The Princess (Filthy Trilogy 2)

I don’t know what that means, but he’s already walking and taking me with him. We settle back into the booth and he is immediately exchanging messages with whoever is on iMessage. “A Walker team member followed one of the men from the warehouse. He’s tailing him now. No word on who he is yet.” He sends another message, followed by another and then turns to me. “Blake is going to make the bank account history disappear. By the time we’re on the ground, it won’t exist.”

“Just like that?”

“He’s one of the best hackers on planet earth,” he says. “So no, not just like that. Just like Blake. We’re damn lucky to have him working with us.”

“Do you know what those wires were used for?”

“Not yet. Blake’s going to have us go to their facility when we arrive and we’re going to talk all of this through, which is why we’re going to need to get some sleep.” He shuts his MacBook and when he would stand up again, I catch his arm.

“I’m being framed, right?”

“Or just used. We can’t know for sure. That’s what we’ll work with Blake and his team to figure out.” He kisses me. “Come on. Let’s lie down. We need to be alert when we land and we only have about three hours to sleep.” He moves away and stands. I let him help me to my feet, but I’m not naïve. He’s trying to avoid something but even before we talk about what I feel it might be, I need to say something else to him.

He guides us to two side by side lounge recliners and we sit down. I turn to him. “I’m sorry. I was all over the place by the bathroom and—”

He kisses me with his hand on my head, his tongue stroking deep, the taste of him drugging before he says, “It’s been an emotional night that will eventually end with you in my bed. I’ll deal with everything in between to get you there.” He caresses my cheek and hits a button that starts to lower my seat before doing the same of his.

A minute later, we’re on our sides, facing each other, the intimacy between us a bubble of warmth I want to live inside, get lost inside, but I can’t yet. Not until I process the implications of that bank account that keep hitting me from all sides. “If they framed me with that bank account, and who knows what else, maybe when you showed up they got spooked. Maybe that’s why those men came at me. Maybe I was a get out of jail free card. If I died and I was framed for whatever this is, this ends.” Another thought hits me and I sit up straight. “Oh God.” I turn to Eric. “Oh God.” I raise my seat and he follows. I stand up because I can’t sit. I can’t stand the idea in my head.

Eric follows me to the aisle and turns me to face him. “What is it?”

“What if Gigi sent me to get you so she could frame you for my murder in some way?”

CHAPTER NINE

Eric

What if Gigi used her to set me up and frame me for her murder?

The plane starts to quake around us again. Harper and I still stand in the middle of the aisle, almost as if the damn universe is answering her fears, telling us that yes, Gigi plotted Harper’s murder, and in turn, my blame for her death.

Death.

Harper’s murder.

Just the idea of finding her to lose her again guts me.

“Eric?” Harper presses when I haven’t replied. “You aren’t saying anything. You think I’m right, don’t you?”

The plane quakes again, this time violently. I catch the ceiling, and mold Harper close, holding onto her, the way I plan to hold onto her from this point forward. I can’t explain how she’s become that important to me, but she has. I think she’s been a part of me since I met her, I just didn’t want to admit it. Not when, in my mind, she was one of them.

“Let’s sit back down,” I say. “We need to buckle up.”

“Do you think Gigi—”

The plane drops and I have to grab the damn seat to keep us from tumbling. The minute I have stable ground, if you can call anything about where we’re at right now stable, I rotate us and plant Harper in her seat. Another rumbling of the plane beneath my feet has my hands planting on the arms of her chair. “Eric,” she breathes out, grabbing my shirt as if she’s trying to protect me, not steady herself. Like she could hold onto me and keep me from flying if we jolted much more. “I won’t let them use me to get to you.”

She says those words with such passion and emotion that I wonder how I ever doubted her, but I know. They are why I doubted her. I let them get into my head and I judged her the same way they judged me: by where she came from. “They don’t get to use either of us anymore, Harper. No more.” The plane calms for a moment and I buckle her seatbelt. “We’ll win. I promise you.” I sit down and secure myself in my seat.

She turns to me and gives me a turbulent look. “Do you think Gigi—” she begins again, but I cut her off.

“All I can confirm, and all I know right now, is that I wouldn’t be surprised if Gigi popped champagne when my mother killed herself.”

“You really think they were trying to kill me tonight, don’t you?”

I stroke her hair. “Sweetheart, I’ve got you. I will protect you.”

“That’s a yes.”