Page 23 of The Best Wild Idea (Off-Limits #3)

“But just to put your mind at ease, I’ll give you a little shake down of how I’ve got you covered.

Even if you hate hearing about this shit, but only because you asked.

Before we even got here, I flew my own personal mechanic out to go through the safety mechanisms of this plane, and to test out all the gear himself.

He spent a week out here observing and checking everything about this top-notch operation.

Then he was out again early this morning going over the entire safety checkpoint list with the crew, making sure it was in perfect condition.

And I had these guys here,” he goes on, pointing to Jett and Ethan, “train with an extra seventy dives this year alone, on top of their regular strict certifications, just to prep for this one and only dive with us today. Besides that, the parachute packs are mine. Jett and Ethan have the most up-to-date certifications which includes the special mechanisms used in these packs, which just so happen to be the best that money can buy.”

My mouth is slightly ajar by the time Silas is done.

Is he joking?

I shift my eyes to Jett, who’s smiling broadly, then Ethan, who’s nodding. The rest of the crew is all watching me now, waiting for me to get into the tiny plane after all that.

Fucking hell.

“However, to be fair, it’s not just me that you have to trust today,” Silas calls out, smirking happily, knowing he just schooled me.

He flicks his eyes over to the two tandem bros now standing by the door of the plane before looking back at me.

His smile grows a bit more wild while they all watch me.

“I don’t know if I can trust them either,” I whisper loudly, wishing Jett and Ethan couldn’t hear me right now.

“And the pilot is the most experienced pilot in the entire country of Switzerland. Jules, you’re doing it. Period. I’m not doing this alone. You’re going to be fine. Cross my heart and hope to—”

“Don’t say it!” I shriek, clasping a hand over my mouth like it might stop the final words from coming out of his.

“— not die,” he finishes, drawing a big X across his heart while an even bigger smile spreads across his face.

I fold my arms over my chest, breathing heavily, so not impressed.

Okay, I’m a little impressed. Silas somehow thought of every possible safety precaution before we arrived.

“Time to board,” Ethan announces, pulling the sliding door open on the side of the plane.

I don’t move. It’s like my feet are cemented to the floor.

Without warning, Silas switches directions and marches right back in front of me until he’s a mere six inches from my face.

Then he takes another step, bending down until his nose is practically touching mine.

The heat of his body courses out of his jumpsuit and pours into mine.

His stance is intimidating, but his eyes are unrelenting, like he understands my hesitancy without being willing to let me off the hook.

“Get in the plane, Jules.”

I refuse to step back.

It’s a standoff, him against me, but his eyes are the first to betray him, glimmering at the edges just as his lips start to twitch, like he’s actually enjoying this.

God, he’s infuriating.

“I’m not taking no for an answer. You didn’t come all this way to chicken out now.”

“I didn’t even know this was happening until we got here so it’s not like I came all the way here to—”

“And?” he interrupts. “You’re here now.”

I lick my top lip before biting it.

If Grant were here, he probably wouldn’t fight me on this.

He’d probably say, “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to.

” Then something in me would unravel. Deflate.

Regret would fill me, and I’d insist that I’d do it anyway against my better judgment, because I don’t want to disappoint myself any more than him.

I always craved for him to fight me on things a little bit more.

To push me when I needed it. Especially things like this.

Sometimes I need a push to get out of my own hard-headed way, but Grant never pushed me the way Silas is pushing me now.

His eyes dance in front of mine, egging me on, and I know he’s not going to back down. I won’t be getting out of this. My heart picks up speed and my stomach drops.

No one has had the guts to push me past my boundaries in, well, a very long time, and against any type of logic, I like it.

Even worse, something in me kind of loves it.

A big, substantial part of me wants to be pushed.

“Okay,” I relent, shaking my head in disbelief that I’m actually going to give into this and to him.

Instead of stepping back, he grabs my shoulders and plants his face right in front of mine as one more shit-eating grin comes out to play.

Then he palms my cheek in his hand and for one hair-raising moment we stand there just like that. A silent agreement playing out between us.

This is happening.

He holds his index finger up in front of my face, now chuckling.

“Jules: Zero. Silas: One.”

Then he turns and pumps his fist over his head all the way back to the door of the plane.

My jaw opens.

I scoff and roll my eyes at the back of his head.

“Real classy,” I mutter.

Insufferable .

I can see how Silas managed to pull a very shy Grant out of his shell years ago. The man is relentless when he wants to be.

He points the finger at me while I shuffle toward the plane. “And you’re jumping out of the plane first before me so I can make sure you don’t chicken out at the last second.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you owe me dinner.”

I scoff again.

“That hardly seems like a loss,” I tell him. “I’ll gladly buy you dinner instead of jumping out first.”

“Alright then, I’ll up the punishment. If you don’t jump first, you’ll owe me dinner and a dance at some point before we’re back home.”

“A dance?” I ask, narrowing my eyes, grateful for the light distraction as Jett draws closer. “Not happening.”

“Not here, but in Spain, maybe,” he says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Or Italy. My choice.”

“You want me to dance with you in Spain or Italy if I refuse to jump out first once we get up there?”

I watch the pilot climb into the cockpit. He starts pressing random buttons, then clips himself in.

Okay, deep breaths, Jules. This is happening.

“Absolutely,” Silas says, throwing an arm around my shoulder while we wait our turn to climb in next.

I wiggle out from under his arm, but he doesn’t seem to care.

He’s too busy grinning at Ethan, who has a harness strapped to the front of him with an attachment for Silas’ harness to get clipped in over his front.

Jett has the same contraption strapped across his body, and suddenly, despite Silas’ best attempts at distracting me, everything feels far too real right now.

We’re about to get into this plane, but we won’t be landing in this plane, just like Grant said in his letter. That is, if I can force myself to jump out of it before it comes back down.

“Okay,” I say. My entire body begins shaking as the next chain of events draws me in. “If we make it out of this alive, I’ll dance with you in Spain. Do you hear that, God? I’ll dance with him in Spain!” I shout up to the sky dramatically.

Silas’ face morphs while he watches me, now beaming.

Ethan attempts to clip Silas into his harness while Silas does a little makeshift salsa, swinging his hips back and forth with his eyes still glued to mine. Ethan eventually tries scolding him to stand still.

Which, of course, doesn’t work.

I find myself watching Silas do a ridiculous hip-swinging dance while Ethan chases his shoulder clips.

A billionaire being scolded by an older man in a jumpsuit while attempting to salsa dance on a tarmac.

The whole thing is such an out-of-body experience that, before I know it, my crooked smile turns into a real laugh.

Silas maintains his grin, mouthing idiotic things about dancing with me until I feel a little tug at the back of my shoulder blades.

I turn.

I’m strapped into Jett’s harness.

Silas distracted me through the whole thing.

It’s happening.

He beams at me triumphantly while I start mouthing my own mindless threats back at him.

I better not die today, you asshole.

I don’t know how you talked me into this.

Is dancing in Spain really worth all this?

But something flashes in his eyes that makes me think that, to him, it really is.

The stakes we’ve set feel like a nervous end-of-life type of promise, like I’m not going to have to dance with Si because I’m not actually going to survive this. My breath starts to pick up speed as I climb into the plane with Jett tethered on behind me.

“Atta girl,” Silas calls out, grinning from ear to ear.

A moment later, the four of us awkwardly manage to sit on the floor of the plane. Then, before I can comprehend what’s happening, the heavy metal door slides shut, latching us all inside.