Until I get on a plane and never see you again.
“I can do this.” I say it to appease him, and because I need to hear it myself. What choice do I have? None, according to Kane and Mount.
I look down to see the minute hand on Keira’s watch moving ever closer to seven o’clock, and wonder if that’s how a prisoner on death row feels watching the clock count down to midnight on the day of his execution.
Morbid thoughts.
I push them away.
Kane will find me. He feels this too. He’s just being noble. We’ll have a future. Somewhere exotic and beautiful. Maybe a beach house in paradise.
In the middle of all the pretty lies I tell myself, I realize I never asked about our destination. It didn’t seem important beyond the fact that it wasn’there.
“Where are we going? The jet, I mean?”
Kane meets my gaze in the rearview again. “I can’t tell you that. I’m sorry.”
“But you know?”
He shakes his head. “Safer if I don’t know. Safer if no one knows.”
“What about a flight plan?”
He tilts his head to the side. “Mount has his ways.”
We fall into silence again, and I realize I’ve completely forgotten to pay attention to where the warehouse is located. Not that it matters anymore, I suppose.
When we arrive at the private airport, I see a few people coming and going, but nothing like the hustle and bustle of the regular airports you see on TV. I’ve never even been to the New Orleans airport, so TV is all I have to compare it to.
Kane parks the car right up front, rather than in the parking lot.
“Are you allowed to do that?”
He turns and looks over his shoulder. “Everything’s allowed when you’re Mount. Are you ready to be Keira?”
Again, my answer is clearlyno, but that’s not what Kane wants to hear. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good. It’s go time. Don’t bow to anyone. You’re a queen now, princess.”
His nickname almost breaks me, but I find my last reserves of strength and force iron into my spine. I don’t have any steel left in me today.
Kane exits the Maybach, and a moment later, he opens my door.
I do my best to walk like Keira. It’s not hard, especially when you consider how long I’ve been imitating her confident stride.
I didn’t even get to say good-bye.
Pushing the gut-wrenching thought away, I adjust my sunglasses and stay next to Kane as he leads me through the sliding doors of the airport.
The inside is open and airy. Instead of being jammed with people, the lobby is almost empty. A woman waits in a leather side chair, and a man speaks to an employee behind a large wooden desk. Out the big glass windows ahead of me, I see small jets parked on the runway. There’s a sleek black one directly out the next set of sliding glass doors with a red carpet leading to the steps.
“Is that it?” I whisper. “The plane?”
Kane nods. “Yes.”
“And where’s—”
He reaches out to grasp my elbow and gives it a quick squeeze, reminding me not to say Rafe’s name. I go quiet and search the lobby for any sign of my brother, all the while feeling like my heart is cracking in my chest.