Page 8 of Ace of Shadows
“Tell. Me. Your. Name.”
“Let me go! Please, I’m not— I don’t want to be— I just want to go home. I want to go home, my parents are there, I want to go home, I want to I want to I want to?—”
Louder and louder her voice climbs as her breaths become shorter and sharper. She’s panicking. She’s losing control. If I wait any longer, she’ll end up killing herself and giving what those cops and everyone else out there wants.
“Ivy!” My voice bellows around the room, filling the space like the din of a drum, and finally, it’s enough to make Ivy freeze and stare at me with wide, saucer-like eyes.
Tears continue to stream.
I hold her gaze, unmoving, with my arms crossed so tightly across my chest that the leather of my jacket cuts into my shoulders.
Then she takes a breath.
Then another.
Ragged gasp after ragged gasp replaces her frantic panting until her shoulders slump and she watches me through those waterfalls.
“Tell me your name.”
She blinks slowly. “Ivy.”
“Ivy what?”
“I-Ivy Meyer.”
“What age are you?”
She swallows thickly and her tongue slowly swipes over her thick lower lip. “Twenty-seven.”
“What do you do for work?”
A sob rolls through her once more, causing her chest to rise rapidly and a whimper of distress to escape when she parts her lips. “I work…” She swallows again. “I work for Alpine Airlines.”
“As what?”
“C-Cabin crew.”
“For how long?”
“Uhm… j-just… just under a year.”
“Before that?”
“A-Atlantic Travel.”
“You were on a plane.”
My questions are firm and measured, no longer needing to raise my voice now that I have her attention. While my intent was to calm her enough to get real answers, it’s clear she’s dissociating quickly. If those fuckers hadn’t dropped the worst news of her life on her, I’d have a better chance here.
“Ivy, where did the plane take off?”
“M-Madrid.”
“What was your destination?”
Her tinted brows twitch and she slowly shakes her head. “Uhm… L.A. W-We were going to L.A.”
“Who was your captain?”
