she saw now that there was a small plane camouflaged by evergreen branches.
Jesse arrived at the airplane first. He pulled away enough branches to open the cockpit door. She continued to yank away the branches to allow visibility through the front windshield. The plane was a small bush model designed to land in less-than-perfect conditions and terrain.
Movement at the top of the mountain peak drew her attention. Eddy had made it to the top and was lining up another shot, while the blond man jogged down the mountain toward them.
Jesse climbed into the plane.
She ripped away several more branches before yanking open the copilot door and slipping into the seat.
Jesse had flipped several switches. Lights on the control panel blinked on, but she did not hear the rumble and whir of an engine firing up.
Abigail was out of breath from running so hard. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
Jesse continued to flip switches on the control panel. “I have a pilot’s license. This thing hasn’t been fired up for a long time. It’s gonna take a minute.”
Through the windshield, she could see that the blond man had made it to the base of the mountain and was now running across the meadow. He’d have to get within feet of them to make a shot with a handgun count. Eddy, who was halfway down the mountain, lifted the rifle and peered through the scope.
Her heartbeat drummed in her ears and she gripped the armrest a little tighter.
The engine roared to life and Jesse taxied forward. The plane wobbled a bit on the uneven ground.
Eddy gave up on making the shot from where he was perched and jogged toward a rock, where he propped his rifle to steady it.
The blond man was less than ten yards from them.
Jesse pulled a handgun from inside his jacket. “You know how to shoot, right?”
“Of course.” Perhaps it was the severe tension of the moment, but she almost laughed out loud. “My dad taught me.”
He handed her the gun. “Pretty Boy is coming up on your side.”
“Is that what you call him?” She looked again to see that the blond man, Pretty Boy, had drawn even closer. As the plane gained speed, Pretty Boy took aim at her window. The plane bumped along. She opened the copilot door and fired off a shot that sent Pretty Boy to the ground. He got right back up. He must not have been hit.
The plane lifted off. When they were about forty feet off the ground, they flew right over Eddy, who was scrambling to line up a shot.
The plane was slow in gaining altitude. Jesse eased the throttle on the pedestal. When she peered out the front windshield, it looked like they wouldn’t clear the tops of the trees.
Jesse stared straight ahead. “Come on, baby. You can do this for me.”
As they flew over the tops of trees, she thought she heard branches brushing the underside of the airplane.
Abby let up on the death grip she had on the armrest of the seat and released the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “We made it.”
He turned to her. She liked the way a spark came into his brown eyes when he smiled. “Yes, we made it.”
She unclicked her seat belt and turned around to see what kind of cargo was in the plane. A tarp had come off what looked like neatly stacked rectangles of something. She leaned over the seat to get a better look.
Jesse’s face blanched. “It’s not what you think.”
Her breath caught in her throat. The tarp had been covering what looked like bricks of some kind of drug. A mixture of fear and anger swirled through her. “And what am I supposed to think?” Men couldn’t be trusted on any level. She was in an airplane with a criminal.
“Abigail, I can explain,” he said.
She slammed a hand on her hip. “I just bet you can explain.” All the anger she felt over Brent’s betrayal flooded back through her. What Jesse had done was even worse. Why was this happening? Did she have a sign on her forehead that said she was okay with being deceived by men?
The plane began to wobble.
“Face forward in your seat, put your seat belt on.” Jesse said in a raised voice.
One wing dropped lower than the other. She secured herself in the seat. “What’s wrong with the plane?”
Jesse clicked some switches on the instrument panel. “Either we’re having engine trouble or Eddy was able to hit the plane, and we just didn’t hear it over the sound of the motor.” He stared through the windshield. “Either way, I’m going to have to crash-land this baby.”
Abigail’s heart seized with terror as she stared through the windshield, watching the treetops grow ever closer.
Jesse stared out at the ground below as the plane lost altitude. He searched the landscape for a flat spot that could serve as a landing strip. What he saw was mostly forest and mountains.
“You know this area. Is there any place close by that would be flat enough to land on?”
Abigail stared through the front windshield. It took her a moment to respond. “Everything looks different from up here. Veer off to the west. I think there’s a grassy patch on the other side of that cluster of trees.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, a sign that revealed the level of fear she was battling.
The plane continued to sputter and lurch up and down as though traveling on waves. Jesse changed course. He dropped altitude as they drew near to the trees. He could see the flat spot Abigail had referred to. When he checked the gauges, he saw that they had lost substantial fuel since takeoff. The gas tank might have been hit. But some other damage was making it hard to keep the wings level.
The plane drew even closer to the ground, skimming the treetops. The strip of land was not very long. He’d be pushing it to try to get the plane stopped before they ran into the trees on the other side.
He nose-dived the plane, then leveled it off and dropped the landing gear. The wheels touched the ground, and the plane bumped along. The landing was so rough his body felt like he was being shaken from the inside and the outside at the same time.
The aircraft remained on the ground, but continued to rumble toward the trees. The entire cockpit vibrated as the trees drew closer. The nose of the plane shot through them. They rolled along, cutting through the trees that were far apart. Branches snapped until the larger trees served as a sort of net that stopped them. The body of the plane thundered and shook.
Both of them sat, clinging to their chairs while the dust settled, and the plane stopped creaking and groaning.
“If there’s a fuel leak, there could be a fire,” Jesse said. “You need to get out.” He had to find that hard drive, or all of this would be in vain. Lee had died before he could tell Jesse where in the plane he’d hidden it.
Abigail leaned to push on her door. “My door won’t open. There’s a tree in the way.” Her voice was filled with anguish. She slumped back
