They were slowing down. Nikolett squeezed Eric’s hand hard.
At first, she didn’t believe it. Thought it was her mind desperately looking for some sliver of survival hope, but now it was undeniable. They were slowing down.
Not only that…they were on the ground.
At some point, one of the window shades had bounced open, and outside, she could see rocky soil painted blue and silver by moonlight.
They hadn’t crashed. They’d crash-landed.
A loud pop, and the plane lurched sideways. They were still going car speeds, far from out of danger, but the calm fatalistic acceptance of her impending death was leaching away.
That was actually worse, because now she had room to be utterly terrified.
The plane spun, forcing her sideways into Eric. His head lolled.
“Eric?” His eyes were closed, his chin on his chest. “Eric!”
She was terrified to untangle their fingers, sure that if she let go of him, this plane would rip in half right down the middle and steal him away, spinning him off somewhere she couldn’tfind him. With her other arm currently uselessly strapped to her body, that meant she couldn’t reach up and check for a pulse.
There was one last massive jolt accompanied by a deafening crunch of metal as the plane struck something, the nose of it rising so that even as physics flung her forward, gravity pulled her back.
Then the plane was still.
Her ears were ringing, her whole body still vibrating either from the constant rattle of the plane, or adrenaline.
With the door between this compartment and the next closed, she had no idea what had happened to the front of the plane. What happened to everyone else.
She and Eric were…
But it wasn’t just her and Eric.
Nikolett whipped her head to the side, staring at Gus.
As she watched, he twisted in his seat, hooked his cuffs around the armrest, and with a yank, broke the chain between them.
Nikolett looked from Gus, to the closed door, to Eric.
She was trapped back here with an unconscious Eric and the man who tried to kill her more times than she cared to count. A man she didn’t understand at all, which meant she had no idea what he was about to do.
Nikolett forced herself to let go of Eric’s hand, though it took more strength of will than she knew she had. She touched Eric’s cheek, his neck. “Eric, Eric, wake up for me, love. Please wake up.”
A large hand gripped her wrist, forcing her trembling fingers away from Eric’s throat where she was scrambling to find his pulse.
The Spaniard dropped to one knee in front of her, still holding her wrist.
Nikolett was shaking so hard, she was worried she’d vibrate apart.
Except this wasn’t the Spaniard. It was Gus. He looked at her now with the same soft concern he had when he’d propped her cast-bound leg on his knee.
Who are you?
“Come with me.”
Nikolett was sure she’d heard him wrong, and that must’ve shown in her expression.
“Come with me,” he said again.
“Wh-where?” She could barely get the word out. Her body was shaking and shivering from fear and adrenaline.
