The Princess (Filthy Trilogy 2)
“For now,” I amend, focusing on Eric. “I can’t leave her.”
His jaw sets hard, stubborn. “Whether you like it or not, Harper, she’s one of them. That means she’s safe. You’re not and I’m not leaving you here.”
“I’m not leaving her here,” I insist, my jaw setting just as stubbornly as his did.
But he pushes back, fast and hard. “We’re leaving, and I promise you, Harper, if you try to fight me on this, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you onto the private jet waiting on us.”
“Eric, damn it—”
“Your mother is safe. Being one of them makes her safe. You, me, we’re not one of them. We’re not safe. In other words, we’re leaving the way we should have left earlier today. Together.”
“Yes, but—”
He cups my face and kisses me, the touch of his lips to my lips, instantly bringing me down two notches. “Together,” he murmurs. “Alone on that plane where we’re going to talk. We need to talk.”
To talk.
About the baby.
About the past.
About the secret I kept from him.
“I’m not sure a plane where I’m trapped is a good place to have that conversation.”
“But I am,” he says. “It’s exactly the right place to have that conversation. It’s exactly where you belong. With me. You belong with me now, Harper.”
He says that now, but what if he changes his mind when we really talk about what I left on his voicemail? What if he hates me when he hears all the details? “I can’t get on that plane with you.”
CHAPTER TWO
Harper
Eric and I are still huddled together, that talk we’re going to have in the air between us, when the SUV halts without warning. “What’s happening?” I ask, jerking out of Eric’s embrace, the reality of being trapped in a warehouse and on the run, now coming back to me with a jolting force.
“We’ve arrived,” Adam calls out from the front seat, placing us in park. “Private airport and private plane.”
Eric squeezes my hand. “We’re all good, princess. I promise. All is as it’s supposed to be.” He kisses my hand. “Now we get the hell out of here.” He leans forward to speak to Adam in a low, muffled voice that I don’t try to understand.
Instead, I eye a runway with the plane waiting on us.
The plane that will take me away. Take us away.
The plane that will leave my mother behind.
Do I really dare to leave her behind?
Could I even get her to leave with me if I tried? No, the real question is: could I ever get her to leave with us if I tried? That’s the key here. She’s definitely not going to agree to go anywhere with Eric and who am I kidding? She won’t leave my stepfather.
I have to leave her here. I have no choice.
Adam opens his door and gets out of the vehicle as Eric settles back into the seat with me. “Adam’s going to clear the plane.”
My eyes go wide. “Clear the plane? Surely you don’t think someone is waiting on us here.”
His hand comes down on my leg. “Relax, sweetheart. He’s doing his job and doing it well by being paranoid. The safest place we can be right now is on that plane, in the air. And this was our plan anyway. We were going to give them space. Get away. Make the family feel safe. They’ll let their guard down. Adam’s team is watching.”
He’s right. I know he’s right and I can’t let my mother’s decisions make me a fool, any more than I can my miscarriage and where our talk will lead us. Yes, we’ll be trapped on that plane in our own swampland of pain and history, but we’ll both be alive.