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While I’d been staring out of the door, I’d tuned out everything else. Now, I started to pay attention to what was happening around me and it was chaos. With the door open, the engines were deafening. Everyone was shouting over the top of them and Gina was shouting loudest of all, demanding to know what the hell was going on behind her. “She jumped!” I yelled.
“She jumped?” repeated Gina. “Where were you guys? There are six of you!”
We all looked at each other guiltily. “She was handcuffed,” said Danny. “What happened to the handcuffs?”
Bradan, who’d been sitting at the back of the plane, picked up the handcuffs from Tanya’s seat and held them up. How did she get out of those?!
I looked out of the door again, peering through the darkness behind us. Shit! The ripples where Tanya had hit the water were almost gone. “Circle around!” I yelled to Gina.
The plane banked and circled. The ripples faded completely and I stared at the exact spot of blackness that had been their center: if I looked away, I’d never find her again in the endless blackness. Finally, as Gina flew us over the spot again, I made out movement in the water: Tanya must be swimming to shore. “Land!” I yelled.
“It’s not a helicopter, you idiot, I’ll have to find an airstrip!” Gina yelled back.
“Lads?” Danny’s voice sounded small, fractured. “We’ve got a bigger problem.”
I reluctantly turned back to the cabin. Danny was hunched over Cal, who was lying on the floor. I frowned. How hard did she punch him?
Then Danny shone his flashlight and we saw the spreading red stain on Cal’s abdomen. Tanya hadn’t punched him. She’d stabbed him.
9
COLTON
Gina reacted first. She dug out a paper map and threw it at JD. “Find me a hospital!”
JD stared searching on the map with his flashlight. The rest of us crowded around Cal, who was sucking in slow, shaky breaths. I shone my flashlight on his face and my stomach knotted when I saw how pale he was. I shook my head, furious and worried. “I searched her before we put her in the car. What the fuck did she stab him with?”
We all looked at each other. Then Bradan suddenly bent and groped at his ankle. His shoulders slumped. “My knife is missing,” he said sheepishly. “I was sitting behind her. When she got out of her cuffs, she must have reached back and taken it without me noticing.”
“Got a hospital,” said JD. “And an airfield, about twenty miles north.”
The plane banked as Gina changed course. Through the open door, I watched the lake dropping away and my chest went tight. This was my fault. She was my responsibility.
I had to fix it.
“Wait!” I yelled. “Make one more pass over the lake! As low as you can!”
Gina looked at me over her shoulder, confused. Then she saw my expression and her eyes widened as she realized what I was planning. The plane began to circle around.
“You’re going to jump?” asked Danny.
“She made it,” I told him, grabbing my pack and strapping it on. “I can too.” I sounded a lot more confident than I felt.
“You’re not going after her on your own!” JD told me.
I turned to face him. “We don’t have time to argue, boss. This is my mess. If I don’t get after her right now, the trail’ll be cold. Get Cal to the hospital, I’ll run her down and bring her to you.”
“Here we go,” yelled Gina.
I ran over to the door and looked down. The moon had gone behind a cloud and I couldn’t see anything: just blackness. What the fuck are you doing, Colton? At least when Danny and Erin did this, it was by accident.
I allowed myself two quick breaths. And then, before I could change my mind, I jumped.
10
COLTON
There was a second of oh shit wait I actually did it? And then the plane was gone and I was falling into stomach-churning nothingness. I couldn’t even brace myself for hitting the water because I didn’t know where the water was.
I kept falling, picking up speed, now, plummeting. Shit. Shit! Gina must have climbed. I’d jumped from way too high, the water would be like concrete when I hit it. Shit, shit, shit—
I hit the water boots first and went right under, plunging deep. I was so surprised, I just hung there in the blackness for a few seconds before I thought to kick for the surface. Then my face broke through into air and I gasped and panted. I could see the lights of the plane and it wasn’t that high, after all, only fifty feet or so. But it had sure felt a lot higher. Whatever else Tanya was, she was brave as hell, to have jumped. Whatever mission she was on, she must really believe in it.
