by M. S. Parker
I emptied half my bottle in one long swallow and sighed. I was hungry but wasn’t sure I wanted to bother getting dressed to go get food. Except it was a nice Saturday night and the place across the street served delicious empanadas, which should have been incentive enough. I took another drink and wondered if it was better to order in. That would involve getting up as well, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that either. Just the thought of standing up made me tired.
My eyelids felt heavy as I blinked. One. Two. That seemed like a long blink. One. Two. Three. Four…
My head jerked up, and I gasped, my heart racing.
“Easy. You’re okay.”
The familiar voice drew my attention before my brain had really processed my surroundings. Clay. What was he doing in my…wait, I wasn’t in my room. I wasn’t sitting in the chair. I was in a different chair. And so was Clay.
“What…” Color at the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned my head to find myself looking out a window and into a blue sky…above a layer of clouds. “Oh, fuck.”
Seven
Clay
“Oh, fuck.”
Leave it to Tess to say exactly what I’d first thought when I’d woken up about ten minutes ago.
“What the fuck did you do?” She practically shouted the question at me.
“Me?” I stared at her. “I’m here, same as you.”
“Yeah, on a fucking airplane instead of in my hotel room like I was supposed to be.” She glowered at me. “What did you do? Drug me and kidnap me?” A look of horror settled on her face, as if she didn’t actually mean the words until she heard herself say them.
“Really, Tess?” I tried to channel my hurt into anger, but it wasn’t easy. The fight we’d had had just about ripped my heart out. I hated even more that she thought I’d drug and kidnap her.
“Why would you do this? Why couldn’t you just leave me the hell alone? I told you I would find Brianne on my own.” She started to stand, but her legs wouldn’t hold her, and she collapsed back into the seat. “You just had to keep sticking your nose in my business.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You’re seriously going to go there? After the thing with my phone?”
She flailed her arms, indicating everything around us in one sweeping gesture. “What else am I supposed to think? I mean, I’m in my room one minute and waking up on a fucking plane the next?” She looked around, registering for the first time that we weren’t on some commercial flight. The wind seemed to go right out of her sails. “What’s going on here, Clay?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “After you left yesterday, I went down to the hotel bar to have a couple drinks. I swear, I only had two, and then the room was spinning. I barely remember getting back to my room and falling onto my bed. The next thing I know, I’m waking up here, with you sitting across from me, still sleeping.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” she snapped.
I would’ve been angry at the retort if I hadn’t seen the flash of fear in her eyes. “You were out for about ten minutes after I woke up. Before you ask, I already looked around, and there’s nothing here to tell us whose plane this is or where we’re going. No one’s been in here either. And no one will answer when I knock on the cockpit.”
She pulled her legs up onto the seat and wrapped her arms around them. I was struck with a pang of longing so sharp it made my stomach hurt. I wanted to go to her, hold her, comfort her, and it pissed me off. I didn’t want to forget about what she’d done, not until she admitted she was wrong.
We sat in silence for what felt like forever, even though I knew it had only been minutes. Then we heard the cockpit door open and both jumped to our feet. I put myself between Tess and whoever was coming without a moment’s hesitation. I told myself I would’ve done it for anyone, but that wasn’t true. Tess was special to me, and that was a fact that had been true from the first moment I’d met her, and continued to be true, no matter what we were arguing about.
The person who stepped into view wore military fatigues. Air Force, if I remembered correctly. I glanced at the place where a name would usually be and didn’t see one. He was younger than me – not surprising since I’d passed up the average age of most enlisted men a few years ago – with dark hair buzzed close to his head and a patch of scar tissue on his jaw.
“Good morning.” He had a low voice, the sort that people tended to listen to even if it wasn’t raised. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and if you’ll bear with me for a moment, I’ll tell you what I can.”
He paused, giving us both a moment to decide if we were going to give him the chance to explain. When neither of us spoke, he went on.
“I’m the co-pilot on this flight, and yes, I’m in the Air Force. I am not able to give you any additional information about myself. I can tell you that we are flying to LAX and will arrive at our destination in less than two hours.”
I glanced at Tess and saw in her eyes a reflection of what I was thinking. The trip from Costa Rica to California was about six hours. If we were less than two hours out from LAX, she and I had been asleep – or unconscious – for more than four hours, and we’d been deep enough under that someone had been able to remove us from our hotel rooms, take us to an airport, load us onto the plane, and then take off, all without us waking up.
“The pilot and I were hired to make a flight but weren’t given much in the way of details, so asking me a million questions won’t do you any good.”
I could almost hear Tess grinding her teeth.
“But I do have this.” The co-pilot held up a folded piece of paper. “I was told to give it to the female passenger once she woke.”
As Tess reached for the paper, I wondered if she’d understood the implications of what he’d just said. If he was supposed to give her the note after she woke up, that meant he had to have a way of knowing she was awake. There was always the possibility that he’d come out to check on us periodically, but I suspected something else. A plane like this probably had cameras that fed into the cockpit so that, unless they were instructed otherwise, the pilot and co-pilot could keep an eye on their passengers.
Whose plane was this?
“Help yourself to the bottles of water and fresh fruit,” he said. “If you need to contact us, there’s an intercom next to the cockpit door, but please only do so if it’s an emergency.”
He walked away before I could sputter something about how being kidnapped was considered an emergency. Then again, he hadn’t seemed concerned that once we landed in LAX, we would contact authorities to have charges of kidnapping brought against him. I supposed he could think that he’d simply get away before he could be caught, but my gut told me that the real reason was that he answered to someone a hell of a lot higher than the LAPD.
“Clay.”
Tess’s voice sounded hollow as I turned to her. She held out the paper and then returned to her seat, her face expressionless, as if what she’d read had taken away her ability to react.
I opened the note, already suspecting what I’d find.
Tess and Clay, I know you’re both pissed and me, and this is only going to make things worse, but it had to be done. You’d never have let me stay when I couldn’t explain to you why I needed to, and I knew you’d never leave me behind, even though you both have every right to hate me after all I’ve done. I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you two, which means you have to go home without me. Tess, tell Mom I’m okay, and I’ll call her when I get a chance. Both of you, go back to your lives. Don’t try to find me. I have things to do, and I need to focus on that. Be safe. Bri
Eight
Tess
“I need to go to the bathroom,” I managed to choke out as I stumbled out of my seat.
I didn’t know if Clay heard me, but I didn’t care. I needed privacy. Besides, it wasn’t like I really had many places to go. My eyes burned with angry tears, but I managed to keep them back until I shoved the bathroom door shut behind me. As I let them
spill over, I put my hands over my mouth to muffle a scream of rage and pain.
How could Brianne do this to me?! The note was bad enough, but what she’d actually done, that had been too far. I couldn’t imagine coming up with a plan to drug and kidnap two strangers, let alone two people I was close to. If Brianne had done it to just Clay, I still would’ve thought it was out of line, but the fact that she’d done it to me cut deep. I’d just gotten used to the idea that Brianne hadn’t betrayed me with Clay, and then she’d…I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
I leaned over the sink, unable to face my reflection because I knew what I’d see. The heartbreak of someone who’d been made a fool of by someone she loved. I felt like an idiot, like I’d brought it all on myself because I’d given her a second chance after she’d spent sixteen years lying to me. I’d always believed I was good at my job because I never believed people’s stories without proof. I’d been called a cynic more than once, but I’d never minded because I’d seen it as a way to protect myself from being hurt the way I was hurt as a kid. Except it hadn’t protected me because I’d failed to keep my guard up around the one person I should have known would hurt me. Again.
“Tess?” Clay knocked on the door. “Are you okay in there?”
I didn’t answer.
“Okay, that was a stupid question,” he said a moment later.
Yes, it was.
“Can I come in?” he asked, his voice softer. “Talk to me, Tess.”
I yanked open the door and glared up at him. “Talk to you? How do I know you’re not in with Bri on this?”
Instead of fighting back, his expression softened, and he stepped into the bathroom with me. He didn’t say anything as he managed to shut the door behind him. He didn’t apologize for crowding me, but it wasn’t like he could’ve really given me space. There was barely space between us to breathe, and even though the bathroom had the antiseptic sort of scent that came with industrial cleaning, he was all I could smell now. That musky spice scent that had always turned my insides out.
He took my face between his hands and swiped his thumbs under my eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything,” I said, my voice small.
Even though I’d accused him not more than a minute ago, I didn’t truly believe he was working with Brianne to get me out of the country. If he was, he wouldn’t have needed to lie about it. We were in the air, almost at LAX. There was no reason he couldn’t have simply explained that they were looking out for me. Even if he’d said Bri had been the one to drug me, there wasn’t any real reason for him to pretend to have been drugged too.
He brushed his lips against my forehead. “I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now.”
I leaned into him, resting my cheek on his chest as he dropped his arms to hold me. His heartbeat was steady in my ear, grounding me even as it felt like everything else in my world was descending into chaos. Before I’d arrived in Costa Rica, my life wasn’t perfect, but it had at least made sense. Now, nothing made sense except the feel of him, the sound of his pulse, the scent I knew, and I clung to that.
His fingers slipped under the hem of my shirt, sending little feathers of heat across my skin. I curled my hands into his shirt and pressed my body closer to his, almost wishing it was possible for me to crawl inside his skin, to feel only him, to let him fill my senses until there wasn’t room for anything else.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked. “Just tell me.”
I tipped my head back to look him in the face. “Make me forget, even for just a little bit.”
He didn’t ask me what I meant. He didn’t even hesitate for a moment.
He kissed me hard, taking my breath away even as one hand worked between us to undo my pants. The other hand twisted in my hair, giving me the edge I needed to chase away every thought in my head. His tongue pushed my lips apart even as his fingers delved between my folds, making rough strokes over my dry clit. The burn made me gasp, but he swallowed the sound and kept working over that sensitive bundle of nerves until I was wet.
When my hips jerked, the pressure inside me building to near pain, he finally pulled his mouth from mine. His eyes blazed as he pulled his hand from my pants and then picked me up to sit me on the tiny sink. He yanked down my pants, leaving them and my panties hanging around one ankle. I moved my knees apart, and he stepped between my legs, pushing down his pants as he came forward.
I let out a little cry as he buried himself inside me with one thrust. We didn’t have much room to move, but we didn’t need it. Short, desperate jerks and strong, talented fingers pressed all the right places, keeping me speeding toward climax until I finally shattered. I was still lost in pleasure when he pressed his face against the side of my neck, using my body to muffle his shout as he came.
We stayed there, our bodies joined, and simply enjoyed the silence, both literal and mental. Before either of us summoned the energy to separate and clean up, a man’s voice came over the intercom.
“If everyone can return to their seats, we’re heading into a bit of a storm. Once we’re on the other side of it, we’ll be getting ready to start our descent to LAX.”
And that was it.
Nine
Clay
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Why couldn’t I leave her alone?
Even as much as I’d liked being with Rona, there was always a point where I’d been ready to part ways and get back to my own life. When she’d broken things off with me, I’d thought I was upset because I was in love with her. Ray said I’d been in love with the idea rather than her. What he hadn’t said, but I’d realized since then, was that part of my problem had been my pride being stung. It hadn’t taken me long to get past wanting to be with her once I’d accepted that.
Tess, however, was different. It didn’t seem to matter how much time I spent with her, it wasn’t enough. When I wasn’t with her, I was thinking about her, about what she was doing, who she was with. If she’d lived closer to Denver, maybe I would’ve been okay with having her monopolize so much of my mind, but when we got back to the US, we wouldn’t even be in the same time zone.
I needed to get her out of my system, but what I was doing wasn’t working. The more time I spent with her, the more I wanted her. Being inside her, feeling and watching her climax, knowing that I could make her come apart like that…it was addicting.
I had a sinking feeling that the only thing that would get her off my mind was to get away from her, but I hated the thought of not having her close to my side.
Shit. Talk about a catch-22.
As I went back to my seat, I fidgeted with the waistband of my pants. It wasn’t until then that I realized I had something in my pocket. To my surprise, it was my phone. I hadn’t even thought to look for it, which was just further proof that just being around Tess messed with my mind.
I pulled it out and settled in my seat. It took a few moments to power up, but as soon as it finished, I connected to the plane’s Wi-Fi and watched my messaging app load nearly a dozen messages from Ray.
Fuck. That couldn’t be good.
Clay, just got called up to find out why my partner was in Costa Rica. I said you were taking a vacation and I asked you to look into something for me. Don’t do anything else. Wait for me to call.
Message two.
There’s something going on down there. Don’t do anything. Seriously. I have a meeting in a few, and I’ll get some more info there.
Message three.
What the hell are you doing down there?! This is so much bigger than one missing girlfriend. I’m going to try to talk to Secretary Ganesh. Stop whatever you’re doing and have a drink. Do anything but what you’re doing.
The next two were pretty close to the same thing, and the timestamps put them at about the same time Tess and I would’ve been in the process of being kidnapped, which made me wonder what we’d done that Ray had been going on about.
This is some serious shit, kid.
Secretary Ganesh is saying a whole lot of nothing, so I can’t tell if he knows something and is trying to hide it, or if he doesn’t know shit and is trying to pretend that he does. Whatever it is, it’s way too high for my paid grade, but don’t worry, I won’t leave you stranded.
That was surprisingly long for my partner. The next one, however, was much shorter.
Get out of Costa Rica.
Then…
Pick up your fucking phone and tell me you’re not dead.
And the last one.
Come back and go straight to DC. Don’t stop in Denver. Don’t talk to anyone. I’ll meet you there.
The silence between Tess and I was strained, but I didn’t try to fix it. Instead, I stared at my phone and pretended to be checking important things. Anything to keep from having to talk about what had happened between us. I didn’t want her reading too much into it…or too little.
“If I could have your attention.” A man’s voice came over the intercom again. “We’ll be landing at LAX at one fifteen Sunday afternoon, and the weather is a balmy seventy-two degrees.”
Was he really acting like we were on some sort of normal flight? Like he wasn’t participating in a felony?
I sighed and finally put my phone away, bracing for a flood of questions from Tess. But they didn’t come. I glanced over to see that she’d assumed the same position as me, head down, eyes focused on her phone screen. I watched her for a few seconds, but she didn’t look at me. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one trying to avoid talking about things.
I respected her silence as she’d respected mine, and the two of us didn’t speak until we were walking down the steps into the bright Los Angeles sunlight.
“When’s your flight back to Denver?” Tess asked.
“I’m not going to Denver,” I said.