrance sat slightly ajar, propped by a small crate.
When I reached the side door, I paused.
Took a breath.
Inhaled.
Exhaled.
And moved.
I slipped inside.
The hangar smelled like oil, metal, faint ozone, and heat from the massive industrial lamps overhead. The plane sat in the center like a sleeping dragon. The stairs were already lowered.
The mechanic didn’t notice me. He had earbuds in.
I moved along the shadowed edge of the hangar wall, careful not to let my silhouette cross any bright patches of light. The man only looked up once, scratching his chin, before going back to scrolling.
The plane door was open.
This was my chance.
I crossed the last ten meters at a near run, soft steps barely touching the floor as I ran up the stairs and into the dim cabin.
Inside, the air was cooler. There were plush seats arranged in two rows and a narrow galley in the front of the plane. The space smelled of leather, cedar, and a faint fragrance that was probably expensive cologne from one of the brothers.
I needed a hiding place.
The galley had a storage alcove behind the paneling. It was meant for keeping luggage or gear during turbulence. Barely large enough for one person, but I’d hunkered down in worse spaces during escapes that mattered far more.
I crawled inside and pulled the panel shut behind me, leaving a sliver for air.
I stayed curled up in the dark corner of the luggage alcove long enough for my hips to go numb and my legs to fall asleep.
Eventually, the hum of the engines deepened as the jet powered up, and I held my breath when I heard footsteps on the stairs.
It had to be Andrei.
He entered and stopped near the galley.
My heart kicked hard.
A pause. The faint scrape of a shoe against the floor. Then silence.
He didn’t search the plane.
Moments later, the pilot announced through the intercom that we were cleared for takeoff. The plane lurched forward, rumbling across the private runway, accelerating so hard I had to brace my hands and ankles against the walls of the cramped compartment to keep from sliding out of my hiding place.
My breath caught as the floor slanted upward, the plane lifting off. My stomach flipped. My skin prickled. My heartbeat settled into a fast, but steady rhythm.
We were airborne.
The plane leveled out after that, and the engines quieted into a smoother hum. The cabin pressure equalized. And like every stealth attempt in every bad action movie, the second I thought I’d gotten away with it, everything went straight to hell.
Then Andrei’s voice drifted through the plane, deeper than usual, with an edge he rarely showed.
“Alright,” he muttered. “Where is she?”
My blood froze. I kept still, muscles burning from holding the same position for too long. Then came the sound of him searching the plane. It started with a panel sliding, then a cupboard door opening, followed by another compartment door snapping shut.
The next door he checked was two feet from my hiding spot.
Then the smooth wooden panel I was tucked behind ripped away so fast it knocked the air from my lungs.
Bright cabin light flooded in. Andrei’s face appeared in the opening, eyes blazing, jaw clenched so tightly it looked carved from stone.
“Well,” he purred, voice low and lethal, “would you look at that.”
He grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out of the alcove like I was no more than a child. The movement was so sudden I didn’t even have time to brace. My back slammed against the wall beside the galley, my breath leaving me in one quick burst.
He pinned me there with one hand around my throat. His other hand pressed a gun under my ribs.
His face was inches from mine, breath hot and furious.
“What the hell are you doing on my plane?” he snarled.
I glared back at him. “I can explain.”
“Explain?” He laughed once, the sound humorless and disbelieving. “You snuck out of the estate, hid in a luggage compartment, stowed away like a feral cat, and now you want to ‘explain’?”
“Andrei—”
The hand around my throat squeezed a little tighter.
“No,” he growled. “You listen. This meeting is classified. Restricted. Revenant’s orders.
You should not be here. This isn’t a misunderstanding.
This is a direct violation of the agreement we made when we took you onto our estate.
And the moment you stepped on this plane without permission, you broke that agreement. ”
I lifted my chin. “Get your hand off my throat and I’ll talk.”
“No,” he snapped. “You start talking now.”
The jet hit a pocket of turbulence. The plane dipped, sending his body closer to mine. The gun stayed anchored beneath my ribs.
I locked my gaze on his.
“Andrei Dragunov,” I tried, my voice even despite his grip on my neck and the adrenaline pumping through my veins, “you’re not going to shoot me.”
His laugh this time was dangerous. “You want to bet your life on that right now?”
“Yes,” I said.
His gaze narrowed in on me, but he remained quiet.
“Revenant didn’t want me at the meeting. They asked for you alone. They specifically didn’t want my eyes on whatever they’re doing. Why?”
His jaw ticked.
I continued.
“That should scare you. The fact that they don’t want me there means one of two things.”
He didn’t move, but his fingers tightened slightly around my throat. He was listening.
“One,” I said, “they don’t trust me.”
His nostrils flared.
“Or two,” I added, “they’re trying to set you up and knew I’d catch it. Because. I. Know. Them.”
His eyes widened, just a fraction, but I saw it anyway.
“Andrei,” I said firmly, “if Revenant wanted me so far away from that meeting, it is because they don’t want a witness who can recognize what they’re doing. I’m their own agent, for God’s sake.”
He didn’t speak.
His chest rose and fell. His hand was still wrapped around my neck, muscles rigid, the gun still pressed beneath my ribs. The intensity in his eyes softened, sharpened again, then softened once more as he thought it through. I could tell that his mind was running through all the angles at once.
Silence thickened between us.
Then I drove the final nail in.
“And I am here, on your plane,” I said, “because I don’t trust Revenant right now. Not after what they’re keeping from me. Plus, my presence proves exactly one thing.”
“What?” he asked, voice rough, low.
“That I’m on your side.”
The fight started to bleed out of him. Not completely. But enough.
His grip loosened. The gun dipped by an inch.
His gaze slid down my face, lingering too long on my mouth before returning to my eyes.
I pressed harder.
“And the second reason you aren’t throwing me off this plane,” I stated cockily, “is because if you do, you’re never going to get what your brothers already had. And then you’ll be pissy for the rest of your life knowing you never got a taste of the hottest girl they’ve ever had.”
He drew in air too fast.
A flush hit his neck.
Then something primal and furious flickered in his eyes.
“Katya,” he growled, voice hoarse and unsteady in a way I had never heard from him, “that is not fair.”
“Who said I play fair?”
The last barrier in him visibly cracked.
He dropped the gun to the floor with a metallic thud and slammed his palm against the wall beside my head, caging me in completely.
“For the record,” he rumbled, “I am two seconds from handcuffing you to a chair for the rest of this flight.”
“Try me,” I whispered.
His breath stuttered.
He dragged a hand through his hair in frustration, practically vibrating out of his skin.
“You know,” he said quietly, “there are consequences for stowing away on a private jet.”
“Oh?” I asked, lifting my chin. “Going to lecture me to death?”
His breath brushed my cheek. “I’m thinking about putting you over my knee and teaching you what happens when you make reckless choices.”
I swallowed, heat coiling low in my stomach. “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
His mouth curved slightly. “You want to test that, princess?”
“You won’t lay a hand on me,” I whispered. “You’d be too distracted staring at my ass.”
He laughed once, breathless and dark, like I’d punched him in the chest with my words. “You’re impossible.”
“You like me like that.”
He planted both hands on the wall on either side of my head this time, leaning in until his chest brushed mine, heat searing through my shirt. “No. I love that.”
I inhaled a little bit too quickly. He heard it. His eyes flicked down to my lips.
“You know what the real problem is?” he asked.
“No,” I said, even though I did.
“You act like you’ve figured me out.”
“Haven’t I?” I murmured. “I already know all your weaknesses.”
“Oh, really? Name one.”
“You want me,” I quipped.
He stiffened, then exhaled slowly, like he was physically restraining himself from slamming me into that wall again.
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” he warned. “Not when we’re alone on a jet, thousands of feet in the air, with no one to stop me from—”
I raised my brows. “From what?”
He glared. “You know exactly what.”
“And yet,” I said, “you still haven’t done anything.”
He leaned in until his forehead almost touched mine. “Not because I don’t want to.”
“Then why not?”
His jaw clenched. Hard.
“Because…” he said softly, “I’m still deciding whether to punish you or kiss you.”
“Decisions, decisions.”
“Indeed,” he purred, sending a surge of heat straight down to my core at the same time my stomach twisted with nervous anticipation.
“Why don’t you just make it easy on yourself and do both?”
“If you keep provoking me, you’re going to find out what I do when I stop holding back.”
“Like I said, I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be, princess,” he growled.
Then he closed the last inch of space between us and kissed me.