Free LS02 - Lightning Lingers by Barbara Freethy

heavy sigh, wishing he could stop the assault of images running through his head like an endless slide show: watching scary movies with Katherine at her parents' house, laughing when she covered her eyes every other second because it was just too terrifying; sharing the triple decker banana split at Conroy's Ice Cream Parlor; walking barefoot on the beach; studying in the university library and then making out in between the dusty shelves; staying up all night just talking…
    His chest tightened even more.
    He needed to stop thinking about the good times. He needed to remember the end: the pain of her leaving, the harsh horrible words she'd uttered, the way he'd felt when she was gone. He needed the anger to keep the barriers up, and he also needed to get her to Mexico fast, so he could go back to his life and forget about her again.
    But was he going to be able to leave her at the airport?
    He wanted to think so, but could he really let her make that trip alone? Would she be able to make it on her own?
    On the other hand, if he and Katherine spent that much time together, they might kill each other.
    The plane jerked, and he suddenly realized that the weather had changed drastically. The blue sky had disappeared behind angry, mile-high clouds. How long had he been daydreaming about Katherine?
    He changed altitudes and checked the weather. A huge storm cell was suddenly in front of him and all around him.
    The plane hit a bump, and Katherine woke up with a jerk.
    She rubbed her eyes as the plane dropped again. "What's going on?"
    "A little storm," he said, downplaying the danger. He didn't know how the storm cell had grown so large or moved so quickly into his path. Radar hadn't shown anything this big.
    The plane took another hard bounce, and Katherine put her hand on his arm. "Jake, are we going to be okay?"
    "Sure, it's just a little weather."
    "Can you go around it?"
    "I'm trying to do that. It's a huge cell. It came out of nowhere."
    She took her hand off his arm, only to put it back on when the plane took another dive. "Jake," she said, panic in her voice.
    "It's going to be okay," he reassured her, but he was beginning to have a few doubts of his own.
    A jagged streak of lightning lit up the black clouds they were flying through. It was an eerie reminder of their very recent conversation about lightning, and a chill ran down his spine.
    He changed course again, but the plane was bouncing around like a small ball being kicked by the clouds.
    Another streak of lightning flashed bright right in front of them. The instrument panel crackled. Alarm bells went off. He reached for the radio to check in, but he couldn't get a signal or a response. Every screen in front of him went black.
    A roar of thunder, then three jagged lines of lightning came straight at the plane.
    He was blinded by the light. Instinctively, he wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't, because in the now lit sky he could see another man—a man who looked like his father.
    His dad waved to him, as if saying: follow me .
    And then the plane spiraled out of control.
    Jake battled to stay in the air, but the plane fought his every move.
    "Jake?" Katherine asked, terror in her eyes.
    "Hold on, babe."
    "You have to get us down. You have to."
    He sure as hell wanted to set them down, but he was caught up in a monster storm in a plane that wasn't responding to anything he was trying. They were losing altitude fast, and he had no idea what was below—water, mountains, rain forest…
    He couldn't give up—not until the bitter end. And that wasn't now.
    "I'm going to set us down," he said as the clouds parted, and he caught his first glimpse of land.
    "Where?" she asked, her blue eyes wide with fear.
    "Wherever I can," he said grimly.
    Her hand tightened on his arm. "You can do it, Jake. I know you can. I believe in you."
    Words he'd wanted to hear for a very long time. But not like this.
    The ground got closer way too fast. He clipped the tops of some trees,