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  “Layla?” Jay questioned.

  “Um, hum,” she mumbled.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Someone…a man just called me. He…he knew my number,” she managed to stutter out.

  “Okay, Layla, I need you to calm down,” Jay insisted with overwhelming concern. “I need you to tell me who called you.”

  “Some man…I don’t know for sure, but I think he was one of those men from before.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said he knows where I live, and he knows I’m alone. God, Jay, I don’t know what to do. He told me if I called the police I would regret it.”

  “Okay, listen to me. I’m on my way over. I’ll be right there,” he promised. She heard muffled sounds as if he had his hand over the mouthpiece of his phone. The only word she heard clearly was ‘now’. “Layla, are you still there?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered as though someone would hear her if she spoke at normal volume.

  “Okay, just stay on the phone with me until I get there,” he stated. “I’m less than ten minutes away.”

  “Alright,” she replied. She could tell by the background noise that he was in motion, then she heard car doors slamming.

  “I’m in the car, Layla,” he said. “Just stay on the phone. I need you to check the doors to make sure they’re locked. Can you do that for me?”

  “Yes,” she answered, rushing to the front door and pulling on the handle. “The front door is locked.”

  “Okay, go check the back and the side doors.”

  She did as she was told, oddly comforted that he was on the line, as though she was not so alone and vulnerable.

  “All the doors are locked,” she reported.

  “And the windows?” he questioned.

  “Yes…yes, we always keep the windows locked.”

  “Good, that’s good,” he said down the line. “I’m almost there.”

  “Hurry,” she muttered.

  “Okay, just talk to me,” he added.

  “About what?”

  “Tell me all about your new car,” he said in a calming voice. “Tell me what it looks like.”

  She stood by the front door in case she needed to make a quick exit and told him all the details she could remember. It seemed like eons had passed until she finally heard a car coming up her street.

  “Layla, I’m almost at your house,” he said.

  “I can hear the car.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the Range Rover pull into her driveway through the window.

  Fumbling with the lock, she thanked heaven that Jay was finally there.

  Jay stood on the top step with Issy, both of them holding small automatic guns straight up in both hands, eyes skirting in all directions. Ben stood at the bottom of the steps, holding a gun in the same fashion, head moving from right to left, looking for any sign of danger. Joey stood by the Range Rover, same style gun in his hand, same stance.

  “Let’s go,” Jay said without lowering his weapon.

  Layla walked down the steps with Jay and Issy on either side. When they past Ben, he took up the rear so that she was almost completely surrounded.

  Joey nodded over to them then jumped into the driver’s seat of the car and started the engine.

  Jay opened the back door for Layla. She climbed in and scooted over to make room for Issy, who followed behind her. Jay got in on Layla’s other side as Ben lowered his gun and jumped into the front passenger seat next to Joey.

  Layla suddenly had a bizarre thought that she had watched a similar scene on an episode of NCIS. The notion caused her to laugh out loud until she realized that her nerves were probably making her slightly hysterical.

  Jay put his arm around Layla protectively. “Tell me what happened?” he said as Joey backed out of the driveway and onto the road.

  Layla relayed what the man had said. Ben was turned sideways in his seat, looking at Layla from the side of the headrest.

  Issy turned her body half-way around and took both Layla’s hands in hers. “You’re safe now,” she said quietly. “We’ve got you.”

  Ben pulled out his cell phone and tapped on the front then put the phone to his ear. “Hey, Fletcher, it’s Ben,” he said into it. “We need to leave town right away.” He listened to the man’s reply before speaking again. “Yes, Greenwich,” he said, nodding slightly. “How long until she’s fueled up? Good, good,” he said then hung up. “She’s all ready to go,” he added to Jay.

  Jay nodded, biting on his lip.

  “Where are we going?” Layla asked.

  “I’m taking you away somewhere,” Jay said. “It’s not safe for you here at the moment.”

  “Did you say Greenwich?” she asked Ben.

  Ben nodded but said nothing.

  “As in Greenwich, Connecticut?” she pushed.

  “Yes,” Ben replied quietly.

  “How?” she questioned. Were they just going to purchase five plane tickets at the airport? But then she decided that she really didn’t need an answer. They could have said Timbuktu at that moment for all she cared. Anywhere was fine as long as she wasn’t stuck home alone.

  Jay squeezed his bottom lip and threw his head back on the headrest, sighing deeply. “Layla, I’m so sorry about this,” he said, looking up at the ceiling of the car.

  “It’s not your fault,” she answered.

  “No, actually it is my fault,” he replied. “If I had been strong enough to stay away from you…”

  “Don’t do that to yourself, Jay,” Issy scolded. “You had no way of knowing they’d find you here.”

  “Still, I had no right to…” he trailed off again, wincing. “God, I’m so sorry.”

  “Who would find you?” Layla questioned. “Tell me what’s going on?”

  Chapter 14

  Joey took the exit for Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

  Layla’s head was turned in Jay’s direction expectantly.

  “I’ll explain when we get out of the car,” he said quietly.

  They rode up toward the two main terminals, but instead of driving over to the nearby parking lots, Joey took a left, past more parking and on down a narrower road.

  Layla was baffled as to where Joey was going until he slowed down, nearing a hanger at the back of the airport that was used for private planes.

  Out in front of the hanger, sitting on a smaller runway, was a long, sleek, white plane with the door already opened and stairs attached. A few airport employees were mulling around it.

  Joey stopped the car some feet away. He and Ben jumped out of the Range Rover as Jay and Issy opened the back doors.

  Layla climbed out after Issy and followed her over toward the back of the plane while Ben held back and walked behind with Jay.

  As she walked past the tail of the plane and around to the stairs, Layla got an eyeful of the name written across the side: Vallen Enterprises.

  She stopped short, momentarily overcome with bewilderment. “That’s that missing billionaire guy, isn’t it?” she asked dubiously.

  No one answered her.

  “What the heck is going on here? Are we getting on that thing?”

  “Yes,” Joey answered frankly, leading the way to the aircraft. He ran up the steps with Issy and gave a quick salute to the pilot who was standing at the door, dressed in traditional pilot clothing.

  Layla stood at the foot of the stairs, reluctant to climb up, unable to make sense of the situation. She turned around to face Jay and Ben who were quietly standing behind her. “Why are we getting on this plane?” she questioned.

  “We’ll explain inside,” Jay replied with a solemn expression.

  Layla stared at him, her mind racing all over the place, trying to come up with some sort of conclusion.

  Suddenly a memory popped into her mind. She remembered the crystal glass she’d found in Jay’s cupboard along with the drinking glasses—the glass that bore the initials A.J.V. ‘A.V—Arthur Vallen,
’ she thought.

  “Please, Layla,” Ben urged impatiently, gesturing for her to climb the stairs.

  “Do you…do you know him?” she questioned, looking back and forth between Jay and Ben.

  Ben nodded once.

  She turned around and plodded up the stairs, trying to come up with a reason why they would be getting onto a plane that belonged to a billionaire. Perhaps Jay’s father worked for him, she concluded. But if that was the case, why hadn’t Jay told her that? She seemed to remember that he told her his father did something with computers, but he was pretty vague about what that was, now that she thought about it. Maybe someone in Ben’s family worked for Vallen, or Joey and Issy’s. But the day at Jay’s house when they were watching the news story about Vallen’s disappearance causing a stock sell-off, why didn’t anyone mention that? And why would there be a glass in Jay’s house with Vallen’s initials on it? Obviously, the glass was just a strange coincidence.

  “Good evening, Mr. Vallen,” the pilot said formally. “Welcome back.”

  Layla turned sharply to see who was behind her, but there was only Jay and Ben.

  “Thank you, Paul,” Jay replied, then shot Layla an odd, sideways glance.

  Okay, so why did Jay just answer the pilot as if the comment had been directed at him?

  “Are you…?” she trailed off, narrowing her eyes at him. She was about to ask him if he was related to the billionaire, a nephew perhaps, or maybe even his son. But then it hit her that his last name was Logan, or at least he told everyone in her high school that it was.

  “Are you…?” she tried again, unable to form the right words.

  “Please, Layla,” Jay said, ushering her onto the plane. “We’ll talk inside.”

  In a thick fog of confusion, she turned toward the cabin and stopped short, overcome by the vision before her. It was absolutely beautiful. Large, white, leather couches sat on crisp white carpeting that blended seamlessly with blinding white walls and ceiling. There was not another color anywhere. She had the instant feeling of being up in heaven. She swallowed her shock, walked forward and sat down on one of the couches.

  “You need to sit in one of these seats for take-off,” Issy yelled over to Layla, her head peeking out from behind a white curtain.

  Layla walked forward and through the curtain to see Issy sitting in a regular airplane seat, complete with seatbelt. She sat down in a vacant seat next to the girl and adjusted the seatbelt around her waist.

  “It’s just for take-off,” Issy said, or at least that’s what Layla thought the girl said. She was still too baffled to pay much attention.

  She turned sideways in the seat to look at Issy. “Is he…?”

  “Arthur Vallen? Yes,” Issy replied matter-of-factly, nodding, answering what she thought Layla was going to ask.

  Layla’s jaw all but hit the floor. “Wha…What?” she asked, blinking rapidly. “What did you say?”

  “That’s what you were going to ask me, right? You were going to ask me if Jay was Arthur Vallen?” Issy questioned.

  “No, I don’t think I was,” Layla answered in a dazed voice.

  “Oh, well…” Issy said, lifting her shoulders as if her revelation was no big deal. “I thought that would have been obvious by now.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that Jay is really Arthur Vallen, the Arthur Vallen…the billionaire…the missing billionaire?” Layla stammered. “But his name is Jay.”

  “He really is Arthur Vallen,” Issy replied sincerely. “His name is Arthur John, but he doesn’t really like the name Arthur, so we call him Jay, the first letter of his middle name,” Issy answered.

  Layla opened her mouth but closed it again when no sound would come forth.

  “I know,” Issy said sympathetically, tapping Layla’s shoulder.

  “But…but what about Logan?” Layla stuttered.

  “Logan is an alias that Jay uses from time to time. The name Vallen can carry with it a certain unwanted notoriety at times, especially now that it’s been plastered all over the news for the last few months. Sometimes Jay uses that name when he wants to go somewhere and just blend in—”

  “Like high school?” Layla asked incredulously. “Why on earth would anyone want to go to high school if they didn’t have to?” She was well aware that her voice was way off pitch from shock. She stuck her head around the curtain and gazed up the beautiful cabin. Jay, Ben and Joey were talking with the pilot along with another man in a gray suit that was holding a large, hand-held, two-way radio. Jay leaned back and laughed at something the man said, then ran his fingers through his hair the way Layla had watched him do so many times before. She suddenly felt betrayed, as though they had purposely deceived her. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, turning back to Issy. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “We couldn’t,” Issy answered, sensing Layla’s agitation. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t tell you the truth. It was not our intention to lie to you, but Jay is in a bit of danger, and we couldn’t risk anyone finding out where he was.”

  “I…I don’t believe this,” Layla mumbled, shaking her head. She felt almost dizzy from shock. “What sort of trouble is he in?”

  Issy bit down on her lip as though she was debating whether or not she should divulge that information to Layla. “I suppose you have a right to know,” she said, having made her decision. “Jay has been working on something, a sort of medicine, something completely breakthrough. Those masked men who tried to grab him tonight have been looking for him for the past four months. They want to steal his work, his research. We considered confronting them during the summer, but Jay was worried that one of us would get hurt, so he decided to flee, to lay low until we could figure out a plan. It appears that he didn’t hide himself well enough, though,” Issy explained.

  “One of them said that there were a lot of people looking for him,” Layla recalled, the penny dropping.

  Issy nodded. “But as to why he decided to go to school, I couldn’t really tell you. I think he figured it made his ruse more convincing,” she added. “That or maybe he was bored sitting around that house all day long.”

  “So Jay, whom I thought was a regular high-school student, is really a mad scientist?” Layla asked, bewildered.

  “Well, the mad part I’m not so sure about, but he is a scientist of sorts,” Issy answered.

  “I…I don’t believe this?” Layla said again, stunned beyond imagination.

  Issy reached over and put her hand on Layla’s leg. “I truly am sorry,” she said. “We just couldn’t risk anyone finding out who he really was. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “I…” Layla trailed off, trying to wrap her head around everything Issy had said. “Of course,” she said quietly, realizing that Issy was not to blame.

  “If it’s any consolation, he really cares about you. I’ve never seen him so taken with a girl before,” Issy added. “It hurt him deeply when he ended your relationship almost two weeks ago. I didn’t think he should do it, but Ben was pretty adamant and probably also right to a certain degree. But I guess Jay just couldn’t stay away from you.”

  Layla widened her eyes and shook her head, trying to absorb that piece of information.

  “Also, he’s going to be beating himself up pretty badly for getting you involved in this,” Issy stated. “So if you could find it in your heart to go easy on him, I’d really appreciate it.”

  “No, yeah…yeah, of course,” Layla mumbled, too overcome to even begin to figure out how she felt about the situation.

  “Thanks,” Issy said sincerely, squeezing Layla’s knee affectionately.

  Layla sat quietly for a long moment trying to come to grips with the startling revelation. “How is this even possible?” she blurted out. “He doesn’t look a day over eighteen, maybe twenty-one, pushing it. And where are his parents?”

  “Both his parents died some time ago,” Issy said. “He’s been head of the company since he was quite young. He had been around that business for
years, knows all the ins and outs.”

  “How do you fit into this?” Layla asked.

  “We didn’t lie to you when we said we’d been together since we were tiny children,” Issy replied. “We really are a family.”

  Layla nodded. “Where are the guys?” she questioned, looking through the curtain and up the empty cabin.

  “There are more seats like these up front,” Issy explained. “Jay probably assumed that I was filling you in on everything and decided to give us some time alone.”

  Before Layla could say anything else, the thundering racket of the plane’s engine filled the cabin, which was a blessing as she really didn’t know what to say and welcomed the distraction to give her time to think everything through.

  Layla thought of the times she’d spent at Jay’s house, laughing and joking with him, the easy, comfortable relationship they shared. And then she thought about the billionaire with an entire corporation to run, one of the most successful and famous in the world. Where would she even begin to fit into his world? ‘There’s no room in our world for a girl like that,’ drifted into her mind again. At least that made sense now.

  When the plane was safely in the air, Jay stuck his head around the curtain. “Hey,” he said shyly.

  “Hey,” Layla replied sheepishly.

  “Will you come and sit with me?” he asked. “Can we talk?” He held out his hand hopefully.

  Layla nodded and took off her seatbelt. She put her hand in his and allowed him to lead her through the cabin and onto one of the beautiful white couches.

  When they were seated, Jay turned sideways to look at her, biting on his lip as he stared at her, waiting for her to say something.

  “Wow…so…yeah…that was weird,” Layla said awkwardly.

  “Um…” Jay breathed, nodding.

  “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this,” she admitted. “I feel like I don’t know you.”

  “I’m still the same person, Layla,” Jay replied quietly. “And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you my real identity.”

  “But you’re one of the riches people in the world,” she said incredulously. “How is that even possible?”