Page 67 of Captive Hearts
Twenty-Six
Ashley wasn’t remotely surprised that Pete hadn’t considered that the move to the plane would need to be at least somewhat coordinated. He was almost entirely incapable of thinking about the future in any detailed way. He lived on hope and luck.
Thank god for Gina, taking charge of the situation, walking the group forward with some semblance of formation. Ashley supposedthatwas Pete’s luck. That he had Gina at the front. Ashley wasn’t sure she herself would have thought to count them in like that, tense as she was. But there was Gina, a gun in her back, making this whole thing work, never panicking, even when Leanne cocked the whole thing up.
Ashley wished dearly that Leanne had been released at the start of the day; things would have been so much easier. But they had no choice but to drag this dead weight to the plane. So that’s what they did, Tina picking up her frenemy’s slack.
At the foot of the stairs, Ashley’s heart was in her throat. They were going to be at the plane soon and then what? There was no doubt going to be a tricky moment when the handover occurred. Pete might be unprotected for at least a few seconds. The plane door was right in the line of sight of half a dozen armed officers. Would Pete really be allowed to step onto that plane without any interference whatsoever? Because they didn’t know about Gina. They had no idea that she was going to be dragged onto that plane. Pete thought it was clever to keep the police unaware of that. Butwasit? If he tried anything funny, the police would have to react quickly, without full information. It couldn’t go well.
‘Keep going, nearly there,’ Pete informed the group as they shuffled in the direction of the plane. He must have been peeking between Gina’s and Ashley’s bodies to see his way forward.
For some reason, Ashley decided she was going to close that gap. She pushed her body in tighter to Gina. Gina glanced at her as though to ask, ‘What are you doing?’ But then she seemed to understand that Ashley was trying to place Pete in the dark. She pushed back, sealing Pete off from his view.
‘Wait, stop that,’ Pete whispered as they budged in. ‘I can’t… I can’t see… I need to see…’
Ashley pretended not to hear him, moving forward, continuing to lock Pete out. ‘Nearly there,’ she told him.
He sighed. ‘Fine, just keep going,’ he acquiesced. But now he’d have to trust the circle, rather than his own eyes. If they were going to do something, now was their chance. Ashley took it. She started to veer, ever so subtly, away from the plane. She was trying to give the police a chance to intervene, some leeway to do something. Gina picked up on it quickly and began to steer away from the plane.
‘Oi, idiots!’ Leanne suddenly piped up. ‘Wrong direction!’
Ashley thought that if she had access to Leanne right now, murder would have been a real possibility. She’d never hated a human being more than in that moment. Not even Pete.
‘Hey, is that right?’ Pete asked. ‘We going the wrong way?’
‘No,’ Ashley said. ‘Or yes, but…’
‘It’s actually her, her stupidfootthrowing us off course,’ Greg jumped in.
Pete bought it. ‘Leanne, you’re not gonna fuck this up, OK? Gina, sort it. And shift, because I can’t see.’
‘Unbelievable,’ Leanne muttered to herself. ‘I’m saving us!’
Gina let out an almost imperceptible sigh. ‘Yeah, of course, Pete. We’ll be at the plane shortly. Everyone let’s move again. One, two!’
And off they went, back toward the plane. Ashley felt like she was walking to her doom. Worse, she might be walking to Gina’s.
And then there was a small bump as the group smacked softly into the plane. Everyone stopped. ‘Is that it? Are we there?’ Pete said, shuffling around in his little circle.
‘We’re there,’ Ashley said. Pete was gonna drag Gina on that plane now, and she didn’t trust him to let her back off, even if everything went to plan. He was a lying snake.
Ashley knew what she had to do.
