Lucas had a bad feeling about this. Considering everything that had happened, he’d be a fool to have a good feeling about anything, but this flight in particular seemed off to him. For one, when he checked in, the flight attendant told him he’d been upgraded to first class. This was the first flight he’d ever been on that had included an upgrade. At one point in his life, he’d flown all the time, and never once had an upgrade magically happened. Maybe to other flyers, but not to him. Considering how bad his luck had been lately, he couldn’t help but be suspicious at his sudden good fortune.
He slid into the window seat and laid his head against the back of the seat, but it did nothing to ease the tension through his entire body. He could do this. Sure, he hadn’t been on a plane in forever, but it wasn’t as if it were a skill that needed to be honed and practiced. All he had to do was sit there, close his eyes, and eventually the flight would be over and everything would be okay.
Well, he’d still have to deal with his blackmailers and then find a way to tell Wade he couldn’t complete the job he was hired to do even though he needed that money. But besides that, this flying portion would be over.
He felt the seat move as whoever was sitting next to him plopped down. That was the thing about first class. You never really had an empty seat next to you since they would just upgrade frequent flyers whenever there was an opening. He should say hi. It was common decency to say hello. Fuck it. He didn’t need to be common or decent right now.
“Hey stranger,” said an all-too-familiar voice.
His eyes popped open, and his neck pivoted to see Harper, looking cute and innocent, next to him. “You’re shitting me.”
“No shit included. I’m here, I’m ready to help you, and I’m excited to get started. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Not likely. I know luck is never on my side. What are you doing here?”
“I need you to ask yourself, are you really surprised that I’m here right now? I mean, in all seriousness, are you even a little bit flabbergasted at my presence?”
“Just because I’m not surprised doesn’t mean I’m not pissed off.”
“Will you please just allow me to help you? I don’t know why everything is such a fight.”
“Please replay the first night I met you. I seem to recall I was offering you help and you weren’t exactly happy about it.”
“Because I had no idea who you were. We’re practically best friends now. And best friends help each other.”
“If I had a best friend, I’d sure as hell know what they did for a living.”
“You know what I do for a living. I’m a headhunter.”
“Please explain to me, in detail, what that means to you. You headhunt as in you literally hunt heads? You find CPAs to work at auto companies? I’ll tell you what. My audition to work with you was to prove my investigative skills. Now, your audition is to tell me something I wouldn’t be able to find even if I tried really damn hard.” Her eyes drifted down and back up, and he could already tell she was planning to lie. “You better not fuck with me here. I’m in a pretty vulnerable position, and I don’t do vulnerable well.”
“All right there, Grumpy. I’m gonna take this thorn out of your paw and everything’s gonna be okay. And I don’t see why I have to tell you anything about myself. You already know what happened with Wade, and, believe me, that’s more information than I’ve told anybody in a helluva long time.”
“Yeah, but I want more. I’m selfish like that.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right.” She hooked a finger toward him, signaling him to come in closer, so he leaned forward until their faces were just millimeters apart. “You know I have a military background, right?”
“Yeah, that was the one piece of information I got that impressed you.”
“So when I left, there was a big fuss with the higher-ups to keep the details of my leaving hush-hush. Back then, even if I took the son of a bitch to a court-martial, chances were I would get screwed over and he might get a slap on the wrist and maybe even promoted just to get him out of that division. So I decided to make sure that if I had to leave, I might as well make it beneficial for myself.
“They offered me a job as a private citizen tracking down people for government positions. These people are usually particularly hard to track, and sometimes the methods I have to use wouldn’t necessarily be on the up-and-up. However, the high risk meant there was a very high paycheck involved.
“So the reason I’m so secretive about my job is that most of the jobs I do are literally classified. The reason I’m so paranoid is because I work with Big Brother, and I know exactly how much can be monitored. Also, through the course of my work, I’ve made a few enemies. Not many people who want me dead per se, but I’ve stepped on a few toes in my time. So there.” She sat back. “Does that make you happy?”
Happy? Well, that was really a relative term. “Assuming that you’re telling me the truth, it makes me a little bit more comfortable.”
“Why, Lucas, does that mean I made you uncomfortable? What a shame....”
“You don’t need to take so much joy in it,” he bit out.
Just then the pilot came over the intercom and started giving information about flight time and the temperature when they landed. Lucas was able to look straight ahead and ignore Harper for a few minutes as the plane started to roll down the tarmac. It was that slow, confusing maze the planes always seemed to do before they took off. He’d experienced it hundreds of times before, but this time was different. His heart beat fast in his chest, and he found his fingers biting into the armrest. In a perfect world, Harper would’ve gone about her day and not paid him any attention, but Harper wasn’t the type to let anything slide past her.
“Are you okay?” she asked softly.
Lucas forced his eyes shut. “I’m fine,” he said between clenched teeth.
“If you’re afraid of flying, it’s totally normal. A lot of people aren’t used to—”
“I’m not. Fucking. Afraid. Of flying,” he snapped. “Now, please, for once in your goddamn life, will you stop trying to help me. I don’t want your help. I don’t want you here. Since it’s too late for you to actually leave the plane, do me the favor of just being quiet.”
He wanted her to be angry. He wanted her to be so angry that she got up to find another seat or finally got it through her thick skull that he didn’t want her around. But all he saw when he risked a glance at her face was a flash of confusion before she lifted her hand up and set it over his on the armrest between them. His first instinct was to rip his hand away from hers. Before he could put that thought into action, her warmth crept through his hand. He was so annoyed that she had the audacity to even touch him, especially after the mean shit he just said to her, but then he realized the plane was up in the air.
She’d somehow managed to distract him during some of the worst parts of flying. Sure, she distracted him through annoyance, but it had still been effective. Now that his heart rate was slowing, he should pull his hand away. If he were halfway decent, he’d say thank you as he did it, but he found himself doing none of those things. Once again, he closed his eyes and tried to imagine he was anywhere but sitting in that first-class seat. But at no point during the two-hour flight did he move his hand away from hers.
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Harper was starting to think this arrangement was unfair. Not that she could point that out at any point during the flight. After whatever the hell happened during takeoff, Lucas had laid his head back and fallen asleep. Considering how stressful the entire day had been, and how unlikely it was for that stress to decrease anytime soon, she couldn’t blame the guy for trying to get a few ZZZs in.
But she had so many questions. Did he have any idea who was trying to frame him now that they’d met the pinstripe-suited man? What was up with the flying thing? And when had he served jail time before?
At this point, she’d shared more with him than anybody else in her life. There was only a select group of people who knew what she did for a living and an even smaller group of people who knew about her past with Wade’s father. Lucas held the sole distinction of being the only person who knew both. The more she thought about it, the stupider she felt for letting him in on all the secrets. She didn’t know much about him, but he’d made it very apparent that he didn’t like her all that much. So why the hell did she keep on opening her mouth and blabbering all of her classified details to him?
Well, she supposed he couldn’t hate her that much. Even now, as the plane was entering its descent, his hand was still beneath hers on the armrest. He could’ve moved it easily at any time if he wanted to. Hell, knowing him, he would’ve just barked at her to get her dirty paws off him. But it had become very apparent that the second she touched him, a measure of calm had gone through his body. How could she take her hand away from that?
Hell, it really did feel like the first time she’d actually helped him through all this. She’d promised to get him out of jail, but she had nothing to do with that. She told him she would help him with the Wade investigation, but she hadn’t done a thing for that either. So far, as much as she talked a big game about her abilities, she’d been batting zero.
But hey, she could be the official hand holder. Whoop dee doo.
She couldn’t help but feel that this was a shift in their relationship. It was the first time he’d actually allowed her to help him. He hadn’t snapped at her, or told her how useless her attempts were, or told her he didn’t need her. This one small gesture he just accepted and didn’t fight. She didn’t know why it meant so much to her, but it did. It wasn’t as if she had the constant need to prove herself.
In her job, she proved herself over and over again. A lot of times when she was hired to find somebody, there would be other headhunters hired as well. She didn’t get paid for trying; she got paid for succeeding. And when it came to finding people who didn’t want to be found, especially in sketchy parts of the world, she was the best.
She didn’t need any acceptance from Lucas to feel validated.
It was only when the wheels touched down on the ground that Lucas jerked his hand away. He didn’t go out of his way to look at her; she didn’t go out of her way to make eye contact with him. Both stayed in their seats, looking straight ahead as the plane taxied to the gate. Because they were in first class, they were able to depart very quickly, and neither spoke as they rushed to the exit.
Good grief, it wasn’t as though she’d slept with him. Things didn’t have to be this awkward. “Did you check a bag?” she asked.
“What’s there to check? All my luggage was taken by the cops.”
Shit. She hadn’t realized the police had been that trigger-happy when it came to marking evidence, but considering that whoever framed him had put the drugs in his suitcase, it made sense.
“Did you check anything?” he asked.
“I mean, I would’ve liked to check my gun. The paperwork required to get permission for that would’ve taken me days to fill out. The last-minute flight left me a little high and dry.” She shrugged, lifting her heavy backpack up and tighter against her shoulder. “I should have everything I need in here.”
“No motorcycle, though,” he pointed out.
She groaned. “Please don’t remind me. I hate flying.”
“Funny, of the two of us, you seemed to handle it better than I did.”
Interesting that he brought that up. But she wasn’t going to take the opportunity to ask him more questions about his fear of flying. “Like, I know the bike can be dangerous. I get it. But I take safety precautions. I wear the helmet, I wear all the leathers I need to. I don’t know that pilot. He could be drunk off his ass for all I know. I like situations I can be in control of.”
Lucas let out a little laugh. “I never would’ve guessed,” he muttered.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.... So we’re looking for a rental car company?”
“We have to get around somehow. I’m surprised you haven’t already booked us a Bugatti to drive around in.”
“I’m sorry. I thought pulling some strings to make sure you flew first class and getting my own ticket for that flight was already going the extra mile. I might have neglected to rent us a car.”
He ticked his tongue three times. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. I expected more from your overbearing behavior.”
“So sorry to disappoint. I’m sure I’ll do better in the future.”
“I’m sure you will.” He flashed her little smile.
She smiled back at him before she caught herself. Well, what the hell was this? Were they joking? Getting along?
Oddly enough, the blackmail didn’t surprise her too much, but this friendly banter was throwing her totally off-kilter. “Rental cars are this way.” She pointed to a sign above them that Lucas had probably seen already anyway.
After finding the nearest rental car counter, they were able to book an SUV for three days, with an option to extend if necessary, which neither she nor Lucas wanted.
Once they were in the car, Lucas took his phone out and entered in the GPS coordinates that the pinstripe-suited man had given them. “How far away is it?” Harper leaned over to get a better view of the map that came up.
“Forty minutes. Traffic should be light.”
It had better be. Between Lucas getting arrested, getting released, and the flight, it had been one long day. The sun had been down for a while and, unlike Lucas, she hadn’t gotten any sleep on the plane. Sure, her day had been a bit more stress-free than his, but that didn’t mean it had been all sunshine and roses.
“I’m surprised you’re not demanding to drive,” said Lucas as he steered the SUV out of the airport parking lot.
“You know, I’m not always so controlling.” She forced herself not to look at the map again to second-guess his decision to turn instead of following signs to the highway.
“Are you sure you want to go through this?” Lucas navigated the car onto the highway.
“Do you really think I’d be here if I wasn’t sure?”
“I’m just saying... I don’t know what we’re about to walk into. I have no idea who is behind this, and for all I know I’m just being lured someplace to be shot in the head. I have a feeling that if I show up with a plus one, you’ll be getting the same treatment.”
“I can take care of myself,” she assured him.
“You know, you’d be surprised how often people who get murdered think the same thing about themselves.”
“Yeah, a lot of those people don’t have military training and years of experience to back them up.”
“You have a few months of military training, and questionable experience.”
“Can you at least admit that I’m slightly qualified to help?”
“I’m just saying, I can turn around right now and drive you back to the airport.”
“All right. Why don’t we come to an agreement? I want to be here, helping you. I am intrigued, and I have this odd need to make sure that you don’t end up with unexpected holes in your body. I am here of my own volition, fully understanding that I have been warned about my own safety. But I want to be here anyway. So from now on, can you please stop asking me to leave?”
His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel as he glanced over at her and then back to the road. “All right. I guess we’re in this together then.”
She couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Good grief, I never thought I’d hear you say it.”
“That makes two of us,” he grumbled.