THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

you ... as long as your grades were up to par.”
    “I had a three-point-eight.”  She’d have carried a better grade average than that if training and working a job hadn’t drained her time. “They just decided they didn’t want me.”
    “Did you try to get into another college?”
    The steady drone of the engines filled several seconds before she rubbed her neck then answered. “No. Can we call it a tie game and quit here?”
    ~*~
    Zane wanted to push for more, but knew when to quit. Better to chisel away than try to get it all in one chunk. “Sure.”
    She gave him a polite smile then turned to look out the window.
    “ They didn’t want me ,” she’d said. It wasn’t the words so much as the cold pain behind them that struck him. How could a university not want a talented athlete who had the grades? She’d said it hadn’t been her choice.
    Only one reason came to mind. She’d done something to warrant revocation of the scholarship.
    Five minute pace.
    After watching her this morning, he believed it. She’d been some school’s star runner. Her name had to show up in a database with cross-referencing race results and high school track stars.
    Ben could narrow the possibilities down by searching the top ten percent of women finalists across the country in the last ten years.
    What would cause a school to reject a talented athlete? That was the meat of the question. Ben had a practically limitless network of information at his fingertips. There probably weren’t a lot of prominent female athletes named Angel, if that was her real name.
    Definitely world-class level. He’d love to watch her fly through the end of a race and cheer her on as she led the pack. Those gazelle-like legs gracefully tearing across the ground. He’d be there to hug her when she won.
    Whoa. Where had that ridiculous thought come from?
    The devil’s advocate in Zane forced him to put this all back into perspective, starting with the facts he now had. She’d lost a scholarship due to some infraction, getting information out of her was harder than pulling a Kardashian away from a television camera, and Angel was a suspiciously compulsive cleaner. Plus he’d met her under damned crazy circumstances.
    So what’s the conclusion?
    Ben would say she’s a person of interest to law enforcement.
    But for what?
    But if nothing panned out in Ben’s search, Zane would be forced to involve the police or turn her loose to fend for herself.
    Neither option would give him peace.
    Besides, bringing in the police would mean explaining how he’d met Angel. Nobody would be happy about that, starting with the DEA. No-win situation, no matter which way he went.
    If he were older, he’d have a healthy inheritance waiting for him that he could use to help Trish. But he couldn’t touch it until he reached the age of forty. That left him to make the best of the skills he had for both him and Trish in the meantime.
    And there was the small matter of needing to believe in what he did for a living. Running cargo wouldn’t provide that. But this DEA gig gave him a way to still make a difference to the country he loved.
    Nothing would wholly compensate for the loss of his military career, but he was making it.
    And Trish had lost much more.
    A lot of jet jockeys couldn’t make the switch to slower aircraft, but everyone made sacrifices in life. He’d given up the adrenaline rush of Mach 2, and gained one beautiful, alive sister. He could live happily with that trade.
    And damn whatever he had to do to make all of this work out.
    He confirmed clearance to land.
    Angel sat up straight in her seat, watching him as he went through a check of his systems. She seemed ... impressed?
    Ego stroke moment.
    Then she slipped her headset off and switched it out for her hat as someone radioed him from Bentley Field. “You must be getting big bucks working on the Friday before Labor Day, flyboy.”
    “How goes it, Jason?”  Zane had met the young mechanic on a recent stopover when the Titan needed a minor adjustment.
    “The same. Underpaid and overworked. You expecting company?”
    “You mean the High Vision people?” Zane asked.
    “Naw, they’re here, too, but you got a welcoming committee out here and you’re the only bird we’re expecting right now.”
    Ah hell.
    Keying up the mike, Zane asked Jason, “Would you know if this has anything to do with the High Vision shipment? Dispatcher didn’t have much information.”
    “Oh, yeah, it does.