41. Nyah
NYAH
Dear Diary,
If men could stop sending underwear instead of apologies, that would be amazing.
The main airport bustled with people lugging their suitcases around, tired kids dragging their feet behind them.
Boards lit up all around us with flight departure times and numbers, and I peered at each of them, nosy about where people were traveling to, even though I knew our flight wouldn’t be listed since it was private.
I’d shared a car here with Luca and Lynx, but due to the traffic, it hadn’t been able to get us to the private side of the international airport. We’d decided it would be quicker to get out and walk through the terminal.
Luca had barely said two words to me the entire way, and Lynx clutched his newly forged passport like it was a lifeline in a stormy sea. His white teeth dug into his bottom lip.
Guilt consumed me. I grabbed his hand and squeezed his fingers. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come. You look so stressed.”
“I’m fine.” He quietly pulled his hand away from mine.
That stung a little bit, though it had no right to.
Luca eyed him. “You’ll get through. Stop freaking out.”
Lynx just nodded.
Luca scanned the faces around us. “Where the hell are my father and uncle?”
“And Dax,” I added.
Luca squinted, trying to see them through the crowd. “They should have been here thirty minutes ago. We’re supposed to be wheels up in fifteen.”
I scanned the airport again but couldn’t see any sign of any of them.
Luca took out his phone and called someone, presumably his father or uncle, and then swore and shook his head when they didn’t answer. “We should just get on the plane. They’ll get there eventually, I guess.”
I nodded, wanting to get moving for Lynx’s sake. He was almost green with concern, and I hated myself for begging him to come. If he was caught, he’d be back in jail. I could see the fear in his expression, and yet he was doing it anyway.
Because I’d asked him to.
My heart clenched, but I didn’t dare try to touch him or reassure him. He wouldn’t feel better until we were on a plane and in the air.
We followed Luca to an area marked for private travelers. There was no line, and the woman behind the desk glanced up as we approached, doing a double take when she saw Luca.
“Mr. Guerra. It’s been a while!”
Luca just nodded and handed over his passport. “I’ve been sticking closer to home.”
She smiled at him and tapped her long fingernails across the keyboard. “Off to Scotland today then? How lovely. And you’re traveling with…” She glanced at me. “Girlfriend?”
“Friend,” I corrected quickly.
“Lovely.”
I almost rolled my eyes at the pleasure in her voice at realizing I wasn’t anything significant to Luca. I passed her my passport, and then Lynx handed over his.
The one with a fake name on it.
The woman studied it. “Reginald Harold. Nice to meet you.”
I had to take a sip from my water bottle to cover my laughter. I managed to hold it until the woman had checked us in and dismissed us with a wave toward security.
Once she was out of earshot, I let out the laugh. “Reginald Harold? Aren’t they X’s duck’s and cat’s names?”
Luca frowned at me. “X as in the mascot of my hockey team?”
I nodded.
Lynx scowled. “I couldn’t think of anything else when Luca asked me what name I wanted on the passport. And X is always over at the clubhouse with Reaper or down at Hawk’s place with the doc. He never shuts up about his freaking animals, so they were just the first names that came to mind.”
I giggled. “As long as I can still call you Lynx, then we’re all good.”
He glanced at me like he wasn’t actually sure we were all good at all.
Right, so he was definitely mad at me. Great.
Luca checked his watch and picked up the pace a little.
“Come on. If everyone else is already on the plane, we’re going to get a lecture, and frankly, I’m much more interested in putting on some headphones, drinking a bottle of something expensive, and watching the back of my eyelids for the entire flight, rather than listening to my father drone on. ”
He put his carry-on bag up on the security conveyor belt, and I did the same, Lynx following suit behind me.
Luca’s bag went through the machine, and he walked through the body scanners. I was next, and when no beeping went off, I stepped aside, waiting for Lynx.
“Whose bag is this, please?” the security guard called, holding up the bag he knew very well I’d put on the belt since we were the only people in the line.
I frowned and raised my hand. “Mine.”
Luca shouldered his backpack as it came back to him. “Is there a problem?”
The security guard motioned for me to come closer. “Please come with me, Miss Matish.”
Lynx grabbed his things and followed close behind me. “What’s going on?”
I was just as confused as he was. “I don’t know.”
Another security guard came over to us and held a hand out, not quite touching me, but his body language insistent. “Please come this way. The rest of your party will need to wait here.”
“No. I don’t think so. I’m Luca Guerra—”
The guard cut him off with one hand held up.
“We don’t care about your last name here, Mr. Guerra.
Even private flyers have to clear security.
Miss Matish’s belongings have been flagged for further investigation.
Please do not attempt to hold things up longer than necessary.
We all have jobs to do here, and if everything is in order then she’ll be back momentarily. ”
“And if it’s not?” Lynx asked.
I shot him a look, my stomach twisting with nerves. “Yeah, what he said. What if it’s not?”
The guard narrowed his eyes at me. “Have you put something in your bag that shouldn’t be there, Miss Matish?”
“Like what? Pretty sure I would remember if I packed a gun or a brick of cocaine. If I accidentally left my nail scissors in there, can’t we just throw them out?”
But the guard shook his head. “We’ll talk about this further in a private room.”
This time, they gave me no choice. The guard took my elbow, none too softly, toward a door marked “private.”
I glanced back at Luca, and my fear doubled at his expression.
He was worried.
Which meant I should be too.
All of a sudden, all I could think about was the things someone in the Guerra house might have slipped into my bag.
Drugs being the number one concern. I knew the Guerras had a finger in every illegal pie.
And Carlos wasn’t exactly my biggest fan right now.
He hadn’t spoken a single word to me since he’d branded his name in my skin, and that had been weeks ago.
I’d been grateful for it, though I’d been waiting for another punishment. One that I was surely due, despite claims Luca had absolved me of my sins by taking my place in the cage.
I had a feeling Carlos didn’t forgive or forget that easily.
And now I realized he might have just been biding his time. I’d been punished for allegedly flirting with the Scot, MacGregor. What better way to really nail home who owned me than by having me arrested while I was on my way to Scotland, at the request of the man?
I wrung my hands but obediently followed the guard through a door and down a corridor. He stopped outside an unmarked room and waited for me to enter.
There was nothing inside the space except for a table, two chairs, and a giftwrapped box.
I glanced back at the man. “What is this?”
He nodded at it. “It’s for you.”
I didn’t move toward it. “I don’t understand.”
The guard shut the door and leaned back on it, blocking my entrance. “It’s a gift.” He caught my gaze. “From Mr. MacGregor.”
I breathed out a long breath and fought the urge to try to run out of the room screaming.
But the guard made it clear that wasn’t an option. He stared at me until I sighed and moved to the table and opened the box.
Inside lay a phone, nestled amongst red silk. I stared at it for a long moment, until the screen lit up and MacGregor’s handsome face popped up.
“Answer it,” the guard barked out.
I glanced at him. “I think it’s for you.”
He glowered at me. “The silky underwear isn’t my size.”
Oh, for the love of God. That was underwear beneath the phone? I picked it up with two fingers, and yep, sure enough, the pile of silk was actually lingerie.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes but answered the phone and told the caller exactly what I thought about his gift.
“Seriously? You have me singled out at the airport, sure that I’m about to be thrown in jail for unknowingly running drugs, and all because you want to prove to Carlos that you can take his girl if you want to? ”
God, I was so sick of men thinking they could buy and sell me like I was a cow at market.
MacGregor chuckled down the line. “Is it that easy, Nyah? I deliver you a phone and some underwear and you leave Guerra to come sit on a Scottish throne?”
“If throne is code for your dick, then no, it’s definitely not that easy.”
He laughed again, but this time it was a full-belly laugh. “Carlos has his hands full with you, doesn’t he?”
I didn’t answer.
“I made some enquiries after we met. Found out he keeps you cut off from the world. No phone. No visitors.”
I wondered who in Carlos’s house was the snitch, feeding information to a man who Carlos pretended was an ally but was clearly not.
“I don’t like that he doesn’t want me to be your friend, Nyah.”
The burn on my chest throbbed, probably because I’d just been reminded it was there solely because of a conversation I’d had with this man.
Because Carlos had deemed it as something more than it was.
Or more likely, because MacGregor just got under Carlos’s skin in a way that me talking to Dax or Luca or Lynx didn’t.
There was a history between these two men, and I’d somehow found myself right in the middle of it.
Lucky me. “I have plenty of friends, Mr. MacGregor. I don’t need another. And I do not need you to gift me underwear.”
“But then how will you know what I want you to wear when you come to my room in Scotland?”
“I won’t be coming to your room in Scotland or anywhere else.”