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"You’re like ten years old No swearing"

"Fourteen"

"Twelve"

"Thirteen"

She’s pushingon the other side of the aisle It’s only a five-passenger plane, so she’s not that far away A few feet But the gulf of hostility between us seems insurmountable Her eyes are wide and alert, her body posture tense and ready for an attack And I don’t blame her for that because if eren’t up in a plane, I’d be choking the life out of her until she gave up her secret But I need Harrison I do not have time to find and vet another pilot Especially since Merc is busy He’s o-to for off-the-books shit like that

"Almost there, folks," Harrison calls froet her alone Then all bets are off I irl before, but there’s a first tiht back," she says, just loud enough so I can hear but Harrison cannot "I won’t let you get me"

I nod but stare out theclosest toin h a little at her arrogance

"They always laugh at first"

I look over for that little crack and she smiles like she’s won "You think you’reyour father provided is equal to me?" Her face scrunches up when Ibut another girl to be sold A piece of property Your father killed hi all sorts of--"

She hurls herself across the aisle atfor my throat "Shut up!" she screale her when she’s thrown across the aisle and back into her seat by Harrison "You," he says, pointing a gun at her "Sit your fking ass down onkid," I un at me now and I lift an eyebrow He does not flinch "I knohat you are But you’re dead withoutSo keep your hate to yourself until you get off ht If Sasha and I want to kill each other, then we need hiround first

I look over at her and she’s looking out her , crying silently I can only tell by the erratic in-and-out pattern of her breathing and the abrupt rise and fall of her chest

I look out my ell, happy to see the fao The North American hunters When we need time, or space, or help… we seek out the desert I know Merc has a few places in the desert It’s the heat, I think People hate it--hell, I hate it But it’s refreshing I like the burn The dryness too It envelops as It’s about thirty miles south We stop here all the tio, then stop again on the way back to Colorado I wish I could say that I didn’t travel this route all that often, but over the past year, this flight plan is as familiar as the desert below