Runway Romance (Love in the Air Trilogy) (8 page)

“Guilty. Sorry. You know Kate, she’s not really into relationships.”

“Yeah, I know Kate. I just thought she might be ready to settle down one of these days.”

“You want to be the one she settles down with?”

Brendan met her gaze. “Ah, just forget about it. Forget I said anything.”

“Well, look, it’s the captain,” Geri said.

The boys’ faces lit up as Geri moved aside and stood next to Jenny. She gave her a whispered, “Thanks.”

“You’d have done the same for me. Guess what I just learned?”

“What?”

“Brendan’s got a deeper thing for Kate than we all thought.”

“Really? I knew he liked her. Whenever they’re on a flight together, his co-pilot ends up running the show while he and Kate canoodle in the pilot’s loo.”

“I guess that’s better than canoodling in a coach loo.”

“We are grown women. I cannot find one good reason to canoodle in any loo anywhere at any time.”

Jenny giggled. “You sound like Patricia.”

“Your roomie is right.”

“And that would make you right.”

“Naturally.”

“And speaking of canoodling… when is the baggage handler going to be handling you?”

“I just met the man!”

“Are you going to see him again?”

“Actually, yes. I asked him if he’d teach me to drive.”

“Only you could get away with that excuse as a way to see him again.”

“I know. The worst part is that I’ll only be able to use that reason once.”

“When are you hooking up?”

“We’re not hooking up. I’m meeting him on the fifteenth. We’re going to this Korean restaurant he knows.”

“Not your typical first date restaurant. I like that. Sounds like he has his own unique style.”

“I think so.”

“Have you Googled him?”

“I will this afternoon.”

“Are you staying over in Utah?”

“Just one night.”

The captain nodded as he passed by on his way back to the cockpit. They glanced at the boys. They couldn’t wipe the grins off their faces if they tried.

“I think he just made their day,” Jenny said.

“More like their year.”

Aida mouthed 132A as she passed by. Jenny and Geri split up as they nodded to passengers, then casually focused their attention on the gentleman sitting in row 132, seat A. He was staring straight ahead. His eyes seemed to bore into the skull of the woman sitting in front of him.

The man was dark-skinned, dressed in an expensive pin-stripe business suit. A trendy watch encircled his wrist, which he checked three times in the short while the women watched him.

Jenny joined Aida in the kitchen as she checked the list of passengers. “Anything?”

“I called it in. Nothing unusual. He has a local address and he’s been living there for over ten years. Steady job.”

“What tipped you?”

“The watch. He kept checking it obsessively.”

“Maybe his wife’s pregnant and he’s waiting for the call that she’s in labor.”

“I have a bad feeling.”

“You know protocol. We need a reason.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then we watch and wait. I’ll go inform the captain, Brindle and Randee.”

“It’s not a good day to die, Jenny.”

“Is there ever a good day?”

“Be safe.”

“And you.”

Chapter Ten

The three women put on relaxed faces as they tended to passengers’ needs. All the while, they noted the gentleman’s rapt attention to his watch, but nothing else that seemed out of the ordinary. Until he reached under his seat and pulled a small black zippered pouch into his lap.

Aida, Jenny and Geri exchanged glances. Geri nodded, then headed for the cockpit to inform the captain. When she returned, she approached Jenny. “He said to ask him to stow it in the chamber above his seat.”

“You want to do it?”

“Hell, no.”

“So glad you have my back.”

“I do have your back, but I don’t have your front. I’ll be nearby. Aida’s watching, too.”

Jenny glanced at Aida. She appeared to have nothing on her mind except cooing at the precious cargo of a three-month-old little girl sleeping soundly in her father’s arms.

Jenny knew better. If anything went awry, Aida would be the first one on the spot, even if Geri was closer.

She took a quick breath and approached the gentleman. “Excuse me, sir. I need you to stow your bag in the overhead bin.”

He held it tighter to his body. “Why? I did nothing wrong.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that you did anything wrong. We’re heading in to some turbulence and need all unnecessary items secured, that’s all.”

The man’s eyes shifted from left to right and his knee began to bounce uncontrollably.

“I can place it in the bin for you. Just hand it to me.”

“I need to use the restroom.” The gentleman darted out of his seat, pushing past Jenny and rushing to the loo.

Aida and Geri were by her side in less than two seconds.

“Should we lock it?” Geri asked.

“Yes. Then I’ll check with the captain again.”

Aida removed the small set of keys she carried at all times. She removed the heavy duty magnet attached to the ring and used it on the outside of the door to keep the inside lever from being turned.

“When he knows he’s locked in there, he’s not going to be happy,” Geri said. “I’ll stand guard. Aida, you tend to the passengers while Jenny reports to the captain.

All three women met eyes and nodded, then assumed their positions.

The captain concurred with their decision to lock the gentleman in the restroom. Aida taped an out of order sign on the door.

Ten minutes later, Aida heard rustling sounds from inside the loo. Jenny joined her outside the door in the narrow hallway.

“He knows he’s trapped,” Aida said.

They both watched as the in use sign began to move toward vacant. Jenny removed the magnet from her key ring and placed it next to Aida’s.

The in use sign ceased to move.

“Let me out of here! I don’t like closed-in spaces.”

The flight attendants noted a couple of passengers turning around to see what the noise was.

“What now?” Geri said as she joined them. “I could hear him half way down the aisle.”

Brindle walked toward them, casually inviting the passengers in the last two rows to join her in first class.

“How come we don’t get to go to first class?” A woman sitting close to the middle asked.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have enough available seats.”

The woman scowled, then turned her attention back to the romance novel she was reading.

As the passengers gathered up their belongings, Brindle filled the FAs in on the latest news. “The guy in the loo has a fake driver’s license. His real name is something I can’t pronounce. He’s been in the U.S. less than three years with no steady employment. But get this, his bank account is another story altogether. Well over a hundred grand in there.”

“I’m guessing Mr. Pin Striped Suit is a paid terrorist. And here I am without my Wonder Woman deflecting bullet bracelets.”

“Geri, that’s not funny,” Aida said.

“I thought it was,” Brindle said.

“Thank you. So why the evacuation of the back rows?”

“In case things get a bit… ugly.”

“Does Brendan think that will happen?” Jenny asked.

“He says this guy’s done it before.”

“That’s scary. If he’s been caught, then he’s not good at it. Amateurs are worse than professionals. They make more mistakes and innocent people get hurt.”

“Every plane should have a Marshall on it. I’ve been advocating that for years, but no one ever listens to me,” Aida said.

“Hold on to your picket sign. The last thing we need is some macho guy brandishing a gun. That’s just as dangerous as the bozo in the loo.”

“What next?” Jenny asked.

“Wait. With any luck, he’ll just accept entrapment in the restroom and when we land, the Feds will arrest him,” Brindle said.

“And if he gets more agitated and goes off the deep end?” Aida asked.

“Decrease the oxygen and don’t give him a mask.”

“That’s a death sentence.”

“Only until we can restrain him. He’ll fall asleep before any harm is done.”

“You hope.”

“Yes, I hope. And so does Brendan.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Aida said.

“You said that before,” Jenny said.

“I know. I’ll be saying it again, too, if this situation doesn’t…”

A gun shot rang through the restroom door lock, the force knocking the magnets free.

“Get the passengers into first class,” Jenny said. “Now!”

Geri and Aida acted quickly as Brindle stood by Jenny’s side. “I know karate.”

“Show me what you’ve got.”

They stood at the ready for the first sign of the man emerging from the restroom.

They didn’t have to wait long. They were met by the barrel of a gun being aimed at first one and then the other.

“Sir,” Jenny started, “I know you don’t want to hurt anyone. Put the gun down.”

“Don’t be tellin’ me what to do. I know what I come here for and you bitches aren’t going to stop me.”

“Why are you doing this?” Brindle asked.

The man’s features tightened and his eyes narrowed. “I spit on fat, ugly Americans. You think you know everything. You know nothing! All should die! All will die!”

“Not today.” Brindle swung her leg up higher than Jenny had ever seen anyone kick. Her foot made direct contact with the man’s chin. As he fell backward, he dropped the gun. Brindle kicked it down the hallway.

The man dove for the weapon as Jenny tackled him around the knees. Brindle flew over both of them, her vision focused on the gun. She landed hard on her side, but she pushed the pain away as her hand curled around the handle of the gun.

Jenny felt her body being pulled up at the waist as she maintained her grasp around the man’s knees, holding on as if she had toppled off a cliff and he was the only branch keeping her from falling to her death.