CHAPTER ONE
Kathleen Drake stretched her legs out in front of her. She was slightly hungover and stiff from the wedding yesterday. She should know better. She wasn’t a twenty-something anymore. Hell, she wasn’t even a thirty-something. Time to start behaving like an adult. Still, the joy of being able to freely attend the beautiful wedding, where everyone had been so happy, had made her throw her normal fly-under-the-radar-to-avoid-notice caution to the wind. Or the wine, which had flowed copiously. And she’d been thrilled for the happy couple, but secretly, she’d found the whole thing slightly depressing.
Where was her knight in shining armor? Not that she was a damsel in distress, at least not anymore. Her brother and Spencer had come to her rescue, for which she was profoundly grateful. But now, with her son happily ensconced at university, she was all alone. She’d been thrilled when she and Spencer had set up the network to help abused women safely and secretly escape. But now everything was in place, and as her people pointed out, she and Spencer weren’t exactly anonymous since they were linked to her brother. They brought the danger of undue attention to the project, which would jeopardize thewhole thing. That was the last thing she wanted. She needed to decide whether she should step away from the charity. For the good of everyone.
Sighing and mentally pushing aside her dismal thoughts, she opened her purse and dug around inside, finally pulling out a bottle of aspirin. She quickly put two in her hand and dropped the bottle back in her purse, but not before noticing that the handle of her bag had a small tear in it. Just the beginnings of one, really. “Shit,” she mumbled. For how much this bag cost, she would have thought it would last forever, or at least a year.
She popped the pills in her mouth and swallowed them with a few gulps from her water bottle. Truth was, she didn’t even like the purse. Jamie had gotten it for her, and she’d felt obligated to take it. But it was super expensive, and it was one of those bags that was wide open at the top. She liked her bag to be closed at all times. A zipper with a flap was her purse preference, but she’d take just a flap in a pinch. This open business or a single snap… not her thing at all. And it was big. Too big. She could pack for a weekend in this purse.
She glanced at her watch. Where was the pilot? They were supposed to take off for Paris shortly, but the man was nowhere to be seen. He’d texted her that they were doing some kind of check on the plane, so it would be a few more minutes, but that had been an eternity ago.
She snorted. Look at her getting annoyed that her jet wasn’t on time. She shook her head. Stupid. It certainly didn’t take long to get used to the nice things in life, but she knew better. It could all disappear in a heartbeat. All of it. Better to just enjoy it while she could and be patient.
Humming tunelessly to herself, she studied the lobby of the FBO. The Fixed Based Operator’s commercial aviation hub at Teterboro was quite nice. They’d put some effort into decorating the surroundings, and the chairs were comfortable, for whichher backside was grateful, considering how long she’d sat here. But there was no mistaking that this was still an airport, even if it was for private jets. The sound of jet engines firing up caught her attention. The plane making the noise was not hers, or rather, her brother’s, but someone else’s. She glanced at her watch. She figured she had time to hit the restroom. It wasn’t like the plane would leave without her, the only passenger.
She grabbed her purse but left her luggage. It would be safe, as she knew from previous experience. No one was likely to try to take anything here. Her stuff wouldn’t be nearly as nice as theirs anyway.
She made her way to the restroom and was coming out again when a man and woman bumped into her, knocking her purse off her shoulder.
“Oh,” she exclaimed.
“Sorry, sorry,” the young woman said. She offered a smile. “I wasn’t looking where I was going. It’s just so lovely in here, I was totally distracted.” Her accent was southern, and her big, wide blue eyes made her seem all the younger.
Kathleen smiled. “No problem.”
The man handed over her purse, and the two of them went on their way. Kathleen walked back toward her seat but glanced over her shoulder. The man had looked so familiar, not that she saw that much of his face. He’d had a ball cap pulled down pretty low. Still, it was odd. She gave a mental shrug. Maybe it was someone from yesterday’s wedding. She’d been thinking about how surprised she was that she hadn’t run into anyone yet.
“Ms. Drake?” a man said.
She turned. “Captain Stoddard.”
“I’m sorry for the delay,” he started. “There have been rolling protests and strikes in Paris, so they delayed our departure time a bit. But we’re good to go now.”
“Great. I’m glad there’s nothing wrong with the plane.” That was always one of her greatest fears. She wasn’t a big flier or, at least, hadn’t been in the past. Jamie, Jameson, she corrected herself. He would always be Jamie to her. But he was all grown up, and Jameson was more fitting. Jameson was always trying to get her to go places so she wasn’t bored, but honestly, the shine was wearing off travel these days. She needed to find something to do. Something meaningful. She sighed.
“If you’ll just follow me,” he said, reaching for her luggage.
Kathleen hoisted her bag onto her shoulder. Had it gotten heavier all of a sudden? More likely, her hangover made everything seem worse than it was. She really needed to rethink drinking like that ever again.
Once she was safely buckled in, the plane’s door whooshed shut. Right before they began taxiing, Yolanda, the flight attendant, asked her if she would like anything.
“I’m good for the moment, I think.” The plane slowed to a halt.Now what?
The captain was suddenly standing in front of her again. “I’m sorry, Ms. Drake.”
“What’s wrong?”
“We might have to land at Orly, instead of the FBO at Charles De Gaulle. The strikes are wreaking havoc.”
“That’s not a problem.” She offered him a smile. The captain started to head back to the cockpit, but she called him back. “Actually, is it possible to change the destination altogether?”
“Of course. Is there somewhere else you would like to go?”
She’d only picked Paris because that’s where everyone said she should go for some new clothes, but she didn’t care as much about her wardrobe these days. “When I was waiting, I read a magazine article talking about Lake Lugano in Switzerland. Could we possibly go there?”
“Absolutely. Let me log a new flight plan, and we’ll be on our way. The flight time will be similar.”
“Thank you,” she said with a grin.
