THREE

DEATHTRAP

The captain tried to raise his gun, but Jacob slapped it out of his hand in a swift movement that caused him to drop it. It clattered on the floor of the cockpit before rolling beneath the dashboard.

Ellie stepped into the room, keeping her gun trained on the captain and co-pilot, who were both now unarmed and edging around the cabin like predators on the hunt. “Back up, and keep your hands where I can see them.” She kept her voice steady, trying to keep the situation from going out of control.

The gray eyes of the captain narrowed at her as he tensed his muscles. She leveled the gun on him, a warning to keep him back as she edged toward Jacob before coming to a halt in front of him.

She sensed Jacob behind her, and a million doubts crept into her thoughts. The skin on the back of her neck prickled, and she faltered.

Why is he so quiet? What’s he doing back there?

Unsure of who to trust, she glanced back to see what Jacob was doing. His scowl turned into surprise when she caught his eye. She noted his quizzical expression before something hard hit her, knocking her back into Jacob’s arms.

Turning her head, she saw the captain and co-pilot escape through the door before slamming it shut behind them.

She sank back into Jacob’s chest with a sigh.

Awesome. They got away because I was checking out my fiancé.

She peered over her shoulder at Jacob, fully aware of his hard, muscled body pressing against her back. There was glint of something dangerous in his eyes, but they clouded over when he noticed her looking at him, and his arms tightened around her waist in a familiar embrace.

She’d never wanted to kiss him so much in her life, which was insane given the situation they were in.

He leaned in as if he was thinking the same thing, and she abruptly turned away and righted her stance so that she was standing a few inches away from him. Then she turned to face him. “We need to go after them.”

There was a flash of disappointment in his eyes before he regained his composure. “Do you think that’s a wise idea?” He peered around the cockpit. “We have their guns, and we have control of the plane. Let’s just lock them out and land the plane.”

She considered their options. He was right. Control of the plane and landing it somewhere safe was their best bet. Frowning, she wondered if giving these people to the police was a good idea.

They know I killed Joseph Meyer, and it’s not as if I ever reported it to the police.

Glancing at Jacob as he walked over to the door, she tried to rationalize his part in all of this, but she still couldn’t come up with an answer that didn’t suck. He was clearly involved in this in some way, and he was definitely keeping secrets from her.

“Why are they here?” she asked as he reached for the lock on the door.

“I don’t know.” He slammed his hand down on the lever to lock the door, and a shiver of fear shot down her spine as the sound of the lock clicking into place echoed around the small room. She stared at the dark hair that tapered off around the nape of his neck, and then her eyes traveled down to his shoulders, the muscles visibly bunching out beneath his dark t-shirt. She tried to shake off the danger signals that seemed to be igniting all over her body like an internal alarm system.

Do I really want to be locked in here with him right now?

Frowning at the thought, she shook her head.

What’s wrong with me? It’s Jacob. I’ve been living with him for years. Why can’t I trust him?

Because he lied to you. A voice in her head echoed in reply.

“They seem to know you.” She narrowed her eyes.

“No, they don’t.” He turned to face her with a confused expression on his face.

Because he’s lying to you right now.

Deciding to play along, she smiled to mask her suspicions, but the fact that she couldn’t trust him was causing her heart to beat faster. Jacob seemed dangerous to her now. Without that trust she usually had in him, her whole relationship with him had shifted into a different dimension.

Conflicted emotions were clashing inside her, from love to fear, from faith to distrust. Part of her knew him, heart and soul, and she trusted him with her life. But now there was another voice that was whispering in her ear, asking her if she knew him at all. If the Jacob she knew was a lie, then he could be anyone. If her life with him had been a lie, then her whole world was about to fall apart because he was her world.

Maybe that’s the problem. I was so busy trying to hide from who I used to be that I lost myself in him. Maybe I wanted to believe in love because I couldn’t face being myself alone. Maybe I was ripe for a con, and he just walked right in and took me for a ride.

Physical pain burned in her chest at the thought, but she knew she had to have that thought. If she really had woken up to some harsh realities, she knew she needed to think about them logically. Love was a drug, but if she was going to survive, she needed to sober up.

But when she looked at him, she just saw the other half of her in the pilot’s seat. Her Jacob, her partner…

He wants to survive as much as I do. I’ll get the truth out of him once we’re on solid ground. Maybe there’s a good reason. Please let there be a good reason…

“Do you know how to fly a plane?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling with a mixture of anger and fear.

He walked over to the control panel and sat down in the captain’s seat. Then he studied the switches and buttons on the dashboard before looking back at her. “Fly one, yes. Land one, not so much.”

“Great.” She sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and scooped up the second gun. After putting the safety on both weapons, she shoved one in the back of her belt and the other down the side of her knee-length leather boot.

He shot her a reassuring smile. “We’ll be fine. I just need to find a nearby airstrip, and then turn off the auto-pilot.”

Looking out of the window at the blue cloudy sky, she peered down. There was nothing but white below them. She couldn’t see land at all.

“Where are we anyway?”

He checked the instruments in front of him and frowned. “It looks as if we’re heading for Alaska.”

“Great. My suitcase is full of bikinis,” she muttered. “Why were they taking us to Alaska?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, but we’re going to have to land there. Let me see if I can get hold of Air Traffic Control.” He picked up the intercom handset and then froze as his eyes widened.

“What?” she asked.

“We have a problem.”

“What problem?”

He turned to face her. “There isn’t enough fuel. We’re running on empty.”

A bubble of panic expanded in the back of her throat. “How are we out of fuel?” She jumped up and pressed her face to the glass of the windshield before looking back at the plane. “I can’t see anyth—” She widened her eyes when she saw gray smoke billowing out of the side of the plane. She couldn’t see where it was coming from, but it didn’t look good. “Is the plane supposed to be smoking?”

“What? No!” Jacob jumped up and stood beside her, also staring out of the window as the smoke tainted the pure white clouds with murky pollution.

They hitched their breath in unison as they watched someone jump off the plane wearing a parachute. By the look of him, it was the captain. A few seconds later, the co-pilot and the stewardess also jumped off the plane before disappearing beneath the clouds.

A burst of fire shot out of the side of the airplane. “They set fire to the plane. If they leaked the fuel and those two mix…” Jacob trailed off.

“We’re fucked?” Ellie muttered.

“Yeah. We need to find somewhere to land right now.” He nodded.

“No. We’re fucked!” She widened her eyes and gripped his arm as she pointed to the frozen wall of a mountain as it broke through the clouds ahead of them. They were flying straight toward it.

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