A dozen voices rose with a dozen questions, but this time he waved them away and entered the other limo waiting for him.
As they drove away, he put up the privacy barrier and sagged back into his seat, counting the minutes before he could call Scarlett again. After that, he’d begin counting the seconds until he could see her again.
And this time remain with her forever.
* * *
“This damned plan is taking forever!”
Raiden’s vicious growl was followed by a minor crash.
He’d startled the flight attendant placing his meal in front of him out of her wits, making her drop the tray.
Gritting an apology and waving away her attempt to put things straight, he turned a blind gaze out of the window of his private jet, trying to rein back the constant boiling inside him. Not even the martial arts techniques he’d perfected had managed to bring him a measure of relaxation. He was spira
ling out of control.
“It’s been only two weeks.” Numair’s calm response through the phone line only poured fuel on his fire.
“That’s temporally speaking,” Raiden bit off.
“I wasn’t aware there was another parameter we can measure time with.”
“Phantom, attempting wit on me right now might cause me that stroke you all keep saying I’m trying to give myself.” He paused for a second then almost shouted, “I don’t care how long it’s really been. It’s been longer than my endurance.”
“Your endurance lasted two seconds after she left.”
He opened his mouth to blast him back with something, then closed it. For said endurance had been depleted before she’d left.
Numair was also right. Logically speaking, it hadn’t been too long. Though the combined might of his brothers was mind-boggling, it couldn’t have possibly taken them less than two weeks to untangle and reroute the web of interests, to tie all loose ends and to put all safety measures irrevocably in place.
But his brothers had already done that. It wasn’t until the wedding invitees had filled the ballroom hours ago that Numair and Richard had given the signal that all danger was over. Hashimoto had then walked in to announce the cancellation of the wedding. Raiden had followed his speech, apologizing for the last-second change of plans and assuring everyone dinner and entertainment were still on. Then he’d hurtled out of the hotel and onto his jet heading to New York. To Scarlett.
Then damn Numair had called him after takeoff to tell him to come back, or at least not to go to Scarlett, and wait in New York until he told him he could see her. Numair claimed they weren’t finished yet, and that he’d jumped the gun.
Numair insisted that they had yet to put on the finishing touch, what would have everyone willing to kill each other to keep Scarlett and their child safe.
Now everything inside him snapped. “Finish this, Numair. Kill whomever you have to kill and finish it. And don’t say I have to wait again. I can’t. And even if I can, I already called Scarlett and told her I’m on my way. And I won’t disappoint her again. I won’t. Do you hear me?”
After his last bellowed words, total silence ensued on the other side.
Then he heard snickering. Snickering?
“I think the gods of Olympus heard you, Lightning.”
“I didn’t know you had it in you, Phantom.”
Raiden frowned. That was Richard’s voice, followed by Jakob’s. What was going on here?
“We made a bet whether Phantom would have the heart to pull your strings, Lightning.” That was Ivan.
“I bet against him, said he couldn’t torture you a second more than you’ve already been tortured.” Jakob groaned. “Now I have to submit to his torture for a whole day. He’ll probably make me endure his company.”
Rafael’s apologetic voice came on. “I tried to stop them. But you know not even bullets can stop that herd.”
“It’s a send-off gift from all of us,” Ivan teased. “For the way you’ve abused us all during the past two weeks.”
“You tortured me most of all.” Antonio yawned loudly before continuing, “Calling me one minute for updates on my role in the plan, and the very next minute with obsessions about Scarlett’s pregnancy. Do you know I slept on my feet during surgery today? And dreamed?”