House of Royale (Secret Keepers #4)(22)
The boat was not where we left it yesterday; someone had moved it to a nearby marina. I helped Callie, practically carrying her, until she collapsed against Daniel’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and again this seemed to send some relief and energy through her.
Xander was the driver, comfortable behind the wheel of the marine craft. The engines seemed extra loud in the early morning silence, and in no time we were moving across the water.
Step one was complete. Hopefully the next two legs of the journey would go as smoothly.
8
The helicopter was not waiting in a nice, open, easy to access sort of area. Once we were off the boat, we had to cross about two miles through a pocket of forest. I worried about Callie, but she kept up without fuss. I wasn’t the only one shooting her concerned glances; she just wrinkled her nose at us.
“I’m fine,” she repeated more than once.
I was distracted when we reached the helicopter. I’d never been close to anything like it—it was like a large beast, sending plumes of leaves and dust flying as the blades rotated. I didn’t know who the pilot was, but clearly he worked for one of the overlords. Xander maybe, because he greeted him like an old friend.
“Tommy, thanks for getting this all set up so quickly for us,” I heard him say over the racket.
We were all given protective headwear and then buckled into seats. The pilot wasted no time getting us into the air, and I was enthralled by the sight of the land growing smaller below us—while also trying not to vomit since I wasn’t exactly used to flying.
I wasn’t sure how the headsets worked, so I didn’t try to talk. I just let the million thoughts in my head go free. A lot had happened in the last two days, starting with my rescue of Maya in the water. But for some unexplained reason none of it felt weird.
It felt right.
That in itself should have had me flipping out, but I just … went with the flow. Wherever this new path took me, something told me it would be better than the path I’d been on. Loneliness … displacement … isolation. Silent killers, slowly leeching away my will to live, turning the world dark and depressing.
The moment I’d seen Maya, my vision filled with so much … hope. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I did. These seven people—aliens—were what I’ve been searching for. Even if I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time.
The helicopter ride was uneventful—I’d been tense the entire time waiting for an ambush. When we landed at an airport, Lexen got out first, and after he had a quick look around, helped Emma, Callie, Maya, and me out.
No one slowed, rushing across a large open expanse of asphalt toward a very shiny white plane.
“Xander’s plane,” Emma explained to me in a low voice. “He had one of them moved to this small airport. Luckily it has a just-long enough runway for this size of aircraft.”
I’d probably be an arrogant bastard like Xander if I had a private plane as well. Wanna go shopping? Sure, let’s take my plane.
I must have been grinning to myself, because Emma chuckled. “I can guess what you’re thinking. All of them have private planes. It takes some getting used to.”
That hadn’t been what I was thinking, but now that she pointed it out, I had to ask, “How can they all have a private plane? I mean, how do aliens make money here on Earth?”
They were royalty, sure, and maybe the government gave them lots of money to integrate into our world. Still, private planes were not cheap, even for royalty.
“They’ve been coming to Earth for a long time,” Maya said, picking up the conversation, her shorter legs pumping hard as she tried to keep up with us. “They own tons of companies, have their fingers in all the major industries, and basically control a lot of the world’s wealth.”
Number two reason to be arrogant. Still, Xander was a being of the water, like me. Money could not buy the true beauty in life. He should know better.
As if he’d heard that—or maybe it was the narrow-eyed glare I leveled on him—he tilted his head in my direction. “I own PlastoDestruction. Our company designed the machine that is stripping the oceans of plastics, pollutants, and other trash. I’m using my money to preserve this world for as long as possible.”
That placated me somewhat, so I gave him a nod and tucked my bitch face away. No doubt I’d have to bring it out again soon; Xander was very good at pushing my buttons. But I had heard of his company, and I’d long admired the work they did. The smallest of grins tilted up the corner of his lips as he reached the steps to his plane. He had a quick chat with the pilots who were standing there before they boarded the aircraft.
He turned to us. “Everything is good to go. Final safety checks are complete.” He then stepped aside and let everyone board first. I ended up being at the back of the group, which meant Xander was eye level with my ass as he followed me up. I wanted to turn and see if he was staring, but part of me was worried he wouldn’t be, and that would upset me.
Because I was an idiot who stupidly cared if an alien found me attractive.
When I reached the landing, I stepped into the opulent entrance of his plane. There were large, plush chairs everywhere, and I chose one at random. Emma and Lexen were across from me. Maya and Chase to my right. Callie and Daniel were two seats back.