Chapter 16
“ A ruba?” I cried when I stepped into my house that evening. “Is this real life?”
“Apparently!” Lainey shouted from her side of the house, looking as excited as I felt and slightly frantic as she rushed into the living room. “Why Asher waited until exactly an hour ago to tell me, I have no idea. But, you know, guys.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I let my purse strap slide from my shoulder and caught it between my fingertips as I brought myself back from the excitement I’d been trapped in ever since Asher had dropped the Aruba-vacation bomb on me just as I was leaving for the weekend. “It’s...it’s the middle of September. Why do they take trips in September?”
Lainey held out her hands before letting them slap on her thighs. “He said it’s usually a slow time for them and also nice to go on vacation when it isn’t peak traveling season? Something about military people not liking crowds?” She shrugged.
“But why didn’t he—or any of them—mention it until this afternoon ?” I asked, earning an irritated sound from Lainey.
“Trust me, I already gave him an earful for failing to mention something so huge. It’s a good thing I know the owners of the preschool so well, or else I’d probably lose my job.”
I hadn’t even thought about that.
My job wasn’t at risk because my entire office was shutting down for the next week for this trip. And, honestly, it didn’t matter that I’d just found out, or that I probably needed to run to the boutiques in Huntley Square to get vacation-worthy clothes.
I literally couldn’t believe that, tomorrow morning, I was going on a trip that Asher was fully funding. But more than that... Aruba !
After this, I was sure I could survive my job and the irritable men that worked at Shadow Industries. Because, honestly, what boss does this?
“I have to do laundry,” I told Lainey as I hurried past her.
“Mine just switched to the dryer,” she said on a giddy laugh. “Do you wanna?—”
“Huntley Square?” I asked, making her head tip back with a louder laugh.
“Meet you in my car in fifteen,” she called out, already racing for her room again.
Through shopping, dinner, and calling my parents to tell them the unbelievable news, I was practically dancing across cloud nine. When Lainey and I returned home, we blasted music through the house as we packed, all while worrying over what to bring and if we were forgetting anything.
And even though we said dozens of times that we needed to go to bed early since it was going to be such an early morning for us, we were still excitedly gushing over the upcoming trip well past midnight.
By the time I finally slipped into my bed, I wondered when I would wake up from this dream.
We’d been in the air for about an hour, and the dream had ended long before I ever got on the plane.
I mean, granted, I was on a private jet, which was probably the coolest thing of my life. I’d known Asher had a lot of money—like, penthouse-apartment-in-downtown-Dallas kind of money before he’d bought the large farmhouse he and Kaia lived in now—but it still shocked me when we’d ended up at a private airfield early this morning.
Apparently, business was good.
However, the jet I was on wasn’t the same one Lainey, Asher, Kaia, and Cameron were on, even though theirs had seemed plenty large. Instead, I was trapped on a jet with the man who bounced back and forth between hating me and giving me the silent treatment. Alone. As if I hadn’t been having a hard enough time trying to control my unfounded, unreciprocated crush with the enigma that was Adam Thatcher.
But being alone with a distractingly gorgeous man who was taking over my every thought hadn’t been what ripped me from the dream—obviously. It also hadn’t been my inability to wrap my head around the fact that scary Asher could afford to charter multiple private jets. It was that Hudson, Mallory, and Beau hadn’t been at the airfield with us, because they were staying put—in Dallas—and no one was going to Aruba at all.
Yeah . . . so I’d more than likely packed bikinis for nothing.
After the revelation that the remaining three wouldn’t be joining us and that Aruba had been a ruse, Lainey had silently seethed as Asher had tried getting her to understand the gravity of making her believe the lie, if even for a night. Because we were in danger.
Including me .
Safe to say, the dream of this vacation had finally, officially been destroyed with the news that there was an actual mafia family out there closely watching us and sending ominous threats.
But I didn’t ask questions, since the guys had really been talking more to Lainey than me. Then again, I wasn’t sure I could as I listened to them discuss things that all seemed so unreal. And once the four of them took off for their unknown destination, I’d found myself alone with Adam. Uncomfortable silence had pressed down around us as we waited nearly an hour before being led to our incredibly beautiful jet.
Considering there were only six seats and a couch, it made it all that much more uncomfortable when Adam chose the seat farthest from me, on the opposite side. It was like last weekend at Asher’s house all over again.
But I didn’t let it outwardly show. I just grabbed the hardcover out of my bag and settled in for the ride—however long it would be.
There was just one problem—one tattooed, terribly handsome problem.
I’d skimmed maybe three pages in the hour we’d been flying, and if my life depended on telling you anything about those three pages, all I’d be able to say was Superman .
Not that it was easy to focus on anything but Adam when he was near, but since he’d sat diagonal from me, he’d placed himself in the perfect position for me to study him. Which meant, I’d had nothing better to do than exactly that from over the top of my book. And since we’d taken off, he’d looked stressed in a way I’d never seen him.
I’d seen him angry. I’d seen him contemplative. I’d seen him relaxed and flirty. But I hadn’t seen this .
With a determined breath, I set my book down as I stood. My heart racing as I made my way through the small space until I was on the couch directly across from him.
His gaze had shifted to follow my movement, and for some reason, that nearly made me chicken out of saying anything to him before the words, “Afraid of flying?” blurted out.
Shock stole across his face and was quickly replaced with irritated amusement. “Why would I be afraid of flying?” he asked, the first he’d spoken to me all morning.
“You’re just...” I gestured to him before clasping my hands together. “You’re just very tense and—not that I notice when you’re tense or anything, but you’re?—”
“Tense?” he offered, a hint of a smirk tugging at his mouth.
A soft laugh left me as I slanted my head. “Right. And you...well, you look really stressed.”
As if just the mention reminded him of whatever he’d been stressing over, his expression shifted back to the same strain I’d been studying for the past hour as his eyes seemed to glaze over.
“Is it about the, uh...family?” I asked, the last word falling to a whisper as I leaned closer, as if the pilots could hear us. Still, I was too afraid to say mafia or Wreckers , even though Cameron and Asher had tossed it around enough times at the airfield.
But when Adam’s eyes snapped to mine, seeming shocked that I knew, I unsteadily said, “I mean, of course, I would’ve rather not packed exclusively for Aruba since we could be going to Antarctica for all I know. Still, I’m trying to be understanding of why Asher wanted us to think we were going there.”
“Wait, what family are you—oh...” Adam’s throat bobbed with a forced swallow as he glanced away.
I shifted back a little, wondering what family he’d thought we were talking about. “What family did you?—”
“Mine,” he roughed out.
A slightly startled laugh left me at the unexpected answer. When he didn’t elaborate, I asked, “Why?”
“Because that’s where we’re going,” he answered after so long, I’d been sure he wasn’t going to. His stare drifted to mine, somehow seeming more stressed than before. “Colorado. That’s where we’re headed.”
“We’re going to...” For some reason, panic unfurled in my chest, and I felt unreasonably hot at the thought of meeting his family. Not that it mattered. It shouldn’t matter. Adam hated me half the time. So then, why would he be taking me to meet them? “But why ?”
“It’s a good cover,” he muttered as if repeating words he didn’t agree with.
“ What’s a good cover?”
For some reason, Adam’s eyes seemed to clear as if he was really looking at me then—truly looking at me for the first time. A look of intrigue and bemusement slowly settled over his features as the beginning of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“So, this is the real you, Bubbles,” he muttered, making it sound like a statement rather than a question. Just as my stomach started sinking, he continued. “I don’t know how long it’s been down, but that mask you always wear isn’t there.”
I gave him a jerky shrug and a bright smile. “Once again, Superman, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Gotta stop doing that,” he said as his gaze darted all over as if intently trying to study my face.
A bright laugh bubbled free. “I’m not doing?—”
“Briggs, Rush, and the girls are going to New York to visit Briggs’ sister,” he said over me, leaning forward in his seat and looking more animated than he had all morning.
Then again, this Adam wasn’t an Adam I’d met yet. He was an odd mixture of calm and excited energy. Business and play. Irritation and teasing.
Such a contradiction . . . and terribly charming.
“Which would seem like the obvious place for Briggs to hide out if Briggs and his sister didn’t have such a strained relationship,” he went on. “He doesn’t visit her, she rarely comes home, and ever since their brother died, she’s been communicating with Briggs through Rush. Not only that, but Briggs set up a bunch of fake appointments to make it look like he and Lainey would be looking at wedding venues in Aruba.”
“But they’re not going to Aruba?” I asked in confirmation, even though I was sure of that from the earlier conversations.
“Right.”
“And why aren’t we?” I asked, trying to sound like I was attempting to understand and not disappointed. But let’s face it, there was still a huge part of me that was deeply disappointed.
“Can’t have you, Lainey, or Kaia where the Wreckers think you are,” Adam said as if I should’ve known that.
Considering Asher and Cameron had told Lainey that more than a few times earlier, I probably should’ve.
“But why—” I stopped myself, then tried to figure out a way to phrase my next words so they didn’t come out ungrateful. Because I wasn’t ungrateful. After all, I was still on a private jet. I was still with Adam...alone. But I didn’t understand this part of it.
“Why are we going to see your family?” Before he could answer, I held up my hands and quickly waved off what I’d just said. “I mean, why am I going to see your family? Why not just send me to New York with Lainey?”
It was impossible to miss the shift in Adam’s demeanor. One second, the new Adam was there, intriguing me in a way I hadn’t known was possible with him. The next, he shut down, his body tensing up as if preparing for a storm.
“Because it’s better to separate the people who are being targeted,” he finally said. “And again, it’s a good cover. If a Wrecker starts looking too closely at where you might really be, they’ll only see traces of Rush in New York, with someone he’s known his entire life and talks to often, me in Colorado, near my family, and a bunch of purchases on the company card in Aruba.”
“But no one’s going to Aruba,” I stated unnecessarily.
“That’s not what the next flight plan says, and it’ll look like everyone’s actually there.”
“Next flight?” I choked out. “There’s a whole other flight with no one on it just to throw off these people?”
“Flight plan,” he repeated. “No actual plane, Bubbles.”
I nodded absentmindedly, wondering how on earth they’d come up with this insane plan or put it into motion.
Just when I started thinking I might not want to know, Adam said, “You’d be surprised what we can do,” as if reading my thoughts. When my stare snapped to his, he added, “You’d be even more surprised by how fast Briggs can make things happen when Lainey and Kaia are at risk.”
I studied him for a while longer as I thought over everything I’d just learned and tried matching it to the anxiousness that had practically burst from him at the mention of his family. “Are you worried your family will get caught up in this? Or do you not get along with them?”
“What?” he asked on a scoffing breath. “No, I—no. I’m not worried about that. And I love my family. I go back and see them whenever I can.”
A soft smile curled at my lips at the information, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that his family was the reason behind what I was seeing. “Then what’s with this ?” I asked, vaguely waving at him. “I told you, you look stressed.”
He studied me as a minute passed...and then another. But I never felt self-conscious under his intense stare, even though I was sure I would’ve with anyone else. Who was I kidding, considering the way Adam so clearly felt about me, I should’ve felt more self-conscious with him than anyone.
Yet, there I was. Heart racing this terrible, wonderful beat as I watched him watch me.
And then he looked away, dismissing my question and me.
Swallowing uncomfortably, I nodded as I stood and made my way back to my seat. Picking my book up from where I’d set it on the chair, I started turning just as my forearm was grabbed.