Chapter 2 - The Gateway to the Pack
The seatbelt sign chimed above us, but the sound felt like an alarm going off inside my chest. The plane taxied toward the gate at O'Hare International, the massive glass structures of the airport looming outside the window like a maze I was about to be trapped in.
"Who?" I whispered, my fingers tightening around Lily’s little denim jacket. "Noah, who is asking about me? I didn't tell anyone I was coming to Chicago. Not even my sister."
Noah turned his phone toward me, his thumb scrolling through a secure messaging app used by his security detail. A text from his lead asset read:
Target perimeter secure. Note: Local police detailing a domestic dispute at Baggage Claim 4. Individual matching description of Ryan Vance is demanding passenger manifests from gate agents. Claims his wife abducted their child.
My breath hitched. The cabin air suddenly felt freezing cold. Ryan.
He didn't care about Lily, and he certainly didn't care about me. But he cared about control. The moment he realized I had actually left—that I hadn't stayed in Austin to beg for the crumbs of our marital estate—his ego had driven him to hunt me down. He wanted to catch me at my lowest, in public, to prove that I couldn't survive without him.
"He's going to try to take Lily," I panicked, tears finally blurring my vision. "He'll make a scene. He'll call the police. Noah, I don't have a lawyer yet. My accounts are frozen."
Noah stood up, pulling his navy jacket straight. The ordinary passenger from the middle seat was gone; in his place stood the billionaire executive who commanded thousands of employees across three continents.
"He's not taking anyone, Emily," Noah said, his voice dropping into that same quiet, unyielding authority he had used with the woman in sunglasses. He reached into the overhead bin, pulling down my heavy diaper bag and slinging it effortlessly over his own shoulder. "Grab the stroller. You and Lily are coming with me."
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"But your security—your privacy—"
"You let me use your shoulder to escape the sharks for two hours," Noah smiled, a flash of genuine warmth breaking through his serious expression. "The least I can do is let you use my security detail to escape yours."
