Page 186 of Triggered By Love
“Wears aviators to disguise his trendiness.”
“Has a motive to kill you, now that his father’s dead and you inherit part of the estate.”
“Harvey Leach,” Avery and Jason exclaimed at the same time a pair of shining silver and black shoes strode down the aisle toward the back of the plane.
Chapter Sixty
As soon asthe airplane reached cruising altitude, and the captain had turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, Jason told Avery he was going to stretch his legs. He kissed her and adjusted the tiny pillow for her. She hadn’t slept well, and with the steady hum of jet engines, she had finally relaxed enough for a catnap.
It wasn’t easy going to the back of the plane. Avery had booked first class seats for them, and the flight attendants kept directing him to the lavatories in front.
“I have blood clotting problems,” Jason explained. “In my legs, and I need to do some walking. I’ll stay out of the way of the drink carts.”
He was glad the airplane was a wide-body, but it also meant two aisles to explore and look for those distinctive shoes.
Also, if Harvey was smart, he would not wear the shoes. Hadn’t he seen Avery and Matt talking about the shoes? Or perhaps they didn’t air that clip. Alida would have chopped it off because it featured a different designer’s wares.
Jason completed one pass and didn’t see anyone wearing the snazzy silver and black shoes. The tread was unique, but it wasn’t easy to see the bottoms of people’s feet, especially if they were tucked underneath the seat in front.
He had turned around at the rear lavatories when prickles buzzed on the back of his neck. Someone was watching him. He wished he had his gun, but of course, it was checked. Then again, Harvey, if he was on the airplane, wouldn’t have a gun either.
What would he use as a weapon?
Jason went through the list of TSA allowed items.
Bare hands. Laptops. Cell phones. Baby bottles. Clothing and accessories that weren’t sharp. Would porcupine quills fit? They weren’t metallic, so they wouldn’t set off alarms. They could conceivably look like thin straws or coffee stirrers under the X-ray.
Since he didn’t want to alert Harvey to his surveillance, he made his way forward and purposely got stuck behind a drink cart which was moving from front to rear. He kept backing up, looking sheepish while looking through the mirror app on his phone.
One row from the back, he spotted a foot in the aisle with the designer cross-trainer. The owner of the shoe quickly moved it when Jason stepped over it, going backwards.
“Excuse me,” Jason said. “Got stuck behind that cart.”
He turned toward the lavatory and took a picture of the average-sized figure. It wasn’t a good angle, but the person appeared to be female with long, brown hair. Thin, slightly gangly, with none of the softness of a woman, but without going up close, he couldn’t tell.
The owner of the snazzy cross-trainers appeared to be knitting. And then, it dawned on Jason.
The TSA allowed knitting needles.
What if the poisoned quills were inside the hollow needles?
He went back to his seat and put on elbow-length leather gardening gloves that were thorn proof and used for pruning roses, cacti, and blackberry bushes.
And then, he waited, sitting in the aisle seat and blocking access to Avery’s exposed skin.
Jason fought his heavy eyelids, jerking himself awake, and even slapping himself. His hands were sweaty underneath the heavy gloves and his palms itched. He didn’t see how that woman would attack Avery, but at the same time, he could see how a drama king like Harvey Leach would dress as a female and create an opportunity to get Avery.
If she woke and needed to use the lavatories, he would block the aisle and make sure no one approached her. He was totally prepared, and sure enough, Avery woke and asked him to step aside.
The coast was clear, and Jason took a quick look back. No one appeared to be coming from his aisle, but now, the wide-body jet was a disadvantage. He couldn’t see the other side, and the flight attendant would not allow him to hover outside the lavatory.
“Sorry, sir, but you can use an available one in the middle of the plane,” she said.
He started toward the other side and planned to double back when Avery emerged from the lavatory and came toward their seats. He was about to breathe a sigh of relief when someone shouted in a high-pitched voice, “Miss, you dropped your earring.”
Avery turned around, still too far away for Jason to defend her. She took a step toward the “woman” whose bone structure was definitely manly, then felt her earlobe.
Looking puzzled, she said, “It must be someone else’s earring.”
