Rae sat in the hot back seat of the SUV with Wulf. Cold air from the air conditioner poured on her face and bare arms. Like that terrible night when Wulf had plucked her out of the cold desert, his arms wound tight around her.
Traffic jammed the freeways all around them. They got separated from the two security SUVs twice, leaving them without support. Dieter and Hans, in the front seat, jabbered into their radios until the vehicles returned to formation. Hans unholstered his sidearm, though he kept it low and out of sight of other drivers.
Wulf clutched Rae’s shoulders, holding her tight. He pressed her face to his shoulder. His suit coat was softer against Rae’s cheek than her best sweater.
One of the black SUVs peeled off the freeway at the wrong exit, causing a commotion in the front seat and squawking on the radios.
Wulf’s arms tightened. His hand moved up to the back of her head.
She glanced up. The icy calm in his eyes suggested determination as he stared out the front windshield. That scent—spiced tea and citrus and that dark hint of something smoky—drifted out of his suit jacket.
With his arms wrapped around her like that, with his scarred and tattooed shoulder behind Rae’s head, Wulf wasn’t just holding Rae, he was shielding her.
The other SUV sped up the next entrance ramp, and Dieter held traffic up to let the other team into the lane ahead of them.
Wulf’s arms relaxed a little.
“Is this normal?”
“This was a short trip,” Wulf said, “and due to the airport’s construction, there are almost no alternate routes.”
“Explains the traffic jam.”
“It is more difficult to maintain security when we are funneled into a predictable route. While we have been safe here, that can change on any bright, sunny day.”
The dropping sun blasted a shock wave of white light off the back window of the car in the next lane, blinding them all for a moment. Rae grabbed Wulf around his waist.
The SUV screeched and tipped forward, stopping hard.
Traffic around them stood motionless. The engines growled in the sun, revved high to run the air conditioners.
They inched along their predictable route.
Maybe this traffic jam was a sign, giving her time to change her mind and go home where she belonged.
Rae nuzzled her face into Wulf’s coat, unwilling to leave him.
All three SUVs finally lumbered down an off-ramp and drove to the same private terminal as the weekend before, the one that looked like a cheap doctor’s office with three-story picture windows facing the runway. The jet airplane that came for them looked mostly the same from the outside, as far as Rae could tell. Maybe this one was a little bigger. The letters painted on the tail read G650.
The same kind of plane, probably. Familiar. Normal.
Jetting off to Europe in a private plane should not feel normal.
As they sat in the terminal waiting for their plane to be prepared, Wulf asked her, “Which mobile phone carrier do you use?”
Rae told him.
“Ah, good. Hand your mobile to Dieter for a few moments so he can unlock it. Dieter, we have extra SIM cards, ja?”
Dieter nodded and caught the phone that Rae tossed to him. After he called someone on it for a moment, he wrote down and dialed in a long string of numbers.
Rae sidled over to watch him.
Dieter laid the phone on the peeling coffee table, popped open the back with tiny tools from a kit, and jimmied something miniscule out of the inside, violating its integrity. The silicon wafer was smaller than Rae’s pinkie fingernail. Intricate silver tracery covered the surface. Dieter flipped open a three-ring binder full of clear pocket pages to a set of pockets marked Frankreich and inserted a new silicon chip.
He reassembled the phone. “There. When we are in France, it will work. It will have a different phone number, so people here must call that phone number to call you.”
“Oh. Thanks.” Even her phone was turning into an alien, unlocked and equipped with new innards. “That is cool, what you did.”
Dieter inclined his head as he shrugged, a modest gesture. “I will do the rest of the phones when we are in the plane, if you want to see.”
“Sure.”
Wulf’s phone chimed and, en masse, they all crossed the sweltering tarmac and climbed the staircase outside to the door of the airplane.
The front part of this plane had, again, LayZee-Guy-sized white leather seats grouped around conference tables. The sideboard sported two flower arrangements that perfumed the air with roses and orchids. The windows, instead of being round yacht portholes, were elongated ovals, stretched even wider than on the other plane.
The dozen security guys fanned out and snagged chairs. Most of the men flipped out the footrests, reclined, and closed their eyes. Some of them secured sleeping masks over their eyes. Dieter and Hans asked one of the three stewardesses for a chess set.
“We’re in the back.” Wulf pointed toward a door in the wall across the plane.
Rae followed. Wulf opened the door, pulled her in after him, and tossed his overnight bag on the blue-quilted bed.
Rae had seen pictures of rock stars’ tour busses that looked like rolling luxury apartments. This was a five-star hotel bedroom that could fly. The four-poster white-oak bed stood flush with the back wall. Huge orchid flower arrangements decorated the sideboards.
She said, “Wulf, you didn’t need to do this.”
“Do what?” He opened his hand luggage and tossed blue pajamas on the bed beside him.
“This insane airplane.” Her wide arms included all the extravagance.
He shrugged. “I always get a bed when I travel transcontinental. I flew sitting up, harnessed to a seat, while in the military and discovered that I detest it. I’m not terribly lavish with my tastes.”
“You’re not?” Rae hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud. Her face heated. “I didn’t mean—”
“Not at all. Some of my friends aspire to being Louis the Fourteenth with an auto collection, plus planes, plus yachts, plus apartments. It’s astonishing they can keep track of it all. The lavatory is in there.” He pointed to yet another door beside the headboard.
Rae went over and poked her head into another room yet farther toward the tail section of the plane.
Though everything was squeezed in for efficiency, a glassed-in shower stall took up one corner of the bathroom. The sink, commode, and an extra toilet-thing reflected in the gold-framed mirror on the wall. She pulled her head back and threw her backpack on the bed. “Oh, my God, Wulf. Seriously.”
Wulf was busy arranging his things. “In the morning, as we’re passing over England, I usually take breakfast in the main cabin so that my morning security detail can freshen up. The rest of them will proceed to the hotel to settle in, so they can refresh there.”
So she should be prepared to vacate in the morning. “Um, what’s the schedule?”
“Supper will be served soon after we’re in the air, then we can retire in here to watch a movie, if you like, then sleep. We’ll arrive in France about eight in the morning, local time.”
Rae looked around the small room. “Is there a TV?”
Wulf reached over and tapped a button on the nightstand.
A huge flat-screen television ascended from the bed’s footboard.
Rae jumped back. Luckily, Wulf was still looking for something in his small bag and didn’t notice her hick reaction to such electronic folly. She would have to be careful not to embarrass him in front of his elite friends with her red-neckedness.
Wulf tossed a ditty bag into the bathroom and held out his hand. “Would you prefer to eat privately, or join the others?”
“Whatever you think.”
His head cocked to the side. “Rae, you’re allowed to have opinions.”
Her anxiety came out in a small wail. “I don’t know what opinions to have.”
He gathered her into his arms. “You don’t need to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
Flying made her uncomfortable, but she wasn’t going to admit that to Wulf. She cuddled harder into his arms, against his solid chest, and tried to bluster her way through. “Well, if I would’ve known about this plane, we would’ve waited to join the Mile-High Club instead of doing it last week in that teeny lavatory.”
He laughed. “Come on,” he said. “I usually sit down for take-offs and landings, then we’ll eat. There are two seats out front for us.”
She followed him because she felt like she was lost in fairyland and didn’t want to lose her fairy prince guide.