Chapter 28
R aphael
Bright ocean spread out for miles behind us, the sound of the waves lost to the rotor blades that chopped the air overhead. I loved flying. I’d been obsessed with it since I was a child.
Yet I’d left my heart behind in Scotland.
All I wanted was Alex. Leaving her behind this morning had nearly killed me.
“One hour forty,” Jackson informed me from the other side of the cockpit.
Never once had he got behind the controls of anything other than a car, but I’d taught him enough about instruments and the panels around us for him to read them. As an unofficial copilot, his main job was to keep me sane on our mission of mercy.
The coast of France flew by underneath us, just north of Le Havre, and countryside with pretty little towns replaced the open water. We’d already made a stop at the very bottom of the UK, in an airfield I’d used many times in the past when flying Leo in and out of the continent, but refuelling had taken forever, and we were behind schedule with over a hundred miles still to go.
“Check in with Ben,” I grouched.
Jackson sighed over the headphones but sent the text. He read out his reply. “She’s back in the house with Daisy and Mia, throwing herself into cleaning duty. Valentine’s with them, and Ben’s outside. He’s made the point he isn’t budging all day and they’ll have lunch there. She’s safe.”
“Any reply from her friend yet?”
“The thumbs-up was the last.”
Frustration flickered in my gut. The Parisien heliport we’d stop in had a time limit for how long I could wait. If Dori wasn’t there, we’d move to plan B, which was to touch down at an airfield outside of the city, re-strategizing from there. Either he’d come to us, we’d get a second touchdown slot at the helipad, or the last resort was to jump in a car and find him.
Jackson clicked his tongue, staring out of the window to our left. “Clouds are building.”
He wasn’t wrong. Those dark clouds towered, growing taller as I watched. The reason we hadn’t been able to fly overnight was because of the summer storm over the Channel. It had cleared this morning, but the weather forecast for the early evening showed a return. The view from the window and the readings on my instrument panels told me it could arrive sooner.
Cold slid through me.
There were too many risks of delays. Dori not being there. The weather pinning us down. If I didn’t get back to Alex today, I’d probably run mad.
An hour and a half on, we’d reduced altitude to come in over the sprawling city, getting the green light to touch down on the helipad, which was in a fenced-off small field next to a public park.
While I secured the craft, Jackson was readying for his role.
“Clear,” I told him.
He jumped out, ducking against the downdraft our vehicle created, and ran for the administration office. In the past hour, he’d made multiple attempts to contact Dori, getting no answer. All morning, we’d only had a single acknowledgement to the fact we were coming in. We were later than planned, too. If he’d struggled to get out of bed, or worse, was still drunk, our delay would have given him more time to reach the helipad.
With the helicopter secured, I was able to take a breather, which usually meant downing a canned coffee to keep me sharp. Instead, I read a text from my brother to say Effie had been sent home from the hospital, apparently not yet in true labour, then climbed out, checking the craft with frequent glances to the office door Jackson had disappeared into. My frustration spiked when he emerged again, his phone to his ear, and his flat expression telling me what I’d feared.
Dori wasn’t inside.
Jackson jogged back across the concrete. “He isn’t fucking here.”
I clamped my jaw then climbed back inside to speak into my radio, asking the controller for a time check of when we needed to vacate.
“Seven minutes, acknowledge,” the voice returned.
“Affirm,” I replied.
For fuck’s sake. The countdown was on.
I relayed the fact to Jackson who tried to call the flighty count again, coming up empty. He then messaged the time constraint in the hope it hurried the man the fuck up.
“I’ve told him. I don’t know what else I can do.”
“All we can do is sit and wait.”
A quick check back home with Ben told us all was well. I drummed my fingers on my knees, finally snatching up the caffeine I needed. We still had another refuelling stop to carry out. The weather to dodge.
Dori was cutting it fine.
Jackson watched the concourse. “Need to say something. I’m kind of sad ye didn’t tell me about Alex when ye returned to London.”
I rolled an unimpressed look at my best friend. “Like ye told me about my sister.”
They’d started a secret relationship when I’d been away from my and Ariel’s tower apartment for flight school, with Jackson moving in so she had someone there overnight. She’d pushed back at my overprotectiveness but had eventually agreed. I’d always thought they would’ve made a good match. The proximity had brought them around to agreeing.
He pulled a face. “The difference being the whole forbidden-relative deal.”
“Ye don’t think a princess is forbidden?”
He attempted a smile. It died quickly. For a moment, my friend stayed quiet. “Yet you aren’t fighting the comparison. I always knew it would hit ye hard when ye fell.”
He tapped his screen to display a countdown timer. We had three minutes.
Pressure closed in around me. All of a sudden, I couldn’t stop my words. I’d confided in no one. I’d barely done so with Alex. I trusted Jackson with my life, and he’d been through unimaginable pain in his past. He also knew my history better than most.
“I can’t fall for her. She lives in a different world than I do.”
“Except for the fact she’s living in yours right now.”
I scoffed. “Temporarily. That’s just one of too many barriers.”
He twisted his lips, his dark eyes regarding me. “Name three.”
“Only three? My father finding out her identity and using the connection for his own gain. The fact she lost her closest friend and I’m possibly a distraction, only useful until she gets him back. Which could be today, if the arsehole ever shows, and at which point she won’t need me anymore. That I’m a convenient safe pair of hands when she’s scared.”
“Let me guess, ye haven’t asked her about those last two points?”
At my headshake, he swore and held up his hand with three fingers raised.
He tapped the first. “Talk to her. Ask if she has feelings for ye, then learn from her answer. Don’t guess.” He moved on to the second finger. “Give her back her friend then watch how she still looks to ye. I know you’re not disrespecting her like that.”
I raised my shoulders against the realisation. I had done so, and it was unfair to Alex.
Jackson’s steady gaze held no judgement. “Only my best friend would be the engineer of his own destruction. Always putting other people first. It’s time we all pulled in around ye. So lastly, when it comes to your arsehole dad, if he dares threaten any member of his family or their loved ones again, which now includes me, we do what we should’ve done last winter.”
“Which is?”
Jackson mimed breaking his last finger.
My breathing stuttered. I’d long wanted my father dead. As a child, I’d imagined it too many times. For myself, I couldn’t have done it. If he threatened Alex, the opposite applied.
He held up his phone to display the ticking-down time. “One minute.”
My heart thumped at double the rate of the vanishing seconds. Still, there was no movement at the office. Jackson grabbed the door handle.
“Time for one final check.” He glanced back at me. “What do ye call the bodyguard who fell for a princess?”
Him and his jokes. I arched an eyebrow.
My friend punched my shoulder. “Royally fucked. You’re already in love with her, my friend, and I fucking love being the first to know.”
With a grin, he dove out and sprinted for the office.
God, but he was right. I loved her. I’d fallen hard to the point it was more truth than any other fact in my life.
Jackson appeared again seconds later with his hands outstretched, right as the controller gave me my takeoff warning.
Fuck it. Fuck all of it.
Without Dori here, we had to extend the visit and move to the secondary site. Waste the time I could be using to get back to Alex.
I crammed every bit of emotion behind my wall of control, returning my friend’s grim smile when he slammed the door and clipped himself back into his seat.
Thirty seconds. I worked through the sequence of my preflight checks, ensuring the instruments were operational and the fuel levels were where I expected them to be, and my flight plan was recorded. Once I started the engine, we’d be ready for takeoff in under a minute. I should’ve already had it underway.
“Stop.”
Jackson’s tone froze my fingers, poised to flip the switch.
“Fucking hell,” he added. “Look.”
The door to the office was open, and the tall, blond friend of Alex’s wrestled with a uniformed staff member. Dori broke free, swinging a rucksack and falling in his haste to reach us, the picture of elegantly ruffled European royalty.
Jackson swore then exited and opened the rear door, practically boosting Dori into the back of the craft. He strapped him in and tossed him headphones. I could barely hear over the thrum of my pulse.
With Jackson securing the doors and clipping his harness back in place, I checked the clock. Seconds to go.
Over the headphones came Dori’s voice, thick under heavy breaths. “I know I’m late. My cab broke down. Gridlock. I had to run the whole way.”
I wasn’t angry. I was fucking overjoyed. Against all odds and a coming storm, I set our path for home.