It would have been so easy to lie and say yes. But the opposite was true. Her first and last ride on a helicopter had been an exhilarating experience. It was what had come after that shot raw pain through her. Her father had laid the trap, but she’d unwittingly led Bryan into it. For that she would never forgive herself. She’d known what her father was like. ‘Not exactly.’
‘Then what exactly?’
‘I just don’t like them.’
‘Not even when they’re the quickest means of getting you to your father?’ His tone suggested he found her reluctance odd.
‘How long will a car journey take?’
‘Too long, considering the inmates are on the verge of a full-blown riot.’
Her breath caught. ‘What?’
‘Your father isn’t the only person I’m concerned about, Esmeralda. So if you wish to get to him quickly, we need to go.’
She swallowed, glanced at the aircraft and nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll come.’
As if he didn’t totally believe her, he grasped her elbow. Her already frenzied senses spun even faster, a shiver coursing down her spine as they neared the helicopter.
If Zaid noticed, he didn’t react. His attention was focused on the sharply dressed pilot who gave a stiff salute and held the door open. One bodyguard climbed in beside the pilot and another four scrambled into the second aircraft.
Zaid helped her up and she slid to the far side of the chopper. The two bench seats facing one another were cut off from the pilot section, affording them complete privacy. And unlike her first ride, Esme noted the moment the door shut that they wouldn’t need headphones in order to communicate. The space was completely soundproof.
A fact confirmed when Zaid settled into the seat opposite her and instructed in a low, deep voice, ‘Put on your seat belt.’
She fumbled to comply, very much aware the eyes that rested on her remained inquisitive.
She glanced over at him, to find his unwavering gaze still pinned on her. ‘I’m fine now. You don’t need to be concerned that I’ll freak out again.’
‘Do you want to explain why you chose such a critical time to go into a trance?’ he asked.
She bit her inner lip. One of the many vows she’d made to herself when she’d walked away from her father eight years ago had been never to engage in the subterfuge Jeffrey Scott loved to indulge in. The truth, no matter how brutal, was always preferable to lies. If she’d confronted the truth eight years ago, seen her father for who he really was, Bryan might still be alive.
But telling Zaid the unvarnished truth right now would be opening not just herself but also her father up to total annihilation because Zaid was still the prosecutor intent on putting her father away. She could, however, offer an explanation without incriminating herself or her father.
‘I had a bad experience after a helicopter ride a long time ago.’
‘Where?’ he fired back.
‘Does it matter?’
He didn’t answer. At least not with his lips anyway. His eyebrow, however, lifted in direct challenge of her defensive response.
She glanced out of the window, noted the severely dilapidated landscape abutting the desert in the distance. ‘In... Las Vegas.’
‘You were with a lover?’ he asked.
Her gaze flew to his, her breath crushing in her lungs at the bold demand stamped across his face.
She wanted to tell him that it was none of his business.
But somehow, in that moment, denying Bryan’s existence felt like dishonouring the man who’d been marked just by associating with her.
She prevaricated for a moment, then exhaled. ‘I was with someone who cared about me.’ Bryan hadn’t been her lover. But he was the reason she’d never taken a lover. He was the reason that, at twenty-five, she was still a virgin.
‘You were the reason the experience ended badly?’
His mildly condemning tone made her insides clench. ‘Why would you assume that?’