Free Ricochet by Cherry Adair Page A

yourself a shot just before I found you, and you haven’t eaten. Your blood sugar’s dropping, isn’t it?”
    She’d timed her shot just before dinner. But dinner had never happened. She didn’t have any way to test her blood glucose level, but she knew it was way too low. She should’ve eaten hours ago.
    As much as she wanted to rest her face in his palm like a pet for a few hours, Hannah stepped out of reach. “We’ve been a little busy. But getting something to eat soon would be good.”
    “Anyone got any hard candy?” he said into his comm, which earned him a few surprised glances from the operatives. “We’ve got a diabetic here. She needs something. Search everyone again. Candy. Gum. Anything.”
    “Thanks,” she said quietly.
    “How bad do you feel?”
    “Get me that candy,” she said calmly, rubbing the headache at her temple with fingers that shook.
    He touched the comm as Kyatta and Bren Edde strode toward him. “Find me that fucking candy, people!”

TEN
    “W hile we’re waiting, let’s find the people you overheard, and see who this Savrov insulted by using his name,” Gray told her. He touched his ear. “Bring me a guy called Savrov.”
    “They were going to kill him, maybe he’s dead,” Hannah reminded him.
    “Maybe, but I don’t think there was enough time between when you overhead them and when I found you. I believe the men you overheard were the two I saw in the corridor.”
    “Get the lead out, people! Where the fuck is Savrov?” Gray said into his communications devise.
    It took several minutes, but there was, apparently, no Savrov in the hangar. Everyone was accounted for.
    Feeling a little light-headed, Hannah rubbed her upper arms, not sure if she was hot or cold. “He could’ve been one of the people that were left dead on the ship.”
    “Strong possibility on that. Hang on a sec. I don’t see Mauro, did he make it?” Grayson asked tightly into the comm, then listened to the response. Easier than yelling across the enormous space, Hannah knew, but she would’ve liked to know more than just half the conversation. And even that was in some form of verbal shorthand.
    “Shit,” he snarled, after listening to something transmitted into his earpiece.
    A dead end, Hannah thought with black humor. Until today, she’d never seen a dead body, now she was getting frighteningly used to seeing a lot of them.
    “Considering the timing, I think the man on the stairs was one of the men you overheard,” Gray turned his attention back to her. Under normal circumstances it would be difficult to keep track of who he was talking to, but right now, Hannah was having difficulty navigating her way around a normal conversation. Her mental focus and her vision were both getting fuzzy.
    “The other guy’s a crewmember. He’s here. None of them were KIA.”
    Trying to corral her wondering thoughts, she gave him a blank look.
    “Killed in action. I shot a bodyguard on the stairs, he could be our boss man. He was with a crewman, who’ll be able to ID him, for us.” He wrapped his hand around her upper arm and steadied her. Hannah didn’t even realize she’d been swaying slightly. “Would you recognize the man’s voice if you heard it again?”
    Frowning hurt her head. “Who? The dead guy?” Hannah impatiently rubbed the annoying headache pulsing at her temples. “Of course.” God she was cranky and confused. The nervousness, and desire to pick a fight could be attributed to the circumstances, but she knew her body, and was familiar with the symptoms. Cold and clammy, she was freaking starving , and her heart pounded with anxiety. Hypoglycemia, probably exacerbated by her present circumstances.
    “How long until the plane gets here?” If it was big enough to make the long flight, and there were dozens of people expected on board, there’d be food. Something to drink.
    He glanced over her shoulder. “It arrived a few minutes ago. Thanks,” he said to a woman dressed as he