I kick myself, wishing I’d paid a little more attention instead of letting myself wallow in thoughts of self-pity.
Damien accepts the glasses with a curt nod of his head, the hand he’s kept on my upper arm nearly crushing me. When he gives me a glass, the confusion on his face has passed, and the mask he wears is impenetrable. I can just make out a spark of anger in his eyes, though. I shiver, convinced it’s directed at me.
“Drink,” he orders, and he downs his own glass.
The sweet liquid feels sickening. Obediently, I take a sip, but I can’t manage much more.
He doesn’t comment, however, when I place my glass on the little table in front of me.
“She’s the girl you saw the picture of?” he guesses.
I nod miserably.
“And I suppose she’s the reason you don’t believe a word that comes out of my mouth?”
I don’t react, but he reads me.
“You’re a very silly girl, darling, do you know that?”
I turn away angrily as he pours himself another glass of Champagne and sips it pensively. When he’s finished, he stands up and calls Alice.
I clench my fists in humiliation.
She enters the cabin once more, all bubbly and sweet, batting his eyelashes at him, and I can tell that at the very leastshe’sinto him. He walks over to her and my heart sinks. I fully expect him at that moment to take her in his arms and kiss her. There’s no punishment he could devise that would be crueler, and there’s no doubt in my mind, as I take in his grim expression, that hedoesintend to punish me.
He pauses before her for a moment, and then he presses on a button overhead, and I hear the pilot’s voice.
“Yes, sir?”
“At what altitude are we currently flying?”
“Just above 9000 feet, sir.”
“Perfect.”
Damien releases the button, then heads toward the door.
“Open it.”
Alice’s eyes widen. “I didn’t realize you were planning to parachute…”
“Open it.”
Visibly confused, she presses on the door handle with one hand, while the other grips a handle on the wall, and the door slides open.
At once, I feel a huge amount of suction exerting itself in the cabin, and I’m sure I would have flown straight out of the door if I hadn’t been secured by a seatbelt. My lungs feel crushed to my chest, my eyes go dry, and both Champagne glasses roll to the floor, shattering in pieces. Damien and Alice both seem used to the sudden change in pressure, and are gripping handles on the wall.
“Jump,” orders Damien of Alice, yelling to be heard over the loud sound of the air gushing into the cabin.
She turns to him, her face white.
“But… but I don’t have a parachute…”
“I know. Jump!”
She stares at him, her eyes wide in horror, but before she can react, he grabs her arm and throws her out of the plane. She falls with a bloodcurdling scream.
Then Damien shuts the door again calmly. The pressure returns to normal, and he makes his way back to me.
