Xavier secured the door before taking the seat just inside, catty corner to me, his back to the cockpit, his long legs folding next to me. The closing of the door didn’t diminish the sound, just muffled the sharpness.

I found a seatbelt and secured it and tried my best to smooth and retie my hair. Then I looked over at Xavier.

His eyes were bloodshot, his hair wild from the wind, and I suddenly noticed he’d misbuttoned his shirt getting dressed earlier. I hung on to that small detail to remind myself he was a human and terrified father and not a megalomaniac billionaire who thought I’d wronged him. Not deep down. At least I hoped so.

He turned his head to nod at the pilot over his shoulder and unhooked a set of earphones from his headrest, putting them on. He tapped them and pointed to beside my head.

I turned my face, seeing the headset right next to me by the window.

My stomach lurched as the machine rose, and the pier rushed away beneath us. Fumbling with the earphones and the mouthpiece, I managed to get them on.

Silence.

My ears rang in the void of sound as I adjusted. Then Xavier spoke, something in French. The pilot responded. They conversed back and forth a few times.

Outside the window, the low sun cascaded over the peninsula of La Revellata and over the azure bays. It was hard to believe what had happened down there just a couple of hours ago. I should have been building emotional armor instead of falling all the way in love. Because damn it, my heart was splintering, and I wanted to double over with the pain of it.

Fear for Dauphine was the only thing keeping me functioning.

Then the helicopter banked, causing me to grab onto my seat with both hands, and turned out to sea.

“Josephine,” Xavier said in my ears.

I looked up at his flat mouth and his blank eyes.

“I have told the pilot to put us on a separate channel. Can you hear me?”

I nodded, my belly nauseous.

“Start talking.”

I took a calming breath and counted to three. “About what?”

“Don’t be diff—”

“Difficult? I’m trying really hard right now to give you the benefit of the doubt,” I snapped. “I didn’t resist when you basically frog-marched me onto this death-trap of a machine only because I’m also terrified for Dauphine. And every second you think I had something to do with her being taken is wasting precious time figuring out who actually has her.”

His eyes narrowed. “What did he say to you?”

“Morosto? You already asked me that on the beach that afternoon.”

“And you didn’t tell me.”

“Because there was hardly anything to say,” I said and leaned toward him. “He made a pass at me. He told me I could come and be a nanny in his house.”