Noah held my hand tightly, so tightly that I was loosing the feeling in the tips of my fingers. If anyone in this crowded airport looked at the scene Noah was creating they would think we were some loving couple, planning on traveling somewhere. Maybe in their eyes we were traveling to meet family, and soon I would be meeting Noah’s Mother and Father for the first time, or maybe the other way around. All these strangers would notice, if they even did glance at us for more than a second was that we were traveling somewhere, together. They wouldn’t look long enough to discover the death grip he had me in, they wouldn’t know the fear I was in and most importantly they wouldn’t know that I was that girl kidnapped from towns away.
Before I left the house Noah had told me what Tony had in mind, and he explained to me how dangerous that man was, like he had to. I could tell by the way he carried himself, I could tell by the way the guys were afraid of him. Even though I wanted no part of Tony’s plan, I didn’t have a say.
Then while we were in the car, Noah explained how things were going to work while we were in public. It was almost like he could read my mind, or it was just obvious that I was thinking about making a scene and being saved. Harshly, he reminded me that he knew were I lived, and reminded me how easily he got in last time, how easily he kidnapped me to begin with. Then he explained that he would be holding my hand at all times, until we had to go through security but even if I got more than 2 feet away from him bad things would happen. He didn’t really get into detail but I could tell the threat was there.
I stared at the cheap upholstery of the car, trying to block out the world as I thought about what Tony expected me to be able to accomplish in less than three months, but before I could get in depth with my thoughts Noah pulled me back out of them.
“I’m serious Skye. You do anything stupid to draw attention to yourself, and ef everything…” He took a deep breath to calm himself. “You should know, Tony has Brendan scooping your house out right now, and Tony? He owns a very large share of the airport we’re going through, and that is how you will be getting through so easily. You do anything stupid, Tony will see while it’s happening… and you know Brendan.” My blood ran cold, I expected the twins to step in, to say something, but Alex drove silently and Andrew sat in the front seat mirroring Alex’s expression. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
“But Skye… before..” Suddenly Noah’s voice had gone quiet, and thoughtful. “Before we’re in the sight of Tony you should know you can’t trust his word. You will listen to everything that man says because if you don’t he will not think twice before killing you, but just know I, Alex and Andrew …we will try our bests to get you out of this alive.” The lump that had errantly been in my throat didn’t leave as I swallowed hard enough it seemed for the whole car to hear. “Just hold my hand, Alex and Andrew will be dropping us off at the door and we will be separated from them till we get to the safe house after the plane ride. If you see them while in the airport you are not to acknowledge them. You only know me, your boyfriend.” His last words caught me off guard as I shot him a look and regardless to the hostile air that had filled the vehicle the twins left out childish chuckles.
“She looked soooo happy to be referred to as your girlfriend. Maybe she should be mine.” Andrew smirked, winking playfully at me making the situation less horrible.
“I don’t think I would mind that to be honest.” I continued the joke, and watched happily as Noah’s face turned red with embarrassment and anger.
“Hey! I’m not the one who came up with this idea, you would be her boyfriend,” Noah slapped Andrew swiftly of the very top of his head, “if you were as jacked as I am.” Noah laughed referring to his muscles. Andrew laughed.
“You wish.” and with that Andrew rolled his eyes.
By now, Noah and I were going through security. They checked the bags we staged, with only essentials to make it look realistic. They didn’t question how the majority of my clothing was boys, or the fact neither of our bags contained toothbrushes. It was a faint hope, but I still wanted them to pull us aside and search us. Anything to delay the unavoidable… I was getting on this plane, flying all the way to Chicago to become best friends with Amanda, the girl Andrew, Alex, Brendan, and Noah originally planned to kidnap but got me instead.
Tony wanted me to become best friends with her, so in the end I could help her get kidnapped. I didn’t get all the details, that was pretty much all I knew but I could already tell that it was going to be the hardest thing I ever did in my life, but if I didn’t do it my family would be killed.
Why was this Amanda girl so important? What drove them to want her so much? But in the end did it really matter? As long as I got the girl, my family would be saved. It didn’t matter what she was, if she was a good person, what her favorite hobbies were. She was the key to saving my parents, and no matter how selfish those thoughts were in the end I would do absolutely anything to make they were safe.
The pain of Noah holding my hand so tightly was finally getting to me, as my hand throbbed.
“Noah.” I whispered sweetly, and he looked at me sternly. “I’m not going anyway, you can loosen the grip of your hand.” I smiled lovingly just in case someone unexpected was watching us and he lightened up a little. “Ha, I feared you were going to yank my hand off.” Jokingly I slapped his shoulder, and realized how tense he was. Well he wasn’t the was with his family on the line.
One of the guards, who was apparently listening to my one sided conversation chuckled and immediately our heads snapped up to look at the old man, both of us worried he had seen through our charade.
“You do look mighty protective of her.” The man in the uniform joked, and Noah and I laughed uncomfortably.
“This is a big airport,I just don’t want to lose my girlfriend.” Noah insisted and the man gave us a crooked eye. I didn’t know about Noah, but my heart definitely stopped.
“Girlfriend? Hah, I’m sorry I thought you were brother and sister due to the size different. My apologizes.” The man laughed mostly to himself before walking away, leaving Noah and I looming in awkwardness.
“Great, now I look like a pedophile.” Noah rejoiced sarcastically as we neared the entrance to our airplane.
Once more the lady checked out our tickets and Ids, I was Rhiannon Marcel and that was how I was getting through the security check points.
Successfully on the plane, it left like a very large weight was lifted off my shoulders though I knew we weren’t in the clear yet. We wouldn’t be until we had touched down, left that air port and got into the car.
I had never been in a plane before, and neglected to tell Noah my extreme fear of heights. Maybe I should have before he forced me to the window seat. It was probably going to be another forty minutes before we took off, and coming down the isle was the twins but they didn’t even look in our direction. Pathetically I wished I could have gotten stuck next to Alex or Andrew instead of Noah who was sitting next to me practically steaming.
Moments passed in awkward silence before I built up the courage to say anything. “You okay Noah?” I tried to sound like a concerned girlfriend… but I didn’t exactly know what those sounded like. Before all this happened with me getting kidnapped I belonged to an all girls catholic school, the closest I got to a guy was went I was waiting on him at the diner and those never exactly went smoothly.
“I’m fine.” He said not sounding very fine at all.
Suddenly the plane jerked before anyone came on over the intercom. I had seen enough movies to know that people check to make sure your buckled up and everything. Without thinking I grabbed Noah’s thick muscular arm and dug my face into it. I didn’t know how hiding in his sweatshirt would save me, but it comforted me somewhat nonetheless.
Then the pilot came on chuckling slightly. “Hello passengers of Flight 197. Sorry for not telling you in advance that I was turning the engine on. Make sure your seatbelts are securely fashioned and enjoy the ride.”
…so maybe forty minutes was an exaggeration, stupid Hollywood.
I heard Noah laugh slightly. “You going to live?” He asked sarcastically and I swiftly pulled away from him.
“I think I’ll manage,” I told him snidely, pulling away from him and leaning more towards the window. “No thanks to you.”
“Hey.” Noah continued using his sarcastic tone, “that is no way to speak to your loving boyfriend.” he leaned in and kissed the top of my head.
Slowly he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and subtly forced me to lean on him from the pressure he would putting on my arm. He smelled like the familiar axe and without control I was already getting more comfortable. I was close to tears though, but I knew that if I let myself cry it would be drawing unwanted attention.
“I’m scared.” I whispered, loud enough that only Noah could hear, and unexpectedly he pulled me in as tight as the buckles and chairs would let us. Noah could tell that I was talking about much more than just the flight to Chicago.
“Don’t be, I wont let anything bad happen to you.”
And somehow, I knew in his weird way Noah meant it.