“I’m not taking any chances.” He locked his fingers tighter on my bicep.
I looked over my shoulder at the empty wooden crate behind me. If there was a silver lining, it was that I wasn’t being transported for the second part of the trip inside that box and it hadn’t become my tomb. I didn’t know how much longer I could have stayed inside without losing my mind.
There was no sign of AJ anywhere. But as we approached the steps leading into the jet’s cabin I heard a shout behind me.
“Syd!”
My head whipped around. “AJ!”
“Shut up.” The man hit me across the cheek and my head fell limp. I struggled to look up. My cheek instantly throbbed with pain. I had never felt as if my brain had actually rattled in my head before.
“What is he doing here? I thought we decided it was best to eliminate him.”
“And I decided not to. Thought we could get something for him,” Hancock barked.
AJ’s hands were still fastened together at his wrists, but the ties around his ankles had been cut so he was able to walk. I wanted to run toward him. To see if he was ok. To tell him every part of my body hurt, but that I was alive. I was going to do what I promised him I would do. I wouldn’t let him down.
There was a weird giddiness bubbling in my stomach. We were going on this flight together. That meant there was another chance we could escape. That AJ would have a strategy to get us to safety.
“He’s not worth shit. She’s the one with the price tag.” The brute made an extra tug on my arm to show he had control of me.
Hancock spat from the side of his mouth. “You don’t know that. He’s gotta be worth something if he was trying to protect her. I get the feeling he’s got information. No one carries a piece on them like that if they aren’t agency.” I wondered what had happened to AJ’s weapon.
“What the fuck ever. Just get them on board. We have a deadline to meet. Beechum wants to take off on time.”
The nausea rolled inside me. If Cindy and Jeff were our flight crew why did I expect any other pilot to take us to my buyer? I still hadn’t seen Beechum. I didn’t know what he looked like.
The guard pushed me forward too roughly. I missed the stair. My shin banged into the metal step when I heard the squeal of tires and a siren blasting as a squad of black cars sped toward us. I squinted, trying to identify everything coming into view at once. There was instant chaos.
“Go! Go!” The man shoved me up the stairs. “Get in. Get in the fucking plan
e.” But as he urged me upward, I slammed into the stairs, barely breaking my fall with my palms.
“Shit,” I mumbled.
In a matter of seconds any sense of sanity vanished. The man pulled his weapon, aiming at the black cars.
AJ hurled his elbow into Hancock, knocking the gun to the ground. It spun on the concrete and skidded out of reach.
“AJ!” I screamed when the first round of shots were fired. I was helpless. Horrified. I couldn’t see where the bullets stopped. I knew it was a sound I would never forget. The echo inside the hangar magnified the release of the trigger. I wanted it to stop. I wanted the shooting to be over.
An SUV pulled all the way up to the stairs. I was too high up to just slip off and escape. Without the full use of my ankles, I couldn’t depend on them to hold me if I jumped down. My instincts told me to get out of the line of fire, but the only way out of the path was inside the jet and I wasn’t going there.
Two agents pulled their guns as they stepped out of the vehicle.
“FBI!” they shouted. “Drop your weapons! Now!”
My assailant only huffed. I croaked when he leaned toward me, taking my neck in his fat hand, keeping his aim on the agents.
I’d never felt anything wound so tightly on my throat as his fingers. I gasped for a breath.
“Let her go.” It was AJ. He tossed the gun he had picked up. It landed at the bottom of the stairs. He raised his hands.
“Agent Hart, we’ve got this.”
He shook the off. “No. I’ve got this. Put your weapons down.” He looked directly at the man pointing a gun at him. “You said it yourself. You don’t want to hurt her. She’s valuable, right?”
There was slightly less pressure against my larynx. I struggled for air.