Chapter 17

The plane rocked forward and I could feel the bile rising in my throat.

"What do you mean it isn't in there?" I almost shouted. I snatched the purse from him and rifled through it.

"Eva." Will's voice broke. "Was this purse in your possession the entire time?" I felt my heart lodging in my throat. I remembered Austin handing it to me at the wedding.

My voice came out in a ghostly whisper. "No."

He muttered an expletive and slammed his hand against the chair across from me. The plane lurched forward again and this time there was a loud sound that sounded like gun fire. I grabbed the nearest trash can and sank my head into it. Will sprang to action, pulling my hair away from my face and handing several Kleenex to me.

"Oh, Will!" I nearly sobbed. "Plymouth has it!" I could kill myself for being so naïve. Joe came out of the cockpit, his dark complexion blanching.

"Someone did something to the plane."

"What?" I felt my body shaking violently, then I lurched toward the trash bin once again. This time the plane engines sounded like they were slowing down which stopped the violent turbulence, but in a horrible 'still 20,000 feet in the sky' sort of way.

"What are we going to do now?" I cried. Looking out one of the windows I could see smoke billowing from the left engine. Will looked as sick as I felt. Woody bolted from the cockpit, parachutes in hand.

"You don't expect us to—jump?" I looked at Will desperately for answers. I was an inch away from losing more than my lunch in the next second. My heart was racing as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

"Eva, we're going to spin out of control." Woody handed me a piece of paper. "I found this under the seat." Will looked over my shoulder and read the contents aloud.

If you want your PA back meet me at WWM tomorrow night at 9:00. If you're late, I'll kill him. Sorry things had to go down this way, pardon the pun.

Plymouth, I didn't doubt that it was him for a second. Tears began streaming down my face. If he wanted us there tomorrow, why was he trying to kill us?!

"No time to think now, we need to be off this plane." Joe ordered.

"Where are we?" I desperately searched outside the window, not partially relieved that we were over miles of dry land instead of the ocean.

"We're about 300 kilometers outside of Milan. Will, put this on."

I had never been skydiving. I watched him buckle the big pack on his chest. "What about your arm?" I didn't think it could take the pressure of the fall. Instead of answering, he turned me around and pressed me flat against his chest, then buckled me in. I could still see dried blood on his hand near his visible tattoo.

Woody quickly opened the escape hatch and the wind howled outside. I felt like I was going to faint when I looked down.

"It might not be a good time to mention this-" I swallowed hard, shouting over the wind. "But I have a fear of heights." Woody heard me and came close, putting his hands on either side of my shoulders.

"Will's done this thousands of times, just trust him." He winked at Will, then put on some kind of goggles. "Young lady, it's time you get the chance to see how the secret service operates!" Before I had the chance to respond he ran and jumped out of the airplane. Joe followed, with hardly a flinch.

Holy shit.

"It'll be okay." Will spoke next to my ear. "We need to leave now." I nodded. I won't throw up, I won't throw up--not that I had anything left in me to throw up now anyways. We came close to the door and I took one last glance at my Father's plane as the engines caught fire, tears rolling down my face. This wasn't the first thing of my Father's that's been destroyed because of me.

Will had jumped before I was ready. I might have screamed, but I couldn't remember. After sparing one last look at the plane, I could see the two others as we rocketed toward land, spinning fast before Will opened the parachute. We shot back, feeling the whiplash, then glided down. I checked to make sure the others were okay, but I couldn't see them.

We approached a field and landed softly while he released the shoot and unfastened us. I dropped to the soft grass before I realized that I was still shaking violently.

"Are you okay?" Will kneeled and lifted my wrist to check my pulse. Once I had my wits about me, I pulled away from him and stood on my wobbly knees.

"Am I... okay?" I hissed. "I was just shot at then had Dad's plane taken down! We are still hundreds of miles away from Manchester and the only person I have left in this insufferable world is going to be killed tomorrow. I am not okay—you hear me? NOT okay."

Woody and Joe ran in our direction from a vineyard. "Is everything okay?" Woody looked from me to Will.

"Whatever you do, don't ask her that." Will whispered. I glared at him and stomped away, in no particular direction but wherever I wanted.

"Ms. Westfield." Joe caught up with me. "We need to find another plane. We're about half a day's walk to the nearest airport, in Verona." I saw smoke rising from a hill a long ways away, no doubt the remains of my Father's precious jet.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a little against flying right now." I crossed my arms.

"Would you rather have us drive to Manchester?" Once he realized his humor wasn't well accepted he cleared his throat and quickly apologized. I surveyed the area. There was no civilization in sight except for the neat rows of ripe grapes. My stomach growled a little.

"I've sent out a signal. More agents will be coming to meet us there." Joe signaled for the rest to follow and I let him lead us into the vineyard. I stepped on something sharp and cried out in pain. It was only then I realized I was barefoot and still in the dress from the wedding. Will offered me a piggy-back ride but I refused profusely.

We found a pebbled road near the grape vines and continued to walk in silence. I checked my phone and was dismayed to see that Austin hadn't replied to my message. Was he mad? He certainly deserved to be after I left so abruptly and now wouldn't be able to see him in Athens tomorrow. The thought made me frown.

"Everything alright back there, Ms. Westfield?"

"Fine, Joe, just fine." I stole a couple of the large purple grapes to prove my point. The succulent juice exploded in my mouth and at that moment I felt like I was in heaven. I was so ravished I stole a few more. Will followed my lead and plucked a few. Joe glared back at him.

"What?" He shrugged, a few grapes visible in his mouth. "They're good!" I smiled. When he wasn't being such an asshole, Will was pretty funny.

"Mmm." I heard Woody say ahead. "Imagine this in a wine. You know, when this is all over I think I'm going to start my own winery and bistro. I'd call it—Woody's Winery."

"Very original." Will teased. I snorted. We talked on about food and wine since we had nothing else to do. Woody talked about his latest trip to South Africa and the best wine he'd ever tasted called The Diamond Chateau. I was so relieved to be talking about something other than Plymouth... and Gio.

We struck a main road and walked along. There weren't any cars that passed along the rock pavement while we walked. We were all exhausted by the time we reached the airport. The sun was low in the sky and the pain in my stomach was getting worse. While the grapes were amazing, they did little to replenish the calories I burned walking hours on the road. The airport in Verona itself was abandoned for the most part, except for a few Cessna planes and an old WWII Baron which I assumed wouldn't be the one we fly to England. Inside, a man in his mid-sixties greeted us. After we realized he spoke no English, Will spoke to him in Italian. I smiled inwardly, so many secrets I had yet to learn about him. There were only three others that I saw walking around. While I Idly wondered who they could be, a woman stepped out of a side door. She was average height with striking raven dark hair. As I nearly gawked at her Armani dark suit jacket and matching skirt, I only realized how terrible I must look in my dirty torn number from Forever 21.

"Yvonne!" Will greeted her like an old friend and she gently hugged him. "William." They obviously knew each other, well. For no reason at all, I felt slight irritation. It was that same horrible feeling I felt when seeing him get cozy with that Loraine girl. I shuddered at the remembrance.

"It's been too long. Joe! Woody." Her eyes lit up when she saw them. Her accent was foreign, not English. Somehow, I was feeling left out of this little clique everyone suddenly had going. I crossed my arms when her gaze settled on me. Her stark brown eyes bore into mine, making me feel slightly intimidated.

"And you must be Ms. Westfield. It's a pleasure having your help with our investigation."

"Help?" I almost screeched. "Look, I just want my friend back."

"We'll get him back. Follow me out, our helicopter leaves soon." She led us into the room she came out of and flipped on a light switch, revealing what looked to be some sort of classroom. I had a million questions flooding into my mind at once. Particularly how it seemed that every one of my Father's staff works for British Intelligence. I said as much to her and she laughed.

"By now you must know, my dear, that we have been watching Plymouth closely for some time. My men found their way to working for your Father after we realized the close working connection he had with Plymouth." Somehow the way she said 'my men' drove something home. These were my men, not hers.

She pulled out a duffel bag and dispersed flashlights and helmets to all of us. For a moment, I felt like we were flying into battle, not a quaint English village. Now I was wondering why MI6 wanted to be involved with this situation in the first place. As far as I knew, Plymouth was just trying to take my company, hardly a reason to involve secret service. I decided not to say anything, just scowl at Will who had failed to communicate any of this to me. While he and Yvonne talked about something, I ripped out my phone and sent another message to Austin. I hoped he believed all of this. If not, it would be a tale of horror I could recount to Holly tomorrow. In the spirit of the moment I also sent one to her, though there was no reason to include information about me being almost shot then nearly killed in a plane crash. I gave her the in-a-nutshell-version by simply telling her I was on my way back to Manchester.

"Everyone ready?" She led us out the back door, where it was almost dusk. A full-sized military helicopter with open doors waited for us and we were greeted by the three crew-members.

"Thisis going to take us back?" I looked to Will in disbelief.

"Yes." He replied "Haven't you ever rode in a helicopter?" I shook my head.

As soon as we boarded, the aircraft lifted into the sky. I was sitting next to Woody and two of the other crew members while Will and Joe sat on either side of Yvonne and across from me.

"So, you live in the U.K.?" I asked (more like yelled over the noise of the propellers).

"Yes." She replied. "But I'm originally from Spain." I put aside all of my unwarranted irritation and asked her why they were so interested in Plymouth.

"We found out about his ties with the KGB and the rogue syndicate and we suspect he is trying to pay them back for what they did to him and trying to build his own fortress out on one of the Mediterranean Islands." The Building! I gasped, as recollection hit me.

"Gio! He said something about the building." I thought hard. "He said he doesn't think Plymouth is building one!"

"No, he's not." She sighed deeply. "He's building an escape once he's through ruining the KGB."

"What did they do to him?" I asked astonished. She looked nervously at Will and then back to me.

"It's mostly classified, but in short, they were testing out a high-performance drug on him. The operation was slashed once their cover was blown, but by then it was too late."

A high-performance drug? "You mean they experimented on him?" I asked, incredulous.

She nodded. "Then he went and killed himself and the evidence was gone." At my confused look, she chuckled. I was starting to get tired of that. Will answered for her. "He didn't actually kill himself-"

"I knew that!" I snapped. Obviously!

"—With the help of one of his closest friends he faked his death and ran away to England." Everyone was looking at me now and I had the strangest feeling I related to the story somehow.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't you want to know who that friend was?" I couldn't imagine who. Only one name stood out to me, but it wouldn't have made any sense.

"Was it Gio?" They were about the same age.

"No." She said, her dark eyes flashing. "It was your Father."

Author's Note

LOVE to end on a cliffhanger, y'all know that by now. ;) What's going to happen to Gio?? Guess you'll just have to turn that page! Also please remember to hit the star button on your favorite chapters to help me get more awesome readers like you! :)))