IRIS
“Andrei, stay with Iris. Bubby, with me!” Hunt commands as the plane continues to turn sharply, my heart thrashing inside my chest as the monitor alarms go off, indicating that my blood pressure is rising, un-fucking-surprisingly given the situation.
My head flares with a sudden severe pain, and I hiss, wincing as I close my eyes against the scene that wavers in my vision before me. I cry out at a flash of abdominal pain, and I know from all of our research and discussions that this is my symptoms worsening, which is bad. Really fucking bad.
“Ro,” I whimper, my eyes closed and terror making my whole body shake.
“I’m here, Princess. Tell me what’s going on, baby.” His voice is soothing, peaceful, even though I can feel the tension in the way he clutches my hand tightly.
“My head hurts, my vision is weird, and I have a pain in my upper stomach.” My throat feels tight as I say the words, knowing that things are getting serious despite our best efforts.
“Okay, Iris,” Andrei says in his calm voice, and I crack my eyes open to see him heading towards me and taking the seat opposite Roman and me. “I need you to keep as calm as you can, which I know isn’t easy given the situation.”
He looks at the charts as Roman updates him on my symptoms, then whispers soothingly into my ear, his hand still gripped in mine, his other stroking my arm. Andrei nods to himself, setting my chart down before reaching into his medical bag, which luckily is strapped into the seat next to him, so it didn’t move when the plane dipped just now. “I’m going to give you something extra to help things, okay?”
I just nod, uncaring what it is as long as it helps to stop the bloody beeping of these cursed monitors. Andrei preps a syringe. “This is magnesium sulphate. It should help prevent things from getting any worse. I’ll need to give it through your IV and over a couple of minutes. Roman, you need to help me watch for any sudden flushing of her skin, breathing difficulties, or nausea. I’ll monitor her vitals.”
“Okay, Iris, you tell me if you feel any of those too, okay, Princess?” Roman says, and I turn my narrowed gaze at him. My vision is still spotted, so opening my eyes fully hurts my pounding head.
“Okay, Ro.”
The plane shakes a little with turbulence, but Andrei remains calm. I feel the tug on my hand where my IV is, but keep my gaze locked on Roman.
“You’re doing so well, Princess,” he tells me, his hand coming up to cup my cheek, his thumb rubbing over the skin. “Feel any nausea? Breathlessness?”
“A little, and like I’m suddenly hot. And it burns a bit from my hand where my IV is.” I smack my lips together a bit, my nose wrinkling. “My mouth tastes metallic.”
“All normal so far,” Andrei assures us, and out of the corner of my eye, I see him sitting back, placing the now empty syringe in a medical rubbish bin. “You may feel a bit out of it too, like your body is heavy. That’s fine. We will keep checking to make sure it’s all normal levels.”
Like his words breathed the symptoms into being, I now feel spaced out, my body weighted down, and I slump a little in my seat, my eyelids fluttering closed again. I sigh as my headache lessens, the tight band that was wrapped around my temple easing. My stomach no longer hurts either, and a sensation of floating has me relaxing further into my seat.
“The pain is less,” I tell them, but my words sound a little slurred.
“Rest now, Princess. I’ve got you,” Roman’s words filter through my drowsy state, and even though I know I should be alert—we’re basically being chased by Sergi—I can’t fight it. So I let myself succumb to the darkness, knowing that they will keep me safe.
HUNTER
Bubby, myself, the captain, and co-pilot are in the cockpit, and although my chest is tight because I can hear the beeping of the monitors that tell me Iris is not okay, rage is the emotion that keeps threatening to overwhelm me. I am beyond fucking livid that, once again, Sergi has us on the run.
“I’ve sent Nik a message about what’s happening,” Bubby informs us, his laptop in his hands as he types furiously. “Just waiting to see if he gets it and responds.”
I briefly glance away from the radar I’ve been studying to look at the teenager. I shouldn’t have underestimated him. He’s been a real fucking asset this whole time. “Who knew all that gaming would come in handy?”
“Fuck off,” he huffs back, but his lips tilt up into a smile, just visible underneath his hood, his usual hoodie firmly back in place now that we’re no longer on a tropical island.
I go back to looking at the data we have, trying to figure out if this fucking plane that’s stalking us is more than just a people carrier. We need to know its capabilities because that will determine what we’re up against and how we deal with the threat.
We have a few options, none of them great, but then we’re between a rock and a hard place. Another thing that makes me rage.
We can continue to the UK with evasive measures, though we’re limited because of Iris’s medical condition. We could also change our course and land at an alternate location, although we won’t have the military backup that Nik has somehow managed to get us. My Sweetheart has some major connections that he is using for us, for her. The last option is attempting to lose this tail, but that I fear would require more than Iris can give and we’d run the very real risk of her going into early labour, and we just don’t have the equipment to support that right now.
“It looks like the plane following us has military capabilities,” Captain Pat Skinner says, and I curse under my breath as my heart pounds inside my chest.
“Meaning?” I question, though I know his answer. I just need to hear him say it.
He doesn’t look away from the windshield. “It could be armed.”
“Fuck!” Bubby swears, and I can’t even call the kid out as Iris would usually because he’s right, this is not good.
The door behind us slides open, Andrei walking in. He’s disheveled, the skin around his eyes tight, and my stomach sinks.
“She’s stable, resting, and her blood pressure is no longer critical. But I had to go up a notch with treatment, and she’s still very much at risk of a seizure and early labour,” he informs me without me having to even ask.
I swallow hard past the barbed lump in my throat. I know what a seizure would mean. Up here, in this aircraft? We would lose her, and possibly the baby too.
Fuck.
“The aircraft following us has military capabilities, so is possibly armed and hostile. Though they won’t try to shoot us down, not with Iris on board,” I tell him, trying to come up with a fucking plan of action that doesn’t result in the death of my soulmate. “We need to change our route, but not make it so long that she’s in the air for longer than necessary.”
“And we can’t do many more of those evasive manoeuvres, Hunt. Even out of it like she is, it will stress her.” His tone is firm, and I want to snarl at him that I would never put my Peaches in danger, but that’s the rage talking. I know he’s just doing his job as her doctor.
“There are other routes we can take that they won’t expect, and a weather front that would be bumpy, but they’re unlikely to follow us into it so we could lose them in there,” Captain Pat says, and I’m grateful Nik found this talented pilot for us. He’s older, maybe in his early fifties, and possibly one of the tallest men I’ve ever met. Fuck knows how he fits in the seat. He also has some wild stories of his time flying planes to Angola and back during some pretty serious civil wars. I’m not sure all of his work is exactly legal, which makes him perfect for us as we can’t exactly throw stones, given what we do.
“Can you get us through the storm?” I ask him, and he looks away from all the dials to stare straight into my eyes, his own twinkling.
“We can fly over it. I’ve faced tougher bastards than this, boy. I’ll get you and your girl to Northolt in one piece and show these young’uns a thing or two.”
I laugh and give him a nod. I knew Pat was our kind of people.
“Andrei, go back to Iris and make sure everything is secure. Bubby, strap yourself in and keep trying with Nik,” I order, and they both do as I command. My heart settles a little inside my chest now that we have a plan, a way forward.
“Entering the airspace above the weather front in two minutes, might want to strap in yourself, boy,” Pat advises, and I pull out the extra seat behind me, dropping into it and putting my seat belt on.
The plane banks, making my stomach swoop, and I clench my jaw. Not because I fear flying, though after a quick glance at Bubby’s pale face and his closed eyes tells me he very much still hates it. I’m more worried about Iris and Roman, especially as I can’t currently lay eyes on either of them, and what with having Nik and Rowan out of my sights too, it’s like an itch I can’t reach. I need to have the people I’m protecting close, preferably in touching distance.
I know it’s not healthy or sustainable, and I’m sure Iris will suggest therapy once all this is done. I won’t even argue with her, I’ll go gladly if it means we all get out of this fucked up situation with Sergi, him dead and my family alive and well.
The plane suddenly judders, my pulse thrashing as we get a little thrown around by the turbulence. Bubby makes a small noise, and I huff a laugh just as it feels like we drop several feet. Fuck, even I found that unpleasant.
“Why do I wear two pairs of socks when I go golfing?” I ask him, and he doesn’t even crack an eye open, his brows furrowing.
“What the fuck are you on about, Hunt? You’ve never been golfing.”
“In case I get a hole in one,” I answer. My lips tug up when his head slowly turns to me and he cracks one eye open.
“That was fucking terrible, Hunt,” he says, though his lips twitch a little. “I guess you have to get practice in for those dad jokes now.”
I huff a laugh. The plane judders again, and Bubby closes his eyes, swallowing hard.
“We all have our roles to play, kid,” I say, and if his eyes weren’t closed, I know he’d be glaring at me for calling him that.
“Remember, life is all about perspective, boys,” Pat says, still flying the plane like it’s a piece of piss even as it shakes and shudders. “I had a mate who had sex two to three times a week, exercised twice a day, read two books a week, and yet every day he complained about how much he hated prison.”
A bark of laughter falls from my lips.
“That’s fucked up,” Bubby comments, though even he’s cracking a smile. His laptop pings, and his eyes open to look at the screen. “Nik’s sent some instructions on an alternate route and approach pattern.”
“Let’s see them, boy,” Pat states, and Bubby hands his laptop to the co-pilot—some big silent guy we only know as Ross and who hasn’t said a word the whole time we’ve been on the plane. Ross grunts, nodding, then hands the laptop back to Bubby before doing something to the dashboard in front of him. Presumably plugging in the route to the aeroplane GPS, but honestly, I don’t fucking know the first thing about planes.
It’s a tense few moments, where the plane continues to get tossed around a little, and by the time we make it to the other side, even I’m white-knuckling it. There is a savage beauty in being inside a storm like this, lightning streaking across the sky and the storm raging below us. Pat adjusts our path to always keep it that way because apparently, according to the man himself, flying through a storm is like taking a redhead to bed. That’s to say fun, but be prepared to have your balls bruised. His words.
“That’s it, fellas, we’re through the worst and we seem to have lost our friends,” Pat declares, and I breathe a sigh of relief as my heart settles back into a somewhat normal fucking rhythm. “They could still track us though, so keep your wits about you.”
Deciding that for now, the threat is manageable, I unbuckle myself and head into the main cabin, Bubby trailing after me and going back to his seat.
Iris is there, eyelids flickering slightly as Roman has his arm wrapped around her, his hand grasped in hers. The machines are all beeping quietly, with the sound that I know means she’s okay for the moment.
“How’s our beautiful girl?” I ask, crouching down next to her seat and taking her other hand in mine. Her eyelids lift slightly, a languid smile tugging her lips upwards, and fuck, it makes the world around me brighten to see it.
“Daddy,” she breathes out, and I lean in, placing a gentle kiss on her plush lips.
“I’m here, baby, and we’ve lost our tail, so it’s straight on to London,” I tell her, her eyes closing as she sighs a breath. She’s really out of it, though Andrei doesn’t look concerned, so I’m guessing this is expected.
“Andrei had to give her magnesium sulphate. It’s wiped her out a bit,” Roman tells me quietly, and I tuck some of her hair behind her ear. She sighs again, like my touch is something she’s been missing and desperately needed. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
“I’m okay, Daddy,” she says, her voice all sleepy. “Just tired.”
“Get some rest then, baby. I’ll be just over the way there,” I say, leaning over to place a kiss on her forehead, then getting up and heading next to Bubby.
“She okay?” he asks, his breathing calmer now we’re not being thrown about so much.
I huff out a breath. “As okay as she can be, all things considered.”
“She’s tough,” he replies, and I rest my head back against the seat, feeling the weight of the world pressing down on me.
“I know. I just wish she didn’t have to be.”
