Chapter Two: Family First
The Leroux family was helpless as they watched Clara be carried onto the plane.
Her father, Governor Kingston watched the plane taxi and lift into the air, knowing this was better for his continuing political goals.
Julie pressed her face against Madeline's distended belly, grateful to have the pregnant opossum, now her only daughter.
Sebastian watched his mother kiss his wife's belly. He sniffed hard and wiped away a single tear before it could roll down his pale cheek.
He knew his father put family first provided it benefited him.
Barsad was the last person on the plane and secured the door, glancing down when a flash of color caught his eye.
He looked around before he squatted down and picked up one of Clara's shoes that had fallen free of her foot as she'd kicked her legs.
Barsad gingerly traced his fingertips along the heel and traced the bright red sole of the shoe before he slipped it into his heavy coat pocket.
Bane deposited Clara into one of the rigid-backed seats, placing her on the aisle before clicking her seatbelt into place.
Talia settled in the row across from Clara, Bane taking the seat behind Talia, giving him the vantage point of being able to study and scrutinize Clara's profile.
He clicked his lap belt into place as Talia began speaking to Clara.
"Miss Leroux, this is a rather long flight, you'll be afforded time to rest and when we get to our destination and settled, I'll give you a proper explanation of why you're on this flight."
Clara's voice cracked as she whispered, "please, don't hurt me, my father has a lot of money."
"Your father made no effort to fight for you, he didn't bother to beg for your safety," Talia said, her truth was harsh and crackled in the air.
Clara dropped her head, her blindfolded eyes remained inundated in darkness.
"He wouldn't w…," she started before Talia interrupted with an ugly chuckle.
"What does your father want for you Miss Leroux? Your safety?"
Clara felt tears threaten to pour from her eyes and sobs to spill from between her lips, "please," she tried.
"Please what?" Talia demanded.
"Please stop, let me be."
Talia sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, the hollow victory felt even emptier, Clara had never raised a hand to defend herself and Talia was just bullying the innocent.
"We're in the air for ten hours, we'll pick this up later," Talia stated, not inviting compromise.
"Can you please free my hands; I can't feel my fingers."
Talia frowned, assessing the bound socialite and political heiress.
She wordlessly blew out a breath before hopping out of her seat and snipping the nylon zip-tie free. Talia heard Clara's frightened gasp when Talia's fingertips scrabbled against her scalp as she untied the cloth blindfold.
Clara squinted as the rough cloth fell away from her eyes.
She blinked up at Talia, her adjusting eyes drank in the glamourous woman with vengeful fire in her eyes.
Talia gritted her teeth as she felt a modicum of sympathy for the crying young woman, her mascara making her dark lashes clump together, tears rolling down her smooth cheeks.
Talia picked up the discarded blindfold, "clean yourself up," she murmured as she held the burlap cloth towards Clara, adding when the young woman plucked the cloth away with a shaking hand.
"Rest, we'll be in the air for a while," she said before returning to her seat.
Bane watched Clara wipe her eyes as she sniffed hard.
He listened to every word Talia said but kept a constant watch on Clara as she eventually cried herself to sleep.
Behind his mask, the corner of Bane's lips pulled into a small smile when he looked through the file that Talia passed back to him about Miss Clara Leroux.
Bane looked up at Clara's sleeping form after he scanned each page of the activities that Talia's tech guy had uncovered.
Clara Leroux was a busy girl as she navigated the dark web and hid in the shroud of the internet's anonymity.
The plane caught a tailwind, and the projected ten-hour flight was only a little over nine.
Bane stayed awake the entire flight, sleep had become not as necessary after the rerouting of his respiratory, circulatory, and vascular system following his beating until he was a breath away from death.
Talia fell into a deep sleep after discussing the contents of Clara Leroux's file with him as well as the plans she had for the political god's offspring.
Bane stared at Clara as she slept, fascinated when bad dreams must've been plaguing her as he watched her eyes dart rapidly back and forth under the thin skin of her eyelids.
The entire time that Clara was on the hostage flight, on the ground Governor Matthew Leroux ordered his family to vow to never talk about the incident again, that it would be released to the news vultures that Clara was either in rehab or had run off with a poet and intravenous drugs.
Barsad kept an eye on everyone from the rear of the plane, the light over his seat had burned out and he watched from the darkness, no sound except for his even breathing.
His gaze lingered on the dark yellow folder that Talia had passed back to Bane, he desperately wanted to know the contents and what was discussed.
Before he closed his own eyes and grabbed a few hours of shut eye, he dipped a hand into his pocket and stroked Clara's fallen shoe in a version of modified pocket pool.
The pilot had lost his licensure a decade before for being caught transporting cocaine at a low altitude and hadn't registered a flight plan so no one knew their plane was up in the night skies, flying under radar detection and cirrus clouds.
Clara stirred from the grips of an anxiety-induced sleep when the plane's wheels touched down on the tarmac of a private airstrip owned by a South American kingpin, a god living amongst the rainforest.