Chapter 10
Who says crap like that? He didn’t know me, and my eyes weren’t saying anything. I turned my attention back to life floating by while cocooned in my little world. Okay, maybe he was a little right. Not that I’d give him the satisfaction of knowing.
“Have you ever been to New York?” Harlon asked, tearing my attention away from the sights.
“No. Most of my sisters have, but I haven’t.”
“Why, because of your fear of flying?”
“I don’t fear flying, Harlon. I fear being led to my doom under someone else’s control. It’s why I took flying lessons growing up. I faced my fear head-on.”
His mouth parted. “You’re a pilot?”
“Of course,” I said. “I refuse to be at anyone’s mercy when I die.”
“Including a pilot you don’t know?”
“Exactly. If the guy at the controls has a heart attack and keels over, I know how to take over. I’ve trained for it. I’m the maestro of my life, which is why my sister knew I’d never get on a plane willingly as a passenger.”
“Well, welcome to my hometown. After we find Suzie, I’ll show you the sights.”
“We have three days,” I reminded him.
Dean paused the car outside a gate before being let in. A canopy of trees covered the long well-lit driveway. There was only one way to describe the house in front of us; it was a mansion. The kind you only see on television.
“Wow. Did you grow up here?”
“I was about ten when my mom remarried,” he answered as the car rolled to a stop. Harlon opened the door and held his hand out for me to take.
“Was that your first Christmas together that I saw?”
“Our second. Our first was ten times worse,” Harlon said, approaching the door.
He didn’t even have to knock before the door opened.
“Harlon,” a redheaded woman said in greeting. She had a clipboard pressed to her chest.
“It’s about time,” the man standing next to her announced. “Your father has been acting out, and we need to sedate him, but we were trying to wait until you arrived.”
“Thanks, Gordon,” Harlon said, guiding me into the house with his hand on my back, ushering me while making introductions.
“Ruby, Gordon, this is Nina Bennett. Nina, this is my assistant, Ruby, and Gordon is my father’s doctor.”
I smiled at both.
“Where’s Fitz?” Harlon asked, leading us through a maze of hallways.
“In your father’s bedroom,” Gordon answered.
“Fitzgerald Carpenter is my father’s personal assistant. He’s been with the Manny’s family since before Manny and mom married.”
I hadn’t known this was going to be a group project. It was awkward enough being led through a house by a man I barely knew with others following us. Only a handful of people knew what I could do. I wasn’t quite ready to share my gift with a ton of strangers.
Harlon knocked twice before opening the door into a large room. Blackout drapes covered the windows and only bedside lamps and a fireplace illuminated the space.
A man with his face and head swathed in bandages was lying on the bed. Medical machines beeped. The display on the monitor glowed steady green.
An older man with gray hair had been sitting in a chair by the bed reading a book. He snapped it shut when we entered. “Is this her?”
