Tommy Nightmare(106)
“Okay…” Jenny started walking again. He waited to walk alongside her.
“It’ll be nice,” he said. “You like the beach, right?”
“There’s too many people.”
“Not at my place. There’s nobody we don’t invite.”
He led her inside the hangar, toward one of several small aircraft. “This is us.”
Jenny stared at it. “What is that?”
“A Cessna Corvalis. A little banged up, but it’ll get us there.”
“I didn’t mean…we’re taking a plane? To Mexico?” She took her hand back from him. “Who’s going to fly it?”
He smirked and opened the plane’s right-hand door. “Come on. I’ll give you a boost.” He held out his hand.
“You’re kidding,” she said.
“What? These things are easy,” he said. “You should have seen my first plane. Didn’t even have an enclosed cockpit. Pilot’s chair was just a splintery board.”
“How old are you?”
“In this lifetime, or adding them all up?”
“Do you remember other lives?” Jenny asked. “Besides Greece?”
“I remember them all.” He pointed inside the plane. “We have to go. You’re the one in a rush, not me. Nobody’s looking for me, not on this side of the border.”
“Okay.” Jenny looked at him carefully. It made sense that the Tommy guy could give a whole crowd a panic, and clearly Alexander’s power lay in another direction. He had come to save her. He didn’t seemed concerned about Seth at all—but Jenny wasn’t too concerned, either. He seemed to be doing pretty well for himself.
She knew from her dreams that Alexander had been good to her in the past, and that he understood her. It was thrilling to discover another person she could touch, but it also meant she had no real power over him. If he was taking her into a trap, it wouldn’t be easy to escape him. Especially when all her major bones felt like broken glass.
“We have a good doctor there,” Alexander said. “He’ll take care of your injuries.”
“I usually heal up pretty good,” Jenny said. “Never needed a doctor.”
“You took a pretty bad beating.”
“When will you bring me back home?” she asked.
“When it’s safe.”
“Who decides when it’s safe?”
“You and me.” He smiled. “Jenny, you can trust me. We’ve known each other a long time, and you know that.” He touched her cheek again. She did like how that felt, but it was completely different from Seth. Seth’s touch soothed and calmed her. Alexander’s made her feel electrified and powerful.
“Okay.” She took his hand from her cheek and grasped it tight. “Help me up.”
He boosted her up into the cockpit and closed the door.
While the hangar door lifted in front of her, Jenny studied the interior of the plane. It was snug in here, almost like a car. Her palms sweated and her guts knotted up. She had never been in an airplane before, and the idea scared her now.
Alexander climbed into the seat to her left and closed the door.
“I think I saw some OxyContin in here.” Alexander opened a console between the seats and handed her a brown pill bottle.
“What are these?” Jenny asked.
“Painkillers.”
“Oh, awesome.” Jenny unscrewed the cap and tapped one of the red pills into her palm. She swallowed it, hesitated a moment, then took a second one. “Why do you have these?”
“I don’t know.” He started up the plane and eased it out the hangar door. “I share this plane with a few different friends. Somebody must have left it.”
Jenny leaned back in her seat and watched out the window as the plane crawled to the runway. The night was already too unreal, too scary—her dad, then Seth, then the riot…and now flying away with someone from her dreams.
“What’s it like?” Jenny asked.
“Mexico?”
“Flying.”
“It’s great. You’ll like it.” He took her hand for a moment, and she felt his power flow into her, as if he were intentionally pushing it. She grew much more confident, like she could do anything. And get away with it, too.
“Fuck it,” she said. “Let’s fly away to Mexico.”
“That’s my girl.” Alexander talked briefly with the control tower over his headset.
He steered it onto the runway, then held the brakes while firing up the engines. The craft rumbled around her, and Jenny clenched the armrests tight.
Then the plane surged forward along the runway, rapidly picking up speed, and Jenny felt pushed back into her seat. She was trembling, and her breaths came short and fast.