Page 49 of Blind Devotion (Letters of Ruin #1)

A Few Hours Earlier

“Put that away. We’re almost to the helicopter. And keep your head down.” Alizé wrapped her arm around mine as I folded the mobility cane back up. She escorted me across the flattened lawn they apparently used as a helipad. “Try to look less blind.”

I’d be offended if this wasn’t Alizé. She always seemed to be up to something.

“Why do I feel like this has turned into a Mission Impossible scenario where we are stealing off with a big secret?”

“We are in a way. Whatever’s causing friction between you and my brother, it made him fly away, and it made you ask me to take you to Lyon.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out he’d lose his mind if he found out what you were doing without him.

I mean, come on, he’s barely left your side since you came back into his life. ”

Deep satisfaction stirred within. “So?”

“So…up you go. Duck.” She helped me position my hands around the handles to pull myself up into the helicopter. “What do you think Adrien will do if he finds out you’re not at the house as he expects?”

“I’m not his prisoner.”

“No, but that doesn’t mean much with over-the-top protective men.”

Even upset with him, those words did something to me.

“Men in this industry think it’s their due to be possessive assholes. Which means he’ll recall his men home, with you in tow, regardless of what you want, if anyone realizes who you are before this helicopter takes off.”

“He knows how much this means to me. He wouldn’t.”

“You underestimate my brother. Either way. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. He’ll find out soon enough. By then, it’ll be too late, so he’ll have to meet us there.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. Turn here.”

We walked through an aisle that smelled of leather and air freshener. Alizé guided me for a few steps until we reached whatever seats she deemed good enough. Comfortable, almost plushy seating.

“Are you sure this isn’t a plane?”

“De Villiers only fly in style. None of that two-seater hard-ass crap. Sports cars. Private jets. Luxury choppers. We don’t skimp out. Adrien has even been known to hold a board meeting in here. So just enjoy the ride. Mimosa?”

Popping open a champagne bottle, she poured the bubbling liquid into glasses. A refrigerator hummed as she took out the orange juice.

“You see. My brother’s a lot of things, but when it comes to you, he’s one hundred percent predictable.”

Maybe to her, but not to me. He was still a mystery in a lot of ways. As she passed me a champagne flute and the engines spurred to life in an oddly muted fashion, I accepted that maybe that was one of the things I loved about him.

We fought. So what? All couples fought. It didn’t have the power to end us unless I allowed it to.

Not him, me, because I already knew where he stood.

He’d said it over and over. He didn’t want to lose me.

All he’d done while keeping this secret was try to protect what we now were to each other.

I could respect that. I, too, wanted to keep what we had.

It was real. It wasn’t arranged, and it wasn’t forced on us.

This was just two people falling in love despite the circumstances.

Maybe I was clinging to an ideal I’d had as a kid, something that never really made sense to begin with.

If I let that go, well, then all that was left was a desire for closure for the girl I had been and the promises he broke back then.

I didn’t blame him for where I ended up.

That blame lay solely with my father, but I needed to know if Adrien regretted his choices and if it would happen again.

We landed at the Lyon-Bron Airport with the sun still high in the sky, both of us tipsy from the number of mimosas Alizé kept mixing.

At this point, we were both swerving in place, laughing at the most inane things.

Like the way our driver’s cap was too large for his head and covered half his face.

Or how his “ Bonjour ” was more strongly accented than my brother’s French.

Or how the doors to our private car closed so quickly behind us, our bodyguards didn’t make it in before we were moving.

“Do you think they’ll catch up?” I asked with a laugh.

Alizé’s responding chortle quickly cut off.

“Eh…well, this isn’t ideal.” I heard a smack of flesh on flesh. “Come on, Alizé, time to sober up.”

I giggled, tracking her blurred movements in the dark vehicle. “What are you doing?”

She contorted herself in her seat, whacking my arm or kicking my leg. “I always plan for shit like this.”

“What shit?”

“Here, this one’s for you.”

She shoved a small cylinder into my hands.

“Why would I need lipstick?”

“Take off the lid.” There wasn’t a trace of humor left in her voice.

I did, pricking my finger on a sharp edge in the process. “What the hell?”

“Pepper spray and knives. A girl’s best friends. We need to be ready.”

As I sucked the blood from my thumb, Alizé continued to wiggle in place, and the car bumped along the road.

Granted, the little I could see was shit, but even I could tell the green blobs zooming past us weren’t city buildings.

So that I wouldn’t freak out, before leaving Adrien’s home, I had memorized the vocalized online directions from the airport to the hotel.

There should have been traffic and noise.

Buildings and people. It was too quiet here.

My jaw started to tremble, and my hands clenched in my top, twisting the fabric.

My buzz was gone, replaced by the heavy pounding in my ears.

“Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“It’s exactly what you think it is. They’ve locked the doors. When the car stops and they open one, we fight and run.”

Oh god, not again. I gripped my chest, my heart thumping fast and hard. “Our guards?”

“Unconscious, most likely dead from the blood I saw.”

“No, no, no.” There wasn’t enough air in here. “I can’t go back there. I can’t live it again. I won’t.”

“Eh.” Alizé grabbed both my arms and gave me a shake. “Get out of your head, or we’re both dead. You don’t go through the effort of killing four armed men for a trafficking scheme. This is something else.”

I blew out a very shaky breath, focusing on her words. This is something else , I repeated in my head. This is something else . Every part of me was shaking as I capped the hidden knife and slipped it into my bra.

“You’re sure?”

“Nothing in life is sure, but it’s a damn good guess. Panicking will only give them an advantage. Remember everything I showed you?”

Over the last couple of weeks, Alizé and one of her guards attempted to teach me a few self-defense lessons, but I found it difficult to understand their explanations when they were mostly geared toward visual learning.

I couldn’t see the movements she demonstrated, and being held by another man sent me into PTSD flashbacks, which meant the guards couldn’t replicate the positions in order for me to practice.

It made learning nearly impossible. Adrien stood in a couple of times, but he had no experience with self-defense, having focused his training more on kickboxing and Muay Thai. I shook my head.

“Fine. We’ll figure it out.”

The car slowed down.

“Calm and collected, got it?”

I shifted toward one door while she scooted down the seat toward the other. The car stopped.

“Remember, just run.”

The doors opened. I tried to force my way out, thrashing, but hands grappled at me. I didn’t get a chance to do more before a needle pricked my neck. My thoughts and limbs went numb, and then I was out.