The Gambit (44 page)

Ring…Ring…

The flip phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that a weird number was calling. It wasn’t a 305 area code like all of our phones were. It probably wasn’t safe to answer. I began to put it away, and I halted, staring at the number.

What if it is an emergency?

I opened it and answered the call.

“Hello,” the sound of my voice was drowned out by the traffic that surrounded the taxi.

“Rachel,” he whispered, and his tone was shaky.

“Owen? What’s wrong? Are you calling from the plane?”

“Yes. I don’t have much time. Listen.”

“What’s going on?” my heart began to bounce around in my chest.

“There’s a man who keeps watching me. He has turned around almost ten times and he is on the phone with someone. I think he
knows
.”

The certainty in his voice made me want to puke. He had been on the plane for close to an hour, what could anyone do on a plane? Maybe it was the—
oh my God…

“Is it the air marshal?”

“Could be. He just looked over again, he’s grabbing something from his pockets.”

He was talking in such a low tone I had to press my finger over the opposite ear to block out the noise of the expressway.

“Stay calm,” I comforted him. “You might just be overthinking it. Everything will be fine.” Now, it was
my
voice that was shaky.

“No, Rachel. It won’t. I can feel it—he knows. It’s over. It’s
all
over…”

“You don’t know that.” I trembled with every word.

“He’s standing up. You were right, he must be the air marshal. You better get out of Florida, fast. They will be looking for you.”

“Fuck! Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening. What do I do, Owen?”

“Keep yourself safe, don’t worry about me. I love you.”

The phone call ended. I stared at the screen, numb to the news I received. Reality settled in like a blanket of fire around my chest. I felt hot, like my skin was burning. The taxi driver hadn’t even acknowledged that I was on the phone.
‘It’s over. It’s all over…’
Owen’s words echoed in my mind and a rage percolated through my veins. My chest heaved with my rapid breath, and I chewed on my lower lip, feeling helpless as to what to do.

No
—it was
not
over. We had come this far. I wasn’t going to let us go down without a fight. I began to tear up as emotion bubbled up within me. He said it. I didn’t have to say it, he said what I wanted to say so badly, but couldn’t.
‘I love you…’

I loved him, too. I wouldn’t let them take him away from me. Anger and the love I felt for Owen swirled around inside me like a powerful current, and it made me feel like I was invincible.
Fuck them. They won’t win.
I opened the contacts and dialed my cousin.

Please, please answer…

“
Bueno
,” Vinny’s voice came on the speaker.

“Vicenzo,” I breathed into the phone. My anger distorted my normal speech.

“What?
Que pasό, prima?!
” he shouted. He
knew
something was terribly wrong.

“It’s Owen. The air marshal got him.”

“Shit! No fucking way! What the hell are we gonna do?”

My lower lip trembled, and I felt my eye begin to twitch from the rage deep inside me.

“Get the Hummer.”

“Everybody
stay calm!
” the booming voice of the air marshal resonated throughout the cabin as he pressed his knee into my spine. My cheek was squished into the floor, and my body barely fit in the narrow walkway. The cuffs clicked tighter around my wrists. It was hard to breathe.

I thought it would be more dramatic. Maybe a chase, maybe a struggle, a fight…but no—
none
of that. Jamie Lee Curtis begged for her life when Michael Myer’s cornered her, but I didn’t. I had nowhere to run, being tens of thousands of feet above the ocean. The stony-faced agent walked towards me and yanked me out of my seat to where I was now. The most disturbing part were the faces of the passengers. They all looked at me as if I were a killer, and I guess in their mind, I was. Millie’s gasps and cries were getting old quick.

“I had no idea, officer. I swear,” she mumbled every few seconds.

“Don’t worry, ma’am, just stay seated,” he instructed.

That was the thing that made me the most miserable. I
wasn’t
a killer. I was innocent, and a plane full of people believed otherwise. Oh, what damage the media had done.

“
Attention passengers, thank you for your patience. Please stay calm. We have a wanted fugitive aboard, and we are turning around. We will be back in Miami in the next half-hour. I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience, and for the safety of all our passengers, the flight will take off again after our dangerous cargo is removed by the air marshal. I assure you, you are all safe.”

Dangerous cargo
…I snorted at the captain’s snarky reference. The air marshal dragged me to my feet and pushed me forward. With my hands behind my back and my goatee slipping off my face from having been ground into the floor, I was forced to face the passengers. Many of them glowered at me, shaking their heads, and whispering to one another. Half of the people on this plane would have loved just to shake my hand before a week ago. That was how I was treated in public. Now, I was infamous…not famous.
Why should I suffer in silence?

“I’m innocent!” I shouted. “I was framed!”

“Shut your mouth,” he shoved me forward. The handcuffs dug into my wrists as he pushed me around. We reached his seat, and the person who was sitting next to him had already moved. I sat in the middle, beside his aisle seat, and I tried to find a comfortable way to sit with my arms contorted behind my back. There wasn’t any. There was a freckle-faced, redheaded man who sat beside me on the left, and the moment I met eyes with him, he glanced away in fear. The air marshal joined us, picked up the airplane phone, and dialed out.

“We’ve got him,” he said and hung up. I knew it was over from the moment he turned around and we met eyes the first time, but his words solidified it. Hearing them made the reality even harder to face. They’ve
got
me, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

“Ma’am, one of our agents in Miami just got off the phone with the air marshal. We’ve got him! Owen is in handcuffs!”

Half of the room erupted in cheers. The other half didn’t even flinch. I was one of those. One of the ones who dreaded the moment we caught Owen. Just another person added to the list of people who had been mistakenly made a target by the government…but, I knew that this was
far
from a mistake.

Veronica was gasping with laughter. She clenched her fists and shook them. “Yes!” she shouted and turned around to face all of us. The victory had changed her demeanor quickly. Her piercing blue eyes were no longer cold. They shimmered like there were jewels behind them, and her maniacal grin made her wrinkles more apparent. They were subtle because she always hid them with makeup.

“We did it!” she threw her hands up and started a round of applause. When the clapping subsided she opened her mouth to speak. “I just wanted to say thank you, to everyone, for all your hard work. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

No shit
. The government would be nothing without all of its worker bees.

“She caught an innocent man because of us,” I leaned in and said to my colleague Kyle.

“What was that?” Veronica snapped. My pulse quickened and I turned to meet her accusing glare. This was the first time she had addressed me, or even spoke to me for that matter. I avoided her at all costs. I knew it was in my best interest to keep my mouth shut, but the urge was so difficult to ward off. The fifty-something workers around me all stared, awaiting my response. The room was so silent you could have heard a pin drop.

“I
said
, you caught an innocent man because of us. You wouldn’t have been able to do it by yourself.”

Mumbles from my colleagues spread around the room. Veronica’s eyes turned to slits, and her jaw tightened from my words. She slowly walked out from behind her metal desk and strode towards me. The clacks from her heels were unnerving. My body heated up from the stress of the moment, and I could practically feel her anger washing over as she glowered at me. I had told myself many times that I would be prepared for the consequences of my rebellion against Veronica, but was I? My heart pounded in my chest as she reached me. I had my arms crossed and stared back at her sternly.