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)
I don’t want to read the messages, so I don’t. I also don’t want to be a part of any of this, but that’s not as easily solved. “It disappears,” I repeat, not daring relief just yet. “Just like that?”
“He’s one of the best hackers on planet earth,” he explains. “So no, not just like that. Just like Blake. We’re damn lucky to have him working with us.”
“Do you know what those wires were used for?”
“Not yet. Blake’s going to have us go to their facility when we arrive in New York City and we’ll talk all of this through and come up with a master plan. Exactly why we need to get some sleep.” He shuts his Mac.
“I’m being framed, right?”
“Or just used. We can’t know for sure. That’s what we’ll work with Blake and his team to figure out.” He stands up and offers me his hand. “Come on. Let’s lie down. We need to be alert when we land and if we rest right now, we only have about three hours to sleep.”
I stare at his hand, tormented by how much I want to touch him and how much I shouldn’t. Once I do, I’ll melt like a buttery conquest. “Harper,” he prods softly.
I don’t look at him.
He kneels beside me. “Forgive me.”
My gaze jerks to his. “Why would you think that of me?”
“It’s not nearly as bad as you think it is. I made you feel you couldn’t talk to me about the miscarriage, but I thought we were past that. When I found out about the bank account, I didn’t think you intentionally did bad things. I thought you were still holding back, afraid I’d judge you.”
“You did. It’s not my bank account.”
“I know that now, but I thought you just didn’t want to tell me how deep you got fucked by this family.”
He captures my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing it, and my body trembles, and not from anger this time. From his damn wicked mouth and those luxuriously blue eyes. “I thought you didn’t trust me enough to go all in with me. After all we just talked about, I overreacted. I told you. This is all new to me. The things I feel for you are not familiar.”
And there it is. The money shot that softens me to mush. “You made me feel really bad.”
“I’m understanding that now.” He stands and guides me to my feet, catching me to him, and molding me close. “I’m crazy about you. Don’t let me fuck it up.”
I press my hands to the side of my head and curl my fingers around my hair. “You confuse me.”
“Sleep brings clarity to most things.” He turns me toward the back of the plane and smacks my backside.
I rotate to face him. “That’s not okay.”
He laughs. “That’s not what you said the last time I did it.” His hands settle warmly on my waist and he walks me backward until we’ve reached our destination, the two side-by-side recliners. If I stand here with his hands on my body, I’m going to melt and after what he just did, he’s not getting that reaction, this easily. I claim my seat and he’s quick to slide into the recliner next to me.
For a few beats we both sit there, facing forward, a pulse between us, but somehow, in unison, we lean our seats back and turn to face each other, the intimacy between us a bubble of warmth I want to live inside, get lost inside, but I’m not sure I dare. The world around me is a warzone, and it’s impossible to think straight while dodging bullets, perhaps quite literally.
That’s when a thought hits me and I turn away from Eric, raise my seat and press my hands to my face.
He’s upright in an instant. “Harper?”
I twist around to face him. “If they framed me with that bank account, and who knows what else, maybe when you showed up they got spooked. Maybe that’s why those men came at me. Maybe I was a get out of jail free card. If I died and was framed for whatever this is, then it would have ended for the rest of them.” Another thought hits me. “Oh God.”
“What is it? What are you remembering?”
“What if Gigi sent me to get you so she could frame you for my murder in some way?”
Chapter fifty-one
Eric
Harper unhooks her belt and stands up as if she’s coming out of her own skin with the idea of Gigi betraying either of us, as if that is some novel idea. I have no idea why she wants to believe the best in that woman. I thought it was her being naïve at one point, and maybe it is, but I’m coming to understand that part of her only exists because she’s just such a damn good human being.