It was only after we reached the airport that River finally spoke to me. Funny thing was, I wasn’t in any mood to talk. His remark about Axe angered me. No way could Axe be involved with the destruction of my mom’s bookstore. He knew what the bookstore meant to her. I chalked up his remark to nothing more than his obsession with keeping me to himself. Pissed off, I opened the door of the Rover and looked toward the jet waiting for us.
“Wait, Kenzi,” River blurted as I walked toward the beautiful aircraft.
I ignored his request and kept walking. The thought of leaving Atlanta with no one knowing whether I was dead or alive crossed my mind. Was this really what I wanted? It wasn’t. Stopping at the foot of the stairs to the plane, I turned to River. “I am not setting a foot inside this plane until you allow me to, at the very least, call my mom and let her know I am okay.”
Reaching for my chin, River’s blue eyes met mine and reeled me into his charm. “As soon as we land in Chicago, I will allow you to call your mom. But only on one condition.”
“What condition?” I asked.
“The call will be put on speaker. I need to make sure that you don’t reveal where we are going.”
“Agreed.” It was a condition I could accept, but only for now. Eventually, River wouldn’t be watching my every move, and I’d be able to tell my mom everything, including where I was.
I ascended the stairs with River close behind. When I reached the top and stepped onto the plane, an attractive man greeted us. “Mr. Stevenson, it's good to see you again.”
“It has been too long, my friend,” River replied as he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze. “I’d like you to meet Kenzi Horton. She is the reason we are flying to Chicago.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Horton. I’m Neal Strong. I will be flying this beautiful bird.”
I accepted his hand, nodding and smiling politely. “It is nice to meet you as well, Mr. Strong.”
“Please call me Neal.”
“Only if you call me Kenzi.”
Neal Strong headed to the cockpit while River and I proceeded to the main cabin. Greeted with dark wood and black leather, I found the jet’s interior to be very masculine, but comfortable.Why wouldn’t it be?It matched the interior of River’s log home. Of all the seating available, I choose to sit on the leather recliner near the window. River sat across from me where a laptop was sitting on a small table next to his chair. Ignoring me as much as I ignored him, he swung the small table around and opening the laptop.
Distracting me from my focus on River, the sound of the turbo engines drew my sights to the seatbelt I hadn’t yet secured. Once my seatbelt was secured, my gaze shifted to the small window as I watched the yellow striping on the runway zip by. The jet lifted from the ground and I knew that in less than two hours we would land at O’Hare International Airport. I should have been thankful, but instead, an emptiness filled my heart. I felt like I no longer had control over my life and I was just a marionette, wondering what other decisions River would make for me. At least when I was with Axe, I felt like I had a choice. He never made me feel like I was a puppet and I had to do everything he said. The longer I thought about it, the more I missed him. Even though my and Axe’s relationship was new, I felt I could trust him. He would never do what River said. He wouldn’t betray me that way. Axe was a good man and not the monster that River was making him out to be.
Sinking deeper inside the soft leather of the recliner, I closed my eyes and focused on everything good in my life. I needed to trust the little voice inside my head and not the man I had known less than a week.
~
The flight to Chicago went by in an instant, most likely because I had slept the entire flight. Waking up at three in the morning plus the lack of sleep before then might have had something to do with it. I blinked away my tiredness as the jet coasted down the tarmac. When it finally came to a stop, I called River on his promise. “I’d like to call my mom now.”
Without hesitation, River pulled his cell from the inside pocket of his jacket, unlocked the screen, and handed it to me. Before I typed the first number, he placed his hand on my wrist. “Place the call on speaker. Remember what I said. Don’t tell your mom where you are.”
I rolled my eyes, annoyed by his continuing orders. The sound of the keystrokes came over the speaker. With only two rings, my mom hesitantly said, “Hello.”
“Mom, it’s me.” I blinked away the tears at the sound of her voice.
“Oh, my God, Kenzi. Are you okay? We have been so worried about you. Where are you?”
“I’m fine. How are you? I heard about the explosion,” I said, my voice cracking with emotion.
“The bookstore is gone. There is nothing left of it but ashes,” she choked. “You need to come home, Kenzi.”
“I can’t. At least not yet.” I looked up to find River’s eyes on me, with annoyance written all over his face.
As River was giving me the signal to end the call, there was still one thing left to say. “I have to go. Tell Axe that I’m okay.”
“There is something you need to know.”
“What is it, Mom?”
“It’s about Axe. He has been arrested. The police found evidence that he caused the explosion.”
My mind drifted back to the apartment and what I had found in Axe’s office. I still had a hard time believing that he would do this, but given what I had found, everything was making sense. River said that things are not always what they seemed, not even Axe. It wasn’t River that I needed to be wary of. It was Axe.