“She dies.”
“Then we make sure she fails.”
“Perhaps it is best if you allow Dixon to make love to you. He is hung like a stallion.”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought the fates had decreed Derek was the one and only for me?”
Gangster’s Paradise suddenly blared from my purse. Was this someone’s idea of a joke? Cuz the Valley of the Shadow of Death was looming large in my future. I reached in and pulled out my cell phone. “Hello?”
Derek’s voice was a gravelly growl. “Did he touch you?”
My pride shredded, I snapped, “Dixon’s quite the lover and you know what? He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about my inexperience.”
“Don’t play games with me, Angel.” The cold menace in his voice sent a chill down my back.
“Is this some kind of territorial shit? Cuz I don’t belong to you.”
“You’re mine until I say otherwise.”
Say what?! “I think your tiny little brain got fried when they tased you.”
Sloan roared, “Did he touch you?”
Omigod! He was dead serious. Where in the hell had this possessiveness come from? He’d made it pretty damned clear, he didn’t want me. Maybe he was afraid Dixon would beat him to the gold. Would he actually kill his cousin for the treasure? Did I want to be responsible for him hurting or killing his cousin? No, I didn’t. “He kissed me. No big deal, okay?”
“That’s it?” Was there a trace of relief in his voice?
“Yeah and why do you care? I have virgin cooties, remember?”
“Put him on the phone,” Derek snarled.
“Sorry, I can’t. He’s taking a nap.” I disconnected.
Gangster Paradise sounded again . I let it ring.
“Derek is quite an accomplished pilot,” Granny announced.
“Why am I not surprised?” I answered the phone, “You a fly boy, sugar?”
The cockpit door shook violently. “You’re a dead woman. Do ya hear me?”
Derek demanded, “Who is that?”
“The pilot. He’s a bit angry at being locked out of the cockpit.”
“My God, you commandeered the aircraft!?”
“Surprised?”
“You don’t know how to fly a Learjet.”
“True, but how hard can it be?”
His voice was a low growl. “Angel.”
“I have a pilot’s license.”
“For a single engine Cessna.”
My temper flared and I snapped, “I’ve had over twenty hours of simulator training on the Learjet and I only crashed once.”
“Not funny.”
Granny Annabel warned, “He’s trying to pry the door open.”
“Sic ’em, Granny.”
She vanished and ten seconds later the pilot started shrieking, “Stay away from me. Oh God! Oh God! Stay away. What are you?”
“I am death,” Granny answered in a monstrous voice.
There was a loud thump and the screaming stopped.
Derek inquired grimly, “Did she kill him?”
“If he had a bad heart, maybe, but mostly likely he just fainted. Granny can morph into some pretty damned scary creatures. Believe me I know.
Every time I had a date with someone she consider unsuitable, she’d pop in and scare the living bejeesus out of them.”
“Good to know. Let’s get this bird on the ground. I need you to input these coordinates into the navigation system.”
“Hold on.” I looked over the console. Where the heck was the navigation system?
“It’s on your left,” Derek, the mind reader, said.
“Oh! Right. It’s been awhile.”
A very anxious Granny appeared in the co-pilot’s seat. “Dixon’s awake.”
“What! He can’t be.”
The cockpit door crashed open to reveal a woozy Dixon. He dropped the handcuffs in my lap.
“The next time you cuff someone, sweetheart, you need to make sure they don’t have the key.”
I gulped at the rage simmering in his gray eyes.
“I’m not apologizing. I have the right to defend myself.”
“Do you now? We’ll discuss your punishment later.” He sat down in the co-pilot’s chair, right on top of Granny and held out his hand. “Give me the phone.”
Granny Annabel materialized on his lap. “You will not harm my granddaughter.”
Dixon stared at her for a long moment. “Lady, I’ll do whatever I want. Now get the fuck off my lap.”
Granny let out an indignant huff and vanished.
Color me surprised. She hadn’t even tried to freeze his nuts off. Oh wait. He needed them to service me.
“The phone,” Dixon commanded.
I handed it to him.
“Her price just went up to a million dollars,”
Dixon said calmly before disconnecting. “I want my gun and knife back.”
When I hesitated, he roared, “Now!”
“I have them in my purse.”
“Give me your fucking purse.”
“Yes, sir.” I quickly gave it to him, watching warily as he reclaimed his property and the Glock.
Granny hovered anxiously in the doorway.
His voice a purr of menace, Dixon added, “You’re payin’ for ripping up my seat, too.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dixon disengaged the auto pilot and put the aircraft into a sharp dive.
As I watched the altimeter drop rapidly from twenty thousand feet to two thousand, I noticed Dixon’s eyelids were drooping. “Dixon? You awake?”
His head dropped to his chest. “Dixon!?”
The jet rolled over and plunged towards the jagged mountains below.
“Holy Mary Mother of God!” I grabbed the yoke and pulled back. “C’mon. C’mon.” The jet leveled out, barely missing the mountain top. “Granny where’s my cell phone?”
“In his lap.” The cell phone levitated up and over to me.
Using one hand, I flipped it open and pushed last call.
Derek demanded, “What happened?”
“Dixon went back to sleep.”
“What did you drug him with?”
“Hydroxyzene HCL.”
“You continually surprise me, Angel.”
Thud! Feathers exploded across the windshield.
“Fuck! A duck!”
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Splat!
Feathers and blood flew in every direction and the cockpit window cracked badly.
“Omigod! It’ a flock of geese!”
The control panel suddenly lit up with warning lights.
“Shit! I have a fire in engine two.”
“Shut off the Gen/Bat Master switch,” Derek calmly responded.
“Check. It’s off.”
“Shut off the fuel valve.”
“Off.”
“Shut off the fuel pump.”
I looked frantically at the console. “Shit!
Where’s the fuel pump control?”
“On your right.”
“Kay, done.”
“Cabin heat off.”
“Okay, it’s off,” I responded, flipping a switch.
“What’s your air speed?”
“ knots and dropping.”
“Get the nose down and increase your speed.”
“Copy, nose down.”
“Altitude?”
I took one look at how close the desert floor was and started hyperventilating. “Omigod!
Omigod!”
Derek barked, “Give me your fucking altitude.”
Okay, I was a little freaked out but that was no reason for him to be so nasty. “Four hundred feet.”
“Come about ten degrees north and you should see a highway,” Derek instructed.
I pushed on the left rudder and brought the jet around ten degrees. “Got it but there are too many cars to land.”
“I’m taking care of that.”
Several police cars, lights flashing raced down the highway. I was seriously impressed.
“Extend the flaps eight degrees.”
“Copy.” I pushed the lever to eight degrees.
“Air speed?”
“ knots.”
“You need to drop your airspeed to knots for landing.”
“Okay.”
“Wheels down.”
“Crap, where’s the freakin’ button?”
“On the center console,” Derek responded testily.
“Got it. Wheels down and locked.” The aircraft shuddered, groaned and flames licked at the windshield.
“Flaps at degrees.”
“Done.” I lined up with the roadway. A hysterical laugh escaped from me. I could see the freaked out faces of the drivers as they swerved wildly off the highway.
“Keep it together, Angel,” Derek snapped.
“Easy for you to say, you’re not thirty seconds away from being flamed broiled,” I snapped back.
Dixon shook his head and sat up. “Fuck a duck!”
“No, geese.”
The jet skimmed over the top of a semi-truck.
Derek demanded, “Are you in the glide slope?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Deploy spoilers.”
“Deployed.” The jet began to shake violently.
The jet’s tires hit the pavement with a teeth rattling jerk. “I’m down.”
The big, bad biker let out horrified gasp as we careened down the highway. “Good God woman, you trying to kill us?”
“You try seeing out that friggin’ blood covered, smashed all to hell windshield.”
“Shut up Dixon,” Derek commanded. “Thrust levers in reverse, Angel. Your speed should be knots.”
Dixon knocked my hand out of the way, slammed the reverse levers back and hit the brakes.