25. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Xane
It’s way too obvious what Kian’s angling for when he tells me he has a solution to our Riley problem. I don’t need to see the mischievous twinkle in his eye to know that.
He’s been pulling the strings behind my back for weeks. Why stop now?
“I’m not crash landing on the other side of the island,” I tell him, before he can suggest it.
His gasp is barely audible, but I hear it loud and clear.
Yeah, I’ve got your number, buddy.
It ain’t happening.
His thoughts are basically written all over his face.
He looks like he just dropped the ball and he’s watching me run with it.
“I can’t sell the jet if it’s fucked.”
Kian smiles, and that twinkle in his eyes is straight back.
“I’m serious,” I warn him.
“Yeah, yeah,” he murmurs. “We’re not selling the jet.”
“Excuse me?”
He laughs. “I don’t know what this is that you’re going through right now, Xane, but none of us are gonna just stand by and let you sell the jet.”
“It’s my jet, Kian. It’s not up to the rest of you.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t want to sell it.”
“I barely have time …”
“So, make some,” he cuts in. “You’re the one who organises everything we do. Add in more down time. God knows we all could use more of that. We’ve been working like crazy for years now.”
“If that’s how you feel, you could have said something.”
He shrugs. “Music is our thing. We all love it, so it’s not like we don’t want to be working. It’s just … I think maybe it’s getting harder to write new songs because we hardly take a break. We need to experience stuff occasionally to get some more fuel for the fire, or whatever.”
Fuck. I don’t like it, but he has a point.
It’s been hard for a while, and I’ve been ignoring it.
Pushing myself along, basically running on empty.
“You need to fly more,” he adds. “It was always good for you. You’ve barely been keeping up the hours you need to keep your licence. If it kind of feels like a chore these days, that’s probably why.”
“Stop making so much sense,” I mutter.
He laughs. “Then stop acting like an idiot.”
“Deal,” I agree, sighing softly.
“Deal,” he echoes.
He clears his throat. “So, about that crazy plan of mine …”
Right. We didn’t exactly deal with our Riley problem.
“Trick has extra sedatives,” I start, trying to come up with a better alternative than a crash landing. “We could …”
“We could figure out a dose that keeps him too sleepy to go chasing women in bikinis, sure,” Kian starts, clearly unimpressed. “Somehow, I don’t think that’ll help him notice Sapphire.”
“There’s got to be something we can do.”
“We can wait a lot longer to make her a part of our pack,” he suggests.
A low growl escapes my lips before I can stop it.
“That’s not an option,” I mutter.
Fuck. She’s already under my skin.
There’s no semblance of pretence left in me.
It’s as if the moment I accepted her as our true mate I lost the ability to deny anything.
“Then, I guess we’re adjusting course for the wild side of the island,” Kian says, sitting back with a grin on his face.
“This is so fucking dumb.”
A faked crash landing on the untamed side of a resort-owned island …
There are only about a million ways this plan could go wrong.
“It’s gonna be worth it,” he assures me.
I really fucking hope so.