am. Rich, I mean. But how’d you know?”
“Seriously? Let’s count the ways. The suit. You were still in yesterday’s clothes and while you were a rumpled mess, the suit held up beautifully. So did your shoes. And now you’re wearing a different suit, and this one’s high quality, too. That’s top-notch tailoring, probably from Heimie’s. And Byredo Eleventh Hour aftershave isn’t cheap. And don’t forget your giant metallic pumpkin. And the Louis Vuitton you threw into the backseat of your giant metallic pumpkin. And the breakroom.”
“How’d you even know about the—”
“Macropi and Garsea found it gossip-worthy.” She began prying his fingers from their death-lock on the armrest, then took his hands in hers. “Here’s the thing I can’t figure: you hate flying—”
“I don’t hate it. I’m just terrified because we’re hurtling through the air in a narrow tube thousands of feet off the ground and there’s nowhere to go, and I can’t get out unless Magnus lets me out. But I’m not scared.”
“Gotcha. But this was your idea.”
“Yeah, well.” Oz was facing front again. She could see the muscles in his jaw work as he clenched his teeth, then consciously tried to stop. “I have to do everything in my power to make Sally feel safe again. And this is part of it. You like flying?”
“It’s okay. It’s better than jumping.”
“Y’mean parachuting?”
“No, I meant hurdles.” When he blinked, she added, “Sorry, sometimes I’m on auto-snark. Yes, I meant parachuting. I did it a few years ago.”
“For fun?”
“No, I lost a bet. That’s not snark. It was a real bet.”
“What was it?”
* * *
7. National Business Aviation Association.
8. Only one of those is made up. The others were actually served in restaurants. That’s the world we’re living in.
Chapter 27
It was the hot smell of plane fuel and the cold blast of wind. It was the dizzying euphoria of free fall and the surge of adrenaline that made her mouth taste like she’d been sucking on a roll of pennies. It was getting out of your seat so you could jump out of a plane while ignoring your brain’s panicked demands that you sit your ass back down. It was standing by an open plane door and intellectually knowing the static line was in place to help while your gut was positive it was a hindrance.
It was putting your trust in canvas and rope and nylon. It was feeling the greedy earth use terminal velocity to snatch you back, back, all the way down.
And then the shock in your knees when gravity reminds you: You belong to the earth again. It’s letting the big muscle groups soak up and spread out the impact, the way Kevlar soaked up bullets: you lived, but it still hurt. All that kinetic energy had to go somewhere.
She’d done her research. Over three million jumps every year, just in the US.
Millions of people hurtling toward Earth at terminal velocity. Every single year.
It was…too much. Too chaotic, too much free fall, too inherently unstable. That had struck her first thing during her research: “The deployment process is inherently chaotic.”
Nutshell.
So once was enough. Because she only had to jump once and she knew: you could go high and you could go far; you could jump three million times a year, but the earth always got you back, one way or the other.
Chapter 28
“No, Lila, I meant, what was the bet?”
“Oh. In that case, sorry about the flashback.”
“You’ve got an empty Subway bag in your purse.”
“That was an abrupt segue.” She picked up her purse, opened it, found the bag with her used napkins. She’d been in such a rush at the airport, she’d just stuffed it in her purse to be dealt with later. “Here you go. So no more jump stories?”
“If you’re brave enough—hurrrk!—to do it, I’m brave enough to listen.”
“Good to know.”
“Excuse me.”
“That’s a shame about your breakfast,” she said as he yarked into the bag. “Well, Macropi will fix you more bacon, I’m sure. I’ve also got some wet wipes in my purse, if you’re interested.”
“Thanks,” he said hollowly, which made the bag puff, which she swore to herself wouldn’t make her laugh (out loud). “You and the Boy Scouts.”
“Always prepared,” she agreed, then waited until he tied the bag off, and held his hand the rest of the way.
Chapter 29
“Well, there it is,” Lila observed. “This is definitely a field. Where a plane definitely crashed.”
Berne had landed on a gravel road that, from the air, looked miles long and deserted, and also