Page 8 of Chasing Paradise

Then, finally, the screen loaded.

And there was his face.

No, I couldn’t rely on his jaw or chin.

But it was the same brow, forehead, nose, cheeks, and, yes, those extremely distinct green eyes.

“Wait!” I yelled, pushing my phone into my pocket as I turned to run toward the gate. “Wait!” I yelled louder, seeing his white tee disappearing from sight.

“Ma’am,” the flight attendant said, stepping in front of the doorway. “Do you have your boarding pass?”

“No, I don’t have a ticket, but that man—“

“Ma’am, if you don’t have a boarding pass, you need to leave.”

“But—”

“If you don’t move along, I’m going to have to call airport security.”

Dammit.

“I’m going,” I assured her, holding up my hands. “Sorry,” I added, looking up at the digital screen for the gate.

Flight 1254.

To Cuenca.

That certainly sounded like it was in South America.

A quick search on my phone confirmed that suspicion.

He was going to Ecuador.

“Shit.”

I paused, staring up at the ceiling and sucking in a deep breath.

I guess I was getting a ticket to South America.

And asking my father to keep his criminal friends on standby.

CHAPTER THREE

Violet

I downloaded an offline editing app before I climbed on the plane to Ecuador, then spent an hour or so fiddling with his image to give him a beard that looked at least somewhat like the one he was currently sporting.

Done with that, I slept the rest of the flight, landing at the Cuenca airport feeling achy, hungry, and half tempted to just turn around and go back home.

I don’t know why, but I’d been expecting the weather to be similar to Florida—hot, and worse yet, humid. But Cuenca was pleasantly moderate as I stepped outside of the airport.

I glanced side to side, even though I knew the chances of my skip still hanging around were next to none.

Then, relying on my tentative grasp on my four years of Spanish in high school, I managed to figure out where the next town was, and how to get to it.

I crossed my fingers that Warwick would want somewhere to rest and recharge after his flight.

He likely had no idea he was being followed. There was no reason to assume he would be in a hurry to get out of the general vicinity. He would probably be hitting up the local haunts,spending some of that ill-begotten money, having the time of his life. Free as a bird.

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