Page 124 of Mile High Heist

“Take my hand!” I shouted.

She heard me. I knew she did.

But she didn’t take my hand.

Instead, Olivia stared at me, and for a moment, the world stopped. The roaring stopped. The plane stopped.

Olivia didn’t take my hand.

Her eyes fluttered, not in shock, but in something else. It took a few seconds for my oxygen-starved brain to understand.

No.

No fucking way.

Her lips moved, but no sound came.

I’m sorry, Jax.

Her hands loosened. She turned toward the door.

“No!” I screamed at her. The roar splintered through my ribs.

She let go.

Not slowly, but sudden. She allowed herself to be sucked into oblivion, the device strapped to her wrist. One blink, and she was gone.

I stared at the place where she had just been. My knees gave out, and I came down hard, the seatbelt cutting into my hand as it pulled taut in my grip.

Betrayal bled onto my tongue.

The world turned white. The sky was burning.

And somewhere out there, the princess was falling.

Epilogue

Twelve days.

That was how long it had been since I last saw daylight. Twelve days of nothing but silence. Darkness. And, of course, the aching hole in my chest where my heart used to be.

I’d ripped it out twelve days ago when I jumped out of that plane.

Cold stone pressed against my back. The air was rotten. Damp. The only light came from the six holes drilled into the wall above my head. They were filled with cobwebs. A place long since abandoned.

But it wasn’t abandoned. Not anymore.

I heard them coming. The iron doors weren’t exactly quiet as they shuddered open. Footsteps clicked over wet stone. Warm firelight reached me first, pouring through the bars of my prison. Their shadows followed, three of them.

I didn’t move, didn’t react when they came to a stop just beyond my cage. I heard them breathing.

Sometimes they brought food. Sometimes they just stared.

Today, they spoke.

“Are you satisfied now?” The voice was deep, muffled. I peeked up through my lashes. They wore those stupid gold masks, concealing everything but their eyes. I hated those fucking eyes.

The question wasn’t directed to me.