50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Seventy-Nine

    "You were correct. The same day the footage of Mr. Graham showed him in an airport, Harry Palmer flew out of Toronto via private jet. His flight arrived into Ronald Reagan National Airport approximate an hour a forty minutes later."

    Brian exhaled and nervously chewed on his nails. "Good. I mean...that's good."

    "I'm running a search on any photos that were taken of Palmer's jet," the private investigator said on the other end of the line. "I'm hoping for photos of him and his entourage getting off of the plane. Checking for any familiar faces, Mr. Graham's included. I should have those photos shortly. Did you have an e-mail address where you wanted me to send them?"

    "Yeah." Brian spelled out his personal e-mail address. When he hung up the phone, he remained standing near the window. The cop car was still out there, with its interior dome light on. What the hell are the cops out there for? he wondered with a frown.

    "So...we were right, then?" Destiny asked from where she sat on the couch.

    He angled a look at her. The look in her eyes when he'd declined to sit next to her had nearly killed him, but it was something that he had needed to do to protect his own heart. If Aubrey was out there somewhere, restrained and unable to walk free, then it would stand to reason that once he was home safe, Destiny would go back to him. It wasn't even just that she would go back to him, but she should go back to him if that was the case. Knowing that, he couldn't continue to stay close to her and flirt with her, and be touchy with her. All that would do is further confuse the situation and run the risk of his feelings being even more hurt once she went running back to Aubrey. "Yeah. Palmer flew out the same day the footage aired."

    "Wow." She stared down at her hands.

    His brow furrowed as he looked at her. "How soon do you want to fly out?"

    "The next flight out," she replied.

    He pulled up a travel application on his phone while trying to hold back a yawn. With his eyes narrowed in concentration, he scrolled through the list of flights. "There are some flights leaving out in a few hours, but we haven't packed or gotten any sleep. I'd rather leave out first thing in the morning." He scratched his head. "Shit, that's selfish of me, isn't it? Aubrey could literally be tied up somewhere getting tortured or some shit and I'm standing here thinking about sleep."

    "It's been a long day," she told him, rubbing her eyes with balled fists. "It wouldn't take me long to throw a few things in a suitcase, but I do feel like I'm going to pass out where I'm sitting."

    "Can we agree that we should get some sleep before flying out?"

    She nodded. "It's either sleep here or pass out as soon as we get to D.C."

    "All right...I'm going to pack some things tonight, before going to sleep." He scrolled down the list of available flights. "Seven-ten in the morning? Is that too early?"

    "That's fine," she said, standing from the couch and picking up her laptop. "If we're going to leave out that early, I need to start packing like...five minutes ago."

    "Same," he said, turning away from the window. He watched her leave the room, trying to keep his feelings in check. This time tomorrow, he could quite possibly be watching her run into the arms of another man.

    While listening to the sound of her footsteps on the stairs, he picked up his guitar from its spot beside the armchair, sat in the chair, and strummed a few chords from the acoustic instrument, all the while fighting not to wear his heart on his sleeve.