Plane.
“O-okay.”
He managed to snag one side of the seatbelt and bring it across her stomach. Then, he clipped the ends together and secured them by tugging on the strap. “Go sit down, Boss. She’ll be good in a minute.”
“Okay. Let me know if I can do anything.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
Dalton must think she was a ninny. “I’m sorry?—”
“Shh.” Caleb’s hand smoothed over her hair. “You should have told me. We’d have figured out another way.”
“You went round and round looking for another way for two hours,” she reminded him. “You all agreed this was the only way. I survived.”
“But you’re upset.”
He sounded angry. She didn’t want him to be angry with her. She didn’t know him well enough to know what angry Caleb was like. She didn’t want to find out while she was secured in a chair beside him with no escape. “It’s not the first time I’ve been upset, and it won’t be the last. It’s okay.”
“It’s the first time I’ve upset you,” he grumbled, “and that pisses me off.”
Wait, was he angry with himself and not with her? She wasn’t sure how to handle that. “It’s okay. I swear, I’m okay.”
“Hah.” He snorted. “You’re only trying to make me feel better.”
“How did you guess?” She still felt shaky, but it was easier now that she was focused on talking to him.
“Because you, baby girl. You are a fixer. You see a problem, and you want to make it easier by fixing it.” He kept his voice low. “Indy told me how you jumped in to fix the lack of photographer problem. You knew it could bring you trouble, but you did it anyway because it would ease your friends’ troubles.”
He wasn’t wrong, but that he’d figured her out in such a short space of time was weird, right?
She relaxed her grasp on the paper bag and straightened on her seat. At the whoosh of the plane as it accelerated down the runway and lifted into the air, she wrapped one hand around the arm of the seat next to the window. The higher the plane climbed, the safer she felt. By the time the plane leveled off, elation swept through her; once again, she’d outwitted Janek. This time, she’d had a lot of help, but she’d done it. She was safe… she hoped… for now at least.
The seatbelt light clicked off, and a buzzer sounded. Caleb opened his seatbelt. “I’ll grab you some water.”
“Thanks.” When he stood, he moved toward the back of the plane, and she leaned over to look around, trying to figure out what kind of plane they were on. Her eyes widened when she took in the leather seats, what looked like a mini-sized conference table, and a kitchen. A. Kitchen.
Holy crap, is this a private jet?
The last time she was on a private jet was… never. She’d flown first class with Janek a few times, but never on a whole-ass private plane.
Wow. Holy cow, but wow.
This must be how the other half lives.
She shifted back into her seat when Caleb approached from the kitchen area and took the water bottle he offered her. “You aren’t just a soldier, are you?” She found he had loosened the cap but once again not fully opened it for her.
“What gave it away?” He grinned and sat next to her. “The boss’s swanky plane?”
Or the company logo, Nemesis Inc., stitched into the back of the headrests.
I know, maybe it was the freaking chef’s kitchen back there.
Or maybe the couches…
“Yeah.”
He sipped on his own bottle of water. “We’re contractors, baby girl.” Closing his bottle, he stuffed it into the net on the seat in front of him. “That means we’re no longer employed by the US military. We still work for the government, though, or at least the boss’s company does. This plane, that’s just one of the perks.”
