Prologue
Mackenzie
Crashed
Blurry. The hazy gray and blue colors of the room twist and swirl all around me. I blink to clear my vision and clench my teeth against the wave of nausea that grips my belly. I must have eaten something that disagreed with me. Maybe not enough fluids this morning before a hot day in the cockpit.
I blink again and try to chase the last bit of sleep away, the nightmare that still has me caught in its teeth. I’m careful. I always have been. I know when to push the throttle and when to ease up so I know that it’s just a dream. None of it is true. Not one bit of it. It can’t be because if it is that means that I… No.
When I open my eyes that I realize it’s not a nightmare but my real life.
The steel bars of the cell clank, and I hear harsh-sounding words uttered in a language I don’t understand. A tray of food is dropped onto the concrete floor next to the door before it’s slammed closed again.
No. It can’t be true. It just can’t. I couldn’t have…
Crashed.
I crashed an eighty-million-dollar airplane. Not only did I crash a plane, but I was taken for reasons outside my control. I never had a chance. And now I’m nothing more than an animal in a cage.
I should have told Kyle that I loved him when he said it first. I shouldn’t have waited like a scared little rabbit. I shouldn’t have let my fears rule me. Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe he’ll be able to move on from this, from me, and whatever we were or were heading toward. Because as I struggle to sit up from where I’m lying on the cold, hard floor of this cell, I know without a doubt that this is where I’m going to die.
I can only pray that the Reaper finds me quickly, because I’m not sure how much of this I can survive, along with the devastating knowledge that no one is coming for me.
Chapter One
Kyle
Crash and Burn
Four months earlier…
“Make good choices, gentlemen.”
“Don’t we always?” Sean, my best friend since the first day of kindergarten, asks our Senior Chief. The look on Wolf’s face has to mirror the one on my own as I look at Sean. He’s full of shit. He’s always been full of shit. He never makes good choices. Okay, that’s a lie, he consistently makes questionable choices every single time.
Sean is a happy go lucky, good time guy. He likes to party, and he’s liked it since senior year of high school. And as his lifelong best friend, I partied right along with him. It was my sworn duty as his buddy and wingman to make those questionable choices right along with him.
And while he’s an easygoing guy, he’s also no stranger to a bar fight or two, usually over a woman who forgot she had a significant other when she caught sight of all six foot four inches of burly sailor and his blue eyes. Which is why when Wolf saw us dressed in our civvies and ready to head off of the island, he was rightfully a little concerned.
“Just promise me one thing,” Wolf says, and I wonder where this is going. It could actually go anywhere. Sean is the kind of guy that you never know what he’s going to do next. He has no fear. Or shame for that matter and he’s a hell of a lot of fun.
“What’s that, Senior Chief?” Sean asks with a goofy grin on his face.
“Just no bar fights.”
“We’ll try our best, Senior Chief,” We reply in unison.
“Try really fucking hard,” Wolf says, eyeing us suspiciously so we give him our best boy scout smiles.
“Scout’s honor,” Sean says holding up his hand with the wrong fingers folded down for the scout sign. I barely hold in a groan and his bald-faced lie.
“Something tells me that you knuckleheads were never boy scouts,” Wolf says, knowing that we’re absolutely, one hundred percent, full of shit. “Try real hard.”
“Yes, sir, Senior Chief,” I say seriously. Sean, for the love of Christ, is already a little tipsy. Not one to be a fan of heavy bar tabs, and the fact that because he’s the size of a goddam bear he requires a lot of alcohol to get shitfaced, my buddy has learned the art of the pregame. He probably already has the better part of a bottle of Jägermeister in him.
He sways a little bit on his feet, not enough that he’s sloppy drunk before the sun goes down, but enough that I notice it. The fact that nothing gets by the senior chief has me thinking he probably sees it too. I let out a sigh and barely keep from rolling my eyes.
“Really fucking hard, Garrett,” Wolf directs to me.
