“Oh no,” Gaby muttered, dropping her face into her hands.
Cari laughed. “Oh,yes.”
Emily leaned in, eyes sparkling. “The real question is how long can Rhys keep denying it’s there.”
Her heart thumped painfully. “This isn’t helping.”
It absolutely wasn’t.
Nothing did.
And that was the problem.
Chapter 13
When Gaby traveled, which was rare, she always flew coach. She’d peeked into first class before the curtain was snapped closed, but that was it. The luxury jet Dev had borrowed from a friend put anything she could have imagined to shame. It was more like a flying palace with cream leather seats, real polished wood, and a bar stocked with top-shelf liquor. Even the air smelled expensive—cool, crisp, and perfectly air-conditioned.
She smoothed her palms over the silk of the crimson dress she now wore. They’d boarded in Miami already dressed for the party. There would be no time to stop once they landed. The fabric felt too cool and revealing, the diamond drop earrings and matching choker too expensive, her spike heels far higher than she was used to. Every detail made her feel like the imposter she was, and absurdly overdressed for an airplane, no matter how luxurious.
Her gaze drifted to Rhys, seated across from her.
He wore a charcoal suit cut from tropical wool, his white shirt open at the throat, cuff links glinting subtly in the cabin light. He read with an air of effortless nonchalance, as if hopping on a private jet to Costa Rica for a party among the wealthy and morally bankrupt was just another Tuesday. She envied his unnervingly precise composure, the kind that made his Lucien Blackwood persona disturbingly real.
Behind her, Leland and Mateo spoke in low tones, unreadable walls of muscle in sleek black suits. They didn’t justlooklike men no one dared question. Theywerethose men.
Gaby glanced out the window for the hundredth time. They should be landing soon, but all she saw were white clouds. No mountains. No rainforest. No coastline. She wanted to be there and let the charade begin as much as she dreaded it. She shifted in her seat, hands clutching the armrests to still the anxious tremor.
Naturally, Rhys noticed.
“Nervous?” he asked, low enough under the constant hum of the aircraft that it was just for her.
She forced a lightness she didn’t feel. “We’re about to walk into a nest of the world’s most self-indulgent predators. I think I have a right to be.”
His mouth twitched. Not quite a smile but close. “You walked into the club alone the first night I met you. Compared to that, this should feel like a warm-up. Because you have me, and two shadows who’d walk through fire to keep you safe.”
She nodded, not entirely reassured. Maybe it was the advantage of hindsight, but this seemed ten times more terrifying than infiltrating Devil’s Pointe.
His gaze moved over her slowly. It didn’t soften, exactly, but the glint in his eyes made her chest tighten.
“If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t recognize you,” he murmured. “The transformation is remarkable.”
Her hand rose to her honey-blonde hair, sleek now after a $400 dye job and Brazilian blowout. “That’s what the stylist and I were going for. Emily worried I might be recognized from Coral Gables. Without the curls, there’s less of a risk of that. Besides, the property of Lucien Blackwood needs polish.”
“And you delivered,” he said with a hint of a smile. “It was a good call by Emily. Your springy spirals were definitely unique.”Turning serious, he leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees. “Would it help to review once more?”
Less confident in her abilities than he was, she nodded.
He extended his arm across the narrow space between them. When she placed her hand in his, his fingers wrapped firmly around hers. They’d practiced this often, simple touching, and it grounded her.
“What’s your role tonight?” he asked.
Gaby drew a breath. “Supportive, helping prove to Álvarez you are who he suspects you are.”
“How do you do that?” he pressed.
She recited what he’d drilled into her for weeks. “I stay close and follow your lead. Eyes down unless instructed otherwise, but I listen and pay attention to details.”
“Now for the rules.” He didn’t break eye contact. His thumb brushed the inside of her wrist, sweeping over her pulse, slowly appraising.
