She’d responded with confidence, but…
Crap.
Moose were freaking enormous.
CHAPTER 8
Trask didn’t likethis at all.
Hewanted to be the one to get into a deep well with a bull moose; not have Jett risk life and limb. But since his drysuit was back at the office, and this oddly prepared, ditz of a woman had hers close at hand, what choice did he have?
Trask’s brain, however, refused to quiet, and he was already planning a strategy to get the moose free.
Yes, he still had the need to control the situation even though he wasn’t headed into the hole. He hoped he wasn’t going to get any argument from Jett.
If she refused to listen to him, he might lose his ever-loving mind.
Trask cleared his throat. “You may be the one getting into the water with that moose, but you’re going to listen to everything I have to say, Do you understand?” he clipped, poised for a fight.
“Okay,” she readily answered. “Sure.”
“Okay? Sure?” He gaped. Was Jett trying to confound him?
“That’s what I said. And it means, yes, I’ll take direction from you,” she responded slowly, enunciating each word distinctly as if he were…slow-witted.
When he glared, she sighed and elaborated. “Listen. I already told you that I’m good at taking orders and executing operations, but that I’m lousy at being in charge. I absolutely wasn’t kidding. So now you’re in charge, and I’m just an instrument for you to manipulate in this rescue.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal
Trask blinked.
Yes, hehadheard her declare her strengths and weaknesses previously, but he’d thought…Dammit.He’d thought she’d been blowing smoke to make herself seem more appealing to his bossy side.
She certainly wouldn’t have been the first woman to do that.
He ramped up his demands to make sure she wasn’t trying to pull one over on him. “So, you’re going to follow my orders? Explicitly? And you’re not going to go off on any tangents?”
She gave a nod, but that wasn’t good enough. Trask needed to hear it.
“Are we clear on this?”
“Sir, yes sir,” she barked and saluted sassily.
Then she stuck her tongue out at him.
Heat ramped up in his abdomen.
Oh, how he wanted to have that fresh mouth on his again, but now wasn’t the time. They had a rescue to perform, and he couldn’t get distracted. Turning his attention back to the road, he began to make initial plans in his head; ones that needed to be executed right away.
“Jett, can you take a look at my phone and see if Sheila sent any information yet?” He unlocked his screen with one thumb, then tossed the device to his temporary Diver Downeast partner.
She swiped it open.
“Yup. It’s here,” she said. “Sargeant Daniella Forge is the officer in charge.”
“Okay. Give that woman a call and tell her we’re going to need a vet on the scene, ASAP. I want that moose ready to be tranquilized once we get there. Before you go in.”
“Good call,” Jett concurred, dialing while he maneuvered the roads back into the airport.
Huh.Had she looked…relieved at his mention of the vet? Did she really think he’d let her go into a hole with a volatile moose without sedating the animal first? No freaking way. He was going to make this job as safe for her as possible.
