Page 36 of Bitter Heat

Everyone waited for her to move first. She passed Roth who then took the lead and headed to the elevator. Sarai’s eyes flicked back and forth between her and Roth as if she were watching a tennis match. When she noticed Jasmine’s glare, she looked up at the ceiling.

When they exited the hospital, two SUVs were waiting for them. She waited for him to climb into the back of one before she went to the other. She was pleased to find Kaia already seated with her nurse.

“I’m glad you’re coming with us,” Kaia said.

She tried to give Kaia a reassuring smile, but was sure it was more of a grimace as she climbed into the very back and prayed this was the longest nightmare ever and that she would wake up soon. Johan climbed into the driver’s seat and adjusted the mirror until he could see her. Did he think she was going to bail?

Kaia and the nurse chatted all the way to the airport while she closed her eyes and tried to relax before she was locked in a confined space with Roth for several hours. Lack of sleep, the unrelenting cold, and her soreness, in general, intensified her tension headache. She felt ill and achy. All she wanted was a bed and to get away from all these people.

They pulled up to a private airstrip. She wasn’t pleased when it began to snow because she refused to get stuck here. Fuck that. She boarded the plane and immediately begged the flight attendant for more aspirin, which she procured before she found an empty seat. She chugged the ginger ale and pain pills and gave the jet a cursory glance. It was plush and warm and done in soothing neutral shades. She didn’t care. She had been on dozens of jets. All she cared about was snatching the farthest seat from Roth. Unfortunately, the plane wasn’t a 747, so the only eight seats available were divided into sets of four that faced one another. The guards and Kaia and the nurse had taken the back seats, which only left the front four, two on each side of the plane with tables between. Roth and Sarai were sitting across from one another with their laptops out. Sarai had an iPad in hand and was going over his schedule. She had no choice but to take the chair across the aisle from them. She accepted the blanket the flight attendant offered with a shaky smile and huddled against the window. She pulled down the shade, draped the blanket over her head, and tried to block out the world.

“What’s wrong?”

She didn’t have to open her eyes to know who was bothering her. He was the bane of her existence, the dude who made a career out of torturing her. She gave him the middle finger from beneath the blanket and silently told him to go to hell. When the blanket disappeared, she moaned and covered her head.

“Go away!”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“You. You’re what’s wrong with me. Leave me alone,” she muttered.

Two weeks ago, she buried her father. Yesterday, she rushed his mother to the hospital during a heart attack and then spent the night doing the dirty with an ex she hadn’t laid eyes on in five years. Two hours ago, he roused a past she thought she had come to terms with and then forced her on a plane with him and his entourage. The more apt question was, what wasrightwith her? Absolutely nothing.

“Are you sick?” he persisted.

“Yeah, I’m sick of your bullshit.”

She heard a choking sound and realized her chair was back to back with Kaia’s. She swallowed the filth she wanted to spew at him and kept her face averted.

“She asked for aspirin earlier,” Johan piped up.

“You have a headache?” Roth asked.

Why the fuck did he act like he cared? “Yes, I have the migraine from hell. Leave me alone.”

The blanket came back over her. She huddled beneath it like a kid in a tent. She didn’t care what she looked like, not when her head was threatening to split open. As the engines revved, she covered her ears with her hands, but it did nothing at all. Once they were in the air, she propped up the leg rest and stretched out, turning her body away from Sarai and Roth. Thankfully, she couldn’t hear them anymore over the deafening hum of the plane. Good.

Ahand shook her awake. She groaned and slapped it away. She was warm and comfy, and that was all that mattered.

“Jasmine.”

That voice jerked her out of a dreamless sleep and back to nasty reality. She opened one eye and saw Roth’s angry mug hovering over her.

“We land in fifteen minutes.”

Damn, it wasn’t a bad dream. She sat up and touched her hair, which was a mess. The migraine was gone, but she was so tired, she felt hung over. Weeks of little sleep had finally caught up to her, and she needed her bed STAT. She rubbed at her eyes, then remembered she was wearing makeup, so she staggered to the bathroom. The too bright mirror showed that her mascara was smudged, and she had definitely tossed and turned during her nap. After doing the best she could to make herself presentable and using one of the tiny bottles of mouthwash to freshen up, she felt a little better when she emerged. On her way back to her seat, she saw Kaia peering out the window. Seeing Kaia alert and active gave her gloomy mood a boost.

She paused beside Roth and held out her hand. “My phone.”

She felt Sarai’s curious gaze as Roth pulled her phone out of his breast pocket and handed it over. She turned on her phone as the plane began its descent. She ignored all the chirping noises as she texted Lyle to let him know she had landed. As the plane taxied, she dialed Sunny.

“You’re killing me,” Sunny said.

“I know. I just landed. Can you pick me up from—”

The phone was snatched from her hand. Before she could unbuckle her seat belt, Roth told Sunny her services wouldn’t be needed and hung up.

“What the hell is your problem?” she snapped.

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