‘How?’Drew barked, eyes flicking around the cabin.‘How the hell did you get on this jet?’
Finn gave a grim smile.Not that he felt like smiling.
Between him and Taryn, they’d built the plan in the kind of shorthand where he’d start a thought, and she’d finish it, leaving the rest of the team scratching their heads.But they understood each other enough to know this plan would work—even if he hadn’t had a second to wrap his mind around theirotherissue.Let alone talk in private.
Not when he didn’t do speeches.
So he nodded at Taryn, the lady who enjoyed having the last word, to lead this conversation.
‘You were expecting product, not people,’ Taryn said, with that wicked little grin of hers.‘Clancy gave us just enough.And the pilot?He spilled the rest of the story.I told Finn he could pass as Clancy, with his build—which he did.Obviously.’She rolled her eyes for a dramatic pause.‘All I did was swap shirts and cap with the Darwin ground crew.Who, by the way, were all local Territory and Federal Police helping us load your precious cargo.And the man flying this jet?’She pointed to the closed door of the cockpit.‘Also, a Fed.And the one who flew the jet in from the quarry?That was our guy, Stone.You remember him?The Stock Squad’s part-time pilot and crocodile wrangler.The one who calls youBig Daddy.’
Drew’s eyes flicked from Taryn to the cockpit’s closed door, then back to Finn, as his mind tried to comprehend the impossible.‘You don’t have a warrant for this jet.’
‘But we do.It was Finn who cracked the code on the naming pattern foryour shell companies.’She patted Finn’s shoulder like he was the hero of the day.
But he didn’t feel like a hero.
‘Prime stock,’ Finn growled with his brow low.The fury still simmered beneath the surface and pressed against his rib cage, looking for an escape.
But she did it again.That simple pat on his shoulder, just in time to tame the beast within.
Drew turned to Finn.‘You worked it out… You always did like those word puzzles.’
Finn’s hand flexed at his side.‘Yeah, they were finally good for something.I passed one down to this broken kid, only this morning at the hospital.Same age as I was when you gave me one of those books.Pretending that being a mentor meant something, when it was only a cover to recruit pawns.’
Drew’s mouth curled into a sneer.‘You don’t have jurisdiction here.We’re already in international airspace.’
‘Oh, boy.’Taryn shook her head, grinning like she was about to teach a toddler how magnets worked.‘Isn’t your compass way off.And I thought men knew directions.’She nodded towards the small window.‘We’re still in Australian airspace, piloted by Federal Police who’d make sure we were.And we’re still technically on your property, which was legally listed on the arrest warrants—so says our legal consultant, Izzy, whoyoutried to have killed.’
She then held up her phone again and leaned in closer to Drew.‘Also, thanks for opening a box on camera.Already in the cloud.’She smiled brightly up at her phone.‘Now, smile for the selfie, Drew.My dad’s gonna love this one.’
Click.
Drew flinched at the camera flash.
‘Sit down, Drew.’Finn remained gruff, even as he tried not to smirk.
‘I made you,’ Drew hissed with desperation, as he was shoved back into his seat.‘I built this team.’
Finn leaned in.Clicked in the seatbelt, then tugged it real tight.His face was close enough for Drew to feel the heat behind the words.‘Yeah… And then we rebuilt it—withoutyou.’He glared at the snake in a suit.‘Get comfortable.We’re going home.’
Drew shifted in his seat.Buckled in, cuffed.Still smug.Still breathing.Both optional if Taryn left them alone for a second.
Finn dropped into the seat opposite the man who’d once handed him a pardon and a badge.He stared at Drew with everything he wanted to say, as the level of heated betrayal knotted behind his ribs.‘You used me.You—’
‘Finn.’Taryn’s voice, soft but firm, came from just behind Drew’s shoulder.‘Careful… Less said, the better.’
She was right.
He exhaled heavily, and looked away.
She was already on her laptop, legs crossed like she was sitting in a cafe, and not a prisoner transport.
She winked when she caught him watching, then went back to work.
Finn ran a hand down his face.They hadn’t had a single moment.Not once since the quarry sting where the truth detonated between them.And now, there was still no room to breathe.
He was emotionally landlocked, trapped in a jet, cuffed to the past—while the future was growing in the seat behind Drew.
