Captive Hearts

by Natasha West

  ‘Pete, just let us go, the door will be open for only a second, and then we’ll close it behind us, and you can go. You owe me this. After all I’ve done for you…’ Ashley said, starting to get a bit angry.

  ‘After all you’ve done for me?’ Pete replied in a dangerously quiet tone.

  ‘Nearly got it,’ the pilot muttered to herself and then pulled out a packet of chocolate digestives. ‘I was wondering where they’d gotten to.’ She kept looking.

  ‘Yes. I’ve helped you all day,’ Ashley went on, ignoring the pilot. ‘You couldn’t speak to that policewoman, so I did it for you.’

  ‘I’ve got my hand on it now,’ the pilot said, trying to drag it out. ‘Wait, fuck, no. It’s caught on something.’

  ‘I can speak to anyone. I’m not scared of her. I just didn’t want to,’ Pete snapped.

  ‘Yeah, right!’ Ashley said, temper rising.

  ‘Ashley,’ Gina warned.

  Ashley didn’t hear it. ‘Fucking obvious why you hate her.’

  ‘Oh yeah?!’ Pete shuffled himself round to face up to Ashley, his hand tightening on his gun.

  ‘Ashley, please,’ Gina pleaded. She felt like she was a second from watching something terrible happen to Ashley right in front of her. She had to stop her somehow. Only she didn’t know how. Ashley had the bit in between her teeth now. Even the gun didn’t seem to scare her anymore.

  ‘Just like when Mummy used to tell you off, isn’t it?’ Ashley said.

  ‘Ooh, here we go!’ said the pilot, pulling a bag out and unzipping it, not reading the room at all.

  ‘You fucking what?’ Pete said, and Gina watched as - almost in slow motion - the gun began to turn on Ashley.

  ‘Pete! Your money!’ Gina cried wildly.

  ‘Where?’ He turned to the pilot as she unzipped the bag and pulled out a wad of cash. ‘Shit!’ the pilot cried, fumbling it. The money dropped directly onto Pete’s face.

  ‘What the fuck?’ Pete said, waving the gun around, blind. Gina grabbed hold of Ashley. ‘Duck!’ They both dived down just as he squeezed the trigger.

  BANG!

  The crack of the bullet was loud in the cockpit. Gina looked around for blood, but he seemed to have missed everyone. However, there was a smoking hole in the side window, exactly where Ashley’s head had been moments ago.

  But Pete wasn’t done. He was pulling the money from his face, saying, ‘I’ve fucking had it with you two!’ He pointed the gun at the pair of them, his eyes blazing.

  Gina turned away from him, tucking into Ashley. She felt Ashley do the same. They held on to each other tightly, waiting for the end…

  But nothing happened.

  After a few seconds, Gina turned very slowly to look at Pete down in the footwell. But he wasn’t pointing his gun at them anymore. He was handing it to the pilot. She had her own gun pressed to his skull.

  ‘Pete Ennis?’ the pilot said, her silly demeanour vanished, replaced with ice-cold calm. ‘You’re under arrest.’

  ‘Fuck my life,’ Pete said quietly as he placed his gun in the front, out of harm’s way.

  The pilot turned briefly to Gina and Ashley, still frozen. ‘Anyone hurt back there?’

  Gina shook her head, recovering from the shock. She looked at Ashley. She was scrutinizing the pilot. ‘Wait a second, I recognise you now! Didn’t you fit us for the bulletproof vests?’

  Gina turned to the pilot. ‘Oh. Yeah! You were wearing shades then.’ She wasn’t sure what else to say, so she added, ‘Nice to see you again.’

  ‘Don’t be polite to her!’ Ashley said. ‘What was with the silly act?’ she asked the officer.

  ‘I was just waiting for a good distraction so I could get my gun to this idiot’s head without taking a bullet in the face first,’ the woman explained.

  ‘What were you going to do it if it never came? He would have found out you weren’t a real pilot!’ Ashley said.

  ‘I am a real pilot. How do you think I drove this thing in here? It’s not a Ford Cortina. Can’t just jump in and have a bash.’

  ‘Hang on, is she a cop or a pilot?’ Gina asked, baffled.

  ‘Both. But the plane thing’s a hobby. Got my license a couple of months ago, luckily. Professionally, I’m an armed unit officer. DI Hazel Kennedy, since you never asked.’

  ‘I’ll remember that name,’ Pete warned from the floor.

  ‘Shut it, you,’ Hazel said, she told Pete coldly. Pete was immediately cowed. Hazel looked back at Gina and Ashley. ‘This was always the plan. We don’t just let dickheads ride off into the sunset with a hundred large just because they hold a pizza joint up. Otherwise, everyone would start doing it.’

  Ashley shook her head. ‘Glad to know there was a plan. DI Conway’s been fucking useless up to now.’

  ‘Oh, thanks,’ DI Conway said, opening the door. ‘Right, you two out first.’

  Gina took a breath. It was over. It was all over.

  But before she got out, she had to say something. She looked down at Pete, in every sense. ‘I’d like to say it’s been nice knowing you Pete, but you’ve been an absolute fucking nightmare.’ She clambered out of the plane.

  ‘Same to you, bitch,’ he called after her.

  ‘I thought you were a feminist, Pete,’ Ashley said as she climbed out next.

  ‘Fuck right off, Ashley. Right fucking OFF!’ was the last thing Gina heard as they stepped away from the plane.

  ‘Right, get to the cordon,’ DI Conway said urgently.

  ‘With pleasure,’ Ashley told her.

  They began to walk across the car park, to a fading soundtrack of Pete swearing through the reading of his right to silence.

  Gina found her hand reaching as they trudged to safety. But it didn’t have to travel far. Ashley’s hand was ready and waiting to take hers. She chanced a quick look at Ashley, but she didn’t seem relieved; she seemed shattered. As well she might. She’d come that close to a bullet in the head. She hoped to god that Ashley was going to be OK.

  The police line was breaking up as officers started scrambling toward DI Conway and Pete, ready to wrestle him out of the plane.

  But Gina didn’t want to watch that part. She just wanted to get the hell away from this car park. A young police officer ran to them. ‘Are you hurt in any way?’ he said.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Gina told him. She examined Ashley. ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘I’m not hurt,’ Ashley said. ‘Can we just leave?’

  The officer laughed. ‘Course you can’t! We gotta check you over.’

  Ashley’s face creased in rage. ‘Don’t laugh at me, you little arsehole. I was just in a hostage situation, for the love of Christ!’

  Gina felt immediately less worried. Ashley was still Ashley.

  Twenty-Eight

  The young officer, somewhat abashed from his dressing down, led them off to an ambulance, two paramedics on them immediately. ‘We’re fine, calm down,’ Ashley told her.

  ‘Just let them check us,’ Gina said.

  ‘God, fine,’ Ashley said, sitting down on a gurney and rolling her eyes as a paramedic started shining a light in her eyes. ‘Warn a girl before you blind her!’ Ashley complained. Gina chuckled.

  ‘Gina! Ashley!’ cried a voice, and they turned to see Sam, Tina, Greg, and Leanne standing at another ambulance across the road. ‘They’re OK!’ Tina cried, delighted. All of them ditched their paramedics and came running over.

  Ashley stood to greet them, shaking off her paramedic. ‘Hey, guys. How you doing?’

  Tina was the first to grab ahold of Ashley. It was a hug of such deep emotion that Ashley, never really a big hugger, had to let it happen. Then more arms grabbed on. Greg, he dragged Gina in, then Sam. Leanne didn’t move. She just watched the group hug, her arms folded.

  The hug eventually broke. ‘You did it. You got us out,’ Greg said. ‘You’re both my heroes.’

  ‘Yes, like actual Marvel heroes,’ Sam added.

  ‘Wonder women,’ Tina said, he
r eyes shining.

  Ashley had no response to any of this. Gina appeared equally thrown. ‘Look, it’s… Don’t… I didn’t do it for thanks, so…’ Ashley muttered.

  ‘This worked out pretty well for you, didn’t it? Got a great story out of it,’ Leanne suddenly said.

  Everyone eyeballed her. Ashley was past caring because she meant what she’d just said. She’d done this because she’d done it. Not for praise. Just because. But Greg, Sam, and Tina looked appalled. ‘What the actual fuck is wrong with you?’ Sam asked her.

  ‘What, because I’m not licking their arses? You know what, you lot need to grow a fucking brain. She basically talked herself inside so she could get an interview with that dickhead. And then, when he didn’t let her go, she was just trying to get her and the camerawoman out. We were just lucky to get out in the-’

  SMACK.

  Leanne, surprised to find herself on the floor, looked up in shock at the person who’d finally snapped. Tina. She was rubbing her hand. ‘Shut up, Leanne. Just for once, shut up.’

  Leanne got up off her arse. She gave Tina a long, angry glare and Ashley thought she was just getting started. But instead, she rubbed her cheek and walked off back to the ambulance. Ashley distantly heard her say to a paramedic, ‘You need to check me for concussion. I was just savagely beaten. On my birthday.’

  ‘Happy birthday,’ the paramedic said dryly.

  ‘Oh, shit, I probably shouldn’t have done that,’ Tina said, turning back to the group.

  Gina touched her on the shoulder and smiled. ‘If it hadn’t been you, it would have been me.’

  ‘Maybe me,’ Ashley added.

  ‘God, when I tell Polly, she’s gonna lose her mind,’ Tina said, wondrously.

  ‘Where’s everyone else?’ Gina asked suddenly. ‘The chefs, the waiter, Lily, that lot?’

  ‘They were all moved somewhere else, some police station to get debriefed. We’re all going there after we’re checked out, they said. Oh, and apparently, all our family and friends, practically everyone we know is at the end of the road. They’re holding them off for the moment,’ Greg said.

  ‘I can’t deal with anyone else right now.’

  ‘Not even your dad?’ Gina asked.

  ‘No. Let him wait in the cold and the dark for a change,’ Ashley said without thinking. And then she added. ‘You know what? Maybe I do have an issue with him.’

  Gina nodded. ‘I would if I were you.’

  ‘I think I might leave that one for another day, anyway. I’m too tired to dissect my childhood,’ Ashley said, shaking her head.

  ‘God, yeah,’ Sam agreed. ‘I’ve never been this tired, even after powerlifting.’

  The sound of clomping heels came toward them. ‘I guess they couldn’t hold everyone back,’ Tina noted. And here she came, Kara Malone.

  ‘We’ll leave you to it,’ Tina said, and they went back to their paramedics. ‘We’ll swap numbers!’ Greg called over his shoulder.

  Ashley and Gina waved them off.

  ‘Ashley! Gina!’ Kara exclaimed as she reached them. Ashley thought the familiarity was a bit much. ‘God, I’m so glad to see you’re both OK.’ Her cameraman appeared at her side. ‘Any chance of an interview?’

  ‘None whatsoever,’ Ashley said tiredly. ‘We’ve had a terrible day, and we just want to get signed off and go home.’

  Gina looked at her, shocked. ‘Ashley! Be cool, woman!’ she hissed out of the side of her mouth. Ashley knew why she was trying to tell her to play nice. Kara wanted to talk to her, and at the start of this long and strange day, that would have been a big deal.

  ‘Oh god, of course!’ Kara said apologetically. ‘I’m sorry, I hate to be pushy, but you get it, don’t you, Ashley?’

  Ashley shrugged. ‘I guess.’

  ‘But maybe we could arrange something for tomorrow? You could come down to the studio?’

  Ashley thought about it, but it didn’t sound very realistic. ‘Well, I’m not sure if we’ll… I mean the police will probably be talking to us endlessly-’

  ‘Yes, but you could put them off, couldn’t you?’ Kara gave Ashley a conspiratorial look. ‘I shouldn’t say this, but if you could come tomorrow and give us the exclusive, we could talk about… Well, from what I heard, you’ve been stuck in the small-time and your boss, said you might be interested in-’

  ‘Kara?’ Ashley said, cutting in.

  ‘Yeah?’ Kara said hopefully.

  ‘Shut up and go away.’

  Kara’s smiled wobbled slightly. ‘Ashley,’ she said, trying to laugh it off, ‘Come on. This is a big deal for you.’

  ‘You know what’s a big deal? That I’m alive. All of this?’ She gestured to the camera. ‘It’s not. Not to me. Not right now.’

  Kara looked unhappy that her chummy charms hadn’t worked. ‘Well, if that’s how it is.’

  ‘It is. It really is. I watched you today. While I was stuck with a deranged idiot waving a gun around and you were hiding behind that shield, I watched you bullshitting on TV all day, doing frankly mediocre work, and you know? My desire to get where you are has kind of dried up.’

  Kara was stunned and angry. ‘Oh, really? So, you’re better than me now you’ve had one bad day on the job? Totally happy to stay in your shitty little station?’ She gave a mirthless laugh.

  ‘You know what?’ Ashley told her. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do. But as I’ve said, I’m just enjoying breathing right now.’ She turned to Gina, who looked stunned by what she’d just witnessed. ‘Oh, by the way, soon as I catch my breath, next priority is taking you on a date,’ Ashley told her firmly.

  Gina’s mouth - hanging open in shock at how Ashley had spoken to Kara Malone - closed quickly. A smile began to slide onto her beautiful lips. A big one. ‘So long as you don’t take me for pizza, that sounds brilliant.’

  Ashley laughed. She realised Kara was still there. ‘Was there something else? Scoot, would you?’

  Kara was positively enraged now. ‘You know I am the news, don’t you? I’m gonna make sure no one ever hires you.’

  Ashley shook her head, feeling free. Not just of Pete. Of a lot of things. ‘Whatever power you might have, it doesn’t mean what you think it does.’

  Kara stormed off.

  Ashley turned back to Gina. ‘So about this date. Maybe Chinese?’

  ‘Ashley… first off, yes, I love Chinese food. Second, what on earth did you just do?’ Gina asked.

  ‘I already said. Don’t care.’

  ‘What, suddenly your career doesn’t matter anymore?’

  ‘Oh, it does,’ Ashley told her. ‘Just maybe not as a news reporter.’

  ‘So what’ll you do?’

  ‘Well, once I get my phone back, I’m gonna call my boss and probably hand in my notice.’ She had a thought. ‘Oh, but maybe before that, I might have to… Do you think the channel will pay the cost of a new school roof for an exclusive interview?’

  Gina looked baffled. ‘Probably?’

  Ashley laughed. ‘I’ll explain that another time.’

  ‘Maybe on our date?’

  ‘Yeah, then,’ Ashley agreed, happily.

  Once they’d grinned at each other a bit too long, Gina said, ‘So after you quit the station, what then?’

  ‘Don’t know. I’m free to do anything. And all I want to do is have a cup of tea, a sleep, and then… we’ll see.’

  ‘I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be,’ Gina said. ‘Because whatever you do, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be worth watching.’

  Ashley smiled. ‘Well, I hope you’ll be around to see whatever it is in real time, live.’

  ‘Me too,’ Gina said. She leaned in to kiss her.

  ‘Err, I still need to take your pulse,’ the paramedic said sharply, fed up of waiting.

  ‘Will no one just give me a break today?’ Ashley asked the universe. But she held out her wrist, and the medic took it. While her pulse was measured, she used the other hand to drag Gina in for that kiss. She was
pretty sure that her readings were gonna go through the roof.

  Twenty-Nine

  ‘Sweet Jesus, did you get that?’ Ashley asked.

  ‘Of course I got it, what do you think I’m doing, filming my shoes?’ Gina said. ‘Is that a cut, by the way?’