Inseparable (15 page)

“Not negotiable, Lily. It’s done,” He smiled. Kella leaned across to plant a kiss on his cheek. She winked at me. I managed to smile back, when the doorbell rang.

Okay. Here we go.

I’d never been on a plane before, much less a private plane. All my expectations were based on movies, and apparently my expectations were pretty damn low.

“Wow,” I gasped as I walked through the door, into the plane. It was huge, but had only enough recliners to seat eight people. I felt bad for suddenly wishing Steffy was further away; this would be awesome to travel somewhere longer than an hour. I blushed at my thought. What kind of person thinks that?

“Wow is right,” Dane, who was behind me, stopped to stare.

“Move along guys,” Grumbled Kella, waiting impatiently on the bottom run of the stairs.

I took the front recliner, sinking into the soft beige leather. Wow. I needed one of these for home. Dane sat beside me, his expression mirroring my awe.

“This is fucking amazing,” He mumbled, his eyes darting from the huge leather recliners, to the well-stocked bar.

“Wait until you taste the food,” Fraser, who sat with Kella opposite us, chuckled.

Food? My mouth watered at the mention of it. I hoped it wouldn’t be too far into the flight before they started serving. I had skipped breakfast, and I was starving. My stomach grumbled, agreeing with me that food was needed. Dane glanced at me and shook his head.

“What?” I grumbled, embarrassed. Why did my stomach always growl in front of him?

“Nothing,” He chuckled, “I love it when your stomach talks.” He laughed as I blushed. I gave him a look, and turned away to blush in private. In my head, I was still obsessing over that text message.

I love you. Love you.

Why? Why had I done such a stupid thing? And why hadn’t he said it back? Was I completely wrong about the feelings that I thought were between us? I racked my brain, trying to think of signs from when we were together that his feelings for me were there. I felt reassured. There were plenty of times that he’d showed his feelings for me.

Then why did it make me so anxious that my slip had been ignored?

The delicious smell of fish, butter and garlic swam through the cabin. A man in chef whites came out carrying a tray of plates. My mouth watered as he placed a dish in front of me that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a 3 Michelin star restaurant.

“Thanks,” I murmured. I couldn’t wait to tuck in. I slid my knife through the fish, watching as it flaked apart. Running my fork through the mixture of flavors, I placed it in my mouth. Wow. Amazing. The flavors exploded on my palate, sending feelings running through my body that closely mirrored an orgasm.

“Oh god this is good,” I moaned. Dane grinned, shaking his head, as he ate his food.

“What?” I protested, his amusement not nearly enough to slow me down. I couldn’t get enough of this dish.

“You,” He chuckled, “I’ve never met a girl who loves her food so much.” He watched me eat, laughing when I poked my tongue out at him. “It’s a good thing, Lil. Extremely attractive,” His tone lowered, his eyes dropping as he leaned across to nibble at my neck.

“Guys! Please. Save that for your room,” Grumbled Kella, pushing away her empty plate with a look of disgust. With a hit of a button, her legs flew into the air as the recliner made use of its name. Fraser rolled his eyes.

“I get it, Lil. Pierre is my favorite chef in America. His food is better than sex,” His grin faltered as Kella shot him a look, “Well, you know what I mean…” He added, trying to recover from his fumble. Dane and I laughed.

Only Kella could reduce Fraser Garrington to a bumbling mess.

“Well you and Pierre have a lot of fun in your hotel room tonight,” Retorted Kella, turning herself away from him.

“Come on, Kella. You know what I meant. Sex with you is amazing-“

“Oh ew!” I covered my ears. Now it was my turn to be repulsed, “Guys, we don’t need to hear about your sex life,” I complained, as Dane chuckled beside me. Both Fraser and Dane exchanged a look. I knew that look. It was the ‘women are hard work’ look. I grabbed my Ipod and plugged my earphones in.

“You can both get fucked,” I grumbled, closing my eyes, determined to keep to myself for the rest of the trip. The last few days had been so draining both emotionally and physically, a good night’s sleep was a distant memory for me. I drifted off to sleep to the soothing sounds of Metallica.

Dane woke me as we were about to land. Truthfully, I had only been asleep for about half an hour, but it was enough to boost both my energy and my mood. Sitting back in my seat, I watched out the window as the plane hit the runway in what was a fairly smooth landing; or at least it was in my limited experience of landings. I caught Dane looking at me.

“What?” I asked, embarrassed. I hoped I hadn’t been talking in my sleep again. This was one of the few times I’d slept without seeing Abby.

“Nothing,” He chuckled, “You just look so cute sitting there all excited about the landing.” I pushed his shoulder.

“Well excuse me, Mr Seasoned Traveler, this is my first trip on a plane,” I grumbled, blushing. Fraser looked up, surprised.

“Seriously? You’ve never been on a plane?” He asked, cocking his head. Was it that unbelievable that I’d never been on a plane?

“That’s what I said,” I replied, annoyed. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I stood up, stretching my legs. Dane pointed at the seatbelt sign which was still flashing red. I rolled my eyes and sank back into the chair, as he chuckled beside me. I glared at him, this lack of sleep making me cranky. He made a face and mouthed ‘sorry’. No, but he would be if I didn’t get a decent sleep that night.

Chapter Seventeen

I stood back as Dane slipped the card into the door of our hotel room, which was spookily room 22. My first thought was to ask for another room.

Stop being stupid, Lily.

The last thing I needed was to feed my stupid superstitious paranoia.

Dane flicked on the lights, as I walked into the room. There was only one word for it.

Wow.

The floor to ceiling windows overlooked the New York skyline which, at this time, was a sparkling array of lights. It was beautiful, and the room itself was stunning. The king sized bed sat at one end of the room, complete with mountains of pillows, and an expensive looking bedspread. Everything looked new, modern and expensive, even the toiletries.

“Holy shit,” Dane murmured, widening his eyes as he too looked around the room.

He walked ahead of me, over to the window, “Shit, Lil, come over here.” I walked over as he slid the sliding door open. The sound of the city came to life. Horns, people talking, yelling. I spotted a group of boys playing soccer in the park under the light of the streetlamp. This was completely unlike anything I’d seen before. It was embarrassing that I was an American who had never been to New York.

“Have you been here before?” I asked Dane shyly, not wanting to seem like the naive country girl I felt like, even though I was far from naive.

Or a country girl.

“A few times, but never in this kind of style,” His smile faded, as if he suddenly remembered why we were there. “The first time I came here was when I was twelve. Steffy was almost three. She’d loved all the bright lights, and the noise,” Dane stared out the window, his mind far away,

“I can’t believe she might have been here all along, Lil. What if I could have helped her earlier? I should have done more research when they caught Earl.” He shook his head, anger clouding his features, “I just assumed when he confessed it was over, but maybe I wanted it to be over. What has she been through since that day?”

I couldn’t answer him, nor could I even begin to imagine the guilt he must be feeling. The thing that weighed most on my mind was how broken Steffy might be if we
did
find her. After ten years, who knew what kind of sexual, physical and mental torture she’d faced?

How do you come back from something like that?

Standing behind Dane, I wrapped my arms around his waist, my chin resting on his shoulder. No matter what, I vowed to stay strong for him.

“We will find her, Dane,” I promised. I only hoped I could keep that promise.

“So,” Fraser began, putting down his menu, “Where do you plan to start?”

I glanced at Dane, who shrugged.

“We have no idea. We have a name, and that’s all,” I admitted. For the first time I found myself wondering what in the hell we were doing. New York was a big place, and making someone disappear wasn’t exactly a difficult thing to do. Thousands of people went missing every day, and many of them were never found, whether they wanted to be or not.

“Okay. I know a guy. I will see if he can meet us. He’ll probably be your biggest help,” Fraser began texting his ‘guy’

“Okay,” I said slowly, my eyebrows raised, “And who exactly is this ‘guy’ of yours?”

“My second cousin. Let’s just say he was studying computer engineering at Oxford until he was expelled for hacking into the ASIS, FBI, and Oxfords computer systems,” Fraser smiled.

Well, that did sound like someone who might know where to start with this. I glanced at my menu, deciding on a chicken ballotine. According to Fraser, this was one of New York’s top restaurants that was usually booked out months ahead, unless you were filthy rich or famous.

I gaped as Al Pacino walked past. Dane caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back, glad I wasn’t the only one star struck.

Our meal came (which was wonderful) and we followed that up with dessert. My triple chocolate mousse with pecan crumble went down a treat.

“So, I won’t be around tomorrow, I’m taking Kella to meet my parents,” Fraser began, “I will leave you two with my driver. Anywhere you need to go, he’ll take you. I will also line you up to meet with Reece.”

“Reece?”

“My Oxford guy,” He reminded me. Oh. Right. “I will warn you, he can be a bit of a creep,” He added, after a moment.

Wonderful.

Dane smiled, looking as upbeat as I’d seen him since we had arrived.

“I guess we will go back to the hotel and work out what we are going to do,” Dane sighed, looking slightly overwhelmed.

“Okay, well as soon as I hear from Reece, I will shoot his number through to you. What’s this name you have?”

“Eva Feluca,” I said. Fraser wrote it down.

“Sweet. We might drop by your room later, just to see where you’re at,” He said, putting away his cell. I nodded, standing up. Dane reached for my hand. Kella smiled at the gesture.

“I’ve said it before, but thank you so much,” Dane murmured to Fraser, “All you’ve done to help us…” As his voice trailed off, I squeezed his hand.

“Anytime. And I mean that,” Fraser said, and I could tell he meant it. He’d do this a thousand times over if someone needed his help.

Back in my room, Dane and I tried to think of the best way to start.

“Okay,” I said, grabbing my laptop, “What do we know?” Dane was about to say something when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and checked the message.

Lily, Reece is around tonight if you two want to meet him.

“Maybe he will have a better idea than us,” I shrugged, showing Dane the message, and then dialling the number. I waited nervously as it rang.

“Yo.”

“Hi. Uh, My name is Lily, Fraser-“

“Yo Lilleeeeeee,” A loud voice drawled, “Lily, Lily, Lilleeeeeee.” My eyes widened as I frowned at Dane. What was this guy on?

“Yeah. So Fraser said you might be able to help us with something,” I said nervously, not convinced I even wanted this guy’s help.

“For my man Frase? Anything. Where are you guys staying?” He asked. I heard a car door close.

“The palace hotel. We’re in room 22,” I said, “Or we can meet you in the foyer downstairs,” I added quickly. Why didn’t I say the foyer first? Something told me I didn’t want this wacko in my room.

“Nah, probably best in your room, darling. The last thing we want is to be overheard,” He laughed at his double meaning. I made a face at Dane, who nodded and rolled his eyes.

“Okay. See you soon.” Hanging up, I gaped at Dane, “What the hell was that? And he’s Fraser’s
cousin
?”

“Cousin who got himself expelled from one of the top universities in the country,” Dane pointed out, amused. I shook my head, still reeling. I hated being referred to as baby, or darling. The only person who got away with it was Dane; I loved it when he called me sexy.

“The important thing is he can probably help us,” I said, more for my own benefit than Dane’s. How hard would it be to convince Dane to stay in my room tonight? I didn’t want to risk this Reece character trying to hit on me, which I had a feeling he would.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Looking at Dane, we both got up and headed for the door. Reece strolled in as soon as it opened, without being invited, high fiving Dane, and stopping to stare at me.

“Well, Frase didn’t tell me what a hot piece of ass you were,” he cocked his head and let out a low whistle. I felt Dane tense next to me. I put my hand against his chest, to reassure him it was okay.

“Can I get you a drink?” I asked, opening the fridge.

“A beer would be great, honey,” Reece smiled, throwing himself down on the sofa, “so, what’s up?” He asked as he kicked his shoes off.

If the situation had been different, I might have laughed at Frase’s cousin being such an ass, but it wasn’t. The fact was Reece was probably our best shot at finding Steffy if what Fraser had said was true, and that meant playing nice. No matter how hard that might be.

“Here you go,” I said, smiling sweetly as I handed him his beer.

“You want one?” I asked Dane, who shook his head. “Okay. So, we need to find an Eva Feluca,” I said, sitting next to Dane.

“Right,” Reece said slowly, “can you give me anything than her name?”

Shaking my head, I made a face. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“You’re lucky you’re such a looker, honey,” he murmured, pulling a laptop out of his bag. I rolled my eyes, biting down on the urge to go off at him. “Okay, so give me something. Why are you looking for her?” He asked curiously.