Critical Density Read online

  Feds, corporate hired guns or well-dressed crooks, his brain told him. None of them boded well for her. Call him crazy, but he didn’t think the woman next to him was a criminal. She was, however, in trouble, and that reached out to his protective nature. He couldn’t wait to find out if his antennae were working properly.

  He tried telling himself it wasn’t the kiss that had shot heat straight to his balls that was prompting him to do this. Jesus, she kissed like a dream, even under stress. And tastes like magic. But he tried not to think with his dick. Okay, so maybe he had a protective gene, but that was what had made him a good SEAL. Right? His partners might tell him he was crazy, but he knew that in the same circumstances they’d probably have done the same thing. This was the kind of stuff Galaxy had been created for. If his judgment turned out to be wrong, well, he’d just be out a few hours of his time and a few gallons of airplane fuel.

  He tried to figure out what she’d been doing in that bar, where she’d been that men in suits were looking for her. She wore jeans that looked expensive, but she’d paired them with a dark T-shirt and a hoodie. Is she staying at the hotel? Did she have a fight with whoever she was with? The guys in suits hadn’t looked as if they were trying to patch up a lovers’ quarrel. He didn’t think she’d killed anybody, although he could be wrong. Beyond that it was anyone’s guess, but whatever it was, it looked like he was going to find out.

  They had driven for about five minutes before she spoke.

  “Did I hear you say something about a plane?”

  Was that tension he heard in her voice? Did she not like planes?

  “Yeah, it’s where we like to have all our meetings. You afraid of flying?”

  “No. No, not at all. Just…surprised.” She paused. “But intrigued.”

  “Gives us total privacy,” he explained. “No chance for eavesdropping.”

  “Oh. Well, yes. That makes sense.”

  The silence stretched out again. He figured he’d just keep his mouth shut and not answer questions until they were on the Gulfstream 550.

  “Do you live in Houston?” she asked

  “As a matter of fact, no. But I just finished a…project here and the pilot and I decided to stay over until morning.”

  “So I’m screwing up your plans.” Her words were more a question than a statement.

  He knew she was still wondering what the hell he was all about, and if she was safe with a guy she’d just met in a bar. Who was taking her on a flight to nowhere, for god’s sake. She had to be in pretty big trouble to have taken this step.

  “Nope. Nothing interesting going on in that bar, as I’m sure you saw.”

  She gave a short little laugh. “You didn’t look like you were trying too hard. Or do you just have to sit there, and the women just crawl all over you?”

  He laughed. “That’s some image you have of me. No, I’m very particular about my women, as a matter of fact. There wasn’t anyone in there who interested me…” He paused. “…until you popped in.”

  “Oh. So crazy strange ladies are your specialty?”

  He was glad to see she still had a sense of humor.

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  They drove in silence for a while, leaving the busy downtown behind them and heading out of town. Viper decided that whatever she was thinking, she needed time to let it rattle around in her mind. They’d have plenty of time to talk once they were airborne.

  She broke the silence first.

  “I didn’t even ask you your name.”

  “No, you didn’t.” He grinned to himself. “I didn’t ask yours, either.” He’d learned a long time ago that he got more out of people waiting for them to speak than he did bombarding them with questions.

  There came another long silence. She broke it first.

  “Okay, tell me yours.”

  “Matt Roman. But everyone calls me Viper.”

  She turned in her seat to face him. “Because you’re a snake?”

  He laughed again. “No, because I can strike without warning and my aim is deadly. It was my call sign with the SEALs. My partners have their own.”

  “You were a SEAL?” She sat up straighter and there was a slight change in her tone of voice, as if being a SEAL took the curse off a lot of things.

  “Sure was. All of us were.”

  He could almost see her frown.

  “All of you? How many are there?”

  “Five. Including our pilot.”

  More silence. Was she starting to feel overwhelmed?

  “It’s just us on the plane, though,” he added. “And Saint, our pilot. Can’t fly without him.”

  “Right, right, right.”

  She was almost vibrating with the tension that rolled off her in waves. Whatever she was into, it had to be pretty bad juju, and something obviously foreign to her. He knew he couldn’t tell a lot about a woman in a short amount of time, even if she did kiss like a scorching dream. What he could tell, however, was that something had scared the shit out of her, and if he could help her, he would.

  “Mine’s Hannah.” The words broke the silence.

  “Hannah?”

  “My name.” She blew out a breath. “Hannah. I’m Hannah.”

  “Nice name.” And it was. Traditional. He realized suddenly he really liked traditional things. Well, well. A surprising revelation, because he’d always thought of himself as a rebel. “Is there a last name that goes with it?”

  She gave one brief nod. “Modell. Hannah Modell.”

  Okay. Now he had what he needed to check her out. They’d reached the airport where Saint was waiting for him in front of the terminal building. He pulled into one of the parking spots for leased vehicles and turned off the engine. Then he looked over at the woman next to him. She was so uptight that she nearly twanged. He walked around and opened her door to help her out. When she saw Saint walking toward them, she took a step back.

  “That’s just Saint, our pilot.” He placed his hand gently on her arm, urging her forward. “He’s harmless. See? He hardly bites.”

  She didn’t smile, didn’t relax at all, just nodded. Whatever her situation was, it had to be pretty bad. Of course, it was that way for most Galaxy clients.

  “Hey, Viper.” Saint had reached them by now. “Got us some company?”

  He nodded. “Meet Hannah. I think she’s got a little problem she might tell us about.”

  Saint dipped his head. “Hey, Hannah.”

  Saint was as tall as Viper and they towered over her. The two men exchanged a look then took a step back, so they weren’t crowding her.

  “Plane’s all fueled,” Saint told him, “and I filed our usual flight plan. Ready any time you are.”

  Viper put his hand on the small of Hannah’s back, glad she was wearing a hoodie over her top. It gave him more of a barrier between his palm and her skin, because Jesus! Just that little touch made his balls twitch.

  “We’re right over this way,” he told her, following Saint onto the tarmac where their Gulfstream 550 waited for them.

  When she saw the plane up close, she stopped, so suddenly he nearly tripped over her.

  “Problem?” he asked. “Afraid of flying? I’m sorry, I should have asked.”

  She shook her head. “No. No, it’s not that. I guess, it’s just, the last time I got on a plane like this…” Her voice drifted off.

  “Bad flight?”

  “You could say.”

  He hoped his smile was reassuring. “You can relax on this one. Saint’s one of the best pilots in the world. Safest place to be.”

  “It wasn’t the flight itself. It was… Never mind. You’ll find out soon enough. So, what do you do? You and your friends? I mean, that you have a plane like this and take strangers for a ride.”

  “I’ll tell you about it when we get on board. Come on. I promise we’re not kidnapping you.”

  “Maybe it would help if you did,” she muttered.

  He chuckled. “I’ll let you know on t
hat after I hear your story.”

  He nudged her up the pulldown stairway, doing his level best not to focus on the curve of her very sweet ass in the jeans she was wearing. His hormones did not belong in this situation, but damn! It was taking every bit of his hard-earned discipline not to reach out and cup those sweet cheeks.

  Hannah stepped into the cabin and again she stopped.

  “Holy shit!”

  Viper laughed, a low chuckle. “It is kinda sharp, isn’t it?”

  “Sharp?” She turned to him. “It’s better than the hotel where I was staying.”

  He looked at the interior through her eyes. Configured in conversation groups, with comfortable seats and couches of plush leather and polished wood, it could also be rearranged for a conference if necessary. Concealed behind sliding doors was all the electronic equipment they would need to run an office. Which was a good thing, since that was what this plane was.

  “Have a seat,” he urged her, indicating a four-seat conversation group arrangement, “and I’ll get us some coffee and pastries. Come on. You’ll feel a lot better if you do.” He winked at her. “I make the best coffee in the group.”

  “Don’t let him fool you,” Saint called from the cockpit. “The coffeemaker does it, and a damn good thing, too.”

  Viper continued his light chatter in a soothing tone while he got Hannah situated. While Saint was doing his preflight, he headed for the galley. Pulling out his cell, he dashed off a text to Rocket, with a brief outline of the situation and Hannah’s name. John ‘Rocket’ Hardin was the best at digging stuff out about people and second to Viper in doing research. If he wasn’t out somewhere tonight, he could get started on compiling Hannah’s info. If this turned out to be a dud, they’d just erase the info and forget about tonight.

  In seconds he had an answering text. Sure, but I thought you were just hanging out tonight.

  Viper swallowed a grin.

  Yeah, and sometimes you run into something.

  Okay. I’ll get on it.

  No questions. That was one of the great things about the relationship between the four of them. Nobody ever had to explain themselves. Even adding Blaze Hamilton’s newly minted fiancée, Peyton West, into the mix didn’t change that.

  Once he’d finished with that, he made coffee for them in the single server and carried it back to their seats, placing them in the special holders he’d had installed so they could use real mugs and not paper cups. Then he sat down across from her and buckled himself in.

  She looked around the cabin, an expression that was a cross between surprised and inquisitive stamped on her face.

  “Just as a matter of curiosity, what is it you and your friends do? I’ve flown in private planes before and this one has to cost ten fortunes.”

  He grinned. “Not ten, just a small part of one.”

  “What is this, anyway? What do you people do?”

  He started to reach across and take her hands in his. To reassure her, he told himself. Except he really wanted to see if her skin was as smooth as it looked. Yeah, asshole.

  But just then, Saint’s voice came through the speakers. “Getting ready to taxi, folks. Buckle up.”

  He’d planned to wait until they were at cruising altitude to tell her, but she looked like she could use something now to distract her. “So,” Viper said slowly as they rolled forward. “The plane.”

  Hannah nodded. “Yes. The plane. And everything else, because there’s got to be a crazy story here.”

  Keep talking, he told himself. That way he’d be able to squelch the sudden insane urge he had to kiss the shit out of her again.

  “Well. Here’s how it started. There’s four of us, friends from forever ago. We all went into the Navy together and we all became SEALs, although not on the same team. But we did leave the service on the same day and met to celebrate at dinner.”

  “And you decided to go into business together? Whatever this business is.”

  “Well, sort of.” He took a swallow of coffee. “We decided, on the spur of the moment, after a few drinks, to buy lottery tickets. Figured if we won anything, it would be a sign of coming good luck.”

  “And did you?”

  “Yeah, we did. It shocked the hell out of us when we hit the Powerball for a billion and a half bucks.”

  Hannah’s jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide enough that he could see all the white surrounding her irises.

  “Did you say billion? As in a thousand million?”

  “And a half.”

  “That’s unbelievable.”

  She seemed unable to stop staring at him, and her hands were shaking, so he took her coffee and placed it in the holder, figuring he’d make sure she didn’t spill it all over herself and the plane.

  He chuckled. “Yeah, we thought so, too. It was hard not to go crazy celebrating. But after we settled down, we realized we had the funds to do what we really wanted.”

  “Which was?”

  “Start our own agency that took everything from hostage rescue to murder investigations to black ops. Stuff that no one else will take for a number of reasons. We could afford to operate well below the radar, plus our experience as SEALs gave us the skills to do it. We just cherry pick the cases we take.” He chuckled. “We decided to call ourselves Galaxy, because we figured the sky is the limit.”

  “Intriguing. And the plane?”

  “Yeah, the plane. We wanted to be someplace where no one could follow us or overhear and where electronic eavesdropping would be all but impossible. This is our office. We meet with clients on what we call a flight to nowhere. Saint cruises at thirty thousand feet until we tell him to land.”

  Hannah rubbed her face. “That’s…unbelievable.”

  He could tell she was still trying to take it all in. “Maybe, but it works for us.”

  “You said you don’t live in Houston, so where do you call home?” She shifted in her seat, and he did his best not to notice the way her jeans stretched across her thighs.

  “Tampa. Florida. We all live there.”

  She sat in silence for so long he wondered if he’d just scared the shit out of her with his explanation. Did she think they were all nuts? That he was making it all up?

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” he added, “but…”

  She held up a hand. “No, that’s not it. Or, well, maybe it is, but on the other hand it may be what I need. I’m not sure where else to go.”

  “Someplace where the guys in suits aren’t chasing you,” he guessed.

  Hannah snorted a little laugh. “That would definitely be preferable.” She took a last sip of her coffee, made a face and set the cup in the holder.

  “That’s got to be cold. How about a fresh cup?”

  “No, thanks. I’m jacked up enough as it is.” She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.

  He indulged himself for a few moments, just studying her. In the bar, she’d definitely been afraid, hiding from something or someone. The gray suits? Whoever they represent? He knew looks could be deceiving, but what the fuck could she have done to put her in this state? It was a good thing he had all that SEAL discipline, because what he really wanted to do was slide those clothes off her body, cup her breasts and squeeze the nipples, then lick that delicious place between her thighs.

  But thank the lord he was able to throw mental cold water on his dick because, just as Saint announced they were at cruising altitude, she opened her eyes, let out a slow breath and began to talk.

  “What do you know about drones?”

  “Drones?” Well, that was one of the last things he’d expected to hear coming out of her mouth. “I know they’re unmanned aerial vehicles that carry everything from cameras to explosives, depending on who’s operating them. And they come in different sizes depending on the assignment. They were used in some of the missions my team was assigned.”

  “Right. Well.” She drew in another breath and slowly let it out. “Have you ever heard of Lowden Tactical?”
/>   “Not really,” he admitted. “We never paid much attention to the manufacturers. All we cared about was the finished product and if it worked.”

  “Okay. Lowden is a little different than the four major companies that manufacture most of the drones. The company also handles some missions for good old Uncle Sam, missions that the government wants to keep as far off the books as possible. Assignments that they don’t want any news coverage of.”

  Viper forced himself to sit still and listen. Was he going to hear something that could get him arrested and thrown in a military prison? Was that what she was afraid of?

  “Hannah,” he began.

  She leaned forward and touched his knee. Good thing he had given his cock a stern lecture or her touch would have caused a disaster.

  “If you don’t want to hear the rest of this, please just say so. I’ll find someone else to tell my story to.”

  Viper studied her face. “And do you have that someone else you can reach out to?”

  After a moment, she shook her head. “No. And I’m not sure where I’d start to find one.”

  “Then how about telling me the rest of your story and let me decide how we can help you.”

  “Okay. All right.” She twisted her hands together. “First I should tell you what I do at Lowden. I’m a drone engineer. I got the job because I have a very high degree of spatial awareness. That’s understanding where your body is in relation to objects and responding to a change in position by those objects. And I trained specifically for this. I work with the engineers designing the controls for the drones, then manage them from the control room.”

  “Sounds like a highly technical job.”

  “It is.” She nodded. “This is more than the mini-drones people fly around their yards or parks. These drones are what’s called remotely piloted aircraft. I trained in the classroom and in the field in simulated combat situations. I love it. I eat that stuff up.”

  Excitement sparked in her eyes as she described what she did, despite the situation she was in right now. Viper had to admit he was impressed. He knew the training that those in the military who piloted these drones received. This wasn’t just some ordinary techie who’d fucked up. She had to be a valuable part of Lowden’s operation. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t good on any front.