Page 2 of Fighting for Lucy

“To fly the plane,” Zander muttered, making her roll her eyes. So he was a smart alec as well as a liar.

“Real funny, wise guy,” she shot back. “You know who I am. You're not here by accident. Does Eagle know who you really are? Are you here because of what happened to your sister? Are you the one who set Scarlett up?”

Throwing her a quick glare, Zander asked, “You really want to have that conversation now? Because I'm thinking I'm the only thing standing between us and certain death.”

Yep, he was a smart alec all right.

The thing was that with Scarlett’s revelation, Lucy had no idea if she could trust a single thing about this man. For all she knew, he was faking an issue with the plane in order to gain her trust. After all, everything had been going smoothly right up until she’d gotten the call from Ella Whitlock, another member of Athena Team, and spoken with Scarlett.

Thenall of a sudden, the plane started blaring an alarm.

So forgive her for being suspicious of the ghost man.

“Are we really going to crash?” she asked.

Shooting her an incredulous look, he shook his head at her like he wasn’t convinced she wasn’t crazy. “Not if I can help it.”

“I mean, is there really an issue with the plane or are you faking it?”

“Are you for real? What does it look like?” Zander waved his arms to indicate the flashing warning light on the control panel and the alarm that still blared.

“Gee, forgive me for being suspicious of you, ghost man,” she muttered, wishing she knew more about flying planes. While she was a total adrenalin junky, chasing highs wherever she could find them, there was a lot her epilepsy prohibited her from doing. Flying planes was one of them, heck, she wasn’t even allowed to drive a car because, unfortunately, for her even with her medication there was a chance she would have a seizure behind the wheel.

Ignoring her, Zander kept doing whatever it was he was doing, which didn't seem to be working if you asked her because the green of the jungle beneath them was quickly getting closer. Which left her with nothing to do but think about the fact that she was mere moments away from likely dying.

Leaving behind her parents, who had always been there for her, standing at her side during her lowest moments, and her four siblings, who drove her crazy but who she loved fiercely, would be hard, but it was leaving her fur baby behind that hurt the worst. While all of her family would grieve her, at least her parents and siblings, nieces and nephews, would all understand what had happened, but her poodle, Cotton, would never understand why she didn't come home.

The thought of her sweet, slightly neurotic, fluffy baby forever waiting for her to walk through the door had tears blurring her vision.

Lucy didn't want to die, she didn't want to leave behind so many people that she loved and cared about. Practical, sensible, no-nonsense, those were all the words people would use to describe her, but in this moment, she didn't feel any of those things. She just wanted to scream and cry that it wasn’t fair, that her life shouldn’t end like this.

“Brace for impact,” Zander announced.

“I thought you were going to stop us from crashing,” she snapped, glowering at Zander. Somehow, she couldn’t help but feel like this was all somehow his fault. Just because she didn't know how didn't mean it wasn’t. Although why he’d risk his own life just to kill her she had no idea.

Looking over at her, there was still not an ounce of panic or concern in his eyes, despite their situation, and she envied his ability to not care that he was about to die for real. “We’re going to crash. There’s nothing I can do about it, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we survive the landing.”

There was zero reason why she should believe him.

Yet she did.

Giving him a shaky nod, Lucy adopted the brace position and started counting seconds, wondering if she was counting down to the end of her life.

She had to be.

Right?

There was no way, even if he was the most skilled pilot on the planet—and Zander had been in Delta Force, he wasn’t in the air force so his skills couldn’t be the best—that he could really land the plane with mechanical problems in the middle of the jungle.

No way.

Moments later, her worst fears were confirmed when they collided with the trees, and she was tossed about, held in place only by her flimsy seatbelt. It was no match against the force of the crash, and when her head slammed into the side of the plane it was lights out.

January 21st

10:56 A.M.

Agony spearedthrough Zander Madden’s skull.