Blake frowned, searching her face until a slight grin began hitching his mouth. “Hop in.” He jerked a thumb toward the opposite door.
Kellie didn’t hesitate. She circled the cab and slid into the seat beside him. The driver took off with an impatient grumble.
“So, what’s the plan?” Blake still regarded her with a half-assed grin.
Plan?She didn’t have a plan—she had a list. The second item was to figure out whether she could live with what happened in Iraq and get some help if it turned out she couldn’t. But first, she had to make sure MacGyver didn’t die because of her. For damn certain, she couldn’t live with that.
Kellie leaned closer and lowered her voice so the cab driver wouldn’t hear. “Do you have any ammo left in your bag of tricks?”
Chapter Twenty-one
“What are you thinking, Bro? Are we taking him down?” Travis turned off the ignition of Charlie’s Ford Taurus and looked at MacGyver. He hadn’t asked about the conversation with Kellie or questioned why MacGyver’s mood had soured during the thirty minutes it’d taken them to haul ass to Spokane. After finding a place to leave the car at the back of the airport parking lot, apparently now he wanted to talk.
MacGyver grunted as Kellie’s horrified words swam through his head again.“So…you’re going to…what… kill him?” The accusation in her expression had jolted him. Why was he letting her opinion bother him so much? Up until then, there’d been no doubt in his mind what needed to happen to safeguard her and her family—Palazzi had to die.
“I mean…I don’t have a problem either way. Just say the word.” Travis pulled the key from the ignition and shoved it in his pocket.
“The plan stays the same,” MacGyver growled. It all boiled down to whether he’d be satisfied with Palazzi leaving prison in ten or fifteen years. Just in time for Kellie and Anna to have let down their guards. MacGyver couldn’t see how a short-term solution solved anyone’s problem.
Travis held his hands up in surrender. “Just checking, Bro. You good to go?”
MacGyver nodded. “We’ve got twenty minutes before Jeremy calls in the feds. I’ll go in the front and figure out how to separate Palazzi from his hired guns. The possibility of collateral damage is high if a firefight ensues, so guns are a last resort.”
Travis reached for the door handle. “We need to stop him before he gets on that plane. If he escapes back to Vegas, we might never get another chance.”
This wasn’t the place MacGyver would have chosen to engage the enemy. Too many things could go wrong. The marshal had called in a favor from an FAA safety inspector he’d helped out a couple of times. The inspector had coaxed enough information from someone in the control tower to learn that Palazzi and six companions were waiting for the pilot of his Leer jet to arrive.
The rest was up to MacGyver and Travis—get Palazzi out of the terminal before the feds from the marshal’s office swooped in and arrested the others. Palazzi would simply disappear, courtesy of MacGyver. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan, and it certainly wasn’t foolproof, but it was all they had at the moment.
“Let’s go.” MacGyver checked the load in his gun and slid it into the shoulder holster Jeremy had provided for the occasion. “I’ll meet you out back in ten.” He stepped from the car, zipping his sweatshirt a quarter of the way up so it wouldn’t fall open and give away his loaded weapon. He hated hoods, but he tugged it over his head anyway and slapped on his sunglasses. Palazzi would no doubt recognize him on sight. MacGyver needed just a little bit of an edge to maneuver through his men without them calling his hand prematurely. Friendlies in the line of fire was not acceptable, so MacGyver needed to choose his own time and place for the confrontation.
“So…you’re going to…what…kill him?”
Damn it! Kellie’s voice, replaying in his head, wasn’t going to work. This wouldn’t be his first kill. The Navy had trained him well. If Kellie never looked at him again without contempt in her eyes for what he was about to do, he wouldn’t blame her. Nonetheless, he would take down this target because Palazzi’s death would keep her alive, and he didn’t care how outraged she became over his actions. It wasn’t open for discussion. A conscience, at this point in the game, wasn’t what he needed. It would only get those around him hurt, and that wasn’t going to happen.
Stuffing his fists in his pockets, he strode toward the north entrance. An inspection through the glass doors confirmed everything was quiet inside. He spotted three of Palazzi’s men, dressed in rumpled suits, scattered near the exits. If he could see around corners, he’d bet there’d be another one stationed just inside the door MacGyver was about to enter.
There was no sign of Palazzi, but the skin on the back of MacGyver’s neck started to prickle with the certainty the scumbag wasn’t far away. He had no doubts Palazzi and his men would be armed. The small airfield didn’t have the luxury of metal detectors at the doors, nor sophisticated scanning equipment, but that also worked inhisfavor.
MacGyver opened the door, stepped inside and walked toward the ticket counter like he had a reason to be there. Midway, he stopped at a kiosk and filled out a luggage tag. Though any fool could see he didn’t have luggage, it gave him an opportunity to scan the interior. Palazzi’s number four man lounged near the door MacGyver had entered as he’d suspected. Number five was ordering a cup of coffee from a wannabe-Starbucks pop-up near the one rental car counter. Number six and Palazzi himself weren’t visible, and that screwed the hell out of MacGyver’s plan.
He continued to the ticket counter, nodding to the only security guard as he passed. Overweight and watching, mesmerized, as a couple of kids played with Fidget Spinners, the guard was wholly unprepared for what was about to go down on his watch. All the more reason MacGyver needed to find Palazzi and get him out of there without causing a disturbance.
He checked his watch. In five minutes, he was supposed to meet Travis out back with enough information to finalize their strategy. MacGyver glanced at the board announcing the arrivals and departures as he strode toward the ticket counter. “Excuse me, miss. Is the five fifteen from Bozeman on time?” An innocent question to make his presence look legit.
The pretty brunette smiled and nodded. “Yes sir. It should be landing in thirty minutes.”
“Thank you.” He turned toward the windows and the rows of seats that looked out over the runway.So far, so good.
Three strides later his plan disintegrated.
“He’s got a gun!”The woman’s shrill cry pierced the low hum of activity, and the terminal exploded with screams, gasps and the sounds of people running. MacGyver spun around and met the terrified gaze of the dark-haired ticket girl who’d frozen in her place. He motioned for her to duck down behind her counter as he tried to make sense of the scene before him.
The other travelers had disbursed, some taking cover behind chairs, counters or whatever they could find, leaving the center of the large space open and empty, except for the two men currently acting out a scene fromThe Godfather.
Thirty feet away, the security guard had drawn his weapon, pointing it at a man who’d apparently just come from the restroom.Of course. Palazzi’s number six hired gun.The edge of his jacket was pushed back far enough to reveal the butt-end of a semi-automatic firearm in his shoulder holster.
“Hands on your head! Get down on the floor!” The security guard’s hands shook as though he’d never had to use his weapon before. There wasn’t a chance in hell Palazzi’s hardline thugs would take him seriously.