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“Yeah. Just all sinking in, I guess.”
He nodded. “It’s a tough one.” He moved the tabletop out of the way and pulled open the cupboard with his coat in it. He yanked the parka off the hanger and put it on. The gray matched his eyes perfectly. Allegra snorted softly. Of all the things she could be thinking of, the fact that she was admiring Xavier and his coat meant she really might be losing it.
He glanced at his aviator-style watch. “We don’t have long before the sun sets. I’m going to poke around a bit outside.”
She frowned. “I thought you said it was a waste of time.”
“I don’t want both of us out there getting wet and cold, but I need to make sure there isn’t a slow leak of fuel or something out there. We’re gonna want to light a small fire to keep warm. I don’t want us blowing ourselves up.”
That made sense. She did not want to blow up. “Okay.”
“You stay there.” With that Xavier walked by her and out the back of the plane.
She shivered again. The temperature was dropping and the snow was falling harder now. It was not going to be a pleasant night. Xavier was right. They’d need a fire if they didn’t want to get hypothermia. Fatigue hit her in a wave. All she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. This was a nightmare she needed to wake up from.
She stared out the window next to her. It was time to face facts. Simon had tried to kill her by depressurizing the plane at altitude. It wouldn’t have taken long once all the oxygen had been depleted. Coincidence? She didn’t believe in them. Her hands shook and she swallowed convulsively hoping to stop the nausea building in her stomach.
Who could it be? Connie was the only one at work Friday night but she just couldn’t picture the friendly lawyer doing her harm. Premeditated violence went against his nature. That didn’t leave many suspects. Graham? He would make the most sense but he knew very little about how data worked. There was no way he could manipulate it on his own but if he had an accomplice…she could see it.
But, how would they know that she knew?
“Shit,” she mumbled. She’d been logged into the network so someone in IT would’ve been able to trace her movements online. If even one of her colleagues paid attention and was tech-savvy they could’ve done it themselves. She didn’t think Graham was clever enough but she didn’t know him that well. He’d just been an obstacle on her way to the top. She’d learned to deal with him when she realized Damon loved him and he wasn’t ever going away.
That’s how she thought of her co-workers. Obstacles, helpers and neutrals. Everyone fell into one of those categories and sometimes they moved between them. She hadn’t realized how cold that was until just this minute. It had been her strategy. Nothing more. Now though, she suddenly had clarity. There were no friends for her at work, only colleagues. Her only friend, her mentor, had retired. Now she was just the cold bitch in the corner office. How had it come to that? How had she let it happen? Ambition had been her driving force, but maybe her mother was right. Was she missing out? Had she always been like this?
She let out a breath and the moisture droplets hung in the air. The temp was dropping, and fast. She pulled her jacket closed at the neck. Fear gnawed at her, but she shoved it down deep. She had no time for fear. Her climb to the top had taught her that if nothing else.
She heard the sound of footfalls and turned to see Xavier coming back into the fuselage. He nodded to her. “We’re going to need to stay warm. The storm is getting worse. They won’t find us tonight.”
“What? What do you mean they won’t find us tonight? They know where we went down right?” she asked. Her stomach was at her knees. This just couldn’t be happening.
“The storm is too bad. They can’t see in it. They won’t send helos out in this, and airplanes can’t land here. Hopefully, there’s a road not too far but no one will come out tonight. They won’t risk other lives to save ours when they don’t even know if we’re alive.”
The air in her lungs turned frigid, blocking her ability to draw a breath. She had to get to Geneva. Damon had to know about the data corruption before the announcement. “Can we go find the road? Maybe there are people around?” She moved toward the opening in the fuselage.
He reached out and gripped her arm. “I get that you want to get out of here, God knows I do, too, but going out in that stormon footwould be a death sentence. The weather is deteriorating. We’re staying here and keeping warm as best we can. It should only be one night and we have a bit of water and food.” He gestured toward the bag he’d packed.
“The bad news is—”
“Wait, that was all good news?” Was this guy crazy? How could this get any worse?
He waited a beat. “The bad news is we can’t light a fire in here because I can’t be sure there isn’t a fuel leak. I can smell gas, but I don’t know if that’s left over from the crash or it’s still leaking.”
“So how are we going to stay warm?” she demanded.
“Any way we can.” Xavier turned then and started moving fallen items off the floor.
“What are you doing?”
He pushed a chair over to the side and pulled the cushion off it. “I’m trying to make space and find soft stuff for us to lie on.” He threw seat cushions down on the carpeted area behind the cockpit. It was a small space but it was the most open space available.
This situation was going from bad to worse and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The cold air seared her lungs. She was damned lucky to be alive, she reminded herself. She needed to be grateful for that. If she didn’t get to Damon in time, they’d have to find a way to deal with it. She could do it. She’d survived a damn plane crash.
“Are you okay?” Xavier asked.
She opened her eyes. “Just reminding myself how grateful I should be to still be alive.”
He grunted and continued to yank cushions from the seats. He had them lining the floor in a sort of makeshift bed. “See if you can find any blankets.”
