I didn’t catch the rest. The guard who’d tied us to the rails jumped out before tying Buck to the wall of the plane. Carter and I exchanged a glance.
A second guard jumped in and slid the door closed before moving up to take the other seat next to the pilot. There was no door between the cockpit and the cargo area, so the pilot and guard could look back at any time to check on us.
As soon as the plane began moving, I leaned across the narrow aisle and asked Buck if he could turn around and grab the knife in Carter’s pants with his hands. I kept my eyes on the guards to make sure we had enough warning to get back in position.
It took some work, and Buck had to brace through a ton of pain as the plane bumped down the rough runway, but he finally sliced through the ropes on my wrists. After handing me the knife, Buck returned to his seat and closed his eyes. He looked like he was going to puke.
I quickly cut through the rope on Carter’s hands. The noise from the plane’s engine was loud enough to cover most of my furtive instructions. Anytime the second guard turned his head to check on us, we quickly resumed the positions of compliant hostages with our hands behind our backs, but the minute he faced forward again, I got back to work with the knife.
“What about me?” Buck hissed.
I didn’t trust him not to fuck things up. He didn’t seem like the smartest Nutter in the Thicket, so I was hesitant to rely on him.
After cutting his ropes, I told him to stay here on the bench and wait for instruction. “You need to stay here and keep your injury from opening back up.”
The plane was just lifting over the treetops when I stopped to take a breath. I turned to Carter. “I’m going to subdue the guard first, but just in case this pilot has a death wish, I’ll need to be ready to take over the controls. That means you’re going to be the one tying these guys up.”
“Wait. What?” He looked a little confused.
“Babe, we’re hijacking this plane.”
Instead of panicking, Carter let out a breath and firmed his chin. “Fuck yeah, we are. Let’s do this.”
I started to stand, but he grabbed my arm and handed me something. “Wait! One of the things you shoved in my pocket was a prefilled syringe of Versed.” He looked nervous. “Try not to use it since we don’t know if the guard will tolerate it, but if you need it… it’s a fast-acting sedative.”
He was worried about the thug who was potentially charged with throwing us out of this plane.
I gripped the back of his neck and pressed a hard kiss on his lips. Buck made a surprised noise behind me. “You’re the kindest man I know, Duchess,” I murmured. “Grab the ropes and be ready.”
I slipped the syringe into the chest pocket of my scrub top and held the knife in my right hand as I crept up to the cockpit. The wall behind the guard’s seat gave me enough coverage to wait until he looked back again and saw I was missing from the bench. He made a noise of surprise and crawled out of his seat to come back to the cargo area. As soon as he was within reach, I grabbed him and wrestled his arms behind his back before putting him facedown on the floor of the plane and patting him down for his weapon.
Sure enough, he had a handgun at his hip. I shoved it into my waistband and reached for the rope from Carter. I tied the guard up and then hauled him further down the cargo area before tying him quickly to a cargo bolt in the floor. When I stood back up to return to the cockpit, I felt the plane take a steep turn to the right. The pilot was yelling into his radio and trying to control the plane with a gun in his hand. Buck had smartly moved over to Carter’s side of the plane, and they’d both moved forward so they sat behind the pilot’s seat where he couldn’t see them or aim at them.
I wasn’t as lucky.
“Riggs!” Carter yelled seconds before the pilot took a shot. I dropped to the floor and banged my knee and elbow hard, but at least I hadn’t been shot. The gun fell out of my pants and slid deep under the benches.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I shouted at the pilot, scrambling over to the side where Carter and Buck were. “¡Nos vas a matar!” You’re going to kill us.
“¡No te voy a lastimar!” he shouted back. I’m not going to hurt you! As if I would believe that from a man who’d just shot at me.