“No!” Gillian exclaimed. “Please!”
Luis grabbed hold of Gillian’s hair and jerked backward. He held his knife to her exposed throat and growled, “Then make them understand we’re not fucking around! You do that, and everyone lives. You fuck up, and they are all dead! You’ll be last. I’ll make you watch every person on this plane die. Got it?”
“Yes,” Gillian whispered. She had no doubt he’d do exactly as he threatened.
Luis nodded then threw the cell phone into her lap as he stood. “And don’t try anything stupid,” he warned. “We’re listening.” And with that, he stood back and stared menacingly down at her.
Gillian’s fingers were shaking, but she clicked the phone on and went to the most recent calls. She pressed on the last number received and waited for someone to pick up. Her heart was in her throat, and for a second she thought no one would answer since it was the middle of the night, but finally she heard Walker’s voice.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Gillian.”
“Hey.” His voice immediately changed from the gruff, menacing tone he’d used to answer to a gentler timbre. “You all right?”
“Yeah. I’m supposed to give you a message.”
“Okay, but first, take a breath.”
Gillian frowned. “What?”
“Take a breath, Di. I can tell you’re stressed way the hell out. Just breathe.”
“Di?”
“Sorry, that just popped out. Diana Prince. You know, Wonder Woman’s alter ego? You remind me of her. Staying calm under pressure, looking for ways to help even when the odds are stacked against you. I didn’t see a golden lasso earlier, but you might be hiding it somewhere.”
Gillian was literally speechless. She couldn’t think of a damn thing to say in response.
“Are you breathing? Somehow I don’t think you are.”
She let out the breath she was holding with an audible whoosh and, amazingly, she heard Walker chuckle on the other end of the line.
“Good. Now, tell me what those assholes want us to know.”
And just that quickly, she was sucked back into her current situation. Looking up, Gillian saw Luis and Henry staring down at her with their arms crossed over their chests. She was definitely at a disadvantage sitting at their feet, but she tried not to let that intimidate her.
Hell, who was she kidding? She was way the fuck intimidated.
“They said you have until five in the morning to have the plane refueled and Hugo released. Otherwise they’re going to start killing people. One every fifteen minutes.” She gave him the message quickly, feeling bile rise in her throat at having to say the words out loud.
“The authorities are waiting for the sun to rise to start refueling,” Walker said calmly. “I can tell them they need to start doing it sooner. And I believe Hugo is being released in around two hours. Are they listening?”
Gillian nodded but couldn’t get any words out.
“I’m sure they are,” Walker said. “Go ahead, tell them what I said.”
How Walker could sound so calm and reassured, Gillian had no idea. She cleared her throat and passed along the message.
Luis and Henry immediately began talking to each other in Spanish.
“I don’t—”
“Hush,” Walker said swiftly through the phone.
Startled that he’d been so abrupt, Gillian swallowed hard and held the phone tightly to her ear. She wasn’t sure what to say, or why she was still holding the phone. She should hang up. She’d passed along the message. But no matter how upsetting it was that Walker had been so terse, she couldn’t bring herself to break their connection.
She could hear him breathing on the other end of the line, and concentrated on that. She tried to time her own breaths with his. Surprisingly, it calmed her. He wasn’t huffing and puffing and wasn’t acting nervous or freaked out.
Luis and Henry finally stopped arguing, and Luis stomped away toward the back of the plane. Henry ran an agitated hand through his hair, and he grunted before he too walked away from where Gillian was sitting. He didn’t go far, only to where the first-class cabin stopped, but it gave her a bit of privacy.
“Walker?” she whispered.
“Sorry about that, Di.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“I needed to hear their conversation,” Walker told her.
Then Gillian understood. “What’d they say?”
“I don’t know. But my teammate will figure it out. He’s on his way, and he’ll listen to the recording of our call when he gets here.”
“Is that guy really going to be freed soon?”
“Yes,” Walker said simply.
“And the plane refueled?”
“I take it no one is listening to you right now?” Walker asked.
“No, Henry’s pouting. Oh! Luis, Jesus, Alberto, Carlos, Henry, and Isaac. Those are the hijackers’ names.”
“Good girl,” Walker said, the admiration easy to hear in his tone. “And this is going to be over soon.”
“They really will start killing people,” Gillian warned him. “They said they would start with the women.”
“I believe you, but it’s not going to come to that.”
“Promise?” She knew it wasn’t really fair to ask that of him, but she was desperate. Her heart fell when Walker didn’t immediately respond. “Sorry. Ignore me, I—”
“I’m not a fortune teller, sweetheart. I wish I was. I wish I could tell you for sure what was going to happen in the next few hours. All I can tell you is that I’m doing my very best to get you, and everyone else on that plane, out of there in one piece.”
“Please don’t let them take off with all of us inside this plane.”
“No way in hell,” Walker said fervently.
She believed him. “I watched as Luis secured the door. I’m sure I can do something to open it, or to make it not close right. They can’t take off without the door being latched, right? Maybe when the plane is refueled, someone can leave a gun or something in a secret compartment that I can get to and take them out. I can—”
“Diana Prince, right down to your toes,” Walker interrupted.
“What?”
“We’ve got this, Di. All you have to do is go with the flow, keep your head down, and not put yourself in the line of fire. Okay?”
“Okay. Walker?”
“Yeah?”
“That was you with the food and water, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
Gillian felt a little stupid. Of course it was. He’d confirmed it with his nod earlier. But her emotions were all over the place. She was exhausted, stressed, and freaked out. Not to mention, she had a feeling she smelled atrocious…she couldn’t really tell, since everyone around her smelled awful too. She hated that Walker had seen her at her worst. She wanted to impress him. Wanted to look like the kick-ass women in the movies who could live through the worst and still manage to seduce the hero.
“I thought so,” she said lamely when the silence went on too long.
“What’s goin’ through your head?” he asked.