She snickered.
Tristan leaned back and chuckled. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
She settled her fingers in his hand, and Tristan closed his fingers over hers. “Am I going to have to coerce you to tell me again?”
“I won’t talk you out of it.”
Colleen rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, fine. Tell me what it’s like to grow up in a fancy boarding school.”
“Well, it’s probably like going to a party school like Southwestern State.” He gestured vaguely toward her and outside the plane’s window. “Except stupider, because everyone is several years younger. And meaner, because most people there are wealthy and don’t care about normal people or the poors.”
Colleen’s lips parted, and her eyebrows pinched. “Did you just saythe poors?”
He raised his hand and turned his chin to ward off judgment. “That’s what they called the teachers and staff at Le Rosey, and anyone who didn’t own at least three houses and a yacht. To the wealthy, we are an unwashed, uneducated, gauche herd to be used, exploited, and discarded.”
She gestured at the private jet around them. “But you’re wealthy.”
“Not yet.” Yeah, he wasrichnow with a net worth trying to break through a hundred million, but the elite controlled wealth far beyond that. He’d seen it. “Did I ever tell you about the time my friends and I airlifted a herd of goats onto the school’s roof?”
They told each other stories about their lives for an hour as they flew over the blue-gray pyramids of the Rocky Mountains.
The airplane engines droned outside the window, and the plane banked under their feet, turning in the sky.
Jian strolled to the front and resumed his place on the sofa near the door, lounging and tapping on his phone. “Mr. King, the pilot has informed me that we’ll be landing in Phoenix in five minutes. Please stay seated for the landing,unlike the takeoff.”
Jian’s sarcasm was back. Some of the shock from the day’s events must have been wearing off.
Tristan and Colleen remained seated at the table and again spoke of inconsequential things while the plane touched down and then taxied into a hangar at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
The plane jerked to a halt, and Jian shot a dirty look at the cabin while he walked over to spin the wheel on the door.
Tristan grabbed his briefcase and stood, brushing off his slacks, while Colleen texted something on her phone again, smiling to herself.
She was so cute when she did that, smiling with that easy and hopeful smile at something private just for herself.
Seeing her do more of that would be nice.
Jian said, “Mr. King, it appears that we have company.” He spun the wheel the other way to relock the door.
Tristan stood. “Who?”
Colleen bent to look out the porthole, but Tristan nudged her away from the window.
“Police,” Jian said, watching through the porthole in the door. “Walking through the hangar toward the plane and the stairs.”
“They already put the stairs in place?”
“Damn their efficiency. Go to the rear of the plane, Mr. King. Stay out of sight. I’ll deal with the police.”
Tristan grabbed Colleen’s hand and wheeled her in front of him. They hurried down the aisle to the galley kitchen in the back, Tristan watching over his shoulder the whole time. Luckily, the shades were down on the windows as they walked. The plane’s passenger area was a single room with tables and chairs, plus the bathroom and galley. Springing for the larger aircraft with the walled-off bedroom area in the back where they could have hidden seemed like an excellent ideanow,and Tristan wished he would have done it,dammit.
Tristan and Colleen scrunched to the rear of the tiny galley kitchen, keeping as far out of sight as possible. They stood tummy to tummy, the counter creasing his butt cheeks, barely breathing as sharp knocks of knuckles on titanium echoed through the plane’s fuselage.
He wrapped his arms around Colleen’s shoulders. Her body was shaking in his arms, and he snuggled her closer against his chest. Her delicate arms slipped around his waist.
Dammit,he’d failed her. He should have kept her safe.
The door’s wheel grated as it spun again, and Jian announced, “Why, hello officers! What can I do for you this evening?”
