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It was time to take things into my own hands and I knew just the phone call to make it happen.
Elias stares at me curiously from the front passenger seat while Zaide and Hudson bicker in the back. I tuned them out about fifteen minutes ago when they started debating who made the best batman.
“You’re scheming something,” he murmurs.
I roll my eyes and look at him out of the corner of my eye. “Yes, I schemed our way home to be exact.”
He clicks his tongue as he turns his head to look out the window. “I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.”
I chuckle, enjoying the role reversal of being the one in charge. The one with a plan. Someone had to take charge of this fucking chaos. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
It isn’t much longer before I’m pulling the car into the private airstrip we’ll be leaving from. None of them realize anything is out of the ordinary until we are parked on the runway and grabbing our bags from the trunk. Elias looks up at the jet in front of us and turns to me with a scowl. “Ashton, that’s not your jet.”
“How observant of you,” I remark.
Hudson and Zaide finally stop messing around long enough to notice Eli’s ire. “Isn’t that the Montgomery’s jet?” Hudson asks as he looks at me with his head cocked to the side.
“It is,” Elias spits out through gritted teeth, glaring in my direction.
I throw my bag over my shoulder, hand the keys to one of the waiting attendants, and make my way toward the air stairs. “You’re more than welcome to make the drive,” I call over my shoulder to my idiotic friends. “But you might be interested to know, Bri never went home a few weeks ago. There was no family emergency. And her parents are worried about how distant she’s been.”
All three of their faces fall. They can’t hide the unease that creeps in at my words.
“Try telling me it’s all in my head now.”
The silence speaks for itself as they all obediently shuffle after me and we climb aboard where Brielle is unwittingly waiting for us. Just as I reach the top of the steps I hear her voice ask, “Is there something we are waiting for?”
“Ah, it seems they have arrived,” a flight attendant answers her.
“They who?” Brielle demands, a note of panic in her voice.
“Hey there, Sunshine.” I grin as I make my way onto the plane, the guys closely behind me.
Her face morphs from confused panic to outrage. “Why the fuck are you bastards on my plane?”
I start to make a witty comeback when my eyes drop to her arm in a sling. “What the fuck happened to your arm?” I demand. Followed quickly by Hudson’s own shouted, “Who the fuck did that to you?”
She looks between the four of us, rolling her eyes. “A wall,” she snarks. “You gonna fight it for me?”
My anger doesn’t simmer at all, especially when her eyes refuse to land on any single one of us, skirting over us to land on something above my head. “Answer my question, Brielle,” I demand in a deathly calm voice. It’s been a long time since this type of quiet rage has come over me. The spark in her eye tells me she recognizes it too. She sighs, using her good hand to run over her face. “It’s not a big deal. I tweaked my shoulder when I bumped into a wall. The doctor told me to put it in a sling, but it’s only precautionary.” She lifts the sling and moves her arm around. “See? Totally fine.”
I hear Zaide crack his neck behind me and I slowly move forward and fall into my own seat as I continue to stare at Brielle. Her words should have soothed me, but they didn’t. I can’t get the conversation I had with her dad out of my head. Looking at her, seeing her hurt, it only paints that much darker of a picture in my mind.
The guys fall into the seats around me, Eli at my side while Hudson and Z sit together behind Brielle.
“So why the fuck are you here?” she asks again, pointedly examining her nails. A pale nude that isn’t nearly as flattering as the array of fun colors and designs she used to prefer.
Her attitude is starting to get under my skin in a way it never does. Her defensiveness making me want to reach out and grab her to shake the truth out of her. “You might claim to hate us now, but Daddy doesn’t.” I smirk at her shocked expression.
“You called my dad?” she bellows. It’s such a familiar sound, no true anger behind it and just pure incredulousness at my nerve, I can’t help but smile in response.
I nod, quirking an eyebrow at her. “He was shocked you had a family emergency he didn’t know about.”
She gasps. “You told on me?”
The guys attempt to stifle their smiles, but I can see the way their lips twitch. This feels like old times, no masks, no fake airs, or barbed words. Bri seems like her old self, but it only takes a second glance to notice the edge of true panic and anger hidden in her words.
“Why take off for a week and a half if there was no emergency?” I ask instead of responding to her question. She already knows I did.
