The flight attendant was at his side to assist him. “Get back to your seat, Mr. Blade. We’re experiencing a bout of excessive turbulence. The pilot has instructed everyone to wear their seatbelts.”
“No problem,” Tommy answered. “As long as I’ve got my guitar on my knee, I can sit for hours.”
The flight attendant shook her head and attempted to take the case from Tommy, but he pulled it away.
“I’m sorry. All items must remain stowed away when the seatbelt sign is on.”
Now Angel looked more worried than Jessi. “Is something wrong with the plane?” He glanced out the window. “The weather’s clear. Why the turbulence?”
“Please just sit quietly, sir. The pilot will update us as soon as there’s more information.” She waited for Tommy to return his guitar to the overhead bin and didn’t leave until he was seated and their lap belts were secured.
Tommy looked at the worried faces of his spouses and tried to reassure them. “We’ll be back on the ground in a little while, and you’ll—–”
The plane jerked violently, and the back of Tommy’s head hit the headrest. “Ugh!” A sharp pain shot up the back of his neck. “What the—–” The floor rumbled and the seats shook, blurring his vision. At first, he thought he was dizzy from the blow to his head, but as soon as the black smoke shot past the window, he knew they were in trouble.
The pilot’s frantic voice echoed through the small plane. “We lost the engine! Prepare for impact!”
Tommy’s breath stopped, and the color drained from his face.
Angel groaned, “Oh my God,” and Jessi gasped.
The interior lights flickered like a dying flame and then gave up life. The nose of the plane dipped toward the ground, and it spiraled out of control. Tommy’s vision twisted like a cyclone. Flashes of Jessi’s hot pink hair and Angel’s dark eyes morphed into a bizarre blur, like a mirror at an amusement park. Fear gripped at Tommy’s throat, and his heart pounded against his ribs. He put his face to the small window, but there was only black and grey smoke. There was no sign of the blue sky or if they were headed into the ocean or toward land.
Jessi was crying and Angel was praying in Spanish, but Tommy barely heard them over the booming sound of his heart beating like a gong in his chest. He grabbed Angel’s and Jessi’s hands. “I love y—–”
The plane lurched and rattled. The floor vibrated under Tommy’s feet and grew hot. Branches scratched at the windows with a high-pitched screech. The plane fell on its wing and catapulted Tommy into the side wall. A sharp pain shot through his head like a gunshot. Then everything went black.
Chapter Five
The acrid smell of burning jet fuel filled Angel’s nostrils, and he forced his eyes open. A blanket of smoke enveloped him and poisoned his lungs with toxic air. Charring heat lashed at him from every angle. He coughed, but the sharp pain in his side silenced him. He squinted through his stinging eyes and frantically searched for Tommy and Jessi. He buried his mouth and nose in the corner of his arm in order to filter the smoke, but it still choked him. “Tommy! Jessi!” He barely got their names out before he coughed violently.
“Angel?” Jessi’s trembling voice came from behind him.
He spun around, and his heart jumped when he saw her. He took her face in his hands and ran his thumb across her cheekbone. She had a small scratch under her eye, but otherwise looked unharmed. “Thank God you’re okay.”
“Where’s Tommy?”
Panic tore through Angel, and he shouted into the smoke-filled interior of the plane. “Tommy! Tommy!”
Jessi was on her hands and knees, crawling with her face to the ground. “Tommy, where are—–?” She choked, and it cut off her sentence.
A hand grabbed Angel by the shoulder and pulled him from the plane’s carcass. It was the pilot. He had a small gash on his forehead and blood ran down the side of his face and dotted across his collar.
Angel shook the pilot’s hand off of his arm. “I have to find Tommy!”
Jessi was struggling in the flight attendant’s grasp. She pulled free and dove into the body of the burning plane.
Angel dove in after her. “Get out of the plane!” he yelled. “I’ll find him! Go! Now!”
She ignored him and continued to call for Tommy.
Angel had no choice. He needed to get Jessi to safety. He picked her up and tossed her out of the plane and onto the sand next to the waiting pilot and flight attendant. “Hold her and don’t let her back in here!”
It was too dark to see inside the dying aircraft. Clouds of black smoke blanketed the interior and choked the air from Angel’s lungs. His eyes watered and burned, but he pushed through the debris. He had to find Tommy. He blindly felt his way around the disemboweled plane, identifying objects with the touch of his fingers. He burned his hand on the metal buckle of a seat belt. He pushed aside a seat cushion and a piece of luggage. Wait. It was too big for a suitcase. It was Tommy’s Les Paul! Angel hurled it through an opening in the side of the plane. It was a small victory, but somehow he knew Tommy would be close by. “Tommy! Tommy!” No answer. He gagged and heaved at the lack of oxygen in his lungs, but continued through the rubble. He leaned the palm of his hand on a pile of crushed glass and winced. The sharp pain in his side, most likely a broken rib, hampered his movements, but he forced himself onward.