I doubled checked to make sure the camera was still covered and tugged the ribbon from the back of my dress and slowly slid off the ruined gown. I wore white lingerie, hoping Brian and I would finally have sex. He wanted to wait until marriage because of what happened with Tracy, and while that was hard, I respected his decision.
But again, along with the dress, the lingerie was wasted. I unhooked the clasps of the corset, one by one, and let out a deep breath when my lungs were free of the binding. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable it was until now. I slid off the garter belt next and decided since I had blood on me to take a shower and rinse off the day, Jaxson’s touch, and wash away how good it was to see him again.
I worked too hard to get over him. I had come too far to take that many steps back in my life.
My heart? While beat up and broken, it was mine again.
My mind? While having the unfortunate memories of him lingering, was healthy again.
My soul? I got it back from the devil since he broke his deal.
Jaxon said he’d never hurt me.
And he lied.
Chapter Four
Jaxon
The damn hellion. I should have her ass for throwing that blanket over the camera. She had always been defiant, but there was a new fire burning in her, one that had been extinguished for far too long. This was the woman I remembered, not the woman walking down the aisle, unsure of herself.
Quinn was a lot of things, but unsure was never one of them.
“What do you want to do?” Sebastian asked as he tried to swivel the camera to get the blanket off, but there was no luck.
“I’m going to let her sit there and stew. She wants me to come to her, and I’m not.” I wanted to, oh, how I wanted to, but I couldn’t let Quinn control me. I was controlling her. She played by my rules. My game. She was the pawn, and I had to make sure she stayed where I wanted her. “How much longer until we land?” I asked Louis, who was flying the plane right now through the intercom in the security office where Sebastian is currently working. Louis spent ten years as a combat pilot in the Army in his younger years. He was a guy that could do anything, and smile while he had to kill; it was why I trusted him.
“About ten more minutes, Mr. Steel. Prepare to land, please.”
I lifted my finger off the intercom button and sat down in the chair next to my best friend and put on my seat belt. “Change the camera view to Brian’s room.” The last thing I wanted to do was stare at a screen and not see Quinn. Her conniving ways made my jaw tick, and she hadn’t even been in my presence for more than a few hours.
Sebastian clicked a few buttons, and the screen changed. I leaned forward right as the plane started to shake from descending, but it didn’t bother me. I held my chin with my fingers and rubbed my beard as I watched Brian. He sat in a chair in the middle of the room, head lowered. “Zoom in. What’s he saying?” I couldn’t understand a word that was coming out of the degenerate’s mouth, but he was saying something, and I swore, if it was anything degrading Quinn, I’d put a bullet between in his eyes.
No, I couldn’t because this wasn’t about her. This was about me. I needed him alive to clear my name.
Quinn didn’t matter.
How many times did I have to tell myself that before I realized I didn’t believe it?
Sebastian zoomed in, and the camera was so high quality I could see the pores on his face and the sweat dripping off his nose. His shoulder was still bleeding, but he wouldn’t die. It wasn’t a life-threatening wound. It was causing an astronomical amount of pain. Good. I wanted him in pain.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you like I should have killed you all those years ago.”
Was he already going to confess?
He lifted his head and stared directly into the camera, beady brown eyes narrowing before a wicked, sinister smile graced his lips. He started laughing, a sound that would make a weaker man’s hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Good thing I wasn’t a weak man.
“I’ll kill you,” he said, his voice demonic. “And when I do, make sure you say hello to your sister for me.”
I slammed my fist on the counter and tried to get out of my seat, but the seatbelt held me back from reaching through that screen and strangling him until his eyes fell from the sockets.
Sebastian’s hand landed on my shoulder and held me down. He stared at me a bit wide-eyed, surprised I would come so unglued so fast, but Tracy was a trigger for me, not because I got blamed for her murder, but because she was the most important thing in the world to me and this bastard took her.
“He said it,” I pointed to the camera. “He said he killed her! That’s enough for me to go on.”
“It isn’t enough, and you know it. He didn’t say he killed her. You need to think clearly, or your emotions will fuck this up.”
“I don’t fucking have emotions,” I sneered, clenching my fists until my nails dug into my palm.
“You have the kind that kill, Jaxon. All of us do. It is what makes us dangerous men, but if you lose it, he will win. He won already once before, don’t let it happen again.”
I shrugged his hand off me and scrubbed my hands over my face. He was right. I couldn’t let Brian get to me. I had to think smarter. He would bring Tracy up to dent my armor, and even though it worked, he didn’t have to see that. “You’re right. You’re right,” I relented. “Gas them, both. I want them unconscious when we bring them into the mountain.”
“There’s something you don’t hear every day,” Sebastian mumbled and pressed the orange button that released a safe, but effective gas through the vents in their rooms. They wouldn’t know. They would just fall peacefully asleep.
“You boys want some?” Ingrid opened the door to the security room, way too at home for someone we didn’t have a background check on yet and held out a joint. “It’s good shit.”
“Where the hell did you get that? You can’t smoke on a plane,” I ripped it from her fingers and flicked it into Sebastian’s water.
“I was drinking that,” he sighed, picking up the cup to stare into it.
“It was in my purse. I’m old, not dead. Loosen up. Don’t make me regret hopping on this plane.” Ingrid, the woman I thought was sweet and precious, flipped me off and shut the door, leaving it smelling like a skunk.
I despised the smell of marijuana.
“I’m going to have to send her back,” I said, rubbing my temples. I always bit off more than I could chew. I never admitted it though.
“No way! You can’t. She’s awesome. Please, can we keep her?” Sebastian pouted and held his hands together as one big fist under his chin as he begged.
“Jesus Christ,” I said right before the tires hit the runway. I swayed and bounced as Louis brought the plane to a stop. “I’ll think about it. I thought she was a sweet old lady that wanted adventure. I have a soft spot for old people.” I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t tell a soul I have a soft spot.”
He snorted and zipped his lips shut, throwing away the key.
I narrowed my eyes at him and unbuckled my seatbelt. I stared into the monitor again, seeing Brian asleep. I could kill him. End all of this. Move on with my damn life, but I needed the truth. I needed Quinn to believe me.