Past Never Dies by Cate Clarke

Author:Cate Clarke [Clarke, Cate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-28T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Kennedy Tennison-Weick

Flight No. 396

They were already in the air, clouds passing by the window of the plane in sheets of white. First class. Compared to the one other time that Kennedy had flown in her life, the seats were comfortable and the flight attendants were friendly. But the free apple juice and headphones did nothing for the fear that Kennedy was feeling.

He was there, waiting for her.

Cryptic. Jeremy.

They were friends. They’d been friends for almost a year. Yet, he’d kidnapped her from a gas station and forced her onto a plane. It was clear Cryptic was working for someone powerful and violent. All of those months of talking about school and parents, all of it washed away. The only friend she’d ever had, that she’d ever felt close to—gone, replaced by the nineteen-year-old terrorist next to her.

She cried, leaning into the airplane window, fogging it up with small clouds of condensation. There were no other options. Kennedy couldn’t even scream or signal for help because they had everything and she had nothing. Cryptic had shown her in the parking lot, as she’d reeled back to yell out, a tablet—on the screen, it was her house in Seattle. Wesley and Dad were out on the driveway, playing street hockey, Dad scoring several times and celebrating with absolutely no shame. Despite it being terrifying, it was also relieving to see them. She missed them. Even Wesley.

Cryptic told her the entire house was laced with explosives and if she screamed or tried to run, that they would blow the whole thing sky high. It would be easier on her and on her family if she came willingly.

“Another juice, sweetie?” the flight attendant asked.

Kennedy didn’t even look at her. She kept her eyes out the window, away from Cryptic.

“She’s fine,” he said. Out of the corner of her eye, the flight attendant bowed her head and walked away. “You’re going to need to eat something. Trust me.”

The anger bubbled in her throat. She said, “Trust you? Cryptic, how in the hell could I ever trust you? You even lied about your age. Who are you?”

“It’s Jeremy, Kennedy,” he said, furrowing his eyebrows, her glare glued onto the space between his eyes. “I don’t know, okay? They’ve got me too. I’m doing what I need to…to stay alive.”

“Hope it’s worth it,” Kennedy snapped. Turning back to the window, shaking her head, she wished for headphones. She wanted to drown herself in music, distract herself from the horror that her life was turning out to be. Trapped in a metal box, flying over the ocean, wondering if she would ever see her family again.

“It wasn’t all fake,” Jeremy said after an hour of silence between the two of them. “I really care about you, Kennedy. Don’t you get it? That’s why they got me in the first place, because you trusted me… Not that it ended up mattering anyway, considering how it ended up going down at the gas station.”

She turned her eyes to him, feeling the tiredness weighing on her, each gaze heavier than the last.

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