“Is it flying?”
“I—” She stopped, looked up at a set of blinking lights far off in the sky.
“Is it flying?”
Jules had been clearing the fuel for months.
Last month’s shipment had gone to base two weeks ago.
The shipment with contaminated biofuel was on base, in their tanks, fueling their cargo planes.
Her windpipes were choking her, her body turning against her. “Yes.”
He uttered something hedefinitelyhadn’t learned in his momma’s house, then yanked his phone out.
He pointed with it up at the lights. “That could be Lance.”
She felt the blood drain from her face.
And then he was dialing a number, half-turned away from her, but every word he said echoed like shattered crystal inher eardrums. “Colonel, we’ve got a problem.” He cut a glance back at Anna and cursed again. “Gonna need OSI and whoever can ground the fleet fastest.”
Her legs wobbled. Her knees melted to liquid balls between bones that couldn’t have been any stronger than spun sugar. Her hands shook so badly she could barely grip her own phone. But she had to call Shirley.
She would probably lose her job, lose her tuition assistance, lose her apartment, and have to move home with her parents.
She’d already lost all shot at finding any more happiness with Jackson.
Because not only had he just told her loud and clear his job came before her, he’d also told her he didn’t trust her to solve the problem herself.
And he’d done it by calling to report her to the Air Force’s internal version of the FBI.
Jackson couldn’t decidewhich was worse, explaining to the colonel that every military aircraft in the state of Georgia needed to be grounded until their fuel could be evaluated and cleared, or watching Anna lose that battle she was fighting against herself.
Seared his heart when she turned her back to him. He knew it killed her to let him see her hurt and scared.
Pretty much killed him that he had to do it, but if there was a problem with the jet fuel, hisonlyconcern needed to be getting those birds on the ground.
Might’ve been some good in that too, since truth was, she didn’t want to love him back. If she wanted to make a criminal case out of his taking charge here, he’d go on and let her. Even if the thought made his heart flop around like that fish that smacked Louisa in the face. Catch and release with Anna Grace, it was.
The colonel hung up soon as he had a grasp on thesituation. Jackson kept his eyes trained on the C-130 lights. Wasn’t surprised when his phone rang with an unfamiliar base number.
It was gonna be a long night.
Anna retreated to the lab door, waiting for her boss, he assumed. Couldn’t see much of her, huddled as she was out of the light, but a single headlight lit her up good halfway through his call with OSI.
The C-130 banked, then leveled off, its lights getting bigger on approach. He blew out relief he didn’t know he was waiting for.
If the tests had beenthatbad, Anna would’ve insisted on the grounding herself.
But she hadn’t argued when he’d suggested it, so knowing tonight’s missions were being recalled gave him some peace.
The big guy climbing off the motorcycle next to Anna’s car didn’t.
“Brad?” Anna straightened beside the building. “What are you doing here?”
The OSI officer was still talking, so Jackson kept listening, answering “Yes, ma’am” and “No, ma’am” as appropriate. Yes, ma’am, he was there at Rockwood Mineral Corporation now. No, ma’am, the lab tech wasn’t a flight risk. Yes, ma’am, she said the contaminated fuel was in the air.
Lance was a damn good pilot. So were his buddies. They’d see it in the cockpit if something were wrong.
