Deadly Games - Cate Noble [69]
Yeah, right. Was Rocco really more trustworthy after waking up with Gena half naked and nearly losing control with her?
Outside the window the sky flashed with an intense burst of lightning. Gena gripped the armrest more tightly as the plane bounced with the thunder.
Rocco wasn’t a huge fan of small planes. He’d ridden in some scary Russian cargo planes that ferried supplies in and out of the Middle East. Compared to those, this wasn’t bad.
They hit a particularly rough patch of turbulence and Gena let out a squeal.
This time Rocco did take her hand. “Easy, Jill.”
It took her a moment to recall her alias. “It looks like we’re flying straight into the storm.”
“It probably overtook us,” Rocco said.
Clay cleared his throat. “Tell your wife not to worry. The pilot flies this route all the time.”
Rocco shifted closer to Gena. He knew by the death grip she kept on his hand that Clay’s words offered little consolation. “I’m sure we’ll be through it soon,” Rocco said.
The plane bumped again, harder than before, and this time the turbulence didn’t let up.
Rocco could hear the pilot talking agitatedly in Spanish on the radio. “Why don’t you check with him? See what’s up.” Rocco said to Clay.
“Sure.” Clay stood but was immediately tossed back into his seat as the plane began shaking in earnest.
Thunder crashed all around the plane. Rocco heard the engines surge and suspected the pilot was trying to climb to get above the storm, but the turbulence only grew worse.
Then a bolt of lightning hit, engulfing the plane in a brilliant flash. The cabin lights flickered as the plane dropped for what felt like a minute.
The pilot shouted at them in English now. “We’ve lost both engines! And the radio! We’re going down!”
Rocco grabbed Gena’s shoulders and shoved her forward. “Crash position,” he said. “Cover your face and eyes.”
“No!” She resisted, trying to climb into his lap.
Rocco forced her to remain in her seat. “You’re safer buckled in. Just do the same thing I do.”
The plane dipped and bucked wildly now. Clay tried to get up again and was slammed to the floor as the plane rotated, angling downward. The lights failed, leaving the cabin in total darkness now.
The plane struck something—trees, Rocco guessed. The plane jerked violently as first one wing, then the other, was ripped away with a horrific screech of metal.
Rocco held on to Gena’s hand, unable to see anything. Wind and rain hit his face and he realized part of the cabin wall had been sheared away.
The plane heaved upward and Gena’s hand was ripped from his. “Noooo!” Her scream grew faint.
Rocco felt himself free-fall before slamming to the ground, into a hole of pain. Above him a fireball exploded as the plane burst into flames.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The plane was crashing. Gena’s seat broke loose as the side of the plane buckled and peeled away like a banana skin.
She tried to hold on to Rocco but couldn’t as the bottom of the plane ripped away beneath her.
Tree branches tore at her. Heavy wet leaves slapped her. The rain continued to pummel her as she slammed downward through the treetops.
Finally she hit a thicker limb that did not break. But it stopped her with a bone-jarring suddenness that whiplashed her neck and back.
She was still strapped in her seat, which now rocked precariously on the limb. She lunged forward, hugging the trunk. Then she heard a loud boom and saw a fiery explosion above the trees. She turned her face as bits of debris fell around her.
“Rocco!” she screamed his name.
Everything around her was dark now. The storm continued to rage, the wind shrieking. Gena hid her face from the slashing rain and sobbed.
Rocco. Had he fallen from the plane, too? Was he close by?
She screamed his name again but heard nothing above the storm.
She forced herself to look around and spotted the fire a couple hundred yards ahead. The plane. Oh, God, what if the others were still inside? She had to get to them.
Please let him be alive, she prayed.Rocco and the others.
Lightning