Page 88 of Wanted

If she had stayed and given me a chance.

Dammit.

Mark has effectively arranged our trip, as soon as we arrive at one of the airport’s private hangars, the jet is ready to take-off. Despite the tension and tiredness, I can’t sleep as we fly across the country from west to east.

We’ve been in the air for about four hours when Mark’s phone pings that he’s received a message.

“Shit,” I hear him say under his breath.

“Is she there?” It’s my only concern right now. “Do they have her already?”

“Simba,” he says using the ridiculous nickname he has given me, taken from The Lion King. “Stella was not on the plane.”

The knot in my chest tightens again. “B-b-but you said she boarded.”

He makes a strange gesture, looking at the ceiling of the aircraft before answering. “I don’t know. As soon as we get to Miami, I’ll have a little more information. Charlie is already taking over, there is no one better than my wife.”

I hope that is true, because all I want is to find mine.

And if I know her as well as I think I do, she must be on her way to Carrollton. Seeking refuge in what is known to her.

“Let’s go to Kentucky,” I order.

Mark lets out a heavy sigh before answering. “Listen, Lionel, I know that you think you’re right, but right now she can be anywhere. Even in Los Angeles, she might have left the airport or taken another flight to Europe, Cancun. To Timbuktu.”

No, none of those sounds like Stella.

“Don’t be ridiculous, she doesn’t have a passport.”

“You don’t know that,” he replies, and I realize it’s true. I don’t know for sure.

Miami even at dawn is just as I remembered it, warm and humid.

All I can think of is that Stella would love to be here and see the sea. The Caribbean is so different from the Pacific. Here the sand is white and the water so clear that you can see the bottom. Images of her splashing in the shallow water appear before my eyes.

Mentally I promise to bring her here as soon as possible.

Better yet, to an island where we will have the beach just to ourselves.

I just need the opportunity.

“Either you put this plane in the air right now and we’re off to Carrollton or I’m going on a commercial flight, your call.”

I’m sick of waiting, sick of being here, doing nothing.

This feeling of helplessness is burning inside me. It’s essential I get to her before someone finds out about her flight and hurts her.

“I have news,” he announces and I hope this is good. “We found out who bought Stella’s ticket and it’s not good news.”

What the fuck. “Speak.”

“It was your mother,” he lets out in a voice that seems resigned to me. “She also got another ticket for a certain Carolina Lafayette, currently Stella must be on her way to her hometown.”

Damn, then she did listen to the discussion between us and that made her run. I need to reach her. So many hours wasted when I knew from the beginning where I assumed she would go is back to what she knows as her home.

No, that’s no longer true. Her home is with me.

It’s where she belongs.

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