“Price and Jenna are next to the runway about twenty yards outside the hanger’s entrance. Miss Shaw appears to be fine. Pissed, but fine.”
Ellena smiled. If Jenna was, in fact, pissed off enough they could tell just by using their binoculars, she really must be okay.
She and the others listened as Ghost continued describing what he could see. “Walker and Hall are standing a few feet behind Price. They’re both armed, and Hall keeps glaring at Walker. My guess is it has something to do with the fresh shiner Hall’s sporting.”
Gabe cursed below his breath. “Leave it to Walker to go to blows with the guy who’s supposed to be on his side.”
A few chuckles broke through, and it took Ellena a bit to adjust to hearing so many other voices in her ear at one time.
“There’s a plane and two other men standing on either side of the hangar’s opening. Both heavily armed.”
“Price brought them along because he knew Ellena wouldn’t be coming alone,” Gabe pointed out. “Fucking Walker must have given him a heads up about us.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Ghost commented through the coms. “Guy like Henry Radcliff isn’t going to take any chances. Not with the White House at stake. That means his man, Price, needed to be prepared.”
“Any sign of Governor Radcliff?” Gabe asked the other team leader.
Once again, Ghost’s deep voice tickled Ellena’s ear. “Negative.”
“Radcliff is back in Washington meeting with some heavy lifters on his campaign contribution list,” Ryker answered Gabe’s question.
“Makes sense,” Zade commented. “Guy like that would want to be as far away from this mess as possible.”
Matt decided to add in his two cents, too. “Can’t say I blame him. This plan goes sideways, it’s bound to be a total shitstorm.”
A plan that, as far as Price was concerned, included her handing herself over in place of Jenna so she could be questioned by Radcliff before they killed her. But what Price—and Gabe and his team—didn’t know was that she was going to try to do a little more than that.
Ellena’s nerves sparked and sputtered as she thought back to the conversation she’d had with Agent Ryker a few hours before.
The Homeland official had pulled her aside earlier when Gabe’s team and Ghost’s team were hashing out all the details after Adrian had left the barn. When she’d questioned him about why he wasn’t filling the others in on this part of the plan, Ryker had told her Gabe would never agree to it.
She’d tried arguing against that assumption, but when Ryker told her this was the only way to make absolutely certain everyone involved paid for what happened to Mark Ellis, Ellena had agreed. And she’d stayed quiet.
For Mark and all the other innocent men and women Radcliff and his goons had hurt.
Please, God. Let this work.
Gabe was going to have her hide if she made it out of this thing alive.
Almost as if he could read her mind, Ellena felt his muscles tighten against hers once more. She squeezed his hand, this time trying to offer herownreassurance.
They pulled in, and Ellena saw the car Walker had driven away in parked directly behind the hangar. Both Nate and Zade parked their vehicles several feet back. Ellena assumed it was so they’d have a clear getaway when the time came.
Nate and Matt got out of the SUV, and while they talked outside, Gabe turned to her. A sliver of fear had made its way into his confident stare, and he brushed his knuckles softly against her cheek.
“You don’t have to do this,” he rumbled low. “We can still find another way. We can—”
Ellena stopped him with a kiss. When his mouth responded instantly, hungry and desperate against hers, she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.
This could quite possibly be the last moment they would have alone together. Although, technically they weren’t alone since everyone—including Ghost and his men—could hear them. But it didn’t matter.
The moment still belonged to them. It was their last chance to say goodbye before she risked everything to save her friend, and she was going to take full advantage for as long as she could.
Much too soon, a knock on the SUV’s window brought that moment to a halt.
Gabe pulled back, taking her face into his hands.
“I love you, Ellena. You know that, right?”
