Burning Up by Anne Marsh

Author:Anne Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2012-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Spotted Dick leveled the plane out, bringing her nose around for a final check. He was the best damned pilot Jack had ever flown with. Too profane and too ornery for commercial airline work, but he knew his way around a plane. Or a chopper. If the bird had wings, Spotted Dick could fly her. He had nerves of steel, as well, and no landing zone was too small or too short. Any landing he could walk away from was a good landing in Dick’s book.

The crew was comprised of eight men. Jack had pulled military tours in the deserts of the Middle East, fighting his way through oil rig fires and gun battles. He’d learned more than he wanted about hot and dry and exposed. His third tour had taken him to South America. That tour was all about the drug wars and covert ops. The entire jump team was ex-military, ex-Marine, men he’d fought beside during those three tours. He knew them. Knew precisely what they were capable of. Fighting fires was simply one more battlefield, and they’d checked gear as soon as Spotted Dick put the plane into the air, because you never fucked with your gear. Gear was survival, plain and simple.

Beside him, Evan re-strapped his blade, whistling silently.

When Jack signaled to huddle up, they pulled in. Seven hard faces turned toward his. His jumpers were big, strong men. Fighters. Stubborn as mules. And damned uncivilized. They’d have fit just fine into Strong when the town had been a lawless mining camp. Hell, he wasn’t sure all of them had gotten the memo that they were inhabiting the twenty-first century.

“I need to call in a favor,” he said, “when we’re done on this job. I need eyes and ears on Lily Cortez.”

Even over the roar and throb of the plane’s engines, he heard the low whistle from one of the jumpers at the back. “Setting the bar real high for the rest of us, Jack.”

The other jumpers chimed in with cheerful obscenities, and Jack knew that this was simply playful banter. Should have been just another line in the game they all played. Enjoy life, enjoy the summer. Take what was offered because tomorrow there was always another fire. Another chance to jump. Another chance they weren’t all coming back, because shit happened on the fire lines, and no one had ever pretended otherwise.

“She’s off-limits,” he said, because he couldn’t pretend, and the catcalls cut right off. He didn’t know what was written on his puss, but clearly the boys had gotten the message. Loud and clear. “Some son-of-a-bitch is stalking her. She cuts a damned flower out there, I want to know about it. As a favor to me. This is off the books. Give me your hours, and I’ll take care of you, but this is personal.”

They’d all known someone—a mother, a sister, hell, even a girlfriend of their own—who’d been given a raw deal by some bum. They’d fought covert wars, holding the invisible lines separating good guys from bad.

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