Page 90 of Spooked

“You can call me Tulsa.”

“You’re coming with us?”

“No, I’m just here to oversee the security screening.”

Now what was Alexa playing at? “Security screening?”

“Oh, chillax, I’m joking. Echo told me about your girlfriend’s little problem.”

“Echo? Who’s Echo?”

Chase reached forward and presented Brax with a passport. “She means Alexa. This is for Indi.”

“Why is she called Echo?”

“Nobody uses real names around here.”

Brax thumbed through the passport’s pages. If this was a forgery, it was a damn good one. He reached the detail page and swallowed hard when he saw the name.Indali Vale.He stared harder, but there it was in print.For fuck’s sake, Alexa.This was her workaround? Didn’t she realise that Indi was trying to avoid marriage altogether, not be flung headlong into a fake one? And as for his own feelings… He found he didn’t hate the idea as much as he should have.

“I spent a year in Brazil when I was younger, so I’m here to help with translation where necessary,” Chase said. “If Meera’s okay, I’ll just soak up the culture. Alexa’s slammed with work, so she’ll cope on her own for a week or two as long as people bring her food.”

“And my daddy’s second wife was Portuguese, so I’m on translation duty too,” Tulsa added. “Are there any snacks around here? We skipped breakfast.”

“Snacks are in the galley,” Priest told them as he headed back to the cockpit. “It’s self-service. Jezebel, make yourself useful and close the door.”

Jezebel? Who was Jezebel?

Jerry, apparently. Brax raised an eyebrow as she walked past.

“It’s just a name. I have twenty of those.”

“Is Priest your boss?”

Tulsa answered for her. “He likes to think he is.”

Figured. Somehow, Brax couldn’t imagine either of those women taking shit from anyone.

* * *

“Brax, did you sleep with Jerry?”

Indi spoke in a whisper, but it might as well have been a shout. Since nobody else was using the bedroom, he’d led her back there to try and get some sleep, but it seemed that her mind was working overtime.

Lying wasn’t an option, though.

“It was a long time ago.”

“I’m not like her.”

“And I’m very glad about that.” He paused for a moment, but she didn’t speak. “Does it upset you that I have a history with Jerry?”

“Not really. As you said, it’s in the past. I guess… I guess I just worry that I’m not good enough. She’s obviously successful at whatever she does, so confident too, and I’m only a mediocre PA.”

Was that really how Indi saw herself?

“You couldn’t be mediocre if you tried. And much as I’d love to keep you as my PA, your place is in a hospital. As soon as we get the situation with your father resolved, anyway.”

“You’d let me go back to medicine?”

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