But he is.
He made a difference in the world.
What he’s done as CEO of Miles2Go made a difference inmyworld. My disinherited-and-found-my-purpose world.
And that’s what makes this situation—the fact that I’m growing more convinced by the mile that what I accidentally crashed is Oliver running away from all of it—worse than him trying to get back together with Margot would be.
I grew up surrounded by billionaires and CEOs and world leaders.
These guys don’t drive themselves places in the middle of the night. When they travel in the middle of the night, it’s by helicopter or private jet to one of their weekend mansions, escorted by their entourages of security and advisers and assistants. And their entourages know when they have secret girlfriends or mistresses, and their entourages know when they’re in legal trouble, and their entourages know when they have health issues, and their entourages keep their mouths shut because that’s what they’re paid to do.
To be there through everything and not tell a soul.
This?
This lone wolf stuff?
He’s running away.
My suspicions that I’m right get stronger when he finally pulls to a stop on a gravel driveway at a teeny-tiny dark cabin miles and miles from the highway. There’s a sedan parked in the clearing that looks a lot like my car. I peer closer and confirm formyself that yep—that’s a late model Toyota Camry. Black or dark blue. Blending into the night.
Oliver parks the SUV—thoughlurches it to a stopmight be a more appropriate way of putting it—and climbs out, then wrenches my door open.
He jerks a thumb, indicating I should get out of the car. “Get inside.”
“Fancy digs. I like it.” I’m being obnoxious and I know it. It’s a defense mechanism that being around people from home brings out in me. And it’s why I don’t like to go back to New York City. I don’tlikethis side of me. I like the side of me that lives upstate in Athena’s Rest with Bea and our other friends and her brothers and my coworkers, where they’re my family and I have a purpose and I’m not angry about everything all of the time. “We staying long?”
His eyelid twitches. Given that he’s only lit by the interior lights of the SUV, it looks less like a twitch and more like a ghost took possession of his eyeballs for a minute there.
The tickle of fear hits behind my breastbone once more. “Or is this where you’re dumping my body?”
“I’m not—Jesus.I’m not a fucking murderer. Even if I want to be. Tomorrow morning, first thing, I’m taking you to a hotel. I’ll leave very specific instructions on what you should tell your family and mine about why you needed a pickup in the middle of nowhere, and I’ll leave you with whatever cash you want to keep your mouth shut. This never happened. You didn’t see me. Understand?”
He's not saying the wordsyes, I’m running away, except he is.
And while I don’t want the guy anywhere near my sister, I also don’t want him to disappear.
Not when I know what it would mean for my own future.
And the world, truthfully.
I nod in response to his demand for silence and slowly climb out of the SUV, but as my second Louboutin hits the ground, I lose my footing and tumble forward.
I havenotmissed this kind of shoe since I got myself disinherited and quit going to fancy dinners and parties. If I could’ve crashed the party tonight while wearing work boots, I would’ve.
Oliver catches me by the arm with a low growl in the back of his throat.
When his hand connects with my skin, I suck in a breath that comes with a whiff of lemon and fresh-cut grass. Goosebumps race up my arm.
I open my mouth, but the smart-ass comment I want to give him dies in my brain before it can make it anywhere near my tongue.
He tugs and straightens me. “Walk.”
I take three steps before my heel catches wrong on the gravel driveway again. My arms windmill. My ankle twists. It’s so dark beyond the SUV’s headlights that more anxiety makes my legs tremble, and I squeak like a mouse as I struggle to get my balance back.
How did I ever wear shoes like this regularly? “If I’d known we were going glamping, I would’ve packed better stilettos.”
He growls once more, and then the world is upside down and cool night air is flowing up my legs and teasing my ass.
