Beyond 10 Nights (25 page)

While he fought the controls, trying desperately to
keep the jet on the heading the instrument told him to, he radioed in a report
of their situation and their intention to attempt an emergency landing on
Guayabas Island.

“Be prepared for a rough landing, Sir,” he called back
once he had finished his emergency call.

His seatbelt buckled tight Rhett nodded, not even
thinking about his pilot’s inability to see his response. While part of his
mind wondered how on earth the pilot could see to fly the plane, given the
darkness outside, which was only broken by the more and more frequent lightning
strikes, let alone land it, the rest of his mind was concerned with Leah.

Desperate to hear her voice again, even if it was only
in a recording, he took out his phone. “Leah, sweetheart,” just hearing her
voice made him feel a little better, “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to
get back like I said I would, not tonight anyway, there’s a storm here, it’s
worse than I thought and we’re having to make an emergency landing…SHIT!” Rhett
swore aloud as the jet suddenly lurched and his phone was thrown from his hand.

He could only watch helplessly as the phone flew across
the cabin, bounced off the sofa seat on the far side and then disappeared from
view. As much as he wanted to get up and search for the phone, he knew it
wasn’t a good idea, not least because the way the plane was being buffeted
about was unsettling his stomach; he wasn’t too sure he would manage to keep
his last meal down if he attempted to move.

It seemed like forever before he felt the landing gear
touch ground, and he was about to utter a silent prayer of thanks, something he
would never consider under normal circumstances, when he was given fresh cause
to worry.

Harrow had barely uttered a sigh of relief for their
safe landing when he realized they were now out of the woods. The lone runway
on the small airfield was in horrible condition, and he struggled with the
controls as the jet slewed round on the uneven asphalt. Their already
precarious situation became even more unstable when the forward landing gear
buckled and the jet tilted, skidding for more than two hundred yards before
finally coming to a halt with its nose and the tip of its left wing resting on
the runway.

The moment the plane had stopped moving, and he was
sure the immediate danger was past, Harrow undid his safety belt and was out of
his seat so he could make his way back there. “Don’t you ever ask me to do
anything like that again, Mr. Hammond,” he said forcefully, the adrenaline of
the emergency landing giving him the courage to speak to his employer in a tone
he would never have used otherwise. “Flying in this was dangerous and stupid.
We’re lucky to have made it down in one piece.” He didn’t care how much money
his employer had, all he could think of was that he had a wife and child to
consider, and he had nearly orphaned them because he had allowed himself to be
persuaded by a man with more money than sense.

Though he wanted to chastise his employee for taking
such a tone with him Rhett couldn’t help but agree with what the man had said,
it had been dangerous and stupid and they were lucky to be alive. “You’re
right, I’m sorry, it was a mistake.” He conceded. “I don’t ever want to go
through something like that again.” He resolved that just as soon as they made
it back to safety he would pay the man, double the bonus he’d promised him,
he’d earned it after getting them down safely. “How bad is our situation?” he
asked, hating that he wasn’t in control of things.

“Not good, Sir,” Harrow admitted. “I can’t be certain
just how bad the plane is damaged, but it’s a sure thing we won’t be able to
take off even if we survive the storm, and I wouldn’t like to guarantee that.”

“Is there any good news?”

“Some, we still have power, enough to keep the lights
on at least, so we’re not stuck here in the dark, and I managed to put out an
emergency call before we landed. They won’t be able to send anyone to find us
until the storm is over, but they know where we were aiming for so they know
where to look for us.”

“That’s something,” Rhett said in relief. “So we just
wait for the storm to pass?” The notion of just sitting in a crashed plane to
await rescue didn’t go over too well with him, even if there was no other
choice open to him.

“Pretty much. We do have a decision to make though,
Sir,” Harrow said, dropping onto the couch on the other side of the jet since
the fuselage was being buffeted too strongly for him to stay on his feet
easily.

“What decision is that?”

“Do we stay here or do we try and find somewhere
better to weather the storm.” Harrow told him. “It isn’t really safe for us to
go outside, but it could well be more dangerous for us to remain in here. If
the storm proves to be as severe as they predicted then the plane could be
battered pretty badly.”

“Where do you suggest we go? Do you even know where we
are?”

“Yes, Sir, we’re on Guayabas Island, it’s supposed to
be deserted now, after the Mexicans raided it and shut down the cartel that
owned it, but this was a proper airfield so it should have somewhere safe for
us to wait out the storm; safer than staying here in the jet at least.”

Rhett was silent for a while as he contemplated the pilot’s
words, his thoughts accompanied by the roaring of the wind outside and the
sound of the rain as it hammered on the fuselage. He made up his mind after a
particularly violent gust of wind struck the jet, and for a moment it seemed as
though it would rolled right over, before it settled back down.

“As dangerous as it is in here, I think it would be
more dangerous for us to go out there, especially when we can’t be certain
where to find safety.” Rhett felt a lot better for having made a decision, it
made him feel more like he was in control of the situation, no matter how
tenuous that control might be. “Given how the wind is blowing us about right
now I think it would be extremely foolish of us to go outside. We can’t
possibly hope to stand up against the weather out there.”

“Yes, Sir, you’re right,” Harrow agreed, though he
didn’t much like the idea of riding out the storm in the jet, which he
suspected was going to get rolled by the wind at any moment. “If we’re going to
stay here I think we should take stock of the situation and see what we have to
get through this, since we have no idea how long the storm will last, or when
we will be rescued.”

Together they got to their feet, as best they could,
and began searching the plane for anything that might be of use to them during
their ordeal. It didn’t take them long, there wasn’t much to the plane, and
soon enough they were back with what they had found.

Between them they had enough clothing to remain warm,
as long as they remained dry and under cover; their main concern was food and
water. The tiny galley, which was little more than a microwave, a fridge, and a
few cupboards, offered up half a dozen bottles of water, an assortment of
alcohol and enough snacks to keep the pair of them going for a couple of days,
if they were careful.

Deciding that the situation warranted alcohol, the
adrenaline of the flight and landing had purged his body of the wine he had
consumed a surprisingly short time before, Rhett cracked open a bottle of
whiskey. Not wanting to waste time with a glass he raised the bottle to his
lips and took a long swallow, the alcohol burned satisfyingly on its way down
his throat.

Without thinking about it he handed the bottle over to
the pilot when he lowered it from his lips. Taking it in turns they worked
their way through the bottle, distracting themselves from the fury of the storm
just a short distance away with the alcohol and conversation.

Under normal circumstances Rhett would not have
deigned to talk with an employee in such a relaxed fashion, but the combination
of the alcohol and their need to occupy themselves relaxed the barriers he
usually kept in place. He learned more about his pilot than he had in the
previous five years the man had been working for him.

13

Janie and David

Ending her call with Leah, Janie returned
to the kitchen, and David, whom she had left to take the call from her friend.
Impulsively she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. The sudden
urge brought on by the conversation she had just had, and the knowledge that
she was incredibly lucky to be with him, rather than dealing with the problems
her best friend was.

“Hugs in the kitchen, to what do I owe the
pleasure, baby?”
David asked, returning the hug; it wasn’t unusual for
her to be demonstrative with her affections, but he could tell that something
was on her mind.

“Have I told you how much I love lately?” Janie
reached up on tiptoes to kiss him.

Kissing her back he grinned. “Not in the last five
minutes; everything okay?”

“I’m just glad we don’t have all the drama that Leah
does at the moment,” Janie told him. “It seems like every time she turns around
she’s got another problem.” That was the understatement of the year, she
though. How her friend wasn’t nuts, trying to deal with Rhett’s bullshit, she
didn’t know.

“What’s he done now?” David didn’t need to ask to know
that she was talking about Rhett.

“Threatened to kill Alex.” Shaking her head, Janie let
go of David and walked over to the coffee pot so she could pour herself a cup.

“I can’t say that surprises me,” David admitted as he
joined her at the coffee pot. “If there’s one thing Rhett dislikes more than
anything else, it’s being denied.

“I take it Leah told him she was sleeping with Alex.”

 “Yes, and of course that went over like a ton of
bricks.” She shook her head. When Leah had told her what had happened she’d
wanted to tell her friend to get the man out of her life, to forget him forever
and move on, but she’d held her tongue. The last time she had told her friend
exactly what she was thinking it had almost cost them their friendship.

“In Rhett’s defense, I think he really does care for
Leah, he just has no idea how to show it properly.” He didn’t approve of his
friend’s methods, but he could understand his reaction to the thought of losing
Leah, he was sure he would be equally distressed if he had to face the
possibility of losing Janie.

“If he truly cares for her then he should want her to
be with someone like Alex. She was never ready for someone like him, and he has
no idea how to be with someone like her.  “He’s too deep into the
lifestyle, she doesn’t know how to cope with it, and he doesn’t know how to
back away from it.” She didn’t want to argue with David, but she also felt she
had to be honest with him.

“Alex has his own deviant side, Janie.” He knew she
knew nothing about what Alex liked to do, and didn’t want her thinking to be
skewed by only knowing one side of the man. To his way of thinking, Alex’s
lifestyle was even more intense than Rhett’s.

Janie raised an eyebrow at his statement. “I’m not
sure anyone could be more domineering than Rhett.” She shook her head, not sure
what David meant.

“You’re probably right on that front, but that wasn’t
quite what I meant. From what I’ve heard, Alex’s particular kink is something
that Leah is likely to have a harder time accepting than she does Rhett’s
domineering side.”

Janie’s confusion began to turn to concern. “You’re
starting to worry me, what is it that Alex is in to? What’s he hiding from
Leah?”

“I don’t think he’s hiding anything from her, I get
the impression he’s a pretty open and honest guy, so he’s probably just waiting
for the right time.” Seeing the look on Janie’s face he continued. “From the
whispers I have heard, he’s a pony master. It’s just a rumor…” he said
hurriedly, though they both knew that there were few secrets in their
community; if it was going around that Alex was a pony master then it was
almost certainly true.

“No shit?” The look on Janie’s face at his words told
David that she knew just what he was telling her. He didn’t know how much she
knew about the pony lifestyle but it was clear she had enough knowledge to find
the news troubling.

The expression on Janie’s face made him laugh. “That’s
the word that’s going around,” he said as the two of them moved to the island
bar so they could sit down. “Rumor also says that he’s bought the local Ranch,
and that he was trained there.” Pony play wasn’t something he had ever had a
real interest in, so he had never brought it up with Janie, but he found
himself wondering if it was something she would be in to, and whether he should
take her out to the Ranch to find out.

“If that doesn’t open up a whole new can of crap, I
don’t know what does.” Janie shook her head and wondered if her friend had some
sort of beacon that attracted deviant men to her. “That’s some serious scene.”
She knew there was a ranch on the outskirts of the city, and she knew a little
of what pony play involved, having researched it after first hearing about it.
What she knew made her uncomfortable.

Sipping on his coffee David watched Janie’s face; he
couldn’t help but wonder if she was now thinking that Rhett was the better and
safer choice for her friend