Beyond 10 Nights (24 page)

“What the fuck do you mean you’ve found someone else?”
This wasn’t happening, she had not just found some other man to take his place;
he wouldn’t allow it. “WE’RE FUCKING ENGAGED!” He screamed into the phone, not
giving a damn about the looks he was receiving from the people in the boardroom
with him.

“Why are you yelling at me? You said we weren’t right
for each other.” She couldn’t stand the way he was acting, and she couldn’t
believe he had brought up their so-called engagement. Fresh tears ran down her
cheeks as she sobbed uncontrollably.

Struggling to get his temper under control and lower
his voice Rhett shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t say I was leaving you,
Leah.”

“It sure sounded like it to me,” Leah snapped. “I’m
with someone else now so you can forget about the engagement; you can have your
life back.

“Who the fuck have you been fucking? I’ll fucking kill
them.” The thought of her with another man made him lose what little control he
had over his anger.

“Sir!”

The voice distracted Rhett from his call momentarily
and reminded him that he wasn’t alone. “This meeting is adjourned,” he snarled,
dismissing the group of people gawking at him.

“You can’t adjourn me, Rhett Hammond!” Leah declared,
not able to believe he would say such a thing to her. “You told me it was over,
and just because you have issues with me moving on doesn’t mean you can
threaten Alex!” She was angry herself, and no longer cared if her co-workers
heard her or wondered what was going on; who the hell did he think he was,
trying to order her around like she was an employee of his.

“I wasn’t talking to you about… what the fuck did you
just say?” He was beyond calming down as her words sunk in. “You’re fucking
Alex?!” He couldn’t believe his friend would betray him in such a fashion. When
he got home, after he kicked Alex’s ass, he would make sure Leah knew what he
had really meant; that he hadn’t been breaking up with her, he had simply been
trying to do what was best for her.

“I’m hanging up now, Rhett, you wanted this
relationship over, and it is, so please stop with the theatrics.” Ending the
call she dashed into the first empty office she found, where she slumped to the
floor, tears streaming down her face as she fought the hysterics that
threatened to erupt from her.

That was how Alex found her, twenty minutes later,
after being called by Mrs. Parker. When he saw her on the floor, staring unseeingly
ahead, her cheeks stained with dried tears, he knew that something horrible had
happened. For her sake though, he knew it was best that she didn’t break down
completely at work; whatever her co-workers had already seen had been enough
for them to get Mrs. Parker to contact him, he didn’t want things to get worse
for her.

“Leah, I need you to let it got for now, honey,” he
soothed her quietly; both relieved and unhappy that she was crying. His relief
came from the knowledge that the tears would help her get past whatever had
happened; at the same time he was unhappy that something had happened to reduce
her to that state.

When she was calm enough she told him about the phone
call from Rhett, and everything he had said to her; for the first time in his
life Alex wanted to beat the crap out of someone. The desire caught him by
surprise, yet at the same time it felt very right. In his opinion, what Rhett
was doing to Leah was abusive, in the emotional sense at the very least, and he
knew that could be worse than any physical abuse.

His friend needed serious help, that much was clear,
and he resolved to make sure he got it, whether he wanted it or not. He wasn’t
about to let Rhett continue to torment Leah, regardless of how the situation
developed between the two of them.

12

Flying blind

Rhett wanted to get in his jet and fly home
immediately but couldn’t. It wasn’t business that kept him on the island; he
was prepared to forget all about that, despite his desire to get work started
on the resort he had bought, in order to return and deal with the situation
between him and Leah.

It wasn’t even the tropical storm that was brewing out
to sea that stopped him from leaving. The problem he encountered when he called
the airfield to arrange his departure was that routine maintenance had
uncovered a fault with one of the circuits on his jet. A replacement circuit
had been ordered, and was on the way from the mainland, but it wasn’t due to
arrive for at least a couple of hours, and by the time it arrived the storm
would be too close for them to leave.

Hearing the news, Rhett ground his teeth in
frustration, it seemed as if everything was against him, the plane, the
weather, everything. He couldn’t even manage to get through to Leah to try and
sort the situation out over the phone; each time he tried to call her it went
straight to voicemail, leaving him to assume she had turned the phone off.

Things had not gone how he’d planned them, not that
he’d really planned them all that carefully, he thought as he returned to his
suite and poured himself a glass of wine. He couldn’t begin to imagine how she
had come to the conclusion that he was calling things off between them; and for
her to immediately leap into bed with Alex, he simply couldn't believe she had
done that.

The very thought of her with Alex had him raging
again. Whatever friendship they had once had was gone, he thought angrily,
trying not to let his anger overcome him, as it had on the phone with her. Somehow
he would fix the situation between them, it didn’t matter how fucked up it was,
he would fix it and show her how much he loved her, if it was the last thing he
did he would do it.

Once he explained to her that he had only been trying
to give her a little space while he got his shit together she would understand;
he was sure of it. The mental battle did little to calm his ire and he found
himself pacing the suite, searching for some way to relieve the nervous energy
building up inside him. Every time his pacing took him back to the kitchen area
he refilled his wine glass.

After ten or fifteen minutes, he wasn’t sure, time had
little meaning for him, he gave up on the pacing, and the wine. He needed to be
doing something more energetic to relieve his frustration, and to keep him from
trying once again to call Leah; failing to get hold of her again would only
frustrate him more.

Leaving the glass on the island bar he made for the
door so he could go down to the gym and work out for a while. He had just
closed the door behind him when he heard the phone ring back in the suite. He
swore in annoyance, but immediately opened the door again, hoping, futilely he
was sure, that the caller was Leah, returning his many unanswered calls and the
messages he had left for her.

“Yes?” he answered the phone with a snap to his voice.

“Sir, it’s Captain Harrow, you wanted me to inform you
the moment we had the jet back in operational capacity.”

The news was a welcome relief to Rhett, who felt as though
something was finally going right for him. “Make ready to leave the moment I
get there,” he instructed.

There was a pause and then the pilot spoke again. “I’m
afraid that isn’t possible, Sir,” the very tone of his voice made it clear that
he wasn’t happy to be saying no to his employer.

“What do you mean it isn’t possible?” Rhett demanded,
doing his best to keep his anger in check, whatever was wrong, he was sure it
wasn’t the pilot’s fault, and it would do no good for him to take his
frustrations out on the man.

“The storm is almost on us, Sir, all flights off the
island have been cancelled; no one is permitted to leave. As I understand it,
Sir, no one can leave, by boat or plane.”

Turning Rhett looked across the suite and out the
windows that ran the length of it. He hadn’t noticed during his pacing, but the
sky had darkened perceptibly, the wind had picked up and was whipping through
the trees outside while the windows were peppered with rain.

“Get the plane ready,” Rhett ordered, turning away
from the weather. “I’ll be there in half an hour; I want to take off the moment
I arrive.”

“We can’t, Sir, I’m very sorry but all flights are
grounded, the authorities won’t let us leave.”

“You let me worry about the authorities, I’ll take
care of them, you just get the jet ready,” he snapped before slamming the phone
down. Immediately he snatched it back up so he could call Manuel, if anyone
would know who could give him permission to island it would be his friend; he
didn’t care how much it cost, he was leaving. The longer he stayed on the
island, the more time Alex had to steal his girl; he wasn’t about to let that
happen, even if he had to bribe everyone in authority he could get his hands
on.

In the end it took more than thirty minutes for Rhett
to make it to the airfield. First he had to track down Manuel so he could find
out who to contact to get permission to leave, then he had to pack his things
up, which he did as hastily as he could. Finally he had to take care of his
bill; that wasn’t too difficult though, being friends with the resort’s owner
ensured he was able to deal with the bill in record time.

By the time he made it to the airfield the
arrangements had been made, and permission had been given for his jet to leave.
Rhett could see his pilot wasn’t happy with the situation; the promise of a
hefty bonus stilled his qualms however, as Rhett had been sure it would, and
soon enough they were taxiing down the runaway.

The moment he was strapped in Rhett took out his phone
and dialed Leah’s number, he wasn’t sure he would get through, given the
weather, but he knew he had to try. It seemed to take forever for the call to
connect, and he was about to give up when it finally did; impatiently he waited
for the message to finish so he could speak.

“Leah, sweetheart, it’s Rhett. I’m really sorry for
the way our call went earlier, it’s not how I wanted it to go, I just wanted to
hear your voice and know you are okay.

“I’m on my way back; I’m going to make all of this
right. I’m going to sort it all out, one way or another. I love you.” Not sure
what else to say he ended the call, hating how weak and uncertain he had
sounded, it wasn’t him, he knew that, it was the way she made him.

They were only in the air for fifteen minutes before
Rhett realized just how bad a decision it had been for him to force the pilot
to take off. The storm was still not fully upon them, and Rhett was more than
grateful for that given the way the executive jet was being buffeted about by
the wind and the rain.

“Mr. Hammond, Sir, I’m very sorry,” Harrow called back
from the cockpit, “but we have to turn back, the weather is just too bad.”

“Are you sure we can’t make it through to the
mainland?” As bad as the jet was being buffeted he was sure it would get better
the further they got from the island, after all, the storm was coming from the
other side of the island and they were between it and the mainland.

“No, Sir, I’m sorry but it’s just too much of a risk.
We might make it, but with this much wind and rain there’s too much chance of a
flameout, if that were to happen we’d have to ditch and with the storm right on
our heels…” He trailed off as he fought the controls for a few moments. “Our
best bet for safety is to turn back and return to the island, and I can’t even
guarantee we can manage that, Sir. We could flameout at any moment.”

As much as he wanted to, Rhett couldn’t deny the
wisdom of his pilot’s words; the jet was pitching and yawing almost constantly.
“Just get us safely on the ground, I don’t care where you put us,” he called out,
not entirely certain it was actually possible for the jet to turn and make it
safely back to the island, despite only having left it a short time before.

With visibility outside the jet reduced to almost nil,
Harrow was forced to rely on the jet’s instruments to guide them as he turned
back toward the island. It soon became clear that it simply wasn’t possible for
them to make it back to their departure point, the storm had moved in much
faster than anticipated.

The wind and rain buffeted the jet so badly he wasn’t
sure how much longer he could keep it in the air, even without trying to turn
it against the wind to return back the way they had come. When lightning
flashed across the sky, alarmingly close to them, Harrow knew he had to abandon
the attempt. Their only hope of making it down safely was to land on an
abandoned island not far off their current course.

The island had been used by a drug cartel as they
shipped drugs up the coast and into Miami; it had been abandoned two years
before when a joint American and Mexican operation had put the cartel out of
operation.

As he made for the island, Harrow hoped the runway was
still usable, if it wasn’t their landing was going to be even rougher than he
anticipated. As it was, with only instruments to rely on, he thought it would
be a miracle for them to get down on the ground in one piece.

His training hadn’t covered trying to land a jet on a
potentially unusable airfield in the middle of the storm, but it had covered
numerous other potential emergencies, and it was that training that kept him
calm and in control.