Chapter 28 Faina
FAINA
Asixteen-hour flight to Australia pushes me at my limits. Getting tickets and onto the plane was the easy part and I’ve used the last of my favors to ensure that when we land in Australia, we’re able to slip through border patrol.
After that, we’re completely on our own.
I have no one else to call, no one else to reach out to.
It really will be Cian and me against Hawk and the power he’s amassed during his years.
Part of me hopes we don’t find him so that we get more time to plan a strategy, but that kind of luck isn’t on our side.
I gaze at myself in the bathroom mirror, trying to let the drone of the plane engines drown out my thoughts, but it’s not working.
My nausea’s getting worse and there’s only so many times I can pass it off as eating something I’m not used to.
Glancing down, I slide my hand over my abdomen and try to picture what the baby inside me looks like.
Is it still a blob of something? Does it have spindly limbs?
Will I survive long enough to see if it gets my hair and Cian’s eyes?
I should tell him. Keeping this a secret will only last a few more months and then it will become impossible to deny.
I’ve kept enough secrets from him at this rate.
Running my fingers back and forth over my navel, I look at myself in the mirror once more and try to imagine a life beyond this.
A life where Cian and I are raising this child and the only worry is what school we’ll get into.
It feels like a fantasy.
Another wave of cramps steals across my torso and I spin in time to spew up another mouthful of bile into the bathroom, fighting to keep my noises as quiet as I can.
Most sound gets buried underneath the drone of the plane engines but I’m not taking any chances.
After the last wave passes, I rinse my mouth with water from the tap while trying not to think about where it comes from and leave the bathroom.
A few rows down sits Cian with his face buried in a magazine about motorcycles.
“Thinking of getting one?” I ask as I slip back into my seat beside him.
“Hmm?” He glances up and then chuckles. “Oh. No, I’m just using this page to brainstorm.
” He flashes me the open page, revealing his attempts at a plan against Hawk.
There are multiple scribbled notes ranging from killing him with a sniper bracketed by ‘how do I get a sniper?’ to running him down in the street and poisoning him at a dinner.
“Creative.”
“You okay?” His brow furrows as he looks me over. “You’re still sick?”
“I hate flying,” I lie. “It always gives me a funny tummy.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. Maybe we should have gone a different way.”
I gently roll my eyes. “There’s no other way that would get us to Australia fast enough. Besides, it’s only long flights that get me and this one feels like it’s been going on for days.”
“Almost there.” Cian reaches across and takes my hand, squeezing gently.
“But until then, I was thinking about Hawk. We have to assume he knows we’re coming just to be prepared, and then if we do end up surprising him, then that’s a bonus.
Although I keep going around in circles because I was thinking…
” He swivels in his seat to face me with his voice low.
“How has he avoided Interpol for so long? They found us so quickly, and I figure Interpol must be like how we pay off cops back home. They’re just bigger…
and then I remembered something that dick said.
He was so focused on the weapons and shit that he just let Hawk go. ”
“You think Interpol is using Hawk?”
I think he either pays enough in bribery that they look the other way or Hawk is smart enough to give them a bone now and then so they think they’re winning.
Interpol pats themselves on the back for getting some high-impact weapons off the market while Hawk continues his real deals under their noses. ”
“Makes sense. They can’t get Hawk, so they make do with getting people he deals with instead.”
“Exactly. And Hawk can spoon-feed them to keep himself safe. We used to run something similar back when this detective was spending his entire career trying to nail Brenden. In the end, we gave him so many wins that he retired early feeling good about keeping drugs off the streets, but it was all stuff we’d calculated to let him find. ”
Cian’s really wrapped up in this. He’s so focused on Hawk that anything else would surely be a huge distraction.
I can’t tell him about the baby.
Not yet, at least. I can’t think of any scenario where he’d still let me pursue Hawk for my own ends if he knew I was carrying our child. And seeing him talk like this is the first time he’s seemed truly animated in weeks. It’s like he’s finally found the spark he needs to finally nail Hawk.
“I think all of those are really good points.” I squeeze his hand. “To an extent, it means that he might try the same with us. Some kind of diversion.”
“There’s nothing he could say to me that would prevent me from carving out his fucking heart,” Cian mutters. “Fuck, he’s got me so riled up and we’re not even there yet.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get him,” I promise, then I squint at him and smirk slightly. “Riled up, huh?”
“Yeah! We’ve got to be close, right? As soon as we land, there’s someone I can call. Well, I’ll need to find their number first but I remember my mother—” Cian pauses and finally catches on to my suggestive look. “What are you suggesting, Faina?”
“I’m not suggesting anything,” I whisper.
“But we’ve still got two hours and the bathroom is there.
I bet it could fit two people, y’know, because you’re such a devoted partner that in two minutes when I get up to deal with my queasy feeling, you’ll follow to make sure I’m really okay.
” My voice drops down to a purr then I pat Cian’s hand and rise once more.
Luckily, no one else on the plane pays us any attention. Most are either asleep or locked in to the in-flight entertainment which leaves the bathroom free for me once more. Once inside, I don’t lock the door and lean back against the small sink. It’s cramped but that adds to the excitement.
Plus, a voice in the back of my mind warns me to get one final taste of the man I love because there’s no guarantee anything is going to play out the way Cian’s hoping.
He joins me a few minutes later, squeezing his bulk into the bathroom and glancing around while laughing. “How romantic.”
“Come here!” Looping my arms around his neck, I pull Cian into a deep kiss and lose myself in his taste and his touch.
His hands roam my body, rumpling my T-shirt and bundling my skirt up at my waist. I run my fingers through his hair and nibble on his lower lip, kissing him deeper while he pushes me against the tiny space between the sink and the toilet.
“There’s not enough space for me to do what I wanna do,” Cian groans against my lips.
“What do you wanna do?”
“Taste you.”
His words ignite my blood and my heart begins to race with excitement. Bracing against the wall, I lift one leg around his hip and rest my foot on the cistern while kissing him deeply.
Cian slots perfectly against me and he kisses me deeper, sliding his tongue onto my mouth at the exact moment his fingers dip into my panties and slide between my folds.
Every touch drives my excitement higher until I’m so horny that I might just lose my mind.
His fingers pump gently inside me while his hips roll against my thigh, grinding his growing bulge against me.
His kisses swallow my moans, my temperature rises and soon I’m utterly soaked and ready for him.
Being so cramped, laughter rises between us as Cian tries to find the best position. Soon, we’re both wedged against the sink but suddenly, Cian breaks the kiss and just as I whine my complaints, he slides his fingers out of me and lifts them to his mouth.
Watching him suck my juices off his fingers is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen.
As soon as his mouth is empty, I drag him in for a fiery, desperate kiss.
From there, it becomes a game of maintaining balance, hungrily kissing one another and Cian sliding inside me like it’s the only place he belongs.
His cock stretches me open with a warm pull of comforting familiarity, his groans are sweet music to my ears, and the throb of his length deep inside my core sends stars spinning across my vision.
He fucks me with short, hard thrusts, making do with the short space we’re cramped into.
Our pants mingle between us and in barely an inch of space, our moans and gasps weave music with every thrust and roll of our hips.
I pull his hair and claw at his back while he drives himself deeper and deeper inside of me, keeping one arm around my wait to support me.
His other hand dips between us and he teases my clit with frantic fingers until I cum with a scream I muffle by biting into the thick meat of his shoulder.
He comes not long after and kisses me desperately, repeatedly, until we’re both spent and exhausted.
“I love you,” I murmur breathlessly. “Remember that.”
“I love you too.”
My heart’s overflowing by the time we make it back to our seats with no one any the wiser as to what we were up to.
We spend the remainder of the flight lightly discussing Hawk, but it quickly dissolves into a sweet trip down memory lane.
We discuss the first day we met, our first kiss, and our teasing promises to one another about how we were going to be the biggest secret in New York.
I tell him one of my favorite memories is now that night we spent in Greece having dinner and just talking, before it all went to shit.
It’s been a strange way to do it but there’s also no one I’d rather travel the world with than Cian.
He accuses me of being sappy but kisses me regardless.
By the time the plane lands, my mood’s settled. It’ll be up to me to get us through customs but with my contact’s information, it shouldn’t be a problem. But as I stand, something catches my attention.
No one else stands.
Some busy themselves with their carry-on bags, others are deep in conversation, but no one else seems desperate to get off the flight.
Confusion stirs in my gut and I put it down to my paranoid nature, but as we make our way down the aisle, it becomes painfully clear that we’re the only ones leaving the plane.
I glance back at Cian, who seems to catch on to the same issue as he looks around in confusion. No one looks us in the eye, and when his eyes lock onto me, a cold sense of dread creeps up my spine. All the sweet relaxation we earned in the past few hours melts away.
“This way, Ma’am,” comes a voice to my left. The stewardess smiles widely at me with her perfectly painted red lips and she motions for me to continue down the aisle. Her smile is eerily doll-like. My heart starts to pound.
What the fuck is going on?
We get our answer when we reach the exit of the plane and gaze out at the tarmac. Where an Australian airport should greet us, we’re faced with a private runway surrounded with trees and sand. The ocean twinkles at us in the distance while a vibrant, scorching sun bakes down from above.
A few feet away on the tarmac are several sleek, black cars with silver trim. They shimmer slightly in the sun while countless sweating, stern-faced men observe us from around the vehicles.
Cian suddenly steps in front of me at the top of the steps just as I lock eyes with one man in particular.
Wearing a white shirt, white pants, and dark sunglasses, he stands with his arms crossed in the middle of the crowd and gazes up at us with a smirk.
Hawk.