“And hello to you, too,” he quipped, unsure of just what had Rachel in a tizzy. He really didn't want to deal with anything else today. He dropped his let his hands and phone fall to his lap.
Rachel threw a magazine directly at his head. He barely ducked in time and the magazine hit the window with a thud.
“What the hell, Rachel?” he yelled, repeating her phrase back at her. He looked to Dean, but the bodyguard just shrugged. This wasn't like her at all. Rachel was usually the epitome of classical elegance and professionalism. Yet, here she was chucking magazines at his head.
“You got married!” She glared at him through her lopsided, square-rimmed glasses. A stand of dark hair fell out of her bun and into her face but she ignored it. She stomped across the plane, looming over his seat and glaring hard enough to put holes in his shirt.
He looked down at the magazine and blanched as he saw the cover. Front and center was a picture of him holding Emma, kissing her on their impromptu wedding day.
“You got married, and you didn't tell me?”
Jack looked up to see Rachel's big brown eyes rimmed with red. She wasn't just mad that he was plastered on the front of a cheesy tabloid, she was mad that she was the last to know. Rachel was his sister as far as he was concerned, yet he hadn't even both
“Rachel, I was going to tell you,” he started. She glared at him harder and he held up his hands. “I really was! I was going to show you the only picture that supposed to exist and explain everything on the flight home.”
Rachel's shoulders dropped slightly, but she was still ready to spit fire. She held up her phone, the message light blinking blue and green. “I have four messages from your father, six from your mother, and another dozen from the media relations department and your lawyers. Do you have any idea the media nightmare this is?”
Jack looked down at the magazine cover. They both looked so innocent and happy. “Where did the magazine get the images?”
Rachel flopped herself into the leather seat across from him as the plane began to taxi down the runway for takeoff. “Three guesses.”
He opened the magazine and flipped to the article. It was the usual drivel about how he was “Prince Charming” and had swept the small town beauty off her feet, but it was the images that caught his attention. They were obviously taken from a camera phone by someone in the bushes near the wedding site.
A cold, uncomfortable knowledge settled in the pit of his stomach that wasn't related to the jet's rise in altitude. He knew who would want to do this, who would know he was on the island. There was only one person who would have reason to hide in the bushes and follow him.
“Brandy.” His voice was flat. He was past anger.
“Bingo,” Rachel confirmed. “The lawyers are already issuing injunctions and turning her life into a living hell, but the damage has been done.”
Jack wished it was acceptable to rip someone's head off and feed it to sharks, because that's what he wanted to do to Brandy. Not only had she tried to manipulate him, she had taken something wonderful and sullied it. That wedding had been for him and Emma alone, but now thanks to a jealous, bitter woman, the world had been invited.
“We need to make sure Emma is safe. I don't want any harm to come to her.” His voice was hard. He knew he had stalkers that would want to see Emma removed so they could “take her place.” It was standard procedure to make sure even his charity dates had security surrounding events.
“Dean's already called in three associates to meet her in Iowa,” Rachel replied. She leaned forward in her chair. “I'm not happy about this, Jack, but it's obvious you care about her.”
He stared at Emma's sweet smile in the photographs. He was going to ruin her life. All the reasons he had waited to tell her who he was until the last minute, the reason he wasn't going to pursue her after this vacation were now nullified. His best efforts to keep her safe from his world had failed.
“She was supposed to go have a life while I lost mine to the company,” Jack said quietly, tracing Emma's smile with his finger. “I didn't want her to have to deal with this upcoming year.”
Rachel put her hand on his knee. “That's very noble of you, Jack.” He looked up and she shrugged. “But, you married her. She's a part of your world now. How do you want to handle it?”
Jack sighed. Some days, he hated being the one in charge. He pressed his hand to the bridge of his nose, trying to think.
“Bring her to New York. She'll be safer there. That way, you and Dean can keep an eye on her.” He lowered his hand, forcing himself to think about this situation as a businessman and not as a lover. “The media will want more. I know Dad is going to say that this isn't good for the company, so I want to try and keep our picture out of the papers as much as possible.”
“I'll make some calls,” Rachel said, pulling out her phone and typing furiously. She looked up. “Where do you want her to stay?”
“My place. The one on the river.” The one I might actually go to at night, he thought.
Rachel raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything. He never invited women to the apartment on the river. That was his special hideaway.
“Rachel?” Jack's eyes stayed on the photograph. “I need to ask you a favor.”
Rachel set her phone down and looked over her glasses at him. He looked so much like the little boy she had watched as a child. Sometimes, she forgot that he was just a man when he got into business mode. He was too much like his father in that regard. “What do you need?”
Jack's hazel eyes met her brown ones. “I want you to be the one to bring Emma to New York. You're the only one I can trust to do it right.”
Rachel's smile was soft. “She's important to you, isn't she?”