Turbulence (4 page)

Regardless of his objections, Mitch had told him to take her, so he would, but if she screwed up the outcome of their mission or jeopardized any
one
or any
thing
, then he would personally hang her out to dry.

A raindrop hit him square in the eye and he cursed at the
delay. This light drizzle could change to a downpour while he was sitting here like a bump on a log. Sure, he could fly in rain, but not a hurricane. If the weather worsened and he took the risk anyway, the odds of spotting the wrecked van would be slim to none. The sooner they got this show on the road, the better for everyone.

The door opened and he heard Dana’s voice before he saw her. “I’m back,” she said, sounding as if she’d been running.

“It’s about time,” he muttered, aware that he was acting as surly as Old Man Hollister on a good day. “Let’s go.”

He grabbed the handlebars and braced himself for a center of gravity shift as his unwelcome passenger climbed behind him.

It didn’t come. Wondering at the delay, he glanced over his shoulder and saw her eyeing his bike as if it were a rattler.

“A motorcycle?”

“I can maneuver through traffic faster on this than I can in my Explorer. So get the lead out and climb on.” He finished on an irritated note.

“Where’s your Explorer?”

From the hope in her voice, Micky suspected that she’d rather take a different mode of transportation. “At the hangar. This is your carriage for the moment, Cinderella.” He grinned at her discomfort. “Afraid you’ll melt?”

She squared her shoulders. “Certainly not.”

“Then get on.”

Once again, she appeared hesitant, and he wondered if he’d found her Achilles’ heel. If she was scared to ride a motorbike, then it only cemented his belief that she would be more of a hindrance than a help on this little trip. He’d rather go it alone than have her fall apart at some crucial moment. His resolve to leave her behind strengthened.

“If you don’t want to ride with me, you can either walk due
west about two miles or go back inside and bum a ride with someone else. But be warned, I won’t wait for you. When my preflights are done, I’m outta here.”

She frowned, but took a step closer. “What about a helmet?”

He patted the black headgear strapped behind him on the seat. “Here you go.”

She started to unhook the bungee cord straps holding it in place. “Where’s yours?”

“That
is
mine.”

She froze. “I can’t take it from you.”

“Then you don’t ride.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Doesn’t Texas have a helmet law?”

“We do, but I only carry one. Which means, for this trip, it’s yours.” Her reluctance at taking his helmet surprised him. None of his riders had ever been concerned about his lack of headgear. Strangely enough, her attitude thawed the cold spot he’d created for her in his heart.

“I also have medical insurance and have taken a motorcycle safety course, which gives me some leeway with the law,” he explained.

“I wasn’t worried about a ticket,” she protested. “If we wreck, I’d rather not see your brains splattered across the highway.”

“That makes two of us, but we won’t wreck.” Of course, he had no way of predicting such a thing, but he wasn’t going to look for trouble. “Put it on so we can go,” he said, using impatience to hide how deeply her concern had touched him. “I’d like to rescue those kids before the rain gets worse.”

He revved the engine and turned his back, using both to signal the end to this going-nowhere conversation. A few seconds later, he felt her weight settle behind him and a tentative tug at the back of his rain slicker.

He wondered if he should point out that his bike didn’t come with a sissy bar, but he figured she’d find out soon enough on her own. He simply spoke two words over his shoulder.

“Hold on.”

Without giving her an opportunity to argue, he took off. Her sudden screech and the way she wrapped both arms around his middle told him that she’d obeyed.

Normally the heady feeling of flying on the ground assailed him as the powerful engine ate up the miles. Today, however, he hardly noticed the rumble or the dips and bumps in the road. The sensation of Dana pressed against his back overshadowed everything else.

He mumbled a curse to himself. The intermittent rain and the bumper-to-bumper traffic of evacuees fleeing the coast wouldn’t make this trip a joyride, but having Dana plastered against him only added a huge measure of personal agony for him. It didn’t seem fair that a woman who was so irritating could make his body respond on such an elemental level.

There was only so much misery a man could take and he had to suffer through two miles of it. To preserve his sanity and keep from embarrassing himself, he intended to make this trip in record time, even if it wouldn’t be the most pleasant ride he’d ever given a passenger.

His mouth curled into a determined smile as he made a split second decision between hitting a stray dog or swerving through a puddle. Her gasp as the water sprayed them suggested that she was none too happy with his choice.

If he was lucky, when they arrived at the Turning Point airstrip, she would be begging to stay behind.

D
ANA HUNG ON TIGHT
as Flynn had instructed. At first, she’d done so out of self-preservation, but as they streaked through town on their wild ride, exhilaration and awe replaced any concerns about her safety. They careened down side streets and alleyways, dodged stray animals and cars, and hit every puddle in the process, but through it all, she realized that he remained in full control.

She’d been certain that his hair-raising tactics had been designed to intimidate her, and she privately vowed not to let him gain the upper hand. Some of the guys at the fire station back home had taken her on a few motorcycle rides, but those had been sedate by comparison. She tried to remember the pointers they’d shared, such as lean in the direction of the turn and relax, and once she’d recovered from the initial bone-jarring and breathtaking shock of going from zero to sixty in two point five seconds, she did her best to implement them.

After seeing the congested main street and thinking about his travel route, she decided that he’d simply been finding the fastest way to the airport. He probably hoped that a rough ride through the less scenic parts of town would work in his favor to scare her off this assignment.

She grinned, remembering her surprise when Flynn straddled his motorcycle. She shouldn’t have been shocked by his method of transportation. Clearly his need for speed de
manded fulfillment on terra firma as well as in the sky. Even if she hadn’t figured that out as soon as he spun out of the firehouse driveway, she would have realized it well before they reached the outskirts of town.

He took more turns than a roller coaster at Six Flags and she swore that he found every dip and bump in Turning Point’s streets, but in spite of all that, she enjoyed the sensation of zooming down the road with the wind against her face.

Granted, she still clung to Flynn, but she didn’t have the same white-knuckled hold she’d had when they’d started. In fact, after the last bump, when her butt had flown off the seat several inches and surprised her enough to gasp, she’d squeezed herself even more tightly against him. Considering how a mere glance from him weakened her knees, she should have opted for less contact and not more, but common sense had won out.

It was heaven. It was hell. She’d known it would be both.

Yet, what choice did she have? She didn’t trust him enough to come back for her if she flew into a ditch. Nor was asking him to slow down an option. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

She’d had a feeling that she’d be playing with fire if she snuggled against him on his Harley, which was why she’d hesitated when she’d first seen it. The sparks of awareness had already flown before Mitch’s briefing and again during their heated conversation. What really unsettled her, though, had been how, at one point during their exchange, an urge to kiss him and to feel his skin against hers had struck her like a lightning bolt.

Of course, she didn’t plan to act on that urge. How would he respect her skills as a firefighter and an EMT if she reacted like a love-struck female? Her goal was to gain his respect, not inflate his Texas-size ego.

And then he had to go and act heroic by giving her his hel
met. Underneath his overbearing, gruff, I’m-in-charge-of-this-operation manner, clearly beat a chivalrous heart.

As a woman who prided herself on being one of the guys in a male-dominated world, gallantry was the one thing that could turn her into mush.

As they left town, he took a more direct route, which warranted fewer twists and turns. She tried to stare at the scenery and caught sight of a few cattle, but the wide-open spaces only intensified the effects of the wind and rain and she buried her face in his back for the protection he afforded. In spite of her resolve to keep an emotional distance, she couldn’t help but notice his clean, outdoorsy scent with an underlying trace of engine oil. It was a fragrance combination she would never forget because it fit Flynn perfectly.

Nor could she ignore the broad shoulders that shielded her from the worst of the wind and drizzle—shoulders that felt warm and solid beneath his rain slicker and sent electricity skittering all the way down to her booted toes.

Their wild ride had done more than deliver them from point A to point B in less time than she’d imagined. It had made her more aware of him as a healthy, virile male, and her awareness was growing in proportion to the strength of the hurricane headed their way. And if she didn’t raise her guard, there would come a moment when she couldn’t ignore the attraction brewing between them, either.

Meanwhile, she’d privately enjoy this unexpected and delightful experience. Once this little journey ended, she’d set the walls back in place and he would never know just how much his simple touch affected her. Part of her reason for coming to Turning Point was to help her discover where she fit in this new life she’d found herself in. Falling into lust with a guy who was the complete opposite of steady, dependable men like Alex and her two fathers wasn’t in the overall plan.

What struck her as most ironic, however, was being attracted to a man who clearly didn’t think she was capable of doing her job. For years, she’d focused on her profession to the exclusion of all else, and in the end, what had it netted her? Men still tended to dismiss her skills until she proved herself.

Well, Micky Flynn was in for a surprise. Regardless of the fire flaring between them on occasion, she was a firefighter and knew how to douse those unwanted sparks. She also intended to show that she was well able to perform her job, no matter when or where it took her, including his precious state of Texas.

He slowed for a turn and Dana peeked around him as he entered the airport grounds. A small building stood straight ahead, and to its right, a large, steel-fabricated structure that sported a sign with discreet black letters.

Flynn Charter Service.

He didn’t just own a plane as a hobby, she thought as she cataloged one more piece of information about him. Flying was his business.

After carefully navigating through an open gate in the chain-link fence, he throttled the engine to cross the last few yards, then rolled through the open hangar doors to a halt inside.

The deafening noise of the engine echoing through the building suddenly stopped, and she blurted out the first thought in her head as she hopped off the back end.

“That was great! Can we do it again?”

His jaw dropped as he faced her. “Are you serious?”

“Of course. That was fantastic! Better than any of the rides at an amusement park. Did you think I wouldn’t like it?” she added on a breezy note, knowing from his poleaxed expression that he had.

A slow smile spread across his face and at the same time
she saw respect appear in his eyes. In that instant, she knew that they’d reached a truce.

“Yeah,” he drawled. “We’ll do it again.”

M
ICKY WALKED HIS
H
ARLEY
to the corner of the hangar where he parked it for safekeeping, hardly able to believe what had just happened. Damn if Dana’s eyes hadn’t sparkled with excitement. Not only that, but her face had turned a pretty shade of pink, and her wide smile couldn’t have appeared more genuine. The picture she’d presented as she’d hopped off his bike had been totally unexpected. He’d thought he would have to pry her off her seat with a crowbar, and instead, she’d been ready and eager for round two.

If their wild ride hadn’t scared her, he didn’t have a blessed hope of her choosing to stay behind while he flew off to find those scouts.

He almost felt guilty for the trick he’d played, but it wasn’t as if he’d purposely endangered her life. He simply hadn’t given her the sedate Sunday-afternoon drive he gave unseasoned riders. Now that he knew she’d been having the thrill of her life, he wondered why she’d initially appeared so reluctant to climb on behind him.

Whatever her reasons, he wanted to be angry at her for not reacting as he’d expected. How was he supposed to have known that her gasp in his ear as he sailed over a large dip in the road and her earthy grunt as they’d landed had been due to pure delight and not fear? She’d taken the less-than-ideal ride in stride, which was a completely different response from the one he might have gotten from his former girlfriends.

He should have done a better job at connecting the dots. A woman who chose firefighting as a profession clearly wasn’t a woman who was satisfied with tame pursuits of knit
ting and cookie-baking. It wouldn’t surprise him if she rappeled off cliffs and hang glided over the Grand Canyon.

While his revelation didn’t completely wipe out his reservations about taking her along, it was possible, just
possible,
that it might not be the horrible experience he’d envisioned.

Another thought, even more profound than the one he’d just entertained, struck him…. Perhaps she was a rare breed of woman who was satisfied more with who a man was than with changing him into someone he was not.

He quickly rejoined Dana, who was staring at his pride and joy, his Piper Cheyenne. “I’m going to call for clearance and then we’re taking off.”

“Okay. Should I stow anything on board for you?”

He could think of a few things, but none were appropriate to mention to a woman he barely knew. “Just yourself.”

Before he could open the plane’s door, a small form came barreling out of his office on the far side of the hangar. “Micky! You’re here. I was hoping you’d come back.”

Micky stared at the eleven-year-old towheaded boy who’d become a fixture in his hangar ever since Micky had given him a taste of flying six months ago as part of the Young Eagles flight program. “Sam, why in the name of good sense aren’t you at the school gym with everyone else?”

Sam skidded to a stop a few feet away. “I came out to see if I could help you get ready for the hurricane. I missed you, though, so I decided to wait.”

Micky inwardly groaned. Just what he needed. To worry about the boy’s safety on top of everything else. Not for the first time, Micky itched to shake some sense into the kid’s mother for not keeping closer tabs on him. How Sam had grown up to be as decent a child as he was with such an irresponsible parent was the big question.

“How did you get here?” Micky asked, already suspecting the answer.

“I rode my bike.”

“You have to get back to town,” he said gently but firmly. With the wind picking up, pedal power wouldn’t be adequate, and a mental picture of Sam exposed to Damon’s fury sent a shudder down Micky’s spine. “Is your mom at home?”

Sam shook his head, his shaggy hair flying with the motion. “Haven’t seen her since last night.”

Micky didn’t want the boy to be alone any more than he wanted him in this empty hangar or in a deserted field with only cattle for company when the storm hit. If the meteorologists were correct, they still had several hours before Damon made landfall on the northeast side of Corpus Christi, but he didn’t want to think about what might happen if his gut was right and the hurricane hit on the southwest side instead. The change in direction might give them a little more time, but it would also move the brunt of the storm closer to Turning Point.

Without hesitation, he dug in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone as he motioned Dana toward the door behind the right wing of his Piper. An instant later, he had Ruth on the other end.

“This is Micky,” he told her as he shrugged off his wet slicker. “Sam Brewster is out here by himself. Send someone to drive out and pick him up.”

To Ruth’s credit, she didn’t question his request. Then again, most everyone in town knew that Crystal Brewster wasn’t a candidate for a Mother of the Year award.

“And deliver him where?” she asked.

“To the school gym. Take him home first, though, so he can get his overnight stuff.”

“I’ll pass the word on. Don’t worry, Micky, we’ll look after the boy.”

“Good.” That was one worry off his shoulders. He ended
the call and addressed Sam. “Until your ride pulls up, stick by the phone in my office.”

“What for?”

“If the wind picks up, it’s the safest place. And if no one has come for you in thirty minutes, ring Ruth again. Will you do that?”

Sam nodded. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

Knowing that they’d already lost a precious ten minutes in traveling from the fire department to his hangar, Micky strode toward the airplane door. Conscious of Sam trailing behind him like a puppy, he noticed, to his relief, that Dana had already disappeared inside.

“You’ll be okay, won’t you, Micky?” The boy’s worry was obvious, which made Micky smile. The kids he knew didn’t think twice about the safety of adults, and to learn that Sam did, showed Micky that their friendship had grown closer than he’d expected.

He tousled the boy’s hair. “I’ll be fine. We’ll be back before you know it. As soon as we are, I’ll catch up to you at the school.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Sam promised.

Micky climbed inside the plane, skipping several of the stairs before he tossed his slicker over a seat and faced Sam from inside the cockpit. “Before you leave, shut the hangar doors and padlock the fence, will you?”

Sam’s chest puffed out. “You can count on me.”

“Thanks, Sam. I know I can.” Micky flashed him a thumbs-up, then closed and secured the door. Within minutes, and after making sure that Sam had retreated to a safe watching distance, he placed his headset over his baseball cap and taxied out of the hangar.

“He’s quite a kid,” Dana remarked from the copilot’s seat as they rolled onto the runway.

Micky checked his gauges one more time and adjusted the speed of the windshield wipers. “He is.”

“Fearless, too.”

“More than he should be. I can’t believe he rode his bike out here.”

“I’m surprised his parents let him.”

“It’s just him and his mother. Unfortunately when she finds a new boyfriend, Sam gets lost in the shuffle.”

“What a shame.”

“It’s a crime,” he corrected.

“Then the law and social services turn a blind eye?”

“Technically, she’s squeaking by the legal letter of the law, but morally, it’s a different story. The boy is home alone more often than not, which to me is an accident waiting to happen.”