Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Not something I can say about myself.
I’m on my feet, moments after her, stepping in her path and catching her waist before she can escape. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t just sit in that seat. I’m losing my mind right now. This family is like the plague. The bad stuff just multiplies.”
“I warned you about Gigi.”
“I know that times about a hundred right now. So, do you agree? Do you think she set us up?”
“Evil doesn’t disappear. As you said, it multiplies and it all blossoms from her. She’s the matriarch of the family.”
The plane starts to quake around us again and she grabs a hold of my waist and hangs on. “Can this flight be over already?” As surely as she asks the question, the plane jerks, this time violently. I catch the ceiling, and mold Harper close, holding onto her, the way I plan to hold onto her from this point forward.
The extreme jolts ease, and I act. “Let’s sit back down,” I say. “We need to buckle up.”
The plane drops and I have to grab the damn seat to keep us from tumbling. The minute I regain my footing, I rotate us and plant Harper in her seat. Another rumbling of the plane beneath my feet has my hands planting on the arms of her chair. “Eric,” she breathes out, grabbing my shirt as if she’s trying to protect me, not steady herself. Like she could hold onto me and keep me from flying if we jolted much more. “I won’t let them use me to get to you.”
She says those words with such passion and emotion that I wonder how I ever doubted her, but of course, I know the answer. They are why I doubted her. I let them get into my head and I judged her the same way they judged me: by where she came from. “They don’t get to use either of us anymore, Harper. No more.” The plane calms for a moment and I quickly buckle her seatbelt, and sit down, securing myself as well.
She glances over at me. “I thought we were through the storm a long time ago?”
“Sorry, sweetheart, but not likely anytime soon. We have storms riddling the entire flight path.”
“Kind of like our entire lives right now.”
“Once we’re in New York, we’re in control. That’s where I have a world of resources at my fingertips. Grayson, the Walker headquarters.”
“What happens when they come for me in New York City?”
“They won’t be that foolish,” I assure her, and I believe that to be true. “They know I’ll be waiting. They know I’ll be ready, especially after tonight.”
“Desperate people do desperate things.”
Like my mother, I think, with a punch in the gut. “They do stupid things, too, sweetheart, and that’s what we’re counting on.”
The plane settles into a smooth ride again, at least for now, and Harper reclines her chair. I follow her lead and she rolls to her side facing me and rests her head on her hands. “Gigi’s an old woman, Eric. I really felt sorry for her.”
It’s the first time she’s spoken that woman’s name without me wanting to rip it out of her mouth. Instead of looking for the bad in Harper, I need to be thankful for the good. She might be all that saves me from hating the world. Well, her and Grayson. The two saints and the sinner. Grayson would laugh his ass off if I said that to him.
I shift to face Harper, and brush her hair from her face. “I was hard on you over, Gigi. I’ve been hard on you in general. I’m kind of an asshole.”
“You can be,” she teases, but turns serious quickly. “But it’s okay. I know that you have walls a mile high. And I get why.”
“They’re only inches high with you.”
Her eyes twinkle. “That’s not even a jump.”
“No, it’s not, but I think I might need to jump a few feet to overcome that asshole mark.”
“You’re tall and smart. I have confidence in you.”
“That makes me a very lucky man.” I kiss her hand. “Sleep now. We only have a couple of hours until we land.”
“How can I sleep? The plane. This damn family. My mother back there with them.”
“Your mother is safe.”
“Can we warn Walker Security that Gigi might be involved? What if me leaving has them turn on her?”
“You know Walker is already watching her. They’re damn good. They’ve thought of everything we’ve thought of.”
“How can you be sure? If this was your mother—”
“You’re right,” I say. “You’re absolutely right.” The plane is calm enough, for the moment at least, that I unbuckle and walk to the table where I left the MacBook in a compartment under the wooden top. I grab it, hold on as we shake a good thirty seconds and then make my way back to my seat. Once I’m secure again, I pull up the MacBook and try to connect but this time it’s a no-go. I show Harper the message I’m getting. “Sorry, sweetheart. It’s just not going to happen.” I shove the Mac into a pocket by my chair and turn to Harper. “Adam’s in charge in Denver and he’s damn good. He’ll protect your mother with his life. I promise you this. Rest, princess.”