Page 43 of Even if You Fall

I lifted a hand as if I was surrendering, only to argue, “Not that we didn’t already know, but it became painfully obvious this week how easy it is to fake files on someone. There’s been a lotabout Chloe that’s needed to be challenged, and you know that. You needed me to do that.”

“What I need is for you to keep her safe.”

My head slanted, sure I’d heard him and the unmistakable implication in his tone wrong.

Before I could ask Briggs to repeat himself, he said, “We need to switch things up to see exactly what they’re threatening this time. The last time, they trashed the office while we were gone. This time, we’re clearly being followed. I need to know if they’ll continue following us if we leave, or if they’ll stay here and do something to the houses.”

When I glanced around at everyone else and noticed the lack of surprise, I realized this was something they’d already discussed when I’d been up front with Chloe. “What do you meanwhen we leave?”

“Texas,” he said meaningfully. “If the Wreckers go to where they think we’ll be, we’ll know they’re after the girls. If they stay here and send a message while we’re gone, then we’ll know that’s all they wanted.”

I let my stare sweep around the conference room again, dread unfurling in my chest as I muttered, “And when you sayleave Texas...” Before he could respond, I held my hand up again. “Wait, what do you meanIneed to keep Chloe safe?”

“Aruba?” I cried when I stepped into my house that evening. “Is this real life?”

“Apparently!” Lainey shouted from her side of the house, looking as excited as I felt and slightly frantic as she rushed into the living room. “Why Asher waited until exactly an hour ago to tell me, I havenoidea. But, you know, guys.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” I let my purse strap slide from my shoulder and caught it between my fingertips as I brought myself back from the excitement I’d been trapped in ever since Asher had dropped theAruba-vacationbomb on me just as I was leaving for the weekend. “It’s...it’s the middle of September. Why do they take trips in September?”

Lainey held out her hands before letting them slap on her thighs. “He said it’s usually a slow time for them and also nice to go on vacation when it isn’t peak traveling season? Something about military people not liking crowds?” She shrugged.

“But why didn’t he—or any of them—mention it untilthis afternoon?” I asked, earning an irritated sound from Lainey.

“Trust me, I already gave him an earful for failing to mention something so huge. It’s a good thing I know the owners of the preschool so well, or else I’d probably lose my job.”

I hadn’t even thought about that.

My job wasn’t at risk because my entire office was shutting down for the next weekforthis trip. And, honestly, it didn’t matter that I’d just found out, or that I probably needed to run to the boutiques in Huntley Square to get vacation-worthy clothes.

I literally couldn’t believe that, tomorrow morning, I was going on a trip that Asher was fully funding. But more than that...Aruba!

After this, I was sure I could survive my job and the irritable men that worked at Shadow Industries. Because, honestly,what boss does this?

“I have to do laundry,” I told Lainey as I hurried past her.

“Mine just switched to the dryer,” she said on a giddy laugh. “Do you wanna?—”

“Huntley Square?” I asked, making her head tip back with a louder laugh.

“Meet you in my car in fifteen,” she called out, already racing for her room again.

Through shopping, dinner, and calling my parents to tell them the unbelievable news, I was practically dancing across cloud nine. When Lainey and I returned home, we blasted music through the house as we packed, all while worrying over what to bring and if we were forgetting anything.

And even though we said dozens of times that we needed to go to bed early since it was going to be such an early morning for us, we were still excitedly gushing over the upcoming trip well past midnight.

By the time I finally slipped into my bed, I wondered when I would wake up from this dream.

We’d been in the air for about an hour, and the dream had ended long before I ever got on the plane.

I mean, granted, I was on a private jet, which was probably the coolest thing of my life. I’d known Asher had a lot of money—like, penthouse-apartment-in-downtown-Dallas kind of money before he’d bought the large farmhouse he and Kaia lived in now—but it still shocked me when we’d ended up at a private airfield early this morning.

Apparently, business was good.

However, the jet I was on wasn’t the same one Lainey, Asher, Kaia, and Cameron were on, even though theirs had seemed plenty large. Instead, I was trapped on a jet with the man who bounced back and forth between hating me and giving me the silent treatment. Alone. As if I hadn’t been having a hard enough time trying to control my unfounded, unreciprocated crush with the enigma that was Adam Thatcher.

But being alone with a distractingly gorgeous man who was taking over my every thought hadn’t been what ripped me from the dream—obviously. It also hadn’t been my inability to wrap my head around the fact that scary Asher could afford to charter multiple private jets. It was that Hudson, Mallory, and Beau hadn’t been at the airfield with us, because they were staying put—in Dallas—and no one was going to Aruba at all.

Yeah . . . so I’d more than likely packed bikinis for nothing.

---