Chapter 60: Chapter 60

◇ KEL ◇

"Sorry that got loud," Enzo said with a small smile that didn't reach his pale blue-green eyes. In bright natural lighting, the green specks stood out more. But now that the cabin lights were dimmed, they looked a darker shade of blue.

His beautiful eyes held my attention while I tried to put on a pleasant reaction.

"You okay?" He sat beside me again.

"Yeah. You?"

"Nap for a few hours. I'll get you a blanket. Want a bigger pillow?"

"Thanks. I'm good," I lied, flinging a glance to the other corner where his skinhead bodyguard sat and threw me gluey stares from time to time. With a loaded gun strapped to his side, too.  "That guy's kinda scaring me, though."

"Who?" Enzo glanced around to check out what bothered me, and then chuckled softly. "Sorry. New recruit. One of the younger guys."

"So...does your brother know we're borrowing his plane?"

"Don't worry about it."  Enzo put his seatbelt back on and reclined.  "Leo's busy with something else."

"The merger?"

"Blowing off steam somewhere. Away from the city."

"Oh."

"The merger is..." Enzo shrugged weakly, his fairly British accent now more audible. "Sort of throwing him off his game."

"I see." So his older brother now had the last say in everything concerning their family business?  "Leandro, being the eldest...is he replacing your Pappa?"

"That's what everyone expects. Leo being the new chairman, not a surprise." Enzo made a face. "Taking over the business has always been his goal."

It sounded logical, but the way he said it made me suppose he wasn't fully supportive of his family practically handing the throne to his older brother.  "Doesn't bother you, though?"

"Me? I'm just trying to mind my own business." Enzo sighed with a tight grin.  "But he can be difficult at times."

"Story for another day," I mumbled when he didn't say anything else.  "How's your Pappa? Still recovering?"

"Still hooked to the machines, but he's trying to be more mobile."

"With the physical therapists and everything?"

"Sometimes he hates being too confined," Enzo replied while pouting. "As much as he hates that his business is undergoing major changes just to keep up with the modern world."

"You mean...the merger? He doesn't approve of it?"

"Not entirely, but he already gave the green light." Enzo rested his head and closed his eyes, his gravelly voice one of exhaustion.  "Once Leo signs the revised contract, my family will, too. The others, I'm not a hundred percent sure of."

"Oh."  I leaned closer to him so I could talk more quietly. "Hey. I'm planning to take some part-time jobs after graduation, while studying for the board. Then I can start paying you back." I pursed my lips and waited for an affirmative reaction from him. "That okay?"

Immediately, his creasing brows told me his answer. Then Enzo frowned at me, as if I wasn't making any sense. "Working jobs while studying for the board exams? Are you serious? Or suicidal?"

"Been doing that for a year." I shrugged. "I mean, when I was still living with Miles," I mumbled, glancing down at my new phone.

Reply to Miles or let it stay in silent mode? He would blast it with a dozen more calls once the jet landed and cell reception returned.

Ugh.  Every day. Every darn day.

I had been busying myself with real life problems the past months just to get over him, but linger in my mind and haunt my dreams? He still did. Like a stubborn little mite burrowing itself deeper and deeper underneath the skin.

"You seen him lately?"

"What?" I blinked at the guy beside me. Enzo kept his eyes closed, his leather-covered seat now slanted back a notch. Was he asking if I was still seeing Miles?

"Did he at least text you on your birthday?" Enzo's pinkish lips tilted into a meaningful smirk this time.

"Yeah. He was...  He gave me flowers and cake."

"Ah." Enzo grinned. "That's nice."

Nice?

Yeah. It was nice...until Miles snuck into my shower that night and started touching me and kissing me until I could barely think straight.  Just thinking about it brought back flashes of pain and...something else I couldn't put to words yet. I sighed and glanced around.

The cabin more or less felt the same as last time:  piercingly cold, spacious seats, with plush leather interior I could tell cost more than my tuition.  Only thing missing was a masked up medical team, and someone I would rather not dream of tonight.

I put my palm on the side of my strained neck.  Miles even bit me and left marks on my skin.

Much to my annoyance, my brain kept replaying that strange night—especially those memorable five hours with my family before he just left me alone, desperate for answers and buttnaked in my bed. Darn it. It was just embarrassing.

Did he mean everything he said to my mom that day?

Highly unlikely. Still, the doe-eyed hopeless romantic in me believed he meant the things he said.

Miles had been texting me nonstop, too. He even asked me why the tracking device on my phone said I was leaving American soil.

Of course he gave me the "secure phone" to spy on me 24/7.

Jeez...  Talk about trust issues.

"You'd better not be on a plane with him right now."

Received 22:47

Crudely, he'd sent the warning twice that I almost stomped on the darn phone he gave me.  Didn't his security guys tell him that Enzo picked me up and drove me out of campus earlier?

Replying to the annoyingly bossy messages would only spark another fight, so, there was no point. But my pesky conscience still nagged at me. Pangs of guilt just coiled in my chest after re-reading Miles' last text:

"Sorry. Call me. At least tell me you're ok."

Received 23:13

Okay. Fine. Obviously he worried for my safety. Must be thinking some mob guys kidnapped me or something.  I dillydallied for about an hour until cell reception became weak.

"I'm fine. Just sorting something out w the agency." It was the only reply I had sent Miles.

Sure. Blandest of all alibis. But, whatever.  At least I texted him back.  I stared at the words on the screen. I had opted for a terse reply, not even bothering with a short greeting or a half-meant apology.

Why should I apologize, anyway?  I wasn't the one who just ran off after a fight, and I didn't leave him hanging once I got what I wanted.  I didn't abandon him with a million questions brewing into a skull-splitting headache, and a battered self-esteem that probably would never heal.

But that no longer mattered.  Right now, I just had to meet Ilija in person, say my piece, go back to my busy student life in New York and make sure my own family stayed out of harm's way.

Safe. Living a normal life.

Secure.

Alive.

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