Page 21 of Destined to Fight

She grabbed the bottle and went to the door. Asmund came in and grabbed Kade’s bag. With Kade’s hands full, Kelly decided to pick up the cat carrier. They all left the hotel room with Fabian following behind, hands free in case he needed to get to his swords.

The SUV was parked outside the entrance where Asmund had dropped them off. He unlocked it, and they all climbed in after loading the back.

“To the airport, Asmund,” Kade said, urgency in his voice.

“Wait!” Kelly realized she didn’t have her things. “We need to stop to get my things from the hotel where we were staying.”

“I’ll replace them all when we land, there isn’y time.”

“But my computer, my writing…”

Fabian laid a hand on her shoulder to calm her. “I can have someone retrieve your belongings and keep them safe.”

She nodded at him, thanks in her eyes.

“Where are we going?” She hadn’t thought to ask before.

“To my home, to Scotland.”

9

The trip to the airport was short and uneventful. Instead of parking in a garage and going through the terminal, Asmund pulled right up to the tarmac, and they boarded the private jet from the ground.

Thinking about how much the jet was worth had Kelly’s head spinning. Not to mention the fees to take off and land and the fuel for the flight. She was in far over her head, and it made her want to run back to her sputtering old car more than she cared to admit. It felt like people were paying her way, and she didn’t want anyone supporting her.

Instead, she boarded the plane at Fabian’s insistence, grabbing the handrail tightly. She peeked into the jet and saw how nice it was, almost puked, and turned right back around. “Nope, this is not for me. Too much, I’m out. Just take me back to my car and go about your lives.” She wanted to continue, but Fabian put his finger to her lips ever so gently.

He shook his head at her in the way he always seemed to when he wanted to tell someone they were wrong. “Get back up there and pick a seat. It is too late to turn back now, Warrior. You have started your journey.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Warrior?”

“Yes, it will fit soon enough.”

Lacking the energy to ask any more questions, Kelly turned back around to get on the jet. The interior was ridiculous in her book, and it was larger than it appeared from the outside. She glanced to her left to see the cockpit, which looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie; she couldn’t have explained it to someone if she tried. To her right, she walked through a kitchen area to what seemed to be the main passenger area. There were eight chairs in total: two on each side of an aisle with floating tables in between them, then four more behind them on the right side of the plane, split over a table, almost like a dining area. There were enough TV screens to fill a house, giving each person on the plane a clear view to one or another.

Kelly couldn’t help her curiosity and kept walking through the plane. A divider came after the passenger area, leading to a decent-sized bed on the left and a small countertop on the right. If that wasn’t enough, a full bath was behind the next divider. Everything was immaculate; not a single fingerprint shone on any of the smooth surfaces, and even the bed was made with the individual layers folded back just so. Her jaw went slack, mouth hanging wide open. Kelly didn’t even know they made jets like this. Movies and TV always showed private jets that had four, maybe six seats with cramped interiors. This was anything but cramped.

Fabian’s calm voice came from the passenger area, “Come, Warrior, you must take a seat. We will be departing soon.”

She turned to head back toward him and chose one of the first individual seats, sitting to face Fabian. “You’re going to have to expand on this sudden nickname eventually.”

He smiled at her, his light eyes shining with glee. “Soon enough.”

Kade boarded the plane next, followed by Asmund. They took the seats across from Kelly and Fabian, Kade sitting directly across the aisle from Kelly.

Kelly was facing the front of the plane, and she watched quietly as other people boarded. A man and a woman in captain’s uniforms came on and entered the cockpit. Then an older man appeared and walked toward them.

“May I get anything for any of you?” he asked kindly in an English accent.

“Thank ye, Brodric. I’m all right,” Kade answered.

The man then looked at each person individually. Fabian and Asmund both politely declined. Then the man’s gaze landed on her.

Realizing she’d left her water in the SUV, she accepted his offer. “I’d love a cold water, thank you.”

He bowed slightly, smiling as if it pleased him to be able to serve someone, and turned back to the kitchen area. The sound of doors opening and closing ensued, and then he was in front of her, holding out a bottle of water and an empty glass with a napkin wrapped around it.

Kelly took what he offered, smiling graciously. “Thank you so much.”

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