by Violet Howe
“Danielle, it’s been a long night for everyone here,” he said, looking beyond me toward the plane. “Go ahead and use the restroom. Have the privacy you need, but don’t take a moment longer than is necessary. Ned, you will accompany my wife.”
Victor turned to continue to the plane as I walked past Ned toward the hallway beneath the restroom sign. The men’s room was the nearest door in the hallway, followed by a water fountain and then the women’s. Beyond that, the short hallway dead-ended in another hallway which was dark.
I pressed my forearm against the bathroom door and turned to glare at Ned, who was right on my heels as though he intended to accompany me inside.
“I can take it alone from here,” I said.
“Make it quick,” he grumbled with disdain.
Even though the bathroom’s light sensor triggered on with my entry, I bent to look beneath the stalls and ensure I was alone in the room. It was only when I stood upright that I realized the walls were white with a wide gray stripe.
Eighteen
I gasped and leaned against the stall partition to brace myself. If Seth was being held in this building, then I had to find him and free him before I got on that plane. But how? Ned would be glued to my side the minute I walked out of the bathroom, and he would take me straight to Victor, who was likely already boarded and ready to take off.
Loud voices signaled a commotion in the hangar, and I cracked open the door just wide enough to peer out. Victor’s men were gathered on the other side of the small propeller plane, their legs and feet visible beneath it. Ned had walked toward them, and I knew I didn’t have a second to lose.
I eased the bathroom door open farther and slipped out toward the longer hallway, pausing for only a brief second as I deliberated which way to go. There were four doors if I turned left and three if I went right, and it wasn’t likely Ned would give me enough time to search all of them before he came looking for me.
Going with the option that had the most doors, I ran to the first door on the left and found it locked. I laid my ear against the door and listened for any sound inside.
“Seth?” I kept my voice low, not daring to call out loud enough for Ned to hear me. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”
The second and third doors were also locked. The fourth door was ajar, and I pushed it open hesitantly. The light sensor illuminated the space immediately, revealing the table and chair I’d seen on Victor’s phone, but no Seth. I rushed into the room and around the right side of the table, desperate for any sign that he’d been there.
Voices filled the hallway, and I froze. Victor was arguing with someone, and their voices were getting closer.
“Have Nicholas and Troy find the damned pilot,” Victor yelled. “If he’s still alive, tell him we have to get that plane in the air. Did you get in touch with Paulie?”
“He isn’t answering his phone,” Franco said. “You think this is all the cop?”
“Who else could it have been?” Victor yelled. “When I get my hands on him—”
They were so close now that I knew they’d be inside the room any minute. Frantic, I searched for a place to hide, settling on a large cabinet in the corner behind the door. I’d just rounded the other side of the table, praying the cabinet would be empty, when I nearly stumbled over a body lying on the floor.
An ear-piercing scream erupted from me as I gripped the table to keep from falling over the dead man. His neck was bent at an impossible angle, his glassy eyes staring up at me from above a necktie that had been pulled so tight his head seemed to bulge above it.
“Danielle!” Victor’s arms were around me within seconds, his hand cradling my head into his chest as he led me toward the door.
In my desperation and shock, I clung to his shirt and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the image of those lifeless, protruding eyes staring at me. I’d seen bodies when I was a reporter, but never so unexpected and never so connected to my own fate.
“Dammit!” Franco’s voice stood out in a chorus of swears and protests as the men crowded around their fallen friend.
“Why is she in here?” Victor barked at Ned. “I told you not to let her out of your sight.”
“I thought she was in the bathroom.”
As the initial fright began to wear off and I comprehended who held me, I pushed at Victor’s chest to separate myself from him, but his arms tightened their grip around me as he continued to berate Ned.
“You had one job,” Victor growled. “What if he had still been in here? What if she had come in during the scuffle?”
“I got distracted with all of you yelling about the mechanic getting popped. She must have slipped out when I wasn’t looking.”
Shoving at Victor again, I managed to take a step back as he turned to yell at the men who stood looking down at their colleague’s body.
“Why are you standing there gaping? Go find this son-of-a-bitch and bring him to me!”
A deafening explosion rocked the entire building, shaking it on its foundation as glass shattered in the distance.
The men took off running toward the hall that led out into the hangar and Victor motioned for Ned and me to stay as he and the others ventured out.
“Stay with Danielle.” Victor took a step back, drawing closer to Ned as his eyes narrowed, his voice becoming a low growl. “And this time, do not let her out of your sight.”
Ned looked none too happy being left behind. If looks could kill, I would have been as dead as Paulie Necktie.
I didn’t care. Hope and fear battled inside me as I struggled to assemble the puzzle pieces in my mind. I was certain Seth had been held in that room, and evidently, he’d made his escape and was doing what he could to prevent Victor’s departure. As elated as I was to think of him being free and possibly freeing me, I was also terrified that they would find him. Victor was every bit the dangerous man I’d heard described in that courtroom, and I knew there was no way he’d let Seth go unharmed now.
Ned paced the hallway as we listened to the shouts of the men outside, and when things got quiet and we could no longer hear anything, he moved to the entrance leading out to the hangar and peered out.
“C’mon. Stay right with me, would you?”
He leveled his gun as he looked left and right and then stepped forward.
I hesitated, none too eager to leave the relative safety of the hallway. “Wouldn’t we be safer in here? I mean, it seems like all hell is breaking loose out there. We should just—”
Ned moved faster than I thought he was capable of, towering over me as he gripped my arm. He bent his head so close to mine that when he spoke, the spray of spittle hit my face. “I can’t be of any help to my guys hiding out in here. If I’ve got to babysit you, I need to do it out there so I can see what’s happening and provide some kind of backup. In here, I’m blind and useless. Now, come on. Try not to get yourself killed, okay?”
We stepped out into the hangar, and despite my aversion to the man, I tucked myself as close behind Ned’s back as possible, my eyes searching for any hint of danger. Well, more danger than I was in already.
The red and orange glow of a raging fire lit up the night outside the hangar, and as Ned moved us across the back wall, eventually we could see the fiery remains of one of the SUVs.
Victor came around the corner and into the hangar, his eyes registering surprise when he saw us.
“Christ! Get her out of here. What the hell are you doing?”
“I was trying to see what was going on,” Ned said. “Besides, it’s not like he’d harm her. Hell, he’s doing all this because of her!”
Franco came in not long after Victor. “No sign of the other SUV. He must have taken it and gone. And we still haven’t found the pilot or the attendant. Do you think it’s possible he took them with him?”
Victor pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, and then he clenched both fists and let out a roar of frustration. I shrank back against the wall, and both Ned and Franco stood to attenti
on, their eyes wide and unblinking.
“So close. So damned close I can taste it.” Victor closed his eyes and rubbed his thumb between his brows, his voice calm and steady, though its chilling tone was even more frightening than his roar. He spat on the ground and then looked at Franco, his top lip curling as he spoke. “He can’t get past the gates. When they find him, have him brought to me.”
One of the men yelled in the distance, and Franco whipped his head around and took off running.
Victor pulled his phone from his pocket and called someone. “I need a pilot as fast as you can send me one.”
He stared at the ceiling, his mouth drawn in a tight line.
“Oh, I’m well aware of what time it is. But I need a pilot. Now. Wake someone up and get someone out here. Pronto.”
He ended the call and walked to the edge of the hangar to stare at the burning vehicle. Ned moved to stand beside him, and I hung back, wishing I could disappear from the whole scene.
“Your deputy deserted you, Danielle,” Victor called over his shoulder to me. “He ran off without you. I guess you were wrong about him. Again.”
I tried to feel relief. To be grateful that Seth had gotten away. But my gut told me there was no way Seth had left without any regard for what would happen to me. His departure had to be part of a bigger plan. Otherwise, why would he have blown up the SUV and drawn them outside?
Victor’s phone rang, and he looked to Ned as he pulled it from his pocket.
“Take a look around over there,” Victor said, gesturing toward the back corner behind the propeller plane. “See if you can find the keys for the other hangars.” He slid his finger across the screen to answer the call as he walked outside the hangar and into the night.
“Come on,” Ned said as we walked around the front of the small plane. “Stay close.”
Franco yelled Victor’s name in the distance, and I looked back over my shoulder, worried they had found Seth. I ran into Ned’s back, and then leaned around him to see why he had stopped.
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that rose in my throat, burying my face in Ned’s back to shut out the image of the dead body in front of us. Now I knew why Victor and his men had gathered with such commotion on this side of the plane when I was in the restroom earlier.
Ned jerked me around in front of him and forced my head in the direction of the body as I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Open your eyes and take a good look at him.” His grip tightened and he shook my chin. “Open them, damn it.”
I did as he asked and immediately regretted it. The dead man was flung backwards across a large red toolbox, his eyes staring at me from his upside-down face as blood seeped from the bullet wound in his chest and turned his gray coveralls a deep burgundy.
“Take a good look at him. If it wasn’t for you, he’d be alive. So would Paulie,” he growled, his breath hot against my ear as he gripped my face even tighter, his fingers pinching my chin. “These men that died here tonight, that’s on you. We’d already be in the air and gone if you hadn’t delayed everything.”
A fleeting pang of guilt stabbed me in the gut, but I closed my eyes and refused to let it settle there. “It’s not my fault they chose this line of work.”
“First of all, he was a flight mechanic. But more importantly, if you’d just gone along with the plans, there wouldn’t have been a need for anyone to get hurt.”
I jerked away from his grasp and turned my back on the body. “Well, I’m sorry that I didn’t care to be kidnapped and taken against my will. I never asked to be included in these plans.”
Ned shrugged and shook his head as he moved forward to search the man’s pockets. “I don’t know what Victor sees in you, that’s for sure. Hopefully, he’s right about the deputy being wise enough to be long gone. If not, you’re likely to get both of them killed before it’s all over with, and for what?”
Suddenly, the hoot of a barred owl rang out across the night. I gasped and ran outside the hangar.
“What?” Ned said as he moved in front of me, waving his gun left and right as he searched the area.
“It was, uh, nothing, I guess.” I shrugged in an attempt not to give anything away, even though my heart pounded so loudly that it seemed deafening in my ears. “I just got spooked by that owl, that’s all. I’m not accustomed to being around dead bodies like you are, okay? It’s got me freaked out a little.”
The owl called out again, and though the wooded areas nearby made it entirely possible that it actually was a feathered nocturnal bird, my heart knew differently. I’d grown up with someone who could imitate the call of the Florida barred owl perfectly. So well, in fact, that he’d won a ribbon for it in an FFA competition when we were in high school. Seth was letting me know he was still there. Letting me know to hang on a little bit longer.
Nineteen
“I gotta find those keys. Let’s go,” Ned said, pulling on my arm to take me back inside.
Jerking my arm from his grasp, I stepped away from him, hoping that wherever Seth was, he could see me and know I was okay. “I want to stay out here.”
“I don’t care what you want,” Ned said. “I’m supposed to be watching you and I need to be in there. Now, come on.”
Begrudgingly, I started to oblige his request, but then I hesitated, my eyes searching the darkness for any sign of Seth, which was silly. It wasn’t like he was going to pop out and wave at me. He’d sent me a signal, and I had to trust that he had a plan. I turned to follow Ned, but then movement from the left caught my eye.
Victor and his men were approaching, accompanied by a man in a pilot’s uniform and a buxom flight attendant. The woman wrung her hands back and forth across her wrists, and my hand went to my own bandaged wrist in remembrance of what she must be feeling.
The pilot nodded to something Victor said, and then he and the woman continued on toward the plane with Franco and the other two guys as Victor veered in my direction.
“Where were they?” Ned asked.
“Troy heard noises inside one of the hangars and broke the lock to get inside. He found them tied and gagged.”
My heart sank. Time would run out more quickly now that we could fly.
“Why would this idiot do that?” Ned asked. “He had to have known we would find them. Why not just kill them?”
“Because he’s not a killer,” I said, my gaze leveled at Victor.
“No?” Victor said with one brow raised. “The flight mechanic might beg to differ with you.”
I glanced toward the body stretched across the toolbox, shuddering again at the emptiness in the eyes staring back at me.
Victor cocked his head to one side and frowned. “Your deputy killed Paulie, too. So, tell me, why is it okay for your beloved Seth to kill and not me? Where’s your outrage? Where’s your indignation?”
“If he killed someone, I’m sure it was in self-defense.”
“With Paulie, maybe. But the mechanic? Not likely. The man wasn’t even armed.”
“He wouldn’t have killed if he didn’t have to. You had him beaten and tied up. He likely feared for his life. He was trying to escape.”
“Oh, so that justifies it for you, eh? I’m trying to escape, too. Does that not mean anything?”
I stared at him in silence, unwilling to engage in a debate over the merits of life with someone who took it so casually.
His phone rang, and he shook his head at me with a strange chuckle and then looked to Ned. “Get her on the plane.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he had already walked away, engaged in his phone conversation.
“You heard him. Let’s go,” Ned said as he reached for me.
Panic welled inside me, and I stepped back. “No! I’m not getting on that plane.”
Ned’s sick grin twisted my insides. “Oh, you are. One way or another. Even if you have to be unconscious.”
He came toward me, and I turned to run for the hallway. If Seth was out there, if he wa
s watching, I’d only need to lock myself inside a room until he could figure out a way to find me.
Ned lunged after me, his huge hand clutching my arm and jerking me to him. He wrenched my wrist around behind my back, the bandage pressing into my raw wounds with the rough gesture.
“Listen here,” Ned sneered as he pulled my body back against his and shoved his gun into my ribs. “I’m not Victor, and I’m tired of your insubordination, you stupid bitch.”
Neither of us were aware that Victor had returned before he slammed the butt of his gun into the back of Ned’s head. The big man slumped as he stumbled forward, and I scrambled to get out from under him so he wouldn’t take me down with him.
Ned recovered quickly and spun on unsteady feet to face his attacker, waving his gun wildly. His eyes widened in surprise as Victor rushed forward to grab the front of Ned’s shirt, shoving him against the propeller plane. Victor cocked his pistol and pressed it to Ned’s temple as their eyes locked.
“I told you never to disrespect my wife,” Victor growled, his voice vibrating with an eerie timbre.
“Vic, come on,” Ned pleaded, his eyes squinting with pain, confusion, or fear. Maybe all three. “You know I’m only looking out for you. That’s all I’ve ever done. Our whole lives, I’ve had your back, man. Since we were kids! I’m trying to look out for you now.”
Victor released Ned and began to pace in a tight circle, his nostrils flaring, his eyes wild, and his teeth clenched so tightly that his lips puckered, turning almost white with the effort.
He looked like a man who’d been teetering on the edge far too long and had begun to fall over the brink, and the tension in the air was so thick I found it hard to breathe. An explosion felt imminent, and I didn’t dare move or speak lest I be the spark that ignited it.
Ned must not have felt the same caution.
“What are you doing, Vic? And why? You could have been halfway to the Maldives by now, or a third, at least. You could finally be free—free from a prison cell, free from the family. You won the jackpot with this deal, and you have your whole life ahead of you. Why risk losing it all?”