But then she has always gotten under his skin.
The two of them were best friends one day and at each other’s throats the next.
“Took your time,” he jabs.
I roll my eyes. “You said two hours. I was here in an hour forty.”
He doesn’t bother responding, so I push past him and drop my bag on an empty seat, my eyes searching for her even though I should keep my distance.
If there’s one of us she can manipulate, it’s definitely me, and at least I’m self-aware enough to know that.
I find her at the back of the jet, her head turned and tears rolling down her cheeks. The zip ties around her wrists have left angry red marks, making my fists clench with the need to make her more comfortable, as if her pain were still my own even after all these years.
She stiffens, telling me she knows I’m here, but she doesn’t turn, doesn’t acknowledge me in any way as she continues to stare at the damp tarmac outside the window.
I drop into the seat on the other side of the aisle and fasten my seat belt, if for no other reason than to keep my hands busy.
If I allow myself to think about the zip ties around her wrists for long enough, I’m going to cut them off, and Damon is agitated enough without that.
He appears a moment later, glancing between us with an irritated huff before he takes the seat across from me.
I half expected him to sit as far away from Chloe as possible.
“Where’s the bodyguard?” I ask, forcing my voice to remain even despite the reminder of that cunt making my blood boil.
How dare he touch what belongs to me, what willalwaysbelong to me?
Damon shrugs, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “The side of some backroad somewhere.”
“You didn’t kill him?”
“And piss off De Marco and her band of psychopaths even more than we already are by taking her?” He gestures to Chloe, who still doesn’t acknowledge either of us. “Seemed like we’d have a better time reasoning with them if I hadn’t killed one of their guards and left him on the side of the road.”
“They don’t know we have her?”
“My phone’s not blowing up, so I assume not.”
“Dad’s not concerned about the blowback?”
“He’d rather kill a traitor than remain friendly with a family on the other side of the country.”
Chloe flinches, the first sign that she’s listening to us.
She lifts her bound hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks but still doesn’t look our way.
I can’t blame her. We are literally kidnapping her and taking her back to the place that she ran from almost a decade ago. But these are the consequences of her father’s actions, and she had years of freedom she never should have been granted.
Or at least that’s what I tell myself as my entire body pleads with me to stop this jet before it can take off.
If my past sins weren’t taking me straight to hell, this one certainly is.
Even as hurt I am by what she did last night, she doesn’t deserve this, no matter how much I try to convince myself she does.
“Do you think this will bring Kingston out of the woodwork?” I ask.
“I doubt it. I can’t see him risking his life to save her.” He spits the final word, and I don’t miss the way she flinches.
After the initial shock wore off, Chloe worked hard to make herself appear unbothered by my brother’s vitriol toward her, but I’ve always been able to see straight through the mask.
