Brent Maddox was silent a moment, then he blew out a breath. “Well played, Byrne. All right. We’ll try this your way. You’d better hope this plan works. If you’re wrong, Elias may pay the price with his life, and so will you.”
“That won’t happen.” She wouldn’t let it.
“How do you want to do this? We have little time.”
No kidding. Every second they spent talking, Elias was that much farther away from her. She scowled. Where was Eddie taking him? “Zane, are you still with us?”
“I’m here. What do you need?”
“A jet. There’s an airfield about ten minutes from the cabin. Please tell me we have a jet available, Brent.”
“Lucky for you, we do, and it’s fueled and ready to take off.”
The ball of ice in her stomach melted. Perfect. “How long will it take to fly the jet down here?”
“About ten to fifteen minutes.”
“Tell the pilot to fly to Johnson Airfield. We’ll be waiting for him.”
“Anything else you need?”
“A pick-up crew.”
Silence, then, “Are you talking bodies or prisoners?”
“Prisoners. Nine of them. They ambushed our team.”
“In that case, I’ll be glad to take care of them. Once you’re on the ground, Byrne, I want you in constant contact with Zane and your team.”
“Yes, sir.” She’d already planned to do that.
“And watch your back.”
“Always, sir.”
“Zane, anything they need, make it happen.”
“Copy that, sir.”
“Maddox out.”
“Get your gear together,” Zane said. “I’ve already notified the pilot, and he’s taking off in ten minutes.”
“Copy that. Thanks, Z.”
“I’ve sent you and the rest of your team the link to track Elias’ GPS signal. I’ll keep tabs on him, but you’ll be at least 30 minutes behind him.”
“Understood.”
Terrible things could happen in 30 minutes. If Iona wasn’t careful, she would lose the man who held her heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ELIAS SURFACED FROMthe darkness into a world of pain. If he was back in the hospital again, someone had screwed up the medication schedule because every inch of his body hurt, especially his shoulder.
He frowned. Had the surgeons worked on that shoulder again? He searched his memory and came up with a bunch of nothing.
That puzzled him. His memory was usually pretty sharp unless someone drugged him. Elias stilled. Is that what happened? Had someone drugged him?
