Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
And now, almost ten years later, I slip past his bodyguards and retreat through the door into the back of the plane.
One of the privacy rooms, there for passengers to make phone calls or work privately, opens and a man in a gray suit comes out, almost bumping into me. He’s in his thirties with light brown eyes and attractive enough, but he’s traveling with one of the guests that scares me, Silas McGrath. A man whose business must be very lucrative for him to be here, and yet surprisingly hard to pin down. I smile and stand to the side to let him pass.
He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a wallet. “Great timing, let me get a look at what you’ve got.”
“Oh! There’s no charge, sir.”
He flips open his wallet and counts out five hundred dollar bills, folding them up and slipping them into the tiny handkerchief pocket of my uniform. “Thirty minutes of your time.”
“What?”
“In the room. With me.”
I stare at him for an embarrassing amount of time before it dawns on me that he’s trying to pay me for sex. “I’m not—sir, I’m just… Do you not want a drink?”
He must not be used to being turned down, because he counts out three more bills. “At this price you better suck harder than the fucking Dodgers last week.”
My pulse kicks up. The door is closed but Tim and Mason are only five feet away. If I scream they’ll hear me and come running, but I freeze, afraid to cause a scene. A part of me is waiting for the guy to start laughing, like it’s just a bad joke.
All of a sudden, Stewie’s wandering hand doesn’t seem so bad.
There’s a loud click, and then the bathroom door behind the suited man opens. A giant of a man steps out into the hallway. Well over six feet tall, he must be one of the three passengers that were added to our flight list at the last minute. They were already on board when the rest of us arrived, and honestly with everything else, I forgot about them.
The giant puts his hand on the door to the back, but pauses, coal black eyes narrowing in our direction. His head is shaved clean, with just a shadow of stubble, and his square jaw hardens when he looks at the man in the suit. Nothing about him screams ‘hero’. Heck, if you showed me a picture of these two men and asked which was the dangerous one, it would definitely be the one with vivid tattoos crawling out from under the collar of his shirt, in worn jeans with dusty leather boots and a scary looking black leather vest, but pictures can lie.
I shake my head and straighten my shoulders, feeling a little braver now that I’m not alone. “Sir, I’m sorry if there’s been a misunderstanding, but if you don’t want a drink, I need to get to my seat.”
“Look, I’m not going over a grand for a quickie, even if it’s on a plane.” The man in the suit pulls out two more bills.
Coming to a decision, the newcomer steps right up behind him and tugs the cash out of his hand. There’s a frayed patch that says ‘Bull’ on the left side of the giant’s vest. Is that his name? In a deep, deceptively casual tone, he asks, “You looking for a good time, man? Because I don’t think she’s selling.”
“Who the fuck are you? I don’t swing that way, asshole.” Red-faced, the man reaches for his money but Bull holds it just out of reach.
He leans in with a wicked smile. “Me neither, so I doubt you’ll get what you were hoping for, but I promise I’ll make it real fucking quick.” By the time the big man finishes, he has the smaller man backed into the wall and his face spells murder. Then he grins and the sudden mood shift is so stark it’s scary. “Or was the lady right and this all a big misunderstanding?”
“Asshole,” the guy repeats under his breath, backing right back into the little room and shutting the door. Pretty sure it wouldn’t keep Bull out if he set his mind to it, but he seems happy enough that the guy retreated.
“Yeah, I fucking thought so.” He turns to me. “You ok, angel?”
“Yeah. Um, yeah I’m fine.” Wait. I reach into my pocket and pull out the five hundred dollars. “Should I…” I look towards the door to the privacy room.
“Woah!” He holds up his hands. “I’m not here to judge. If you were negotiating or—”
“I meant, should I give it back?” I blurt out, horrified. “Oh my God!”
“Oh! Gotcha. Nah. If he couldn’t afford it, he wouldn’t be throwing it at you. Fuck him. Not literally, obviously.” He winks.
A nervous laugh bursts out of me. “Obviously.”