Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (5 page)

Wolf didn’t say
anything, just grabbed Caroline’s hand, squeezed it and settled it on his leg.
Holy crap, what had they landed in the middle of? He absentmindedly rubbed his
thumb over the back of her hand while he thought about what the hell was going
on.

He felt better
knowing Mozart and Abe were alert and ready. Thank God they were on this flight
with him. They had very little chance of breaking up whatever was going on
here, but at least with all three of them they at least
had
a slim one. He
was keyed up and ready to go, to do
something
, but they didn’t know who
the players were yet.

Obviously two of
the flight attendants were in on whatever it was since Caroline had overheard
them talking about their plan, but who else? They had to sit and wait and see. He
hated that. Wolf thought about 9/11 and wondered if the people on the planes
that had been crashed into the World Trade Center had known something was
wrong. It was a helpless feeling. The passengers on the plane that had crashed that
day in Pennsylvania obviously did what they could to prevent the plane from
crashing into the White House, but unfortunately lost their lives in the
process.

Wolf didn’t want
to die, but he knew he could at any time. He job wasn’t the safest. Ironically,
he was supposed to be on vacation and he was in just as much danger as he was
when he was on a mission. It was crazy.

Wolf turned
toward Caroline.

“You were
amazing,” whispered Wolf. “You pulled that off even though you were scared and
you didn’t bring attention back to yourself or me.”

Caroline didn’t
respond with more than a quick smile. Wolf knew he wouldn’t have been able to
pull off what she did and not bring attention to himself. Hell, he wouldn’t
even
know
he was in the middle of a situation if it hadn’t been for her.
He hated she was going through this, and loathed even more the thought of her
not making it through whatever was going on.

Wolf thought
more about the situation and was aware the plane had gone pretty quiet. Oh, it
hadn’t been loud to begin with, but it was obvious what little conversation
there had been, had dwindled off. He moved his head a fraction of an inch and
saw the three people in the seats across from him had their eyes closed and
were sleeping…or worse. He had no idea if they were unconscious, sleeping or even
dead.

Just as he was
about to tell Caroline they had to lay low and see what was going to happen
next, she surprised him by beating him to it.

“Matthew, we
have to pretend to have finished our drinks and that it affected us just like
everyone else.” She’d obviously noticed the other passengers’ stillness as
well.

Wolf nodded. “I
was thinking the same thing. Great minds think alike.” He watched as she
blushed. She constantly amazed him. The women he’d known in his life didn’t blush
at a simple backhanded compliment. He thought it was a shame he didn’t have the
time at the moment to see what other compliments he could give her, just to
watch her face light up in the charming blush that was currently covering her
cheeks. He tamped down the thought of just how far down that blush went. Wrong
time, wrong place, but God he wanted to know.

Caroline took
her hand out of his reluctantly, and laid her head back on the head rest. She
didn’t dare open her eyes to try to see what was going on. They had to pretend
to be just as unconscious as the other passengers. She knew Matthew had also tipped
his head back and closed his eyes. They just had to wait.

Caroline hated
waiting. She was terrible at it. She always got antsy. Her mom always teased
her about not being able to sit still for even five minutes when she was
little. She was always on the go. Caroline smiled internally at the memory of a
story her mom loved to tell guests about when Caroline was about four years
old. They’d been at an amusement park and there were long lines for everything;
the food, the rides, and of course, the bathroom.

Apparently
Caroline had had enough of waiting in the lines, and when they were waiting to
use the restroom she’d gone right over to the grass alongside the building and
pulled down her pants and peed right there. Caroline’s mom was mortified, but
everyone else around them had thought it was hysterical.

Caroline thought
sadly of her mom. She missed her. So many times in the last year she’d wanted
to pick up the phone just to talk. She’d known she would lose her parents far
too early in her life, they were older, after all; but it was harder than she
thought it’d be.

Pulled from her
thoughts by Matthew shifting in his seat, Caroline admitted she was scared.
Scared of what was going on and she had no idea how they’d get out of it. It
couldn’t be good to be trapped in a plane thousands of feet above the ground
with people hell bent on causing trouble. What that trouble was, remained to be
seen.

Caroline thought
about how glad she was Matthew was sitting next to her. At first she’d been
apprehensive; he was a big man after all. But the gentle way he’d held her hand
and how he’d immediately taken action to warn his teammates made her feel so
much better. She had no idea if he and his buddies would be able to get them
out of this, whatever
this
was, but just the fact he was here, made her
feel not quite so lonely. She had no idea what she would’ve done if he hadn’t
been there. She would’ve noticed the smell of the ice, but wouldn’t have known
what to do and would’ve just had to have sat there, helpless. She shivered a
little bit. God. This really sucked.

Thirty long minutes
after they’d agreed to act passed out, the terrorists made their move. Almost
all of the passengers sat in their seats not moving, either passed out or more.
Wolf couldn’t waste time thinking about them now. He thanked God for Caroline
smelling whatever it was in the ice. He shuddered to think about what would’ve happened
if he hadn’t been sitting next to her. Actually he knew what would’ve happened,
he and Mozart and Abe would be passed out in their seats, just like all the
other people around him now.

Wolf watched as
two passengers and the two flight attendants passed by their row of seats and
walked toward the front of the plane. He closed his eyes as the two of them then
walked back through the plane, examining the passengers, making sure they were
all unconscious. Wolf heard them talking quietly as they passed by him.

“Does Smythe
have the coordinates?”

“Yeah, as soon
as we contain the passengers that are awake, he’ll go and take care of the
pilots and put us on course.”

Wolf tensed.
Shit.

The few people the
terrorists found awake, they made get up and go to the back of the plane to the
galley. Wolf heard some women scream and cry, and grunting from of some of the
men, but mostly it was a quiet operation. Eerily quiet. In all the battles and
missions he’d been in, Wolf had never heard anything like it. Usually people
were screaming and crying and there were the loud sounds of gunfire and mortars
going off. Not this silence and complete compliance from the passengers. It
unnerved him, and with his history, that was saying a lot.

He kept his eyes
opened only in slits, and watched as one of the terrorists, who’d been posing
as a normal passenger, and one of the flight attendants made their way into the
cockpit. It was easy since one of the flight attendants simply knocked on the door
and requested to talk to the pilot. Since they had no reason to be alarmed, the
co-pilot opened it without hesitation. He was immediately beaten bloody while
the pilot was killed outright. It wasn’t hard, just a quick slice to the
jugular. His body was dragged out of the cockpit and thrown into the galley at
the front of the plane—still jerking and bleeding out. The co-pilot was alive,
but badly hurt. The other flight attendant calmly hefted up one of his legs and
callously dragged him to the back of the plane with the other alert passengers.

Wolf’s heart
rate sped up in preparation for the fight to come. He had to be careful, as one
of the terrorists was now at the controls of the plane. He’d been trained by
the Navy the basics of flying almost any type of aircraft. He was most
comfortable behind the stick of a helicopter, but he’d also spent some time in
a big commercial plane like this one. He knew since he was closest to the
cockpit, it’d be up to him to get up there and gain control of the airplane.

Mozart and Abe
could also fly the plane, but Wolf would rely on them to take care of the other
terrorists. He’d have his hands full as it was. He sincerely hoped none of the
other passengers were hurt in the process of taking back over the plane, but he
couldn’t think about that now. His one and only goal was getting back control
of the plane.

Wolf knew he had
to get going, but for the first time as a SEAL he hesitated. He didn’t want
Caroline anywhere near what was about to go down, but he had no choice in the
matter. He surreptitiously moved his hand and placed it on her thigh and
squeezed, feeling her muscles clench under his palm. Caroline’s hand came over
slowly where it had been resting in her lap and covered his. They sat like that
for a moment, both feeling better after the short, but intense contact. Wolf
knew it was time to go. He couldn’t wait anymore, all their lives depended on
it. He turned his hand over so he could grasp Caroline’s hand in his and gave
it one hard squeeze. Seeing Caroline’s small smile, she mouthed, “Good luck.”
Wolf immediately let go and took a deep breath. It was time.

Without looking
around or saying another word, Wolf sprang from his seat and toward the front
of the plane. In full battle mode, he blanked all extraneous thoughts out of
his head, including the courageous woman he’d left sitting in his row. As he
ran toward the front of the plane, Wolf heard a cry and managed a quick look
back to see what the situation was.

Mozart and Abe
were fighting with two of the terrorists at the back of the plane, but the
third was headed right toward him. The look on his face was pure hatred. Shit. Wolf
didn’t have time to deal with him and make sure the fourth didn’t crash the
plane. For a second he hoped the guy now piloting the plane didn’t know what
was going on, but when he felt the plane lurch downward, he knew that thought
was futile. Wolf had no choice but to continue toward the pilot. He’d deal with
the guy coming up the aisle at him when he had to, which unfortunately might be
sooner rather than later.

Wolf watched in
amazement as suddenly a leg shot out from a row of seats and tripped the man
coming toward him. Caroline! He turned around and ran full force toward the
cockpit. Dammit. He wanted to go back to Caroline, but he couldn’t stop now. He
was scared for her, which was unheard of for Wolf to lose focus as he had, but
there was nothing he could do for her now. He had to get control of the plane
or they’d all be dead. Her actions just might give him enough time to subdue
the man flying the plane before the other terrorist caught up to him.

Caroline
couldn’t believe she’d just tripped a terrorist. A freakin’ terrorist! She was
scared out of her mind. She’d sat next to Matthew and knew he was about to make
his move. She could almost feel the tension in his body, the anticipation, the
adrenaline being produced in his bloodstream. She wanted to beg him not to go,
to stay with her and just let whatever was going to happen, happen. But he was
a SEAL. She knew he wouldn’t just sit around and let terrorists take over the
plane. He’d be in the thick of it. Hell, he and his team would be the only
reason any of them lived through this nightmare,
if
they lived through
it.

When he put his
hand on her thigh, she knew it was time. She couldn’t have stopped herself from
reaching out to Matthew at that moment if someone paid her a million dollars.
She didn’t know if she’d ever see him again, but somehow in the couple of hours
they’d spent getting to know each other he’d become important to her. All she
could do was smile and mouth to him “good luck”— how cliché. It was stupid. She
was just another woman to him. Just one more woman who thought he was gorgeous
and who wanted to take him home and spend hours in his bed getting to “know”
him. Caroline hadn’t admitted it until just now, but yes, she wanted him in the
worst way. God, it was so inappropriate and it wasn’t going to happen, but that
didn’t stop her from wanting him.

She didn’t know
what to do to help, she desperately wanted to do
something
, but she was
just a chemist, not a kick-butt SEAL. Caroline watched as Matthew sprung up
from his seat. A relaxed sleeping man one second and a raw on-a-mission SEAL
the next. He leaped for the front of the plane and Caroline peeked back between
the seats to see that Matthew’s teammates were busy with two bad guys in the
back of the plane. They’d clearly jumped into action right after Matthew had. Obviously
Matthew was going up to the cockpit to deal with the terrorist flying the plane.

That left one bad
guy unaccounted for. She watched in horror as he came running up the aisle of
the plane, headed right toward Matthew. Caroline felt the plane tip down. Her
heartbeat tripled. Crap. Crap. Crap. The guy flying was trying to crash the
plane. Matthew was about to have to deal with two terrorists, she knew he
needed all his concentration to take control of the plane so they didn’t die.

Without thinking
she slipped over to the aisle seat and when the terrorist was about to run by,
she simply stuck out her leg. Damn, that hurt her more than she thought it
would. She saw people trip people all the time on TV and in the movies, she had
no idea that it’d hurt as much as it did.

The guy went
down like a sack of flour. He landed hard on his hands and knees but Caroline
knew he wasn’t going to stay down for long, so without thinking about the
consequences, she leaped out of her seat and latched onto his back. She just
had to keep him busy until one of Matthew’s teammates could come and help. At
least she hoped one of the other guys would come up and help her soon…

Just as Caroline
thought she had a good grip on the man, he flipped her over his head into the
aisle and scrambled over her until he was on top of her and they were face to
face. It’d all happened so quickly she didn’t have time to get up or to avoid
him.

Shit
, Caroline
thought looking up at the man. He was pissed, but she was pissed too. The
bastard was trying to kill all of them. Caroline flinched away as his fist came
toward her face. He managed to hit her in the side of the head, but it would’ve
hurt a lot more if he’d actually made contact with her face. She threw her knee
up as hard as she could, and managed to knee him in the thigh. Not where she
was aiming, but it slowed him down a bit.

Caroline continued
to struggle with the man, each trying to hit and scratch and gain the upper
hand. The terrorist out-weighed and out-muscled her, but she didn’t let it stop
her. She fought like a wildcat. She had adrenaline on her side and a strong
wish not to die as well.

Caroline
scratched and struck out with her hands and knees and feet. Just as the guy
thought he had the upper hand, she’d squirm out of his hold and get in a lucky
strike. He was also getting his licks in as well, unfortunately. Caroline
wasn’t feeling too much pain now, she supposed the adrenaline was preventing
any true pain from getting through to her panicked brain, but later she knew
she’d hurt…if she had a later.

Anytime now someone
would come and help her…Caroline had to believe that. Suddenly the weight of
the man on top of her lifted and Caroline saw the evil look in his eyes just as
a knife cut through his neck. Caroline had to close her eyes as blood spurted
out and splattered her chest and arms. It was warm and smelled coppery.
Caroline supposed she should’ve been more freaked out, but she was just so
thankful to be alive and to have prevented this man from getting to Matthew.
Thank God one of his teammates had finally come to her rescue.

Caroline watched
as the man Matthew called Mozart, yanked the man off her, practically threw the
now-dead terrorist behind him into the aisle, and leapt over her toward the
cockpit. He’d completely ignored her, but Caroline didn’t care. She was just
glad Matthew would have some help if he needed it. There was no time for
introductions or questions in the middle of a terrorist attack. She vaguely
heard some of the women in the back of the plane crying hysterically, and knew
she had to get up off the floor. If nothing else, the aisle had to be cleared.

Caroline sat up
slowly, only then realizing her side hurt. Well, actually, everything hurt, but
her side
really
hurt. Caroline looked up and knew now wasn’t the time to
dwell on it. The women in the back of the plane were hysterical, Matthew’s
other teammate, from row twenty four, was trying to calm the passengers in the
back. She could see the two terrorists the SEALs had been fighting, lying dead
in the back of the plane. Well, she just assumed they were dead. All she could
see of the one dead guy was his feet sticking out into the aisle. He’d been
partially dragged into one of the rows of seats. The other lay in the middle of
the aisle, much as the dead guy she’d been fighting now was.

The entire scene
was surreal. If she wasn’t in the middle of it, she’d think it was all a bad
dream. All around her the other passengers were either passed out or dead from
whatever was in the ice. Other than the women in the back crying, it was creepily
quiet. She looked toward the front of the plane; she could see Matthew and
Mozart in the cockpit. The door laid smashed open on its hinges; Matthew
must’ve broken it in order to get to the cockpit and the terrorist. Another man
lay motionless outside the door, obviously the terrorist who’d been flying the
plane. His head was turned toward her, his eyes blankly staring.

Caroline turned
her attention away from the eerie stare of the dead man, only to have her eyes
wander to the dead body next to her in the aisle. His blood was flowing out of
the knife wound to his neck and slowly soaking into the cheap carpet underneath
him. Caroline could see the puddle growing bigger with each second that passed.

Caroline slowly pushed
herself off the floor, ignoring her aches and pains. She tried to ignore the
blood on herself from the terrorist that Mozart had killed. Surprisingly she
wasn’t freaking out. She had no idea why. She
should
be, but she didn’t
want to be a nuisance to Matthew and his team. It was vain of her, but she
wanted them to think well of her.

Before Caroline
could talk herself out of it, she leaned down and grabbed the man that had been
trying to kill Matthew, and then her, by his ankles and slowly dragged him to the
front of the plane. He was heavy, and it was harder than she thought it’d be to
drag him. She watched, in a fog, as the blood oozing from his neck stained the
aisle red as she drug him past the airline rows. She brought him into the
galley and draped him over the other man that was already there. She had to get
him out of aisle so when they did land, medical personnel could get through to
the passengers.

After she’d completed
that, she wasn’t sure what else she should do. She heard Matthew saying her
name from the cockpit. Caroline was still seeing and hearing everything as
though she was in a long tunnel...she stuck her head into the cockpit.

“Are you all right?”
she heard Matthew ask urgently.

Caroline just
nodded numbly.

“Is any of that
blood yours?”

Caroline shook
her head at the question. She didn’t really understand what he was asking, but
just shook her head anyway.

“Is the co-pilot
okay?”

“Uh, I’m sorry
Matthew, I don’t know.” Caroline could barely string two sentences together.
She hadn’t even thought about checking on the copilot. Duh, she should have.

In a soft voice
meant to soothe, Wolf asked, “Can you go back to check and see if he’s in good
enough shape to come up here and help?”

Caroline didn’t
look at Mozart, who was currently sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and simply nodded.
She spun around to go to the back of the plane, not seeing the concerned look
on Matthew’s face as she turned away and went to find the injured co-pilot. All
she could think over and over was
Matthew needs the co-pilot, Matthew needs the
co-pilot, Matthew needs the co-pilot
…she kept repeating it to herself so
she wouldn’t forget.

When she got to
the back of the plane, the other SEAL turned towards her. Caroline couldn’t
remember if Matthew had told her his name, it was enough that she remembered
her errand.

“Matthew needs
the co-pilot,” she said woodenly to the man. Caroline had no idea if she was
making any sense, but he must have understood her because he nodded and turned
toward the people huddled in the back of the plane. Caroline didn’t know what
to do, and eventually just headed back to her seat.

She was scared
and the adrenaline she’d been operating on for the last thirty minutes was
wearing off. Caroline took the unused napkins from their drinks that they’d
stuffed into the pockets in front of their seats and tried to wipe some of the
blood off her shirt and arms. She was impressed with her clean up job, thinking
she’d been surprisingly successful. As she watched, the co-pilot unsteadily made
his way back up toward the cockpit. Mozart came out of the small space not long
after and headed back toward his teammate in the back of the plane. On his way through,
he noticed her and stopped.

“Are you sure
you’re all right ma’am?” Mozart asked politely.

“Yes, thank you,”
she replied not elaborating or looking up from her continued attempt at
cleaning the blood off of herself. She just didn’t have it in her at the
moment.

Mozart paused a
moment and stared hard at her. Sensing he hadn’t left, Caroline finally looked
up and stared right back. What did he want her to say? That she wasn’t fine?
That she was hurting and scared and wanted
off
this stupid plane? Even
though it was all true, none of that would be helpful at the moment, so she
kept quiet. She was hanging on by the thinnest thread, willing herself not to
freak out. Finally Mozart nodded and continued down the aisle.

            Caroline sat in the
aisle seat in her row with her feet on the seat and her arms wrapped around her
legs. Feeling rebellious, she’d refused to put on her seat belt. If she lived
through a damn terrorist attack, she could take the risk of sitting unbelted.
She knew it was ridiculous to feel like she had to sit in her assigned seat, it
wasn’t as if anyone would care where she sat, and most of the other seats still
had people in them. She would’ve sat back in her seat in the middle, but
couldn’t stand to sit next to the guy at the window. He was slumped over. She
could see his chest rising and falling, so she was glad for that. It would be
horrifying if all the people all around them were all dead. On the other hand,
she was glad they hadn’t been conscious for everything that had happened. If
the reactions from the few people in the back of the plane were anything to go
by, it wouldn’t have been a good scene. It would’ve been a lot harder to deal
with everything if there had been hundreds of hysterical and panicking people.

The next thirty
minutes were some of the longest in Caroline’s life. Somehow they felt longer
than when they’d been waiting for the terrorists to make their move. Maybe they
felt longer because she didn’t have Matthew sitting next to her? He made her
feel safe and feel like nothing could hurt her. Now she just felt disconnected
and shell shocked.

Feeling the
plane start to descend, Caroline knew they weren’t in Norfolk yet, not enough
time had gone by, so they must be making an emergency landing somewhere. She
looked around again, most of the passengers still hadn’t moved. Not able to
help herself, and having to know one way or another, Caroline lifted her hand, leaned
over and checked the man’s pulse sitting by the window. He still had one,
although it was faint and weak. Hopefully wherever they were landing had a good
hospital. These people didn’t deserve to die.

The plane
finally touched down. It wasn’t the smoothest landing, but they were on the
ground. Caroline waited and heard the co-pilot come over the loudspeaker and
explain what was happening in a wobbly voice.