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He spun around, his black eye gleaming in the bright sun. I winced, knowing that had to hurt. “I wasn’t exactly given a choice,” he spat. “Fox kidnapped me.”
“He…” I glanced at Rae, sure I had heard him wrong.
“He threatened to show the video to Quinn, didn’t he?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, then climbed the steps to the plane.
“What video?” I whispered.
“I’ll show you later.”
Rae went next and I followed. Stepping into the cabin, I was blown away by the luxury surrounding us. “Do you fly like this all the time?”
“Yeah, usually. That’s if Scottie doesn’t crash the plane.”
“Is that something we should worry about?”
I took my seat by the window as Rae dropped down beside me. “Um, not really. I wouldn’t say it’s a regular thing. Well, it’s happened more than usual in the past few years, but not because of him.”
“He’s the pilot. Isn’t it his fault if we crash?”
“No, it was usually someone shooting at us. Personally, I’ve never been in a plane with him when it’s gone down. Knock on wood, right?”
She laughed, but when I didn’t so much as crack a smile, it died on her lips.
“It’ll be fine. I promise. He has his vomit bags and he’s really getting better about the whole…puking thing. I swear.”
Somehow, her reassurances did nothing for me. I was already on edge about getting to Louisiana and finding Theo, but now I had to worry about the pilot vomiting or crashing the plane?
“We should talk about what we’re going to do when we get there,” Rae said, changing the subject.
“We’re visiting the neighbors.”
“Yeah, but we can’t just walk up to the neighbor and start asking questions. Williams isn’t stupid. After several visits from the cops, you can bet he’s watching his back.”
“I know,” I snapped. “I’m not stupid.”
She quirked an eyebrow at me, which only made me feel like shit. She was trying to help and I was getting shitting on her for it. I scrubbed a hand down my face and sighed.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I know this is hard on you.”
“I should have been there,” I murmured. “That kid is in danger because I didn’t bother to check on them when I got home. She’s dead because I let her walk away without questioning what was happening.”
She intertwined our fingers and gave me a squeeze. “None of this is your fault. You were deployed. You can’t be blamed for that.”
“No, but I didn’t come home when I could have,” I admitted. “I was a coward. I didn’t want to deal with a wife that I didn’t love and a kid I never wanted. I extended my deployment voluntarily. If I had come home, things might have been very different.”
I didn’t need any platitudes from her. I knew exactly what I’d done and the repercussions of those decisions. I knew it wasn’t all my fault, but I played a part in how everything turned out, and I had to accept responsibility for that.
* * *
We were parked one street over, watching for anything suspicious. I heard what she was saying about Williams taking extra precautions because of the police presence, but we needed to talk to the neighbors and find out anything we could.
“Where do you want me?” Fox asked, leaning between the seats.
“Nowhere,” Rae said as she stared out the window. “You’d scare the fuck out of anyone you visited.
