Priceless

“No. That’s the thing with floats; they only work in very calm waters. The ocean is far too rough and landing in it would not be safe, trust me.”

“You keep telling me to trust you.”

“I know I do.” He reached his hand over to mine and brought it forward to rest on his lap. “Is it working?” he asked hopefully, pulling it up the rest of the way to his lips. Ahhh, so he could do romantic, too. Deadly combination Mr. Everley had going on.

“Well, I’m trying really hard to trust you. I let you take me for a ride in your plane when I could be putting my life at risk. I mean, how should I know if you’re a licensed pilot and have the proper skills to land on a lake?”

He flashed me another of those teeth-baring smiles. They were very white and even, but he had the gap between the front two. Sometimes imperfections were more beautiful than the absence of them.

“You’re about to find out. Here we go.”

He had to release my hand to work the controls and do his checks. His hands moved in precise motions, focused and confident.

I was mesmerized as I watched him work to prepare the plane for landing.

He banked toward the left before leveling it out to descend rapidly and drop us just a few feet over the dark water of the lake. We skimmed along for a bit until the swoosh of water grabbed the bottom of the floats and immediately slowed our momentum. In a matter of seconds we were no longer propelled through the air, but floating in water and gliding along smoothly like a sailboat.

Amazing.

“Wow, that was so—so awesome.” And I really meant it.

“So, you enjoyed that, did you?”

“Yes. It was beautiful.”

He looked at me and said, “You’re beautiful.”

That he thought so made me feel good inside, but still I had to look away. Whatever we were doing was still too new for me to process completely, and made me feel shy. Plus all of those drinks…

I focused on what was outside my window instead. The landscape looked different to me from when we’d taken off from Hallborough. The lake looked bigger and there were far fewer lights than I remembered. Only the moon lit up the night sky.

“Did you land us on the other side of the lake from where we took off, or something?” I asked.

“You could say that.”

“Oh…”

I was confused but he seemed to know what he was doing as he steered the plane along through the water. After a few minutes he slowed and carefully navigated toward what looked like a concrete ramp. The sound of wheels turning as tires met a hard surface surprised me. He drove the plane right out of the water and onto a dry dock that seemed to be specially built for the purpose. It had a roof and everything. Like a parking spot for a plane.

This wasn’t Hallborough at all.

“We’re not at Hallborough anymore.” My words sounded as if I was trying to convince myself.

Trying to convince myself that I hadn’t just been kidnapped.

“No, not Hallborough,” he said clearly.

“Where have you brought me, Ivan?” I could hear the panic in my own voice.

“Remember what I told you at dinner last night? That you would come back after the wedding? Well, the wedding is over.”

“Ivan, where have you brought me?” I repeated the question even though I had a pretty good idea. And my voice had moved past panic and off into HystericalLand.

“Donadea,” he whispered.

“You fucking bastard!”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look at him.