Chapter 22 - Emergency Descent
The cabin intercom crackled violently to life, cutting through the heavy tension like a razor.
"Captain speaking. We have declared a medical emergency with air traffic control. We are beginning a rapid descent into Aspen."
Suddenly, the luxury Gulfstream pitched sharply downward, slicing violently through dense storm clouds over the Rocky Mountains.
Luggage shifted in the overhead bins, and crystal glasses rattled violently inside the bar cart.
Daniel braced himself against the bulkheads, shielding Emily’s fragile body with his own torso.
"Hold on to me," Daniel murmured gently against Emily's forehead, pressing a soft oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. "Breathe, baby. Just breathe."
Emily gripped his designer jacket with white-knuckled desperation, her knuckles trembling violently.
"Don't let her touch me again," Emily wept into the mask, her eyes wide with lingering trauma. "She wanted us dead, Daniel. She said it."
Daniel stroked her damp hair, his jaw set in stone.
"She will never touch you again," he vowed, his voice thick with a deadly promise. "Never again."
Across the cabin, strapped securely into her leather captain's chair, Vanessa was already typing frantically on her gold-trimmed smartphone.
Her fingers flew across the screen, dialing the private line of Julian Sterling, the family’s senior corporate fixer.
"Julian," Vanessa whispered into the receiver, keeping her voice low beneath the roar of the descending engines. "We have a catastrophic PR situation. I need a private tarmac team and an NDA team ready at Aspen Airport in twenty minutes."
Daniel snapped his head toward her, his gaze sharp and merciless.
Before Vanessa could say another word, Daniel lunged across the aisle.
With one swift, violent motion, he snatched the diamond-encrusted phone right out of her hand.
"Daniel! Give that back!" Vanessa gasped in outrage.
Daniel didn't answer.
He smashed the phone onto the stainless-steel galley counter, stomping his boot heel down until the screen shattered into a hundred jagged pieces.
"No more phone calls," Daniel snarled, kicking the smoking fragments across the carpet. "No more cover-ups."
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Vanessa stared at the ruined device on the floor, her chest heaving with silent, venomous fury.
Outside the cabin windows, the jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Rockies rushed upward at terrifying speed.
