A/N: Hello everyone! I wasn't planning on having this chapter up quite so soon, but given the circumstances, I think it's acceptable. :P
Before we get started, I would like to thank everyone that read last chapter! I would also like to give a huge thank you to winterschild11, Guest, Side1ways, and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing!
It seems a lot of you think Shaw has something to do with all of this, but you'll just have to wait and see. ;)
I hope you all enjoy!
James and Kendall arrived at the hangar to find it mostly deserted. Unlike the day before, there were no planes arriving or departing, and the crew mostly seemed to have the day off.
Two men in blue coveralls stood chatting to one another, eating their lunch. Kendall didn't recognize either of them, but they spotted him and James right away. One of them, an elderly man with dark eyes and a gap-toothed smile approached them.
"Can I help you, gentlemen?" He asked, wiping his hands on a rag.
Kendall hesitated for half a second. He didn't want to call attention to Ethan for any reason, he simply needed to have a look around and allow Ethan to approach him.
James wrapped both hands around Kendall's forearm and leaned against him heavily, giving the mechanic a wide smile. "Oh, perhaps you can help us. We just want to have a quick look around. See, Kenny promised me a plane for my birthday. I'm going to be twenty-seven in October," he confided in a stage whisper. "And I really think it's time to upgrade, you know? But I need to see which kind is the prettiest so that Kenny knows what to buy!" He added a bright laugh at the end which was so completely unlike James, Kendall fought the urge to turn and stare.
The mechanic blinked. He looked at Kendall with wide eyes, and Kendall shrugged. "If it's what he wants," Kendall agreed with a shake of his head. "Gotta keep my guy happy."
"Uh…" The mechanic's eyes widened as he looked from Kendall to James. "Well, I guess it'd be alright then," he agreed hesitantly. "As long as you don't touch anything or try going inside."
"Wouldn't dream of it!" James said, making an exaggerated cross over his heart with his index finger.
The mechanic nodded, then turned away shaking his head. "All these crazy rick folks wanna hide out in their planes, ain't my business," he muttered to himself.
James smiled at Kendall, who rolled his eyes. "Pick out your plane, darling. Did you want something diamond-encrusted?"
James laughed. "Oh, Kenny, that's sooo last season," he drawled, laughing even harder when Kendall reached over to smack him on the ass.
"Don't call me Kenny, brat."
"Don't call me brat, Kenny," James retorted, smiling as he maneuvered out of Kendall's reach.
God, the way James smiled, all hazel eyes and warmth, the way he'd claimed Kendall in front of his brother and his friend, the way he gave Kendall chance after freakin' chance…
Kendall loved him. How could he not? And he felt like the world's biggest chickenshit for not telling him so this morning, for taking the out James had given him. He'd known since yesterday afternoon this was more than a passing thing. It was everything. Or it could be if Kendall let it.
He held out his hand for James who grabbed it, letting Kendall reel him in closer. "Jay," He said.
"Ken."
Behind one of the planes off to the side, someone else spoke up. "Kendall."
Kendall blinked, then glanced around.
Holy shit.
"Ethan?" He demanded, walking towards his brother's voice. James' hand squeezed his tightly, whether with nerves or as an offer of support, he wasn't certain.
Then Ethan stepped out from behind the plane and Kendall froze.
If not for his hair and the familiar lines of his face, Kendall would not have recognized his brother. He was tall and broad-shouldered, as always, but he walked with a distinct limp now, his right leg dragging somewhat behind him, his forearms crisscrossed by shiny pink scars. His hair was unkempt and greasy, and his normally clean-shaven jaw sported a scraggly beard which seemed to age him. But it was his eyes that truly halted Kendall in his tracks. The expressive green was now hard and cold, devoid of all the humor and warmth Kendall used to see there.
"Kendall," Ethan said again, making no move to step closer. His shocked gaze moved to James, who had halted just behind Kendall's right shoulder, and then back to Kendall. "What the fuck is he doing here?"
"He brought me here," Kendall said simply, still drinking in the sight of his brother. "Ethan, where have you been? What happened?"
Ethan eyed Kendall's right hand, which was still wrapped around James'. He balanced his weight on his left leg and folded his arms across his chest. "I'll explain later. We don't have much time. Get rid of him," he said, nodding at James.
James tensed, and Kendall gripped his fingers more tightly. He shook his head at his brother. "No. Listen, Ethan, I have so much to tell you."
"Jesus, Kendall. This isn't a game!" Ethan scowled, glaring at James, and then towards the other side of the hangar, where the mechanics were laughing while they sipped their coffee. "Did you not understand the messages I sent you? You used to be a lot smarter than that."
Kendall blinked in surprise. This wasn't the happy reunion Kendall had imagined. Ethan had never spoken like this to him before. What the hell had happened to his brother? There was a hard edge to his own voice when he replied, "I understood, Ethan. That's why I'm here. But you were wrong about some things, too."
Ethan gave a quick shake of his head. "I'm not discussing anything with him around."
"I'll go," James offered, but Kendall shook his head.
"That's too bad," Kendall told his brother when James tried to extricate his hand from Kendall's grasp. "He's with me. We're together."
Ethan's lip curled up in a sneer. "With a Diamond? When the fuck did that happen?"
"Sometime between the time you disappeared without a trace and the time I flew up here to help you," Kendall retorted. "If I'd had your number, I could've called."
"God, Kendall. I thought you, of all people, would know better than to get involved with the likes of him." He huffed out a breath and his voice became even harder. "Here's the deal. I don't trust him. Can I trust you, or was this whole thing for nothing?" He threw his hands in the air, encompassing the hangar, the island, and the entirety of whatever plan he'd worked out in his statement.
Kendall was torn. His brother was acting crazy-one hundred percent ridiculous. He'd expected Ethan to listen to him, to give him the benefit of the doubt. To trust him for God's sake. Combined with all the questions he still had for Ethan-like where the hell he'd been, and why he hadn't contacted Kendall directly even once in the last year-he was working his way from merely pissed to truly angry with each passing second.
But was he really willing to walk away without helping Ethan? Without finding answers to the questions he had?
James cleared his throat and slipped his hand from Kendall's. "I'm going to stand over there," James whispered in his ear, pointing towards the front of the hangar, far away from the mechanics. "And I'm going to pretend to pick out a plane for my birthday. You let me know if you need me."
"James," Kendall said, turning to look at his man. "I don't want-"
"He's your brother," James said. He flashed a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I get it. No contest. You can come find me when you're done, or whatever." He gave Kendall an awkward pat on the shoulder as he moved away.
Shit.
Kendall grabbed his hand once again. "Five minutes," he told James firmly, willing him to believe it.
James nodded. "Sure."
Kendall could tell that he was anything but sure. Damn Ethan, and damn himself for every secret he'd ever kept from James. How could he convince James he was all-in when he kept acting like he wasn't? But then Kendall glanced back at Ethan, at the livid scars on his arms. Whatever had happened to his brother, he couldn't let him walk away, either.
James pulled at his wrist, but Kendall didn't want to let go. "Trust me?" he asked, looking into James' shining hazel eyes.
James smiled softly then leaned in and brushed a kiss on Kendall's cheek. "Good luck," He said, then he walked away without looking back. Kendall watched him go. When he'd ducked behind a plane and out of sight, Kendall turned back to his brother.
Ethan's sneer was still firmly in place and he was shaking his head at Kendall. "He's playing you and you don't even know it."
"Enough!" Kendall said, allowing frustration to color his voice. "I'm here, Ethan, because you asked me to be. I blew up my career. I lied to the guy I love. I have done everything you asked me to do. Now you answer my questions. Where the hell have you been?" He took a step closer to his brother. "Why the hell didn't you call me?"
"Love!" Ethan's eyes widened and he sneered. "Oh my god, that's rich! Does he know? Is that-"
"Answer. My. Questions." Kendall hissed impatiently.
Ethan clenched his jaw. "Fine. Where have I been? Well, you might have heard I was a little busy crashing a plane into a mountain. Believe it or not, I didn't walk away unscathed." He nodded down at his leg, his arms. "I was in a medically induced coma for a few months."
Kendall rocked back on his heels. "Ethan…" he said softly.
Ethan shuffled to the side and leaned back against a tall tool chest, grimacing in relief as he took the weight off his injured leg.
"After I woke up, I still wasn't in very good shape. The guy who found me brought me to the hospital, said I was in a car wreck up in the mountains. Guess they never suspected I was the guy on the news. This probably helped," he said, stroking a hand over his beard. "At first, I had no idea what had happened. I started to piece things together, a little at a time."
"Did you think of calling me at any point?" Kendall demanded. "Maybe letting me know you were alive?"
Ethan shook his head. "I felt guilty, Kendall," he whispered, his eyes to the floor. "I had no idea what had actually happened, but I was the sole survivor of the plane crash. Those people, the Diamonds, were nice. They were kind to me. I figured somehow I'd missed something during the safety check, or maybe I'd been too sleepy to fly. I felt so guilty, I didn't want to live anymore." He looked up and caught Kendall's stare. "Until I saw a news interview with John." His face darkened.
"Jake Ryan, you mean?" Kendall asked, and Ethan looked surprised. "Yeah, I just heard about him from Shane Diamond."
"Shane? On a first-name basis, are you? You're...what? A part of their family now?" Ethan spat. "Just how deep in their pockets are you?"
"Fuck you," Kendall said, congratulating himself for mostly keeping his temper in check. "Look, he wants to find out the truth as badly as you do. I checked up on them, I followed the hints you sent me. I thought at first James might have been involved, but he's not. You have to take my word on that."
"Here's what I know, Kendall. I wasn't drinking with Jake, I did the safety check and everything about the plane looked normal. Jake had to have-"
"Sabotaged the plane," Kendall finished. "I know. I believe you. Shane believes that too."
"Shane. That asshole would have raised me from the dead and shot me himself if he could have," Ethan said.
Kendall leveled a look at his brother. "Can you blame him?" He demanded, taking Shane Diamond's side for possibly the first and only time ever. "What would you have done if an official investigation showed some guy was at fault for killing your parents and your fiancée?"
Ethan swallowed and looked away. "Looked like a sign of guilt to me," Ethan muttered. "Someone had to have paid Jake. The asshole didn't work for free." His voice was bitter.
"Someone paid Jake, but it wasn't the Diamonds. I really believe that," he told his brother. "David Diamond's will left the company to charity, so Shane had no motive, Ethan." Kendall frowned. "And how did you know Jake, or John, or whatever the fuck his real name is, in the first place?"
Ethan's cheeks flushed beneath his beard. "We were sleeping together. Had been off and on for a few months before the crash. He works for Senator Shaw, and happened to fly the Senator into my airport when Shaw was visiting his family in Boston. He made a joke about the irony of Shaw trusting a gay pilot. Seems so stupid now," he said bitterly.
"Anyway, we'd been together for maybe two nights right before the crash. Taking time off, he said. We had some wine." He looked at Kendall. "One glass, I swear."
Kendall nodded.
"I fell asleep hard. I don't know whether I was drugged or what." Ethan sighed. "When I woke up the next day, I was really groggy. Jake offered to help me with the pre-flight check since he's a pilot himself, and I agreed. But I checked everything myself, anyway. Or I thought I had." He shook his head angrily. "If Diamond didn't pay Jake, who did?"
"I don't know," Kendall said. "But why not at least listen to-"
"Hey, Kendall!'
Ethan straightened and Kendall craned his neck around to watch Shane and Jett jogging toward them. Jett wore his perpetual scowl while Shane looked worried.
"What's up?" Kendall asked Shane. "Did you find Senator Shaw?"
Shane shook his head. "No, but one of his gardeners saw him headed this way a little while ago, along with his assistant. He's not here?"
Kendall glanced at Ethan, who shook his head. "Shaw? Fuck, no. I haven't seen him, but I've been avoiding this place more or less since his plane landed. Jake's been promoted from pilot to personal assistant, and I don't want to take any chances he might recognize me."
"So, you're Ethan Schmidt?" Shane said. "Back from the dead?"
"Shockingly brilliant and handsome," Ethan sneered. "The girls must love you."
Jett snorted and glanced around. "Where's James?"
"He stepped away to give us some privacy," Kendall said, glaring at his brother. "He's waiting over there." He waved a hand toward the front of the hangar, the same direction Shane and Jett had come from. "Didn't you see him?"
Shane shook his head slowly, darting a glance at Jett that made Kendall's pulse skip a beat. "We definitely didn't see him, and we were looking for you both."
Kendall glanced toward the other side of the hangar, where the mechanics had been talking, but there was nobody around anymore. Shit.
And then an ominous clanging came from a plane nearby, the unmistakable sound of metal-on-metal.
The four men exchanged glances and, as one, hurried toward the noise.
"Come on, boys!" A voice called out. "Don't be shy. The mechanics are having a long, sleepy lunch break on me, and if you're not over here in one minute, I promise you James will be too!"
Heart racing, Kendall dove around the nearest plane to find James caught in a chokehold by Jake Ryan. Jake's left elbow encircled James' neck, just below his chin and in Jake's right hand, pressed against the sweaty hair just above James' ear, was a .45 caliber pistol.
"Aww, see that? I knew they'd come for ya, James," Jake sneered, bringing his mouth to James' ear.
Rage, hot and fluid, bubbled up inside Kendall as James looked at him with wide eyes. "Let him go, Jake," Kendall demanded, just as Shane asked, "What do you want? Name your price."
Jake smiled at Shane. "I have all the money I need. What I need now is a way off this island. I saw all the texts you were sending Shaw. Imagine my surprise when I saw you'd pieced together my identity." He turned to look at Ethan. "And imagine my shock when I found out you were still alive." He smiled, a cold and menacing expression. "How are you, babe? You're looking pretty good for a dead man. I've missed you so much."
Ethan's hands were braced on his hips and his eyes bored into Jake's. "Fuck you. You set me up back then, and if you think I'm gonna let you get away-"
Kendall reached over and hit Ethan in the stomach, hard. "Shut the fuck up, Ethan." He turned to Jake. "If you leave now, I'm not going to come after you," he vowed, deadly serious. "I won't let anyone come after you."
"You're a pilot from what I understand," Jett said, almost sounding bored. "You can pick any plane you want from this hangar and leave." He didn't even glance in James' direction. His posture was relaxed and almost friendly, the only tell that he was worried was a subtle tick in his jaw, and Kendall suddenly understood how the sullen man could be such a good attorney. "You can take my mother's plane and disappear. I promise you, we won't even report it missing."
Jake's eyes crinkled as he chuckled, and Kendall thought once again this guy could have been good-looking, if he wasn't a total psychopath of course.
"God, you guys are so funny. Take my money, take my plane. Hilarious. Naive and trusting, just like your parents." He moved his arm, jerking James slightly. "They were saps, too."
James didn't answer, and Kendall realized it was because he couldn't. His face was turning red as Jake slowly cut off his air supply.
"Let him go," Kendall said, stepping forward, "and I'll go with you."
Jake turned the gun on Kendall. "You back the fuck up right now," he said. "But that's sweet. Real sweet. I'm sure your man here really appreciates the heroics."
Kendall took a step back, and Jake returned the gun to James' temple. "Here's how this is gonna work, boys. I'm gonna take James along with me when I leave." Kendall's heart sank as he stared at James, who was clawing at the back of Jake's forearm.
James' hazel eyes were firmly fixed on Kendall's face, as though he was trying to send him a message. I love you, he could hear James saying. I love you.
"And now I'm thinking I'll also take Ethan along for the ride."
Kendall's jaw fell, and he saw Ethan's had, too.
"Me?" Ethan asked.
"Yep. If I'm going to keep an eye on my hostage, I'd better have someone else at the controls, and I remember you being an excellent pilot before you had that whole plane crash debacle." He smiled broadly and nodded at the plane, banging the side of it with the edge of his gun, as though to get their attention. The plane's clamshell door was open, forming a small set of steps, and Jake began to back towards them. "I already prepped the plane an hour ago. All fueled up. Of course, you'll have to trust I did the proper checks." He laughed. "Better than last time, anyway."
He put his heel on the bottom step, keeping James in front of him as a shield. "James and I are gonna go up first and you can follow after," he told Ethan. "And you," He said, exchanging glances with Kendall, Jett, and Shane. "You won't alert a single soul, you hear me? Or I'll kill James and tell the authorities it was all his fault for kidnapping us." He nodded at Ethan. "I work for a well-connected Senator if you recall. And he'll be none too happy when he finds his plane is gone." His voice was smug, but carried a thin thread of wildness to it, like he had been driven to the edge.
That hint of madness caused sweat to dot over Kendall's brow. He'd been in worse situations than this thousands of times, but he'd never been more afraid. He'd honestly never had so much to lose. His eyes were locked on James' as Jake dragged him up the stairs, and he willed James to read his mind, to understand all the things he hadn't said but should have.
"I will not let this happen," Shane said, running at Jake. He hadn't gone two steps before Jake sent a bullet flying towards Shane's feet that hit the floor inches away. Shane stopped in his tracks.
"Stay back," Jake warned, his eyes glinting.
"I'm not going with you!" Ethan snapped. He folded his arms over his chest and stared at James, his jaw working. "This is ridiculous. You'll kill us both the second we land."
Jake smiled, a leer which was not even a little sane. "So suspicious, babe. Alright, have it your way. I'll just kill your brother's boyfriend right now and fly myself out of here."
He placed the gun more firmly against James' head, and Kendall belatedly realized the safety was off. James' tear-filled eyes burned into Kendall's, one final I love you, as he struggled against Jake's choking hold but couldn't break it. Then James squeezed his eyes tightly shut, preparing for the worst.
"No!" Kendall cried, taking a step forward. "James!"
"Okay!" Ethan yelled, pushing Kendall out of the way, sending him sprawling to the floor before rushing toward the steps. "Okay, I'll fly."
Jake smiled. "Always so predictable."
"Ethan!" Kendall cried, pushing himself up on his hands.
James opened his eyes as Jake heaved him backward, and Kendall saw James try to shake his head, telling Ethan to stay back. Ethan either didn't understand or purposefully ignored him. He mounted the steps after then and drew up the door.
Belatedly, Kendall saw the blocks had already been removed and the plane had been prepped for flight-Jake had obviously been planning for this.
Shane ran towards the plane, banging on the door before Kendall had even pushed himself to his feet. "No! James! Open the goddamn door, Jake! James!"
Still, he wasn't prepared for the way the plane flared to life, the engines firing up while the plane was still in the hangar. He coughed as a storm of dirt and debris whirled around him, tiny shards of stone and sand from the floor pinging against his skin and eyes. He covered his eyes with his forearms.
"He's insane!" Shane yelled. "What the hell is he thinking, starting up inside like this?"
"He's thinking I would have climbed up the side of the damn plane if he'd waited thirty more seconds," Kendall said, walking over to stand beside Shane. Ethan quickly guided the plane out the open door of the hangar, barely pausing before picking up speed and taxiing over the runway.
"Now what?" Jett demanded of no one in particular, throwing his hands in the air. "We can't call the authorities."
"The local authorities would know nothing anyway," Shane said, running a hand through his hair. "We need American authorities involved. I'm asking Uncle Shaw to call in a favor." He panicked for a second. "Unless Jake hurt Shaw, too. Let's find Jenna or Dak and-"
"No! No, I've got this." Kendall licked his lips and pulled his phone from his pocket-not the burner phone Ethan had given him, but his space-aged, FBI phone, the one with the important phone numbers. "I have someone I can call instead."
"Hey," he said into the phone a minute later. "It's Kendall. I need your help."
Done! So Ethan is back in the picture, but it looks like both he and James are in trouble.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, as well as if you happened to have a favorite part/moment!
Again, I hope you all enjoyed and that you all are doing okay! There are only about two or three chapters left of this story. Not sure when the next chapter will be up just yet, but there won't be too long of a wait for it.
Until then!
-Epically Obsessed
