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“Jet?”
“Leave it, Ava,” he spits. “I don’t feel like talking right now.”
I grab his bicep, making him stop. He whirls to face me, and the hardness in his eyes makes me flinch.
“What did he say?”
“I said leave it. Why the hell can’t you just fucking listen?”
“Why the hell can’t you just talk to me?” I fire back.
“Not now. Go back to the villa.” He pulls our key card from his pocket and pushes it into my hand.
“Jet?” I call after him, but he ignores me, storming off toward the main hotel bar.
I rub the back of my neck as I pad barefoot into the kitchen to get a drink. It’s 2AM and I spent a couple of hours writing when I got back from dinner before heading to bed. Jet never appeared during that time. Whatever Callaghan said to him can’t have been good. I’ve seen him angry before. But this time, there was something else in his eyes. Somethingdesperate.
The door to the deck is open and a familiar outline is slumped on the outdoor sofa. I grab a couple of bottles of water and walk out into the moonlight.
“Maybe it’s time you switched refreshments.”
Jet looks at my outstretched hand for a moment. Then he nods, placing a tumbler of amber-colored liquid onto the table and taking the bottle of water.
“Thanks,” he murmurs.
I sit beside him on the sofa.
“What does it mean if you can’t reach a deal?” I ask softly as I stare out over the calm surface of the ocean.
His hoarse whisper has my heart clenching. “Everything.”
He’s already looking at me as I turn toward him, his eyes glassy.
“We could lose the whole airline, Ava.”
“Jet,” I breathe. This isn’t him. The defeat in his eyes, the way his shoulders are sagged, conveying his hopelessness. I prefer asshole Jet to this version.
“Everything my great grandfather started and my family has built ever since, all lost because of me.” He turns to stare out over the water.
“That can’t be—”
“I’m the US CEO. It’s all down to me. Thirty-one percent of our fleet’s engines have a recently discovered design fault. They need replacing in the next two months, or we’re screwed. The only engines manufactured that can replace them with minimal disruption to the flying schedule are the ones Callaghan has the supply contract for. He could spare enough to get usthrough until we take our first delivery from Logan Rich ourselves. It won’t even affect his operation because he’s introducing them in stages.”
“Then why won’t he—?”
“Because this is business. We’re his biggest competitor. With Atlantic Airways gone, he’ll have the monopoly of all North American routes.”
“That’s wrong, though? He’ll be able to set his fares to whatever he likes.”
“Regulations won’t allow him to do that. But it’ll be too late, anyway. We’ll be finished.”
Jet takes the lid off his bottle and tips his head back, drinking half of it in one go.
“There must be something you can do. Did he give you any idea what it would take for him to change his mind?”
Jet’s eyes meet mine before he drops his gaze away. “Nothing that’s mine to give.”
I sink back into the cushion, my thigh brushing his as I look up at the starry sky.
