No doubt he’d go back to king of the assholes today, so I had to get my game face on.
I moved closer and surprisingly he met me halfway. “Ready to go home?” he asked, expression unreadable.
I nodded. “Yeah, so ready. Oh wait … I don’t have a fucking home.”
The thought of a hot shower and proper food was definitely enticing, but knowing it would come at the cost of spending one more night under Catherine Deboise’s roof. Fuck that.
Beck’s eyes narrowed. “Keep playing the game, Butterfly. Oscar is the result when you try and get out.”
“Who killed him?” I asked, sick of not having answers.
Beck grew tenser, more shadows lining his eyes. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
No idea why, but I believed him, and it was a relief to know he hadn’t killed my brother.
When we settled back into the second helicopter, a medic approached me, kneeling down. He looked to be in his late twenties, with dark hair that curled almost to the collar of his white uniform. “I’m here to assess your injuries, Ms. Deboise,” he said, reaching for me.
Beck, who was on my right side, made a low rumbling sound and the medic froze, his eyes darting between me and the scary dude. “I-I,” he stuttered, fear apparent in the way he pulled back and swallowed hard. “Does she have any injuries?” and just like that, I’d been relegated to nothing more than property.
“Sitting right here,” I said with a snarl. “And yes, she does have injuries.”
Beck’s smile was slow and not particularly nice. “She’ll be fine. We have doctors at home that I trust.”
The medic scurried away then like his ass was on fire, and I glared at Beck. “What the hell was that about? You don’t want me to get medical help? Why work so hard to keep me alive if you’re ready to let me die now?”
He smirked at me. “Butterfly, anyone who can bitch me out with this sort of aggression, is far from death.” He paused, and something darker washed his face into that shadowy place he lived in at times. “I don’t know this team of medics. If I don’t know them, I don’t trust them.”
“But Jasper…” I started.
“I have no choice ... he’s in a bad way. Which is why Dylan and Evan are there. Both of them will watch out for him.”
Shaking my head, I settled back into my seat, fatigue and pain rendering me silent. I was confused. It almost sounded like Beck cared enough about me to want to make sure that none of these medics were under Huntley control. Was this just because I was one of the successors to a seat in Delta’s company?
I mean, after a trusted pilot shot himself and tried to kill them, it was pretty obvious why they had trust issues. Maybe I should do the same…
“Can I trust Eddy?” I whispered, scared that the only real friend I’d made in years, outside of Dante, might be fake.
Beck didn’t turn to me, he just continued staring out into the main body of the helicopter, keeping an eye on those around us. “Trust her with limits,” he said. “She’s not one of us, but she’s as close as you’ll get to a friend in this fucked up world. It’s smart to always remember, Butterfly … money corrupts everything.”
I cleared my throat, my pulse skyrocketing as the helicopter blades picked up speed, and the giant metal beast started to move. Without thought, I reached out, gripping Beck’s hand.
“Nervous flyer,” the female medic on the other side of me said, her voice muffled by the noise of the helicopter.
Swinging my head around, I leveled her with my “what the fuck” face. I’d just survived a plane crash...
She must have realized what a stupid statement that had been, giving me an apologetic look, but it was too loud in here now for conversation. Beck freed my hand from where it was wrapped around his, and I almost got my feelings hurt, until he slipped some headphones on me. The sort with a tiny speaker.
By this time we were in the air, my fear had eased, so I simply clasped my hands together, jumping when Beck’s voice echoed in my headphones.
“These are programmed so no one else can hear us,” he said, his voice a rasp of darkness and danger. A rasp my body responded to with almost embarrassing intensity.
“So … Delta … are you guys into bad stuff as well as the legit business practices?”
I had no idea why I asked that, but ever since the plane crash, I’d felt like I was missing something big about my family company.
Beck’s gaze finally met mine. “Delta controls sixty-five percent of the money in the world. We see all. We control all. We are all. I’ll let you figure out if that could all be legit on your own.”
They were egomaniacs. We see all … we control all… Come on.
Maybe that was the part all of them struggled with the most; there was only so much they truly could control. I wondered if that was what had happened to Oscar … Beck had implied it was because he wanted to get out. Maybe my brother hadn’t quite been able to stomach this life. One of cruelty and sabotage. Of trusting no one and always looking over your shoulder. Why then, was I not wanting to run screaming from them? Why did I fit when my brother, who had been born and raised into this life, could not handle the world of being a Delta successor?
What the fuck was wrong with me?
The helicopter ride smoothed out after the takeoff, and except for my initial panic, it did not cause me undue stress. Beck and I talked on and off for the rest of the flight. I learned he owned ten cars, six of which were dream cars of mine, and four others that I wouldn’t turn my nose up at. He had no siblings, but there had been a catch in his voice when he said that … which made me wonder if he was telling me everything.
“So your favorite food is steak and lobster?” I said, laughing a little. How typical of a rich boy.
He shot me a smirk. “Too predictable for you? Sounds better than grilled cheese and tomato soup.”
I swung my elbow into him, gently because it would have hurt me more than him. “My mom made it for me whenever I was sick, or sad, or tired,” I explained. “It was her way of cheering me up, and it … it’s more than just sandwich and soup.” I stopped talking because I was too choked up to say more. To know I’d never see her carrying a special tray with my favorites was beyond devastating.
Beck was quiet, and some of that restless energy he always carried with him seemed to ease. “I’m sorry about your parents, Butterfly.”
My hands clenched, and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself not to break down. “I’m sorry too,” I managed to say. “It’s just so fucking hard. Some days I’m not sure I can keep living with the pain of losing them.”
He turned to me then, and it was such a sudden movement I almost fell off my seat. Until then, we’d remained side by side, his long body pressed along mine, but we hadn’t looked at each other. Instead staring across the helicopter.
Now, locked in the intensity of his gaze, I almost couldn’t breathe.
“You will keep living,” he told me seriously, bite in his words. “Because they would want you to. Because the pain will get easier. And because we … Dylan, Evan, Jasper, and me … we fucking need you to keep living. We’re five again.”
I blinked at him, my eyes no doubt wide and glassy from the tears I was trying desperately not to shed. “I promise,” I whispered. “I won’t ever give up. If that dude trying to kill me in the forest taught me anything, it’s that I’m not ready to die.”
Beck relaxed back in his seat, and we resumed our previous positions. We did not talk for the rest of the flight, but his long body remained pressed to my side, and I couldn’t stop the deep seated ache in my center to reach out and touch more of him. He’d let his guard down with me today, and it showed me the sort of man Beck could be. And I wanted to see more of it.
When we landed, I was helped out by a medic, and then I just kind of hovered around awkwardly while more doctors and security personnel crowded us. No one touched Beck, and he strode away toward Jasper when the second chopper landed.
“Ms. Deboise, we’re going to need you to come with us,” a female medic said. She wore a different uniform to the ones who had rescued us from the mountain. It was a dark olive green, with a red cross stitched over the front pocket.
“Uh,” I hesitated, unsure if this was one we trusted or not. I mean they … they trusted.
She must have thought I was confused or something, because a firm hand landed on my shoulder, and she started trying to direct me toward a nearby ambulance. My feet dragged as I wondered if I should be fighting her or not.
I mean, Beck had just taken off without a backward glance at me, so most probably he was over giving a shit, and was back to being an asshole. I might as well get checked and get some of the good pain killers.
When she got me to a nearby ambulance, another medic helped me inside, and forced me to lie back on one of the long beds. “A doctor will be right by,” the medic said, her expression cool. “Just relax. We’ll get you patched up and good as new.”
She didn’t like me, that much was obvious, and I wondered why that was—I’d never seen her before in my life. There wasn’t time to figure it out before she spun and disappeared out the double doors of the large white vehicle.
Before I could panic about being alone and vulnerable in the back of an ambulance, a familiar face entered my line of sight. Jasper, looking a lot worse for wear, was gently helped into the other bed next to me.
“Still alive, I see,” I joked, so happy to see him.
He shot me a slow grin, and it would have looked normal if not for the macabre splash of blood across his platinum blond hair, face and neck. I’d probably not noticed in the forest, because we were in some hectic situations, but Jasper was a mess. Lifting my hands, I squinted at the blood staining them as well.
We were all messes.
Unfamiliar faces followed Jasper’s, and then the ambulance started up. Just before the doors were about to close, a hand slipped between them, pulling them open again.