CROSSFIRE by Jenna Mills Read Free Book Online Page B

me.
    That's what worried her.
    Two years before, she'd realized a truth, made herself a promise. A promise she intended to keep. Never would she allow herself to dance naked in a thunderstorm ever, ever again.
    Impulse seduced, but in the end it also destroyed.
    * * *
    Early-morning sun glistened off the sleek Lear jet. Standing in the cool Canadian breeze, Elizabeth nursed a cup of coffee while Hawk conducted his preflight inspection of her father's prized possession. The Lear had been in the family for seven years, giving them the flexibility and security to travel without the hassle of commercial airlines.
    Elizabeth loved flying. She loved the freedom of soaring above the clouds. She loved the vastness. She loved the suspension from reality.
    You want to learn how?
    To fly? Are you kidding?
    I'd never kid about something so important to you.
    Hawk stood near one of the engines, touching and feeling like every good pilot did. It never ceased to fascinate her how a man who lived for the thrill of the moment could be so meticulous when it came to his job. He left no detail, no nuance to chance. The Army had taught him that, he'd told her once. Even a small miscalculation or oversight could result in hideous consequences.
    He was all business this morning, decked out in faded jeans and a khaki shirt, a well-worn leather bomber jacket. Mirrored aviator sunglasses hid his eyes. She accepted the change, welcomed it. They'd both be better off if they could get back to Richmond without trying to overanalyze their relationship.
    Relationship. The word scraped something deep inside, jarred her in ways she didn't understand, wasn't about to explore.
    Tension had always arced between her and Hawk, even in the beginning. Wesley "Hawk" Monroe had almost seemed to enjoy goading her. She'd tried to ignore him, much as her mother had insisted she ignore her twin brother, Ethan, when they'd been five and his single greatest pleasure in life was putting lizards and toads and other slimy creatures under her pillow, but Elizabeth had never figured out how. The more she tried to ignore, the more effective he became.
    "Everything's in good shape," he said, coming around the plane with a clipboard in hand. The cool morning breeze ruffled his slightly long hair. "Did you file the flight plan?"
    "All done," she said, finishing off her coffee. The breeze whipped up, but, tucked inside a newly purchased Ski Banff sweatshirt and a pair of stiff jeans, she didn't shiver.
    "Then let's get this baby off the ground." Hawk signaled to the ground crew, then headed for the stairs leading to the jet.
    Elizabeth didn't move.
    "Something wrong?" he asked, turning to face her.
    She squinted into the sun, lifting a hand to shield her eyes. "Where's your copilot?"
    Hawk's smile was slow, gleaming. "I'm looking at her."
    The breath jammed in her throat. "Me?"
    He shrugged. "Unless you're not up to it."
    Excitement surged. "Of course I'm up to it," she answered quickly, but shock pierced deep. She hadn't taken to the skies since Miranda's kidnapping. "I just thought after last night I didn't think you'd take any chances. I figured you'd have men crawling all over the place."
    In one lethally quick movement Hawk slipped off his sunglasses and destroyed the distance between them.
    "Chances?" he asked in a dangerously soft voice that made her chest tighten. "Let's get something very straight, right here, right now." All that simmer and amusement that had sparked in his eyes last night … gone, replaced by a hardness she'd rarely seen. "I take my job seriously. I don't play fa st and loose with your life, not on the ground or in the air." He gestured toward the roof of the terminal, where three snipers lay on their bellies, rifles in hand.
    "See those men?" He pointed to the ground crew, all sporting discreetly concealed MP50s. "And those? Of course I have men crawling everywhere, but once we're airborne, it won't matter if two or twenty people are onboard. As long as