There was a calm Eric had always tapped into on the job. Like a chess player, he'd seen his moves several steps ahead. In this case, it was an easy play.

Trojan horse. Board the bird, subdue the pilot. Easy.

He looked around, the seconds ticking slower than usual as he took in the faces of his closest buddies. The people he'd trust his life to.

It wasn't until his eyes landed on Zoe—way too far away—that time sped up again. And rather than full speed, it seemed to go straight to warp, sending him one worst-case scenario after another, turning every eventual outcome into a nightmare in which he lost her. Zoe. His future.

Hell no.

But shit, if he didn't pull it together, he'd be the one to ruin this. He shut his eyes for three seconds and opened them to an unexpectedly ominous sight: two men stepped out of the helicopter. Military, he'd guess by their equipment and bearing.

Everything about these guys screamed cleanup crew, from the automatic weapons strapped onto their shoulders to the dead-eyed way they took in their surroundings.

Not an evacuation after all, but a slaughter. Made sense. The rig could explode without raising too many eyebrows, but a bunch of bodies in the water would bring down more questions that the overlords would want to answer.

Eric looked down the steps and met Von's eyes. Three hand signals, a nod. Eric turned toward Zoe to motion her to stand down.

Too late.

He lost air, his chest constricting, the pain sharp where fear held him like a vise.

Boom. His heart beat too hard for his rib cage. Boom.

Each beat shook him to his foundations.

There she was, headed for the pilot, the bird's rear end straight ahead, while the newly arrived operatives exited from the right. Like a farce...but not. Somehow, she hadn't seen the new guys and was headed toward the helo as if circumstances hadn't changed.

"Leo!" he hissed into the comm device.

"Can't stop her, Eric. She's halfway there!"

Boom. Shit. His innards couldn't take this kind of beating, self-inflicted or not.

He slapped the cowboy hat on his head, ignoring common sense and every bit of training he'd ever had, and moved.

Boom. Every beat brought him closer to inevitable tragedy.

Movement from beside him. Von, cutting right, his weapon up. On the opposite side of the pad, Leo muttered something into the comm unit and streaked after Zoe.

Fuck it.

Channeling that geologist cowboy jackass, Eric pasted a smile on his face and forced himself to walk—amble, in fact, which was beyond miraculous, given the heavy pounding of his heart—toward the bird.

Everything happened at once, then—Zoe boarded the helo, Leo close behind her. Eric hunched and broke into a sprint. Beside him, shots were fired, followed by the unmistakable sound of two hundred pounds of man colliding with metal as Von and Ans focused on the cleaners.

Ten feet to go. More shots. The helicopter hovered... five feet... It lifted. No. No, that wasn't happening.

Three...two...

Airborne.

He didn't have a chance to verify his teammates' status before leaping into the air.