Do My Part

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!

Chapter Five

Jackson kept his distance for the next few days as Lisa went through the motions of grieving for her grandmother. He hide in the back of the room in a dark suit and sunglasses during both of the viewings while she sat in the front row and even dared to give dead Grandma Henrietta a kiss on her frozen, made-up forehead.

Lovely Lisa was dressed in full mourning regalia. A black blouse, a black skirt, and a pair of black heels were a stark contrast to her pale skin and reddish hair. However, she still refused to cry in public.

Trying to stay strong, right, Leese? Well, it won't last for much longer. A breakdown is evitable.

He followed her to the funeral, stalking her every movement from around the rim of the crowd. He blended in perfectly with his surrounds. Even if she had been looking for him, which she was not, she would never have been able to spot him.

If I keep my distance, she will never know until I meet her on the plane…

But he knew he could not last that long. He needed to 'meet' her, speak with her, touch her… After eight long weeks of tracking her, of her being the only human in his life, he needed her to be real and to give her a more active position in his life. He had spent the past eight, long years alone and pinning for her.

Letting her go will be impossible at this stage of the game. Lisa won't ever leave me. I'll make sure of that. The only way she'll disappear from my sight is in a body bag.

Jackson fully intended to keep her after the flight. He would let her believe that she would be released — and she might for a few precious seconds — but in reality, she was his. Lisa would belong to him despite what she thought.

She was turning away from the grave now, picking up her pace as the rain began to fall. He tracked from afar, memorizing the way she moved, the way she tried to cover her hair at first from the rain, then laughingly gave it up and dashed to her mother's car. Her skirt was quickly splashed with water from the puddles she ran through.

Lisa was almost acting like a little girl. It made him smile to see her so carefree, especially since he knew that later that evening he would crush her spirit and force her hand to save her father's life.

"Soon," he whispered as she ducked inside the automobile. "Soon we'll meet again."

Jackson gave up his surveillance immediately following the funeral. He had other arrangements to worry about and plans to finalize and follow to the letter. When he returned to his dismal and lonely hotel room, a package was waiting for him from an associate in Miami. Inside the shipping envelope was his key to a new identity and life. It was also the key to completing the job.

Joseph Reisert's monogrammed wallet was in his possession and his driver's license, credit cards, and other clues to his identity had been replaced. The wallet now belonged to Jackson Rippner. Only Lisa would recognize that the leather wallet was not his own. She would recall that she had given it to dear old dad for Christmas one year.

Inside the wallet, Jackson kept the old photographs of Lisa. Her smiling face frozen in happier times gave him butterflies. He would make her smile again one of these days. He would make her happy once more.

All it will take is time.

The rain was driving now, pouring down, and flooding the roads. The chances of their scheduled flight leaving on time were looking increasingly slim. That was the downside to air travel — delays and cancellations.

There was no real pause in his plan that allowed for any deviation from the original time frame. If the time of the flight changed, then Jackson would have to act faster than he had anticipated and meet Lisa before he sat next to her on the flight. And if he came on too strong in the airport, then she would bolt and the entire assassination was fucked.

It's a delicate balance to be sure, but I think I can handle it. I have to handle it. I can't afford to screw up. I don't screw up.

Jackson's icy blue eyes caught sight of the large flight board.

Flight 1019, flight 1019… where the hell is it?

Finally he found it: Flight 1019 to Miami, Florida was DELAYED.

Shit, it's fucked.

Just then, his cell phone began to ring.

"Code?" he answered, trying to hide his worry.

"Rippner, how's it going?"

"Code?"

"Oh, um AS – CK805?" the man tried, using Jackson's personal code for the Keefe assassination. How does he know that is the code?

"Well, I'm waiting on the plane."

"Things just got tougher. You have until 5:00am to change the room. They're due in at 5:30am, not pm."

"Not a problem."

"How's the bitch? Behaving so far? 'Cause if not, I can have someone else take the job."

"No, things are going according to plan."

"Are you sure, because your life, not just your career or money, is on the line. You fail and we will kill you."

Jackson swallowed. As if things weren't hard enough already…

"I'm sure. I won't fail."

The line went dead and Jackson stared at the damn phone. He hated lying, but lying was all you could do to save your own neck at times. His employers did not need to know that his flight was delayed and he did not know how long for. It could very well end up cancelled.

Oh, Lisa, where are you when I need you?

Right on cue, his target entered the scene, rushing up to the flight board and groaning at the sight of the word DELAYED.

Well, that makes two of us, sweetheart.

Author's Notes:

The stakes have been raised and Jackson knows that failure is not an option. Plus, he's too obsessed with Lisa to let her go. He's only digging himself a deeper hole. Enjoy!