Angelo thought Minka would wake up when the Black Hawk touched down, but she didn't stir. Around him, the other guys got to their feet and grabbed their gear. Derek picked up Angelo's rucksack without him having to ask, then followed the rest of the team out. Angelo waited until they'd all left before getting to his feet and carrying Minka off the helicopter.
He was a little surprised to see an armed Air Force Security Police detail waiting to meet them at the edge of the hot pad. They escorted his team to the fully prepped C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft a short distance away, then stood guard. The pilot, a major named Falk, and a full-bird colonel named Janzen that Angelo was pretty sure was the airbase commander were both near the cargo ramp of the plane.
Falk took one look at Minka, then frowned in confusion. "That's my classified cargo?"
Janzen lifted a bushy brow in Angelo's direction. "Sergeant?"
Angelo nodded. "Yes, sir. This is her."
Janzen was clearly curious but didn't ask. "Let's get her on board then."
After holding Minka for six hours straight, he should have been relieved to hand over the hybrid to someone else, but there was a crazy part of him that didn't want to let her go.
Aware of Janzen, Falk, and everyone else watching him, Angelo looked down at the beautiful woman in his arms. "Minka. We're here."
She blinked sleepily, gazing up at him with big, brown eyes that were full of trust. "Here?" she repeated in Tajik.
Angelo nodded and slowly set her on her feet. Holding on to one of her hands, he started to lead her into the plane. But Minka wrapped the fingers of her other hand in his overshirt and yanked him back, her eyes wide with terror.
"It's okay," he said softly. "These men are going to take you somewhere safe."
She shook her head wildly, pressing herself up against his side and wrapping her arm around his like a clamp.
"Now I know why we needed a medic on the flight," the pilot muttered, motioning to someone inside the plane. A big, blond guy appeared, a black bag in his hand. "Can you give her something to calm her down for the flight?" he asked the man.
"Yeah, sure."
The medic set down his bag, then dropped to one knee. At the sight of the syringe he pulled out, Minka went from a confused, frightened woman to a hissing, snarling hybrid in the blink of her glowing red eyes. Claws and fangs came out, and she lunged at the medic. If Angelo hadn't wrapped his arms around her waist and held her back, the guy would have been in big trouble.
Even with Angelo holding her, the results of her display were pretty awesome. The medic, the pilot, the colonel, and the whole Security Police detail took about five steps back really fast. The SPs recovered first, yanking out their Berettas and aiming them straight at Minka-and Angelo. That just provoked his team to do the same, and within seconds, everyone had their guns pointed at someone.
Shit.
Angelo ignored them and focused on Minka. "It's okay. No one is going to hurt you. I promise. You don't have to be afraid."
He hoped that would calm her down, but she didn't shift back. If anything, her eyes glowed more brightly. Okay, talking her down wasn't going to work. Wrapping one arm around her, he slipped the other under her legs and lifted her into his arms, pulling her close. Minka immediately wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, her claws and fangs disappearing.
Angelo looked at the medic. "The syringe probably isn't a good idea."
Major Falk scowled from the opposite side of the cargo ramp. "Well, we're going to have to do something. It's a long ride back to the States, and I can't have her running around the cargo hold like a lunatic. And no, my crew chief isn't going to be responsible for her. Hell, my mission didn't even say anything about a person. They told me I'd be carrying a top secret asset. What am I going to do with a psychotic two-legged saber-toothed tiger? What the hell is she anyway?"
Colonel Janzen ignored the pilot, eyeing Angelo and Minka appraisingly. "She seems to be content in your arms, Sergeant."
"Yes, sir," Angelo agreed, only then realizing he'd been slowly rocking Minka gently in his arms. "She's been like this since I picked her up six hours ago."
"Then we don't have a problem." Janzen jerked his chin at the plane. "Get on the bird."
Angelo did a double take. "Sir?"
Lieutenant Watson lowered his pistol and moved forward to stand beside Angelo. "Sir, Sergeant Rios can't just leave the country without orders. He'd be court-martialed."
The colonel narrowed his eyes at Watson. "Lieutenant, I wasn't told much about this operation, but the orders I was given were very clear: get whatever the fuck your SF team is carrying back to the States-ASAP. So it's simple. This"-he gestured at Minka-"woman is going to the States, one way or the other. Your platoon sergeant carried her all the way here, and if he has to carry her the rest of the way, he will." He pinned Angelo with a hard look. "Now, get the fuck on the plane, Sergeant."
When a colonel told you to jump, you usually said, "How high?" But leaving the area of operation? Angelo glanced at the lieutenant.
Watson shrugged. "You heard the colonel, Sergeant. Get on the bird. I'll clear it with HQ when I get back … somehow."
"Hooah, sir." Giving the other guys on the team a nod, Angelo curled his arm more tightly around Minka and climbed up the ramp.
Derek tossed Angelo's rucksack into the back of the plane, and the engines were winding up before Angelo even got situated on the nylon bench seat with Minka. Even though the engine noise grew to uncomfortable levels, she was already falling asleep, as if she couldn't care less about anything now that she was in his arms again.
* * *
Landon and Ivy arrived at the DC offices of Chadwick-Thorn exactly at nine. The red-haired receptionist smiled and told them to have a seat in the immense lobby.
"Mr. Thorn will be with you in a few minutes."
That had been fifteen minutes ago.
Landon tossed the latest copy of Fortune 500 on the table and looked out the expansive row of windows lining one whole side of the lobby. From there, he could not only see all the way across I-295 and the Potomac River, but he could also easily make out the shops and restaurants of Old Town, Alexandria.
"I wonder how often they have to clean these windows," Landon mused.
Ivy gave him a look. "Seriously? With everything going on right now, you're worrying about how often they clean the windows?"
That wiped the smile right off Landon's face. Ivy was still freaking out about that female hybrid his old team had captured … and with good reason.
"Hey," he said softly. "It's going to be okay."
Landon knew it was a lame thing to say, but he couldn't think of anything better, and he hated to see his wife scared.
Her expression softened. "How, Landon? You know as well as I do that the hybrid Angelo and the other guys found was almost certainly created using my DNA. And if Derek was able to recognize the link between me and this hybrid just by looking at her for a few minutes, how long do you think it will take the doctors at the DCO?"
Her normally dark eyes swirled with green like she was about to shift … or lose control. Landon moved in his chair, pressing his arm up against hers. It was nothing overt enough for someone to notice, but it was contact all the same. They'd become very adept at using subtle signs of affection like this since they'd gotten married, and the effect of the simple touch was amazing.
Even though the green glimmer faded from Ivy's eyes, Landon still glanced out the corner of his eye at the receptionist across the room, just to be sure she hadn't overheard. But the woman was on the phone not paying any attention to them.
He turned his attention back to his wife, using one finger to caress her forearm. "Zarina will do everything she can to cover it up like she did with that girl we found in Canada, the one the doctors experimented on with your DNA. She was able to contaminate the evidence so no one could make a connection between that girl and you."
Ivy didn't say anything as she stared out the big windows at the wind-roughened surface of the Potomac.
The hell with whether the receptionist saw or didn't see. Landon gently turned Ivy's chin until she was looking at him. "And hey, if the DCO does figure it out and wants to fire us over the fact that we broke their damn rule that said I was supposed to kill you if you were about to get captured because we fell in love with each other, screw them. We'll be just fine on our own."