HE REMAINED STILL, watching her for another taut stretch before he turned and nodded briskly at Andreas. The other man left without another word. And mere minutes later the police were gone, the refuelling truck had pulled away and the pilot had reboarded.
From her very shaky position as a stowaway, Vayle was elevated one tiny rung to unwanted guest, Nelios barely glancing at her as he instructed the head attendant to show her around. After a five-minute tour around the jaw-dropping double-floored aircraft, she was ushered into a tiny cabin.
‘Mr Petralis advises you to rest for a few hours. You’ll be summoned when he needs you.’ The same attendant who’d brought her dinner hesitated for a moment before he pointed to the button. ‘If you need anything, you can call me on that.’
He started to turn away but, cringing, Vayle stepped forward. ‘Is there a way to make a phone call?’
‘There is a way but Mr Petralis wishes any calls to be made in his presence.’ Vayle opened her mouth to enquire why but he beat her to it. ‘He says it’s “part of the deal”.’
Her lips pursed but she nodded. She suspected Nelios would trot out many more conditions in a bid to get her to back down, withholding her ability to contact Agnes probably high on the list.
Alone, she dropped down onto the single, perfectly made bed and glanced around her. Like everything else, it was top notch with bespoke accents and Nelios monograms stamped on the sheets and furniture. Trailing her finger over the silver jacquardcoverlet, she once again wondered who was telling the truth in this scenario. If Tolis and Agnes had indeed abandoned their own child, could she cope with that knowledge? One tormentor for a parent was bad enough, but another two who had pulled the wool over her eyes…
No. Knowing she couldn’t rest without letting Agnes know she was all right, she searched for her bag—because Nelios and his rules could go hang—only to remember that she’d discarded her phone somewhere on his bedroom floor. And regaining entry would be impossible this time round.
With a huff of impatience, she tossed off her shoes and climbed into the bed. While she hated to admit he was right, exhaustion sucked at her limbs, the tumultuous few hours she’d had suddenly weighing down on her. Tugging the coverlet off the high-thread-count sheets, she crawled under the covers and within minutes she fell asleep, the sound of the engine lulling her.
The firm knock on the door dragged her out of sleep what felt like only minutes later. Jerking upright, she stumbled out of bed and went to the door. The same attendant waited on the other side, his impassive face not drawing attention to the fact that she must’ve looked a horror.
‘I suppose Mr Petralis wants to see me?’ she asked.
‘No. I came to tell you we will be landing in ten minutes, so you should put your seat belt on.’
‘What? But we’ve only been flying for a couple of hours.’
‘We’ve been in the air for seven hours, Miss Lancaster, and you’ve been asleep for most of them.’
She frowned at the darkened windows, expecting to see sunlight if what he was saying was true. Then she paused when he reached for the little nub next to the light switch, pressed it and the window shades changed.
‘The windows are regulated to maximise rest.’
She bit her lip, knowing it wasn’t his fault she’d been so tired she’d slept like the dead in the best bedding she’d ever experienced in her life.
‘Thank you, I’ll be ready,’ she said.
With a brisk nod, he left again.
Knowing her restful state was temporary and would most likely be reversed the moment she was in Nelios’s presence—because the man only needed to breathe to remind everyone in his vicinity that he was an apex predator—she went into the adjoining bathroom. There, presented with an array of luxurious products that probably cost more than the entire stock of accessories at Vayle Hotel, she set about freshening up as best she could.
Done, she pulled open the door to find the attendant waiting in the hallway. She took a closer look at him and realised he looked large and intimidating enough to double up as a bodyguard. And, come to think of it, every member of the crew looked different from the run-of-the mill ones she encountered on a normal commercial flight.
She was wondering about that when she was led into the main cabin. Her belly did that crazy somersault when she zeroed in on Nelios. He too had freshened up. His slightly damp hair was styled off his forehead, his clean shave throwing his square jaw and dimpled chin into relief. The suit he wore to the meeting had been swapped for a navy version, the dark shirt underneath making his warm, olive skin glow in a way that made her fingers tingle with the urge to touch… Was she insane?
She realised the thought had frozen her whole body when his eyes slid from Andreas to rest on her, one eyebrow quirked. ‘Do you plan to break a few more rules by remaining standing while we land, Miss Lancaster?’
Galvanised by his electric voice and her own impatience with herself and her behaviour around this man, she hurried to thenearest available seat as she spotted the tops of buildings just outside the window. She’d barely clipped herself in when the wheels touched down.
Moments later, Nelios followed by Andreas and the crew disembarked like a well-oiled machine and headed for the fleet of cars awaiting them. Feeling like the ugly duckling in a veritable gaggle of swans, she hurried to keep up, darting towards the tinted-windowed SUV the attendant indicated. Hugely relieved not to see any sign of the police, she slid into the back of the vehicle…and lost the breath she’d just taken when she came face-to-face with Nelios.
Of course he wouldn’t want her out of his sight. Her heartbeat further escalated when she realised they were alone, with the privacy partition fully in place.
‘I’m guessing you want to start your interrogation right away?’ she said into the tense silence.
‘Considering you’ve had what accounts to a full night’s sleep? Yes, I do believe I should make hay before you whittle away all my time.’
She licked her lower lip, then tensed when he followed the action with narrowed, heated eyes. ‘All right, then, what do you want to know?’
Silence reigned. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears. When full minute had passed, and his nostrils had flared once, twice, as if he sought control, Vayle forced herself not to squirm.
