I take my time with the food, savoring each treat. Once we’ve worked our way through the appetizer course, sweet pastries and more coffee is served. It’s like being at a fine-dining restaurant—not that I have any experience of that.
The meal is drawn out, but I love every minute of it, and am surprised to realize we’re already a couple of hours into the flight. I’ve been distracted, and it’s gone far quicker than I’d anticipated.
“Excuse me,” Reed says, once the refreshments have been cleared away. He gets to his feet and makes his way to the rear of the plane, I assume to use the bathrooms.
I turn to face the window again. All I can see is cloud far below. I try not to think about how high up we are.
Movement comes beside me, and I glance toward it, expecting to find Reed has returned, but instead, it’s Cade who’s sinking his huge body into the seat. He tosses his phone onto the table in front of him.
“Oh,” I say. “Hi.”
He doesn’t smile. “Thought I’d see how you’re enjoying it.”
“Enjoying it?” I assume he means the flight. “It’s good, I guess. I mean, I’ve never been on a plane before so it’s not as though I have anything to compare it to.” I’m speaking too fast and waffling a little, but he makes me nervous. His bicep is huge, and my gaze runs over the multitude of tattoos covering his skin—a rose, a skull, a raven’s wing. I feel like I’m being crowded out, compressed against the wall of the plane.
He picks up a napkin and folds it in half. “I didn’t mean the flight. I’m asking how you’re enjoying leeching off my family’s money.”
My jaw drops. “I’m sorry?”
“You heard me. This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? Getting your foot in the door. I bet it’s a damn sight better than living in a trailer.”
I speak slowly to ensure he understands me. “I didn’t coordinate any of this. I’m here because your father married my mother when I was barely out of diapers, and now my mother is dead. It’s not some crazy plan I hatched up.”
“It’s pretty convenient, though, isn’t it? You certainly landed on your feet.”
I can hardly believe this is happening. I look around, hoping for backup. But Reed’s nowhere to be seen, and Darius is sitting with a pair of noise cancelling headphones on, most likely listening to music. I’m not sure he’d help me, anyway. For all I know, he shares the same sentiments as his brother.
“I don’t want your family’s money,” I lie.
He curls his lip at me, his nostrils flaring. “Yeah, right. You’re like one of those birds who take up residence in another bird’s nest to get the parents to feed it. What are they called?” He thinks for a minute then jabs a finger in my direction. “A cuckoo. You’re like a fucking cuckoo chick.”
“Actually,” I say, slowly as though I think he’s stupid—which I kind of do, “the cuckoo chick is put in the nest by its parents while it’s still just an egg, so it has no idea that the parents feeding it aren’t its real parents. It’s not the bird’s fault. But then, thinking about it, I believe the chick also kills the real offspring of the stand-in parents, so maybe you should watch your back.”
He snorts laughter. “Like I’m going to be afraid of you. You look like you could blow away in a high wind.”
“Sometimes the smallest things are the deadliest. After all, the mosquito has killed half the people who have ever lived.”
He stares at me like he’s trying to figure out if I’ve made this up. I haven’t. Documentary shows are my jam. They’re how I wound down after a long night at work, knowing I needed to sleep to get up for school the next day.
“You’re fucking weird,” he tells me.
I press my lips together and hold his gaze. “So?” I glance down at the back of his phone case. “I’m not the grown man with a cartoon character on the back of his phone.”
The picture is of a woman in a red dress, with an impossibly tiny waist, and her hair hanging over one eye.
“What?” he says. “That’s Jessica Rabbit.”
I arch an eyebrow. “JessicaRabbit?”
He shrugs. “She’s hot.”
“It’s a cartoon character,” I repeat slowly.
“Still hot. And besides, that movie is a classic.”
A figure appears in the aisle on the other side of Cade.
“Everything all right here?”