Page 70 of Wayward
I’m making a dent in my ties but nothing much. I’ve more scored them in multiple places than cut them. It might be enough to snap them if I give them a fucking good yank.
Haley asks how it’s going with a raise of her eyebrows, and I shake my head. She frowns, and I rub the damn metal harder. Because if anything, I hate letting her down.
To me, it doesn’t appear that we’re heading back to the dock. Granted, I don’t know the city that well. I studied our rendezvous places and locations around them. I’ve got a pretty good general sense of direction, and we’re past where we should have taken a left to get back to the resort. I lean forward and look directly at Sam. He shrugs and shakes his head. Yeah, we’re not going back to the resort. It’s another thirty minutes in heavy traffic. Tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and bikes weave in and out of the car traffic in a dizzying pattern.
“Where are we going?” I lean forward and pass the metal back to Haley. It’s then that the driver of the SUV catches my eye. It’s Collins with a black baseball cap on. I didn’t realize he was our driver. There are two more SUVs behind us. No one in the front seat answers me. “It must have been hard to get things timed just right to catch us. I’m surprised you didn’t do it at the resort.”
Holloway’s shoulders twitch. Twitch. Like he didn’t know we were at the resort the whole time. We spent a good two hours hanging out on the beach last night, talking about home and soccer. We were at the resort and not careful. My eyes flick to Haley and then Sam. Did they catch his reaction?
Haley makes a quick face. That’s a yes. What the hell does that mean? If Anan didn’t sell us out, who did? Someone at the hotel? Stella? But like Haley said earlier, what would Stella get out of turning us over to Z?
It’s another ten minutes of silence. When we go around a corner, I check each time to make sure the SUV with Easton, Dante, and Zane is still behind us. A few minutes more pass, and the houses thin, turning to farmland. The SUV slows and stops. Collins taps his badge on the reader, and a gate opens and wedrive through. There’s a large parking lot in front of us, and the SUV takes a quick turn. Then I realize it’s not a parking lot.
Chapter 31
Sky Sail
Zane
I’ve got my eyes glued to the SUV in front of us when we pull to a stop inside a garage. The door is yanked open, and a guard with theRosewoodanchor on his uniform glares at me and grunts, “Out.”
I step onto the smooth concrete floor. The air smells of grime, and I tilt my head up. It’s not a garage—it’s a hangar. An airplane hangar. A long, sleek jet with wing-mounted engines sits fifty yards away from the three SUVs.
“Where are we going?” I bypass the guard next to me and yell at Holloway, who’s talking with someone at a messy desk on the other side of the hangar. Calvin, Sam, and Haley are clustered in front of our SUV.
“Shut the fuck up.” The guard next to me maneuvers me toward Haley and the other guys. Collins stands next to Haley, and I want to kick him in the balls. As if he can feel me glaring, he turns and glares back. I’m not one to hold a grudge. But that wanker can take a leap off Tower Bridge.
The guard holding on to my arm squeezes. “Keep quiet.”
We’re waiting—and I’m not sure what for. Holloway marches across the hangar and stands at the bottom of the stairs to the plane. The guard I don’t recognize boards first. Collins positions himself across from Holloway and pulls a large diver’s knife from his cargo pants.
Holloway points to each of us, but his finger lingers on Calvin. “We’re taking off your bindings for the flight. But I’ll put them back on—or my man who just went up is trained in giving sedatives. You muck about, and you’ll find out how to take a little nap—either by fist or his drugs. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight. Or some bullshit like that.”
“Turn,” Collins says to Haley. She does, and he cuts off her tie and drops it to the pavement. He does the same to Sam, who sprints up the stairs to join Haley.
Calvin turns and gives me a look. I normally understand Calvin’s looks, but not this one. Collins cuts off his tie but shoves it in his pocket.
I’m next. Collins cuts mine off and drops it. I race up the stairs.
It’s posh in here. Teak and mahogany. Leather captain chairs and a sofa. In the back, there’s a table with chairs around it. A large screen takes up the whole rear, or one side of the plane.
There’s no flight attendant—rather, the guard who went up first says, “There.” He points to the chair at the table where Haley sits, her hands folded, resting on the polished wood. Sam and Calvin sit in chairs facing the screen.
“Zane.” Haley squeezes my hand, and the angry indents on her wrist have me seeing red.
“Did they kill the limo driver?” she whispers.
“I don’t know, Little Bird. One of the guards hit him in the head.”
“Oh.” She turns around, staring at the guard talking to Dante.
Damn, I want to tell her it’s okay. But it’s far from okay. Dante and Easton are pushed into bucket seats behind us.
“Sassy,” Dante says, leaning forward.
“Stay in your seat,” the monitoring guard says.
Dante flips him off.
