Crash Into You Read Free Page B

said they should think about getting married and having a kid.
                  That had been the jumpstart she needed to start planning her escape.   No way was she going to legally tie herself to him – or, more importantly, subject an innocent child to this madness.  She’d begun to reconsider Kimberly’s offer, her own pride be damned.   Then she found the box of mysterious money.
    She would have to move fast because she didn’t know what that money was for.  Surely Seth wouldn’t leave it in the house indefinitely.  She had to construct a plan for her future, and she had to do it tonight.  
     
    The next morning after Seth went to work, Aimee called her sister and told her she was leaving Seth.  Kimberly’s gleeful shriek forced her to pull the phone away to preserve her eardrums.
    “Can I come to Portland?” She asked when Kimberly quieted down.
    “Oh shut up,” Kimberly replied, and Aimee cracked a smile.  “It’s about damn time.   Yes, come, absolutely.”
    “I need your help,” she said.  “I need you to call an airline, make a reservation for me.   When he discovers I’m missing, the first thing he’s going to do is check my phone and I don’t want him to see any airlines listed.” 
    “Correction: the first thing he’s going to do is call me, demanding to know where you are.”
    “Deny, deny, deny.   Say you have no idea what’s going on.”
    Kimberly was quiet for a moment, maybe coming to the same realization that Aimee was: that it was absurd to need subterfuge to operate in your normal life.   Escape was necessary.
    “Okay, I’ll make your reservation. Call you right back.”
                  That evening, with cash packed into suitcases, a backpack,  and her purse, Aimee boarded a plane at Dulles International.  Because the bulk of the money was in suitcases that were checked, it was never scanned.  A couple thousand was stuffed in her purse, and the backpack at her feet was crammed full of cash.   She hadn’t bothered to count it, reasoning that she could do that once she was in Portland.
    Too dazed by her escape to think much about the Rose City, she risked a glance out the airplane window over the wing.  It was deep night and the earth was black, without definition.  They were somewhere over the Rocky Mountains, a cityless, lightless expanse of peaks and plains.   Black sky and black earth dissolved into each other like chemical compounds.
    Zooming through the socket of night, she began to relax.   It appeared she’d made a clean getaway.    At least for now.   Seth would no doubt come after her, but she would have a few days to ready herself for the confrontation.  
    Her thoughts were interrupted by the crackle of the PA system and a female flight attendant saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing mechanical problems. Please fasten your seatbelts, fold your tray tables and bring your seat is in a full upright position.  The pilots are going to attempt to land at the Gallant, Montana airport.”
    O thers in the cabin began to mumble to their neighbors.
    Aimee craned her neck, searching the flight attendant’s face for some clue to how bad this was.  She looked busy but not terrified. It was a mask.  They had been trained not to alarm the passengers.  Two others huddled at the rear of the plane looked a little more nervous; they were speaking in hushed tones and their eyes betrayed anxiety.
    The man seated beside her smiled reassuringly.  “It’s probably nothing.”
    “I hope so,” Aimee replied. 
    She’d spent the whole flight trying to soothe herself,  breathe through the fear of flying and now … mechanical problems?!
    The cabin was perfectly silent, tense, waiting for something to happen.   But when the aircraft maintained its smooth glide, she slowly she began to relax.  Maybe it wasn’t that bad.  It seemed okay.  The plane was still flying exactly as it was before.  No weird noises