Page 130 of Johnny

charge on the ground.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN - MEGAN

“Here.” One of the men behind me is slapping my upper arm with a pair of heavy gloves. “Put

these on.”

I stare at them for a moment. “What?”

“Just put them on,” says Johnny, who has already accepted a pair of similar gloves and is tugging

them over his hands.

I look up at Logan and find him doing the same thing. Then he’s up, maneuvering back towards us,

reaching for a thick rope coiled at Johnny’s feet. He throws it over the side of the helicopter.

“Oh… oh, fuck no. Fuck no. I’m not jumping out of this—”

But before I can get the words out Johnny is tugging the gloves on my hands. They are very thick.

Something you’d see a welder wear. Or a fireman, maybe. Heat resistant. Because, duh, Megan.

There’s friction when you slide down a rope.

This isn’t happening.

But then everyone is on their feet, Logan is looking down at the ground, and before I can even

process that this really is happening, he steps out onto the helicopter’s landing skid, grabs the rope

and… disappears.

I panic. Like my heart is beating super-fast, and I’m sweating like a motherfucker, and there’s no

way I’m jumping out of this helicopter. No. Fucking. Way.

“You’re up,” Johnny says, yanking me to my feet and shoving me towards the open door.

I grab on to the seat, resisting, as two more guys disappear into thin air.

“Don’t fuck this up, Megan. I’m warning you,” Johnny says through his mic. And I’m just about to

say something back—something along the lines of “go fuck yourself”—when he takes off his headset,

snatches the headset off my head, and steps onto the landing skid, still gripping my arm tight, urging

me to follow, so I only have two choices.

Resist and possibly fall out without holding on to the rope during the struggle, or do as he says.

I step onto the skid just as Johnny puts pressure on the top of my shoulder, urging me to bend down,

then grip the rope when he hands it to me and scream up at him, “I don’t know how to do this!”

He leans into my ear and says, “It’s just like sliding down a pole.” And then he says, “Go!” as he

gives me a little push.