Hatch, p.16
Hatch, page 16
She stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Arranging flights out of here,” he murmured. “We might have to do a circuitous route though.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not too into a circuitous route,” she stated. “I’d like to get back to England as fast as possible.”
“What about our forty-eight hours?” he asked. “I figured you would give us guff over leaving early.”
“No, not if you were attacked here too,” she explained. “And now that you’ve brought up my father’s storage locker, I’m pretty sure that’s where the boss would have gone.”
“If he’d had any way to trace the locker’s location, I’m sure he would have left immediately,” he murmured. “But we don’t know that he did, do we?”
“No, but I also don’t know if they might have beaten that information out of my father,” she added. “And I don’t know what further information taking his phone might have given them.”
“Probably opened up a whole network of other avenues for the kidnapper,” he murmured. “Think about it. That’s one of the reasons I grabbed these cell phones before I left your two dead guards. Because we all do so much on our phones now, right?”
“We sure do.”
He sat back, looked at her. “Did you get any sleep while I was gone?”
She snorted. “No, absolutely not. And I’m feeling way too wired to sleep now.”
“Of course,” he agreed. “When you experience a kidnapping like that, it’s not exactly an easy thing to let go of.”
“No,” she whispered, “it’s not. And I would just as soon have this all over with before I sleep again.”
“We won’t get that far,” he noted. “We’ll be here for a few hours for sure, so you need to get whatever sleep you can. Once we start traveling, it’ll be a whole different story.”
“Can we catch flights anywhere? That would be way faster.”
“I’ve got our team working on that,” he murmured. “Let’s give them a chance to figure out what they can come up with.”
She nodded and sat glued to her seat, clearly tense.
He walked over and sat down beside her. “You know it’s not good to be so keyed up. You’ve got to relax.”
“Sure.” She stared at him. “You just killed a man. Once the cops find him, don’t you think they’ll be after you?”
“They might be,” he admitted, “but first, they’ll have to figure out who might have killed whom.”
“Is it possible that it looked like they killed each other?”
“Quite possible.” Hatch nodded. “The way the bodies were left, it was obvious that somebody from the ground might have kicked up, and, if he’d done that in the process of the knife going at him, it would have taken him down and out.”
“Well, that would be an easy answer, but I doubt that it will end up being that simple,” she muttered.
He smiled at her. “Believe me. In this case, that is not our problem.”
“Unless you get picked up in the meantime.”
“Which I’m trying not to do.” He gave her half a smile. At that, his phone buzzed. He looked at it, nodded. “Don’t unpack.”
“Yeah? When are we leaving?”
“In an hour—or less,” he stated. “They’re sending a vehicle to pick us up.”
She stared at him. “We can get out of here in less than an hour?”
“Yep,” he stated. “Not necessarily as far away as we want to go, but we’ll get out of the city at least.”
“Where to?”
He smiled. “Not where you’re expecting, but we can arrange further transport after this. The priority right now is to get ourselves out of here.”
“Agreed. As long as we’re out of Egypt, I’ll be happy, I guess.”
“Any plans to come back?”
She snorted. “After all this? Hell, no.”
“Good. And, if the Egyptian government thinks you’re associated with any of this, chances are you won’t be allowed to come back anyway.”
She winced at that. “That would hurt, as I do have an awful lot of history here. But, for the moment, I’m okay to do whatever needs to be done to put this to rest.”
“It’s more than just putting it to rest. It’s still about keeping you safe and making sure the boss is caught and that you aren’t subjected to his form of interrogation again.”
“He didn’t really interrogate me,” she replied, for the sake of clarity.
“I know, but your father certainly was.”
She winced at that. “And now that you’ve taken out one of his henchmen …”
“Or maybe the boss sent his assistant to take Aman out anyway,” he muttered.
“Well, that would be a case of no honor among thieves.”
“Which is very common.” Hatch nodded. “There is never any honor among thieves. Especially when the spoils come to be divided or until somebody decides you are a liability,” he explained, “and it’s straight downhill from there.”
She shook her head at that. “How do these people live with themselves?”
Hatch smiled. “When you think about it, they’re doing what they think is normal, and they always think consequences won’t ever happen to them. Although I have seen cases—where one person was to be taken out because the boss didn’t like something they’d done—yet the targeted person took out the boss before it got to that point.” Hatch quickly sent off a text, which she presumed was to Corbin outside.
“Does he need to grab his things?”
Hatch shook his head. “I’ll grab everything that’s here as we head out.”
She nodded. “But it’s still an hour away, right?”
He looked at his watch. “Nope, forty minutes. Or less. Let’s just say, our plans are very fluid at the moment. Subject to change.”
She sighed, got up, and went to the bathroom. She washed her hands and face, trying not to fuss about having no soap to really get them clean. She stepped back out again. “I won’t sleep now. Any chance of us getting a nap wherever we go next?”
He smiled. “Maybe, but no guarantees.”
“You’re being very cryptic.”
“I’m not trying to be, but I’m also trusting that wherever we’re going is someplace that we need to be.”
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“Roughly, yes.” Hatch nodded. “I’m just not sure how long we’ll be there. It could be just for an hour or two. We’ll be doing a series of helicopter runs, I think.” She stared at him. He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Sure, don’t think about it. Right. That’s not so easy, if you’re me.”
“I know,” he murmured, “but, right now, the biggest thing is that we get out of here safely.”
The knot in her stomach tightened up. She felt as if certain nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
Finally he looked at her, then smiled. “It’s time. Come on. Let’s go.”
“Now?” she asked. “Is it time already?”
“Yes, believe it or not, it is.”
She hesitated, then bounced to her feet, snatched up her bags. “Ready.”
At that point, Corbin stepped inside to gather his bags, then looked over at Hatch. The two men shared a nod. With the rest of their gear in hand, they ushered her out ahead of them.
“Sure wish I knew we were going somewhere safe.”
“You’ll be a guest of the United States government.”
She snorted at that. “Yet you said it wouldn’t be for very long.”
“Nope. Not very long at all.” As they walked outside, a vehicle pulled up in front of them, and they were quickly ushered into the back seat, and it took off.
“Where are we going?” she asked, in a low voice, staring at the driver.
Hatch reached over, placed a finger against her lips, and whispered, “Don’t talk.” She stared at him mutely and sagged in her spot. She didn’t have long to wait to get an answer. They were taken to a clearing, right next to a huge military helicopter.
Not what she thought of when she had heard the word “helicopter.”
She shook her head, as they were ushered on board and very quickly lifted off. Once up, she couldn’t hear anything because the noise was almost painfully loud. She watched in amazement as Cairo, Egypt, disappeared beneath her, and, all of a sudden, they were heading overseas.
As the water gleamed below them, she felt a mixture of hope and fear. She didn’t know where they were headed, but she was relieved enough to focus on worrying about their destination. When they came down atop a huge destroyer, she gasped in shock. But they were quickly taken off the helicopter and ushered inside the warship and down a series of metal stairs and into a small room.
When she got into the room, Hatch pointed at the bunks, then turned and said something to the navy man outside. Then the door closed quietly on them. She looked at Hatch in shock. “Good God.”
“We’re waiting for orders,” he explained. “I doubt that we’ll be here very long.”
“No, most likely not,” she agreed, “and I can’t even believe we’re here.”
“It’s only one of many legs on this trip,” he added, “but we will get you to London soon.”
And, true to his word, while she sat here waiting, Hatch had several communications back and forth, but nothing that ever included her. At this point she didn’t even care about that; she just wanted their escape to be over. Several hours later they were taken by helicopter to another destroyer, where they waited for another few hours. She was able to nap there, and, before she knew it, Hatch was waking her up.
“Rise and shine. Time to go.”
Still waking up, she couldn’t place her situation right away. She stared at him, yet moved without a single question. This time they landed at an airport and, within twenty minutes, were loaded onto a small plane, with her seated on one side and him on the other, with an aisle between them. Each had two seats allotted, which made sleeping midflight a little comfier.
“It’s morning?” she asked.
Hatch nodded, smiling.
“Where are we going now?” she whispered.
“England.” Hatch smiled.
She sagged with relief. “Well, thank God for that.”
“We’re not out of danger yet,” he murmured.
“No, I can imagine. Until we get in and clear customs …” She immediately thought about her passport and scrambled to find it.
He held it up in his hand, holding all three of their passports. “Don’t worry. I’ve kept them all handy.”
“Well, good,” she replied. “It wasn’t even at the top of my thoughts.”
“Just rest for now,” he said.
She looked at him in surprise. “Can I?” And then realized that it was just them on the plane, all but for the crew. “How did you guys commandeer this?”
“Again … I don’t even know.” Hatch smiled. “All kinds of equipment are available for our use, and we submit our needs, and someone figures it all out.”
She didn’t say anything, just leaned back and closed her eyes, wishing that the knot in her stomach would ease. But until they landed and cleared the airport, she wouldn’t be calm enough for any of that. Neither could she sleep. She tossed and turned and wrestled against the oncoming darkness, and, just when she was starting to sleep, her eyes would pop open again. She cried out in a low tone.
He immediately looked over at her. “Can’t sleep?”
She shook her head. “Every time I try, I keep getting jerked awake.”
He immediately walked over and sat down beside her. He lifted the armrest, so it wasn’t between them, then tucked her up against his chest. “Now, get some rest.”
She looked at him. “I can’t keep doing this.”
“Why not? It’s hardly an issue, at least right now. Besides, I’m on the same plane, doing nothing else, and you need to sleep.”
“I won’t fall asleep just because you order me to,” she argued. But, when she woke several hours later, she realized she had done exactly that. She opened her eyes and stared for a moment. “Wow, you’re better than a nightcap.”
He burst out laughing. “Well, I’m glad to hear that.” He smiled. “Are you feeling better?”
She sat up and stretched her arms over her shoulders. Corbin sat across from them, sleeping gently. “Did you get any sleep?” she asked Hatch, immediately looking at him in worry.
“I took the first watch,” he stated.
She snorted. “It’s hardly a watch. We are up in the air, after all.”
He grinned. “It becomes a habit after a while. One sleeps. The other one stays awake,” he murmured. “It’s all good.”
She muttered, “I don’t know about all good, but this still feels very much like a nightmare that just won’t end.”
“And yet, in just another couple hours, we’ll be in London.”
“Well, in that case, I wish we had food here.”
“There is food. What would you like?” He opened up a small fridge nearby, where he pulled out an assortment of sandwiches and other snacks.
“I’ll take anything,” she admitted. “I can’t believe how hungry I am all the time. And sleepy. And I know. … I know.” She held up a hand. “You’ll say it’s still a reaction to the trauma and shit.”
“It’s adrenaline. It’s stress. It’s grief. It’s all kinds of things,” he noted. “Besides, food is important for nourishment. And it also keeps up your energy.”
“It seems like my energy is always flagging.”
“Well, hopefully it won’t be like that for much longer.”
“Have you had any updates?”
“A few.” Hatch nodded. “So far not any news on the two guards’ bodies.”
She nodded, snatched up the closest sandwich, and started eating.
There hadn’t been any word on the bodies being found, which both worried and intrigued Hatch. Was somebody else involved in this who would dispose of the bodies or was that just an area of town where nobody expected anybody to show up for a while? If that were the case, it would take however long until somebody decided to check up on these men. Maybe not until the odor was an issue worth checking on. And, even then, Hatch wasn’t sure many people would care about Aman, especially with his bad reputation.
Hatch had asked Killian several times if there’d been any updates, but always it was a no—not just a no but a big no. Also the Egyptian government hadn’t had any clue about their quick exit from the country. Killian said that they would deal with it afterward. The first thing had been to get them out safely.
Even now, Killian was asking for answers as to what was in the locker. Hatch had said that they would update the team as soon as they got to England, stating that Millie didn’t know what was in it. Killian had expressed a bit of doubt about that, but Hatch understood that. It was expected in a sense. The relationship between her and her father was strained at best. And now she was already dealing with guilt and an overwhelming sense of loss.
And learning the true cause of her mother’s death had just added to Millie’s pain. When he explained that to Killian, there had been no arguments from Killian’s side. They all had to deal with people in traumatic situations, and sometimes there were just no good answers. Not at first. Time would tell.
Mostly there were no answers initially, let alone good ones.
Hatch picked up a sandwich and ate it slowly. He thought Millie’s sleeping pattern was definitely odd. He could understand it to some degree, but, at the same time, she might have trouble breaking it. He was okay if she didn’t break it either. He’d be more than happy to have her sleep in his arms for the rest of eternity, but he wasn’t about to share that just yet, of course. It sounded a little bit too much like the whole matchmaking thing going on with the rest of the Mavericks.
Hatch had been joking with Corbin about it at the very beginning of this op, and, sure enough, it seemed like it was potentially happening right under Hatch’s nose. And he couldn’t be happier. As far as whether or not she was a good fit for him, all he could think about was the way she’d handled herself, which he respected, and the attraction had been instant between them. Hatch knew Corbin had already seen it, but thankfully he hadn’t commented on it, at least not to Hatch. It was one of those things that one really didn’t want to have brought up until the relationship was a little further down the line.
“Penny for your thoughts,” she said.
He looked over at her, smiled. “Not worth it.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked. “Everything that you’ve got to say is always so intelligent and on target. It’s obviously worth it.” He looked at her in surprise. She shrugged. “I have to admit that I have felt fairly intimidated around you two.”
“Well, that was not our intention,” he stated immediately.
“No, I’m sure it wasn’t,” she murmured, “but it’s a throwback. My father was very much a person who you didn’t want to disagree with or voice an opinion that differed from his own.”
“Sounds like the old guard,” he noted, “where women were meant to be seen and not to be heard.”
“Yeah, that was him,” she admitted. “Honestly I don’t know how my mother stood him.”
“Maybe that’s why they spent as much time apart as they did,” he commented.
“It’s quite possible,” she agreed. “It took me a lot of time to develop a thick skin with him. Even after that I still didn’t do so well with him.”
“And yet I think you did just fine,” he murmured.
She smiled. He reached out, offering her a second sandwich. She hesitated and then shrugged. “Sure, though it seems that all I do around you is eat and sleep.”
“I was just thinking about your sleeping habit,” he noted.
“Yeah, I’m so sorry about that,” she murmured. “It feels very strange to have this problem.”
“It’s not a problem and nothing to be ashamed of,” he stated firmly. “I was just thinking about the fact that it was comfortable. That, in a way, it may be too comfortable.”
“Meaning?” she asked him.
“Meaning, I like the feel of you in my arms,” he stated.
