Treachery

Sunlight bursts across the tarmac of the private airport, the light-colored cement appearing wet in the distance where heat mixes with the fumes of oil and gas. Tucked against the back door of Gabriel’s Jag, I stretch my legs out over the seat, my stare locked on the profile of Luca’s face where she sits up front.

Gabriel drives the car over the smooth surface of cement, and while I’m not impressed by the show of wealth surrounding us with private jets, Luca looks somewhat stu

It’s another reminder that she’s new to this lifestyle, that she came from a humble life in the middle of Georgia, her happiness found in grassy fields and beneath tall trees filled with Spanish moss, while my life was lived in soulless mansions.

That’s one of the things I love about her, though. She has an i

“They let you drive up to the plane?”

It’s cute, that look on her face. I want to keep watching her to memorize her reactions, but I drag my eyes down to the screen of my phone when it vibrates in my lap.

Melody Korsak’s name flashes up at me, my thumb hovering over the green button to answer. She never calls me, not out of the blue like this, and I grit my teeth to send it to voicemail. I can’t talk to her in front of Luca. Not right now, at least.

The car comes to a slow stop, and I hear the plane engines starting up, several people walking around the exterior performing mechanical checks before the flight.

“How long have you had this?”

Gabriel throws the car in park and glances at Luca. “It was a graduation present.”

“From Yale?”

“From high school.”

Her jaw drops, but then she schools her expression. “Must be nice.”

“Not really,” he groans. “We put up with a lot of shit from our fathers to earn this crap.”

After sending off a quick email I tapped out to Lacey, I straighten my posture and climb out of the car. Rounding it, I come up behind Luca, wrap my arms around her body and balance my chin on top of her head.

“Have you ever flown before?”

“Only commercial.”

Her fingers wrap with mine, and I tug her tighter to my chest. “Are you nervous?”

Luca doesn’t answer me immediately, and I lean around to look at her face. She glances over at me and smiles.

“Will I get peanuts and a soda like on the other flights?”

A sigh blows over my lips. Of course, that’s all she cares about. You could toss a billion dollars of cold hard cash at her feet, and she wouldn’t blink. It kind of sucks, really, because it means I’ll have to work harder to make sure she sticks around.

“I think we can work something out.”

“Run along, children. We have a plane to catch,” Gabriel shouts as he walks ahead of us toward the plane.

Grabbing Luca’s hand, I lead her to the plane and up the stairs, her feet pausing in place when she first sees the black leather and chrome interior, the furniture resembling a living room.

“If you got this for graduating high school, what did you get for graduating Yale?”

“A fucking headache,” Gabriel grumbles as he drops his weight into a seat.

Confused at that, Luca looks to me as I lead her to a set of seats opposite him.

“Warbucks is a pain in the ass these days,” I explain.

“Who’s Warbucks?”

“You might remember him as the man you told off at the party.”

Gabriel’s eyes snap my direction, then over to Luca. “You told off my father?”

Her cheeks heat. “I didn’t know who he was.”

Low laughter rumbles from Gabriel’s chest as he leans back and covers his eyes with his arm. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”

It’s only a two-hour flight to Sava

Luca fell asleep, too, which was my fault for keeping her up most of the night. I didn’t mind the silence, though. I was too busy drafting up the paperwork that would destroy Clayton the next time we walked into a courtroom.

I can’t wait to see his face when he learns he won’t win his case. He deserves everything that’s coming to him. Not that I don’t deserve it as well, but the difference is I plan to make up for what I’ve done while he hopes to walk away.

As the plane pulls to a stop, I nudge Luca to wake her up. She blinks open her blue eyes and sits up to stretch her arms. A slow smile stretches her face as she looks out the window.

“I’m home,” she whispers to herself, and it bothers the hell out of me. While drafting the documents for her divorce, I had a hard time coming to terms with what I was doing.

Essentially, I’m setting her free. Luca will have almost four million dollars to do with what she wants. I’d be an idiot to assume she won’t want to move on with her life, that she won’t choose to return to school, or even return to Georgia.

Still, I typed up the documents anyway, hoping like hell she’ll stay with me. It’s not like she can take off immediately. Our fathers are still after her, and until that’s resolved, she’s not safe ru

I shouldn’t take advantage of that problem, but I will. And I won’t feel guilty about it either. Luca may have beaten me into submission when it comes to how I feel about her, but she’ll never change who I am.

“What is all that green shit?”

Luca glances at Gabriel in response to his question.

“Those are called trees. I understand you don’t see many of them where you come from, but they won’t bite. I promise. They’re actually pretty once you give them the chance.”

“The only green that I find pretty is the color of money, love. Your trees can suck it.”

As we’re leaving the plane, my phone vibrates again. I pull it from my pocket to see Melody’s name. I had the phone turned off for the flight, but when I check my voicemails, she’s left four in the course of two hours.

I want to call her back, but glance at Luca and decide against it. She’s too happy being home for me to ruin it with this.

Slipping the phone in my pocket, I follow Gabriel and Luca to the waiting van.

From what Luca told us, the servers are large and we’ll need plenty of room to haul them, as well as a hand truck to get them out of the storage facility. How the fuck we’ll get them on the plane is anybody’s guess, but I’ll leave that up to Gabriel’s staff to decide.

We’re on the road in less than ten minutes, Sava

Even though this is technically a city, it feels like I’m in the middle of nowhere. Like at any minute, some hillbilly will come trotting up with a stick of long grass sticking out from between his lips and a banjo in his hands.

I glance back at Gabriel to see he’s thinking the same thing, his mouth crooked down at the corners and his eyes sca

Eyes back on the road, I don’t miss how Luca is practically bouncing in her seat. She’s excited to be here, absolutely thrilled, from what I can see. It makes me nervous that she’ll want to come back home, and with everything I have going on, there will be no way for me to follow her.

“Do we have time to take a detour so I can show you two where I grew up?”

“I’m not sure we need to. I believe I remember seeing your house in the movie Deliverance.”