“All low and rough and sexy.”
“Sexy, huh?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Everything about you is sexy.” Her cheeks don’t heat this time. She’s not flirting. She’s just being raw and real, and fuck, I need raw and real. I need her.
“Show me,” I reply softly, “when we get to my bed. Sleep now, while the plane seems to have calmed again.”
Her lashes lower and seconds pass before she whispers, “I can’t believe you really came back.”
I’m going to change that, I think. I’m going to make sure she knows that I won’t just come back. I won’t leave. Ever. I lay there and watch her for a good thirty minutes until I’m certain she’s asleep. Then and only then, do I grab the MacBook and try Walker again. This time I connect and Blake goes live immediately.
Anything new? I type.
He replies with: Nothing urgent enough to discuss while you’re in the air. Everyone is safe and secure. We’re gathering data to review with you when you arrive. Anything I need to know or relay to Adam?
I type: We suspect Harper is being set-up as a fall guy who ended up too dead to defend herself.
His reply: My thoughts as well.
And I add, responding immediately: We have reason to believe Gigi played a role in helping set me up for her murder. With Harper now under our protection, we need to be sure Gigi and the family don’t turn on Harper’s mother. Keep Gigi away from her.
He doesn’t reply immediately. Seconds tick by and I push for a response: Blake?
Another twenty seconds pass, each one grinding along my nerve endings, and he finally answers: Harper’s mother is at Gigi’s house. I’m sending Adam in as a maintenance man to check on her.
I look at Harper, her skin pale perfection, features beautiful in rest and trust. She trusted me to take care of her and her mother or she wouldn’t be asleep. My jaw sets hard and I type a message to Blake: Get her mother out of there and I don’t care how you do it. Adam needs to throw her over his damn shoulder if that’s what it takes.
CHAPTER TEN
Eric
The internet goes dark again about two hours before we land, which forces me to do what I need to do anyway. I manage to settle into my seat and sleep with one thought in mind: hell waits for us when we get to the ground. I need to be mentally and physically ready. I wake before Harper and for a moment I lay there facing her in my chair, and fuck, I just stare at her. She’s beautiful. She’s mine even if she doesn’t know it yet. Mine to protect. A thought that has me sitting up and checking for an internet connection again with no success. I store my MacBook back in the pocket and lay back down, reaching out to caress Harper’s cheek, her lashes dark half moons on her perfect skin. She doesn’t wake up. Right now, she’s with me, in the air, safe, and some part of her knows that.
Some part of her trusts me the way I told her I need to trust her. The problem is that I’m a fucking hypocrite. I’ve demanded honesty from her but I haven’t told her everything. I have my own secrets. Things I’ll have to share with her once I know she knows me. Once I know she can read past the history I’ve drawn to see me now. I need to build trust and damn it, that means keeping my promise to keep her mother safe, but I’m not on the ground. Adam is. I’m trusting Adam to keep my promise to Harper.
Adam is the one protecting her mother.
***
Adam
Denver, CO
A master of disguise.
It’s what I do, a skill I learned while on the road with my mother and her boyfriend, along with their pack of criminal friends during most of my youth. I’m dressed as a repairman in a blue jumpsuit with a pair of brown contacts over my blue eyes. My black hair is slicked back. I ring the bell of the stucco home wrapped in ivy and wait for an answer.
A young brunette housekeeper answers the door. “Yes?”
“There’s a gas leak.” I show her a clipboard. “We need to check the lines running in and out of the house to assure we aren’t on the verge of a catastrophic event.”
“Oh God,” the woman says. “That sounds bad.”
“I’ll need access inside to determine where the pipes run but from what I can tell from the maps, it’s along the line of your kitchen and the backyard.”
“I need to get this approved. Do you have a number I can just confirm this by calling?”
I shove a card at her that will ring to Blake. “Call. Make it fast. Time is critical.”