Acceptable Risk

by Lynette Eason

  After his last check, Sarah worked quickly. She unbuckled the lap belt Gavin had fastened and stripped off her oversized sweatshirt. She slipped her arms through the straps of the parachute he’d stuffed behind her. She wouldn’t be able to get her legs in the harness but fastened the buckle that went across her chest, then yanked the sweatshirt back over her.

  She really wasn’t planning on jumping out of the plane, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared. She’d have to get the sweatshirt off before she pulled the cord, but for now, at least she had a parachute.

  Her heart pounded as she kept an eye on the men still arguing in the front. She pulled the shoulder straps from the seat belt back into place. “Your turn,” she whispered to Gavin.

  McClain spun in his seat, the weapon passing over her and Gavin.

  “You need to land,” Gavin said. “There’s no way out of this.”

  “We’re not landing.”

  “They’ll just wait until you have to land due to low fuel. Or crash.”

  The man shot him the weirdest smile Gavin had ever seen. “I’ll be done by then.”

  “What?”

  McClain got out of his seat and turned to Sarah. The gun never wavered in his right hand. In his left, he held four pages and a pen. He thrust the items at Sarah. “Sign it or die.”

  “We’ve already been over this.”

  “Which is why I brought him.” He turned the weapon on Gavin’s knee. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way, but one way or another you’re going to sign those papers.”

  “Why not just forge my name?” she cried. “You didn’t have to go through all of this! Just sign my name yourself.”

  “I can’t. One of the terms for releasing the money is that a handwriting expert verify the signatures. Now sign or I’ll shoot him!”

  The look in his eyes said he was close to pulling the trigger. He’d do it. He’d strategically place bullets so they wouldn’t kill him quickly, but the pain would be excruciating. Sarah grabbed the papers and the pen.

  “No, Sarah,” Gavin said, “don’t do it.”

  “What does it matter at this point?” She scribbled her name on each page and shoved them back at him. “There! Now what?”

  McClain shrugged out of the overcoat he wore, tucked the papers into his front pocket, and pulled the flap over them. “Now, the money will be transferred to my offshore account. Now, it’s time for me to disappear.”

  He turned and pulled the trigger. The pilot’s blood and brain matter coated the windshield. Sarah gaped, but before she could make a sound, he turned the weapon back on Gavin. “Right now, the plane is on autopilot. Give me the parachute under your seat.”

  Gavin complied. McClain pulled the emergency lever and the door of the plane flew off. Cold wind whipped around them. He then turned and fired the weapon at the instrument panel of the plane. Once, twice, three times. Sparks flared and the instruments went haywire.

  Sarah ducked her head. “What are you doing?”

  McClain tossed the parachute out the door. “Give me the other one,” he shouted. “From under her seat.”

  Gavin met her gaze, then went to his knees to look under her seat. He turned. “It’s not there.”

  Keeping his eyes on Gavin, McClain’s scowl deepened. “Back in your seat. If I look and it’s there, I’ll shoot her.”

  “I’m telling you, it’s not there!”

  The man bent, then straightened and moved to the other two seats opposite Sarah and Gavin. He grabbed the parachutes from underneath and tossed them out the door. Then removed the pilot’s and sent it after the others.

  Once the parachutes were free-falling from the plane, McClain turned the weapon back on Gavin. Sarah screamed.

  Gavin kicked out and caught the man in the knee. Sarah heard the crunch over the whistle of the wind. McClain fell to the floor of the plane, screaming a litany of curses while his weapon slid toward the open door. Gavin worked the belt holding him to the seat as the plane listed to the side, the right wing dipping toward the earth. The gun slid farther from McClain.

  Sarah’s gaze went to the instrument panel. “Hurry, Gavin! The autopilot’s disengaged. We’re going down!”

  Four more tugs and he was loose.

  McClain had managed to get to his feet, favoring his injured right leg. When he saw Gavin was free, he dove for the gun, grabbed it, and rolled to aim at Gavin. The plane shifted again, throwing McClain off-balance. Still gripping the weapon, he slid out the door.

  The plane tilted once more. Gavin scrambled to his knees, but like McClain, slid toward the opening.

  Sarah screamed and unbuckled her seat belt and shoulder harness with frantic fingers. “Gavin! Hold on!”

  Finally, she was free just as he managed to wrap his fingers around the leg of one of the seats. She darted toward him and grabbed his wrist. He placed a foot against the edge of the door and Sarah slammed against the side of the plane.

  “What do I do?” she screamed.

  “Put your legs through the straps and pull them tight.”

  Working quickly, she yanked her sweatshirt off, then with her back still against the wall of the plane, she loosened the material around her upper body to enable her to maneuver her legs into the proper place. She pulled the straps tight as instructed. The plane lurched and she lost her balance, tumbling to her hip and sliding toward the open door. “Gavin!”

  His hand clamped onto the right shoulder strap and yanked her back. Prayers whispered from her lips, even as she struggled to regain her balance. “He had a parachute on,” she said. “He’s getting away.”

  “I’m more worried about us right now.” Gavin’s fingers slipped and his leg dangled outside the open door. The ground rose rapidly and the police chopper hovered close by.

  She pointed. “We have to jump!”

  Sweat dripped from his brow. “I can’t!”

  “Of course you can,” she shouted above the roar of the wind. “You’ve done it a thousand times.”

  “Not since the incident.” He shook his head. “I freeze every time I try. Go! Jump!”

  “Not without you!”

  “I’m going to land the plane.”

  “Not a chance, my friend. This one is going down and fast.”

  “Innocent people are going to die if I don’t—”

  “The helicopter is right there. They’re tracking the plane and evacuating anyone in the area where it might crash. Now, let’s go!”

  “Sarah, I’m sorry, but I . . . can’t.”

  “You promised me!”

  He shut his eyes, agony dripping from every square inch of him.

  “You promised me that as long as you had breath left in you, you’d make sure I was safe. I’m not safe yet and I’m not going alone!”

  “Sarah—”

  She looked around. Spotted the pilot’s gun sliding toward her and snagged it. She gathered her strength and her feet and moved to the seat belt. She fired the weapon once, twice, three times, effectively slicing a long strip of material from the seat.

  Quickly, she stuck one end through the parachute strap buckled on her chest and then inched forward toward the door and Gavin. “Tie this around you! We’re running out of time.”

  “Sarah—”

  “Do it!” She screamed the two words. “You have to keep your promise or I’ll die with you!”

  For a moment, a brief moment they didn’t have, he stared at her before his jaw hardened and determination flooded his eyes. Sarah almost wept her relief. He was back. With effort, he hauled himself into the plane and rolled to his side. “Lie down next to me and press against my back.”

  She did so and slid the end of the seatbelt under his armpit. He pulled the rest of it around him and tied the ends together. “We don’t have time to switch and give me the chute, so wrap your legs around my waist and lock your ankles. Don’t let go of me when it deploys.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Then here we go. Let gravity work for us. I’ll te
ll you when to pull the cord.”

  Sarah quit trying to resist and let gravity work.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SIX

  While the wind rushed past his ears, Gavin held onto control of his mind-numbing fear by a fingernail, reminding himself they had a parachute and they weren’t going to die. He glanced at the ground, then up at the plane. “Pull the cord, Sarah!” For a moment her hands stayed locked around his upper body and he was terrified she wouldn’t be able to do it. “Sarah!”

  “Got it,” she said in his ear. “I can do this.” One hand closed around the cloth of his shirt, the other released him. He heard the rip of the chute as it deployed, felt the yank that jerked him back and upward. Sarah’s grip tightened and the seatbelt strap held strong.

  Fear left him. Memories swarmed him. He loved this. Always had. Always would. As long as he got Sarah to safety. He prayed the cops were tracking McClain and would have him in custody by the time he and Sarah landed. “Good job!”

  “Are you okay?”

  “As long as you’re safe, I’m just fine.”

  “I’m worried about my father. I don’t want him to die, Gavin.”

  “Let’s worry about getting on the ground and then we’ll find out about your father.” He paused. “He hired me.”

  “What?”

  “To be your bodyguard. He hired me and told me not to tell you.” She went silent and Gavin prayed she wouldn’t untie the seatbelt. “He was afraid for your life with all of the threats against him.”

  “So, that’s why you stuck around.”

  “Yes. And no. I would have stuck around even if he hadn’t asked me to. Please don’t hate me, Sarah.” He didn’t know why he’d picked this moment to confess the very thing that might cause her to send him away, but he didn’t want to keep the secret one second longer. “I’m sorry.”

  “You should have told me.”

  “I wanted to, but I was afraid you’d make me leave, and then I’d be arrested for stalking because I couldn’t leave you alone. I’d have followed you everywhere.”

  She choked. Or laughed. He wasn’t sure what the sound was. “Why?”

  “Because I’m in love with you. I have been since our first date. Now pass me the steering lines and let me land this thing.”

  “Where?” She handed him the lines.

  “Do you know where we are?”

  She went silent for a few seconds. “Over a high school. Not sure which one. We can land in the football field.”

  “Exactly.”

  “We’re coming back to this conversation if we live.”

  “We’ll live. We have too much to live for.”

  Gavin worked with the wind to drift as far as he wanted, then used the lines to pull left, then right, then over the field.

  The occupied field.

  “Gym class?” Sarah asked.

  “Football practice. They’ll move.” Hopefully.

  Two men dressed in black shirts looked up, watchful. Pointing. As Gavin and Sarah got closer, it seemed to finally dawn on them that they were aiming for the field.

  The kids and adults scattered, giving Gavin plenty of room to land.

  His feet touched the ground first and he ran a few steps with Sarah attached to his back, stopped, and went to his knees. Her grip never loosened. “Sarah?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You can let go now.”

  “Right.” Her fingers released.

  Gavin looked up to find the entire football team and coaches surrounding them.

  “Y’all okay?” the nearest teen asked.

  “I think so.” There was no way Gavin would be able to get the knot out of the seatbelt strapping Sarah to him. “Sarah? Can you undo the buckle?”

  “Um . . . yeah.”

  He felt her hands working between them and then the buckle released. Gavin pulled away from Sarah. His legs weakened and he wilted to the grass and rolled on his back.

  “Gavin?” Sarah asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re alive, right?”

  “Feels like it.”

  “You’re alive,” a gruff voice said. “Wanna tell me why you had to land on my field in the middle of my practice? You couldn’t land on the empty baseball field like your friend?”

  “Friend?” Gavin rolled to his feet and pulled Sarah up with him.

  “Yeah, he came down not five minutes ago.”

  “The plane,” Sarah said. “Where did it go down?”

  “Not sure. We heard the plane crash and then you landed.”

  Chills danced over his skin and Gavin gripped Sarah’s hand. “Did you see which way the other guy went?”

  “No. Now, if you two don’t need medical help, could you please vacate the field so we can finish our practice?”

  “Glad to as soon as you let me use your phone.”

  The man sighed and held his finger to the screen, then tapped it. He passed the phone to Gavin.

  “What’s Caden’s number?” he asked Sarah. She gave it to him. Gavin paused. The fact that McClain had landed so close made him twitchy. “The baseball field, you say?”

  The coach narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, why?”

  Sirens sounded in the distance and Gavin turned to the coach. “You need to lock down the school.”

  The man blinked. “What?”

  “The school. Lock it down. The man who landed on the baseball field is a killer. Cops are on the way. If he feels trapped, he could be unpredictable. Is anyone else in the school?”

  “It’s after hours so not many, but yeah, a few people.”

  “Tell them to stay put and lock their doors.”

  The coach pulled his radio from his pocket and gave the code to the front office. He turned to his fellow coach. “Get the guys into the locker room and lock it down. Call the cops on the way and let them know where you are.”

  The team took off and one of the coaches followed.

  The other eyed them. “You guys are really okay?”

  “We will be as soon as help arrives.” He turned his attention back to the phone. “Caden?”

  “Are you all right?” Caden demanded. “Where’s Sarah?”

  “She’s right here. We’re fine. McClain got away.”

  “We’re on his trail. The chopper tracked him to the ground but lost him in some trees. You and Sarah jumped?”

  “We did. We need a ride.” He told Caden their location.

  “It’s on the way, but it’s going to take me some time to get there. Local cops are on the way.”

  “McClain is here,” Gavin said, his eyes scanning the area between the baseball and football fields. “He’s close to the school. Valley High. I told a coach to lock it down and call 911.”

  “Good. Find a place to lay low and wait for us.”

  Gavin narrowed his eyes, searching. McClain was out there somewhere. “Did you find your father?”

  “He’s in surgery right now but is expected to make a full recovery.”

  He met Sarah’s gaze. “Excellent.” He passed the news on to Sarah and the relief on her face encouraged him. “We’ll be waiting for you.” He hung up and handed the phone back to the coach. “Now, go join your team.”

  The coach took off, and Gavin stilled, seeing movement. “There he is.”

  “Where?”

  “He’s coming this way.”

  Sarah shivered. “He waited for us, didn’t he?”

  Gavin pulled her toward the parking lot next to the football field. “Yeah. We should have seen his parachute in the baseball field on our way down. He must have hidden it.”

  “Really? Out of all of the places to land, we choose the same one he did?”

  “Not surprising. It’s the only place around with a large enough space—other than the highway—and he’s not done with us.” He headed for the concession stand. There might not be guns in there, but maybe a knife? Probably not. But if he could keep Sarah behind a locked door until Caden and help arrived, they’d manage to su
rvive it.

  “But everyone knows what he’s done,” Sarah said, hurrying along beside him. She glanced over her shoulder. “He could have disappeared by now. Why continue to come after us?”

  “Revenge. He’s angry that we’re doing out best to derail his plans and he’s not thinking straight.”

  “He had the gun when he went out of the plane.”

  “Yeah.” Gavin tried the door of the concession stand.

  Locked.

  Of course.

  “Head for the restrooms at the edge of the parking lot,” Sarah said.

  “No windows in there. I won’t be able to watch him.”

  “Maybe not, but he won’t be able to see us either. And the door locks. Add in the fact that if he has to shoot the lock off, he can’t have that many more bullets left in the gun. It will buy us some time.”

  “Unless he had a magazine in his pocket.”

  She grimaced. “Okay.” She shot another glance back. “He’s getting closer.”

  “He’s spotted the parachute,” Gavin said. “He knows we’re here somewhere.”

  “And now he’s heading for the school,” Sarah said.

  “It’s on lockdown by now. He can’t get in.”

  A car turned into the parking lot.

  Sirens screamed in the distance.

  “But he can take that driver hostage,” Sarah said. “Or hijack her car.”

  The teen stepped out of her vehicle and McClain made a beeline for her, limping on his injured knee, but still moving fast.

  “Stay here,” Gavin ordered. He raced from behind the concession stand toward the parking lot, aiming to intercept McClain before he could reach the girl. “Get back in the car!”

  His shout froze both McClain and the teen. Then McClain put on a burst of speed, heading toward the car.

  “Get back in the car and lock the door!”

  For a moment, she hesitated. McClain closed in. She dove into the driver’s seat and slammed the door just as McClain reached her. He yanked on the door handle, then smashed a fist on the glass.

  Gavin never slowed his stride as he slammed into the man. They both crashed to the asphalt, and the impact knocked the breath from Gavin, stunning him into stillness. But at least he landed on top.

  McClain dragged in a wheezing breath and swung out with his right hand, catching Gavin in the chin. The blow knocked him to the side.