27. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Riley
The screams of a banshee snap me out of my sedative-imposed sleep. I blink slowly as I wake up, starting to register the thick feeling of my tongue in my dry mouth as I attempt to raise my head from the headrest of my seat.
No can do, apparently.
My body must be too sluggish to respond to that command.
“The fuck is happening?” I mutter as I try to keep my eyelids open.
I’m hopeful that Trick’s about to reassure me that everything is all good, before he slips me more sedatives, and I can go back to sleep while he continues to fuck the living hell out of that crazy blonde.
When he doesn’t immediately answer, I push a little harder to fight off the haze of the sedatives.
There aren’t too many reasons for a woman to be screaming like a possessed demon on a private jet.
Maybe Trick’s too busy with her to respond to me, but the part of me that doubts that is too big.
He’s never been into anyone before, sure.
That doesn’t mean he’s turned into the kinda guy who’d fuck a girl while his friend is sleeping right next to them.
We’re definitely still moving. That much is obvious.
Something about it feels weird and wrong, but I can’t tell what, exactly.
The blonde’s screams become quiet whimpering sobs.
“It’s nothing!” Trick blurts out. “Go back to sleep!”
Well, fuck. Now I know something bad is happening.
Grunting, I uncross my arms, and that’s when I realize gravity is part of the problem.
“What the …” I use my left arm to pull my right arm back to my middle.
“Riley! Don’t undo your …” Trick shouts, stopping when I finally look back at him.
His face is red, and his knuckles are white on the arms of his seat.
Both of his feet are up against the edge of the table between us.
Holy fucking shit.
He’s being pulled forward, and I’m being pulled back.
We’re going down, and it’s way too fast to be intentional.
“Are we fucking crashing? Is that what’s happening here?”
Trick stares back at me, keeping quiet to avoid pissing me off.
Too late for that now.
This is my worst nightmare made real.
There’s nothing he could say to make it better.
“What the fuck, Xane?” I roar out.
I can’t even make myself look at the blonde.
She’s gone quiet, but I can hear her quickened breathing.
Clearly, she’s trying to calm down.
“We’re slowing down,” Trick murmurs.
The next few seconds are bumpy, but we start to straighten up.
“Oh, thank God,” the blonde whispers next to me.
My body tenses up, bracing for impact, but we roll to an eventual stop without hitting anything.
The sound of the radio dinging hits while I’m unbuckling my seatbelt.
“We’ve made it onto dry land,” Xane informs us.
“Is everyone okay?” Kian yells from the cockpit.
“Not for long,” I snap back. “Get that fucking door open. Now.”
Getting up, I march to the cockpit door.
Kian looks completely unruffled. He doesn’t move any faster.
“Open the door,” I snap again, cracking my knuckles while I wait.
“I’m doing it. Hold your horses.” His gaze moves past me to the blonde.
She’s standing up, smoothing her clothes down as if they got ruffled in the free-fall.
He’s actually standing there watching her instead of opening the door.
“Move,” I bark at him.
He glances back at me and clears his throat. “Right. Sure.”
The door is swinging open a second later, showing grassland and a beach through some nearby trees, beyond the steps.
I take a run and jump over the steps, landing on a patch of grass.
Solid ground, thank fuck!
But this isn’t the landing strip at Golden Sands.
“This doesn’t look like a runway, Xane!” I yell out loud enough to wake the dead.
I take a few steps through the foliage toward the beach.
It’s pristine, untouched.
No one around.
I frown as I turn back to see Kian lead the reporter off the jet.
They stop a few steps away from where I’m standing.
“What the fuck happened?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Language,” Kian chides. “You shouldn’t curse with a lady present.”
I grind my teeth. He really knows how to test my patience.
“I’d like to know what happened, too,” the blonde says. “It’s all a bit blurry after we hit that patch of turbulence.”
“Turbulence?” I look past them as Trick comes down the steps.
Xane appears in the doorway, finally, and I wait for him to explain since Kian’s clearly too busy fawning over the reporter.
“Slight change of plans,” Xane admits, as comes down the steps.
“Slight?” Trick mutters.
“The fuel tank is fine,” Xane muses. “Something shorted after we hit that turbulence, but I can’t find anything wrong. Hopefully, it’s a minor glitch I can fix.”
“Something’s wrong with the jet?” Trick asks.
“What does that mean? I thought you did all the usual checks before take-off?” I frown at Xane. “And where are we, exactly? Because this doesn’t look like a five-star resort to me.”
Xane sighs. “I had to land on the closest island. I thought we might end up in the sea if I didn’t.”
“The closest island,” Trick echoes.
“We’re not that far away from Golden Sands,” Xane goes on. “As soon as I get the jet up and running, and turned around, we should be good to get there in about twenty minutes once we’re back in the air.”
“Once we’re back in the air?” I shake my head, walking away from them all.
There’s no way in hell I’m setting foot back inside that tin-can death trap, and they’re crazy if they think they can make me.