Kaylie snorted. “You just want me to stay with you so you can get me into bed again. Well, forget it. I’m not—”
“Hey.” Cort cupped her neck and pulled her close, his thumb stroking over her bare skin as she caught her breath. “I don’t need to lie about other pilots to get you back into my bed.” Kaylie tried to pull back, but he didn’t release her, closing the distance between them until he was in her space. God, she smelled phenomenal, and he could recall with vivid clarity how her mouth felt against his. “You came here under Jackson’s protection, which means you’re now under mine. If I say someone’s not safe for you to fly with, then you’re not going with him. End of story.”
“Let go of me.” There was a desperation in her voice, a vulnerability in those beautiful eyes, but the way she was leaning toward him belied her request.
“No.”
“Please.” She grabbed at his hand and tried to pry his hand off. “I can’t…Just let me go!”
Her near panic hit him, and he instantly released her.
She recoiled back in her chair, her hand clenched in a small fist over her heart. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
He was surprised by the vehemence in her voice, but equally intrigued by the way her gaze was fixated on his mouth. Slowly, he raised his palms in surrender.
“Really?” She looked startled by his capitulation.
“For now.”
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, there was a raw vulnerability on her face. “You can’t tell me who to fly with, and I’m going to hire Dusty. Today.” She ignored his growl. “But I’m going with you this morning, back to Sara and Jackson’s cabin, with the state troopers.”
He was already shaking his head. “No reason for you to go back there and see that.”
“She was my best friend, Cort. I have to go.”
He swore under his breath at the look on her face. He knew nothing could keep him from going out there on Jackson’s behalf and realized Kaylie felt the same way. Shit. He had to honor that kind of commitment. “Fine. Be outside in five minutes or we’re leaving without you.”
The smile she flashed him would have melted most men.
Fortunately, he was not one of those men.
Not anymore.
Yeah, he might want Kaylie naked and writhing under him, but it was only sex. It was for the high he’d gotten from being buried inside her last night. She was the only relief he’d gotten in a hell of a long time, and he wanted more of it.
But it was only physical. Nothing else, no matter how much torment was buried in the depths of those luscious brown eyes of hers.
Kaylie jumped up and hurried toward the bedroom door. She paused on the threshold, turning back to look at him. “Don’t touch me again. I can’t deal with you, in addition to everything else. Promise?”
He knew how bad she was hurting. Not his style to make things worse. “Yeah—” He stopped himself, realizing she deserved the truth. He shrugged. “No. Can’t promise that.”
“Cort—”
“In fact, I can pretty much promise the opposite.” He stood and grabbed his coat off the back of his chair. “Your choice. Take it or leave it. If you’re coming with us, be outside in five minutes.” He yanked his jacket on. “But if you call Dusty for a ride, I’ll come after you and haul you out of that plane so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
Then he turned and walked out.
He didn’t bother to turn around to see her reaction. The slam of his bedroom door told him all he needed to know.
As he vaulted down the steps, he couldn’t suppress the feeling of anticipation at the thought of Kaylie Fletcher sticking around for a little while.
Then he saw the two state troopers talking with Luke, and Cort’s anticipation vanished, replaced with the grim reality of his best friend’s murder.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Despite her rush, by the time Kaylie was dressed in mountain gear and heading outdoors, propellers were already spinning. Today’s plane was a slightly bigger version of the one she and Cort had flown in yesterday. She could see the silhouettes of two men in the backseat, and Cort was already positioned behind the controls. Luke was leaning against the pilot’s door, chatting with Cort. The way Luke looked at Kaylie when she walked out told her exactly what they’d been talking about.
Cort leaned forward to peer around Luke at her, and her body tightened at his intense inspection. Damn him for making her unable to forget last night! “Don’t stare at me like that,” she snapped as she walked up.
Luke’s brows went up, and a broad grin broke out over his face. “I think I like you, Kaylie.”
She couldn’t help responding to his genuine smile, and some of her nervousness eased. “Thanks.”
Cort leaned back in his seat and held out a hand to her. “Come on. The Staties are on a deadline.”
Heat suffused Kaylie’s body. “You want me to climb over you?”
He jerked his head at the passenger seat. “Only one door in this baby. Come on.”
Kaylie caught a glimpse of two troopers in the plane behind Cort, and swallowed her orders for him to get out first. He was already buckled down in his harness, and forcing him to get out would have made a scene. She couldn’t let him get to her. “Fine.” She planted a foot on the frame of the plane and set her hand in Cort’s.
His grip was solid and warm, and he hauled her expertly into the plane, sweeping her across him so efficiently, she realized he’d done it thousands of times before. She barely had a second to realize she was in his lap before she was deposited gracefully in her seat. Not a single inappropriate touch.
But the way Cort raised his eyebrows at her told her he knew she’d been expecting him to grope her.
How embarrassing. Climbing over the pilot was probably standard operating procedure, and Cort knew she’d had her mind in the gutter.
Oy. Cort hadn’t needed to touch her to get her hormones into a frenzy. His earlier promise to get her in his bed again was working her over just fine.
Kaylie busied herself with her harness, using the seat belt as an excuse to avoid eye contact with Cort while he finished giving Luke instructions about handling the clients who had been on Cort’s schedule for the morning.
Once Cort was finished, Luke banged his fist against the plane and stepped back. “Yeah, so, keep in touch. I’ll be done with today’s flights by early evening. Let me know if you need anything.” He paused. “You sure you want to take this flight? We can trade—”
Kaylie jerked her head up at the concern evident Luke’s voice. He didn’t trust Cort to fly?
“No chance.” Cort pulled the door shut on his partner, and Kaylie’s stomach tightened at Luke’s reluctance to step away. What did he know that she didn’t?
“Um…Cort?”
“All buckled in?”
“Yes, but Luke—”
He shot her a hard look. “Don’t worry about Luke.”
“I’m not. I’m worried about me.” She leaned toward Cort, too tense to keep the agitation out of her voice. “I know you think you’re invulnerable, but I’m not, and I am not into taking stupid risks. If you shouldn’t be flying, don’t you dare put this plane in the air!”
Cort’s fingers white-knuckled around the control stick and he slowly turned his head toward her. His eyes were blazing, and he looked furious. “Please excuse the outburst, gentlemen,” he said with a calm belied by the tendons that had gone rigid in his neck. “Ms. Fletcher is from the Lower 48 and not exactly in her comfort zone. Overreaction is common in outsiders like her. No need to worry.”
She bristled at his dismissal of her concerns. “How dare you—”
He slapped his hand over her mouth and leaned toward her, his eyes steely. “Ms. Fletcher, taking you along on this trip is a courtesy out of respect for your friend. The invitation could and would be revoked if the pilot, in his extremely competent assessment, were to decide you are too unstable to fly and could present a risk to the other pas
sengers or the pilot himself.”
Anger fueled by a lifetime of being belittled by people willing to risk their lives for stupid things exploded inside Kaylie, and she ripped his hand off his mouth. “Don’t—”
Cort’s eyes narrowed, and she realized he was absolutely committed to following through on his threat. He’d leave Kaylie behind and deprive her of the chance to see Sara, just because she questioned his competence.
Bastard. “Just because I’m not stupid enough to get a high out of risking my neck doesn’t mean my opinions aren’t valid.”
Cort opened his door. “You getting off?”
Kaylie snapped her lips shut and folded her arms over her chest, shooting him a venomous look. He knew damn well she couldn’t walk away.
“You done, then?”
She pressed her lips together. “Yes, I’m finished. Fly.” And try not to kill us.
Anger ripped across his face and she realized he’d caught her unspoken sentiment. He waited an extra second, then yanked his door shut. “Then we go.”
She turned her head away from him and caught sight of Luke watching them from the edge of the snowy runway. He was frowning, his mouth in a grim line.
There was sudden warmth against her neck, and she whirled to find Cort leaning over her shoulder. His lips brushed against her ear. “Never, ever, question my competence in front of other passengers again,” he whispered, his unyielding voice barely audible over the roar of the plane. “And never, ever, pass judgment about what’s going on with me. You will always be wrong.” He yanked roughly at her harness, clearly using it as an excuse to get close enough to threaten her without the two law enforcement officials realizing what he was doing.
Cort was so near she could smell the musky scent from last night. The scent that defined him. Her body tightened instantly, and she glared at him, angry that he could still bring out that reaction in her when he was such a bastard, such an embodiment of the hell she’d endured with her family for her entire life. “You’re an ass,” she hissed.
“But I’m a hell of a pilot.” He yanked the buckle one more time, then released her.
The loss of his presence as he returned to his side of the plane was like a sudden drain of vitality from the air around her, leaving behind an empty void. A void that should have been peaceful, but felt more like a small death unto itself.
God, she was screwed.
The flight back to Sara and Jackson’s place was a torturous hour and a half for Kaylie. Ninety minutes of tension, while Cort and two state troopers talked about Sara and Jackson, then moved on to local gossip. The entire time, Cort made sure she was excluded from the conversation.
His hostility was palpable, and she caught more than a couple curious looks from the state troopers, but Cort didn’t give them a chance to ask any questions. His only acknowledgment of her existence was a curt introduction to Trooper Bill Mann and his partner, Trooper Rich Parker. Trooper Mann looked like he was in his fifties, with a weathered face and a salt-and-pepper beard, and sharp eyes. She sensed he was assessing every inch of her, and she knew from the way his gaze settled on her manicured nails and her diamond and ruby pendant that she had fallen short. All he gave her was a curt nod, and then he ignored her.
And she saw from the look that Bill and Cort exchanged that Cort felt the same way. It made Kaylie realize that his dismissal of her concerns about his flying because of the way she was dressed and where she was from hadn’t been solely for the benefit of his other passengers. He actually believed it.
Their attitude grated on her, and a part of her itched to tell them that her baby booties had been crampons and she’d gotten her first case of frostbite when she was six months old, just to get that dismissive look off their faces, but she bit her tongue.
She knew she should be glad they saw her as nothing but a glass-slipper girl who refused to get dirty. Kaylie had worked hard to leave frostbite and crampons behind, and it was a testament to the woman she’d become that three hard-core Alaskans couldn’t see it in her at all, despite her boots and parka.
Except that outdoor toughness was still a part of her. Even if she chose not to live that life, she hated being judged incapable of it. Yes, she was a dry cleaner’s best customer now, but she was also more than that…even though she didn’t want to be. But she wanted credit for it.
God, she didn’t even know anymore who she was.
What Kaylie did know was that Cort’s dismissal of her took all the glow out of the memories of the prior evening’s lovemaking. There had been times last night when Cort had looked at her with respect, but it was gone now. Faded in the light of the morning and the grim postorgasm reality.
At least the other trooper, Rich Parker, didn’t seem to be bothered by her jewelry. He was closer to her age, his face young and his eyes a little too squinty, as if he’d been fighting Alaska snow glare for too long without sunglasses, or as if he’d spent too long peering through peepholes into girls’ bathrooms as a kid. Rich wasn’t looking at her as if she were an intruder from the land of the civilized. He was looking at her as if he wanted to get her alone behind the gas station for ten minutes.
Which maybe wasn’t much of an improvement over Cort’s valuation of her.
By the time they landed, Kaylie was so happy to be out of the plane, she nearly landed directly on top of Cort when she leaped out, not realizing that he hadn’t moved away from the door yet.
Cort turned and caught her just before she hit him, his hands firm on her waist. His eyes met hers, and her stomach jumped—
Then he set her down and turned away without a word.
Kaylie pressed her lips together, quelling the urge to protest. What did she care if he ignored her? It made it so much easier not to worry that one night of great sex would compel her to go down a road that would destroy her.
“This way.” Cort led them across the clearing. Bill scanned the area carefully, and his partner imitated him. It was clear that Trooper Bill Mann was the leader and his partner was just the young follower.
She hurried to catch up to Bill. “Excuse me, Trooper Mann?”
His eyes were hidden behind his mirrored sunglasses. “What?” His tone wasn’t friendly, and she stiffened.
“My family’s climbing party went missing on Mount McKinley…uh, Denali…a few weeks ago, and I was wondering if you would be able to help me find out what happened and—”
“Sorry. Not my case.” He turned away. “Hey, Cort! Don’t get your civilian boots in my crime scene! Stay out of the cabin!” Still yelling orders, Bill broke into an easy jog, leaving her behind, his partner on his heels like a well-trained dog.
Seriously? What a jerk. “Thanks for your help,” she called. “I really appreciate it.”
Neither man responded, and they strode quickly toward the side of the clearing where Cort had paused on the steps to wait for them.
The steps of Sara and Jackson’s house.
Kaylie caught sight of the small log cabin nestled on the edge of the woods, with an incredible view of a wooded valley below. And beyond that rose Mount McKinley, glistening white as if it were an angel, not a demon dressed in a white coat. Was her family dead somewhere on that mountain, or were they hanging on, struggling to survive until someone found them?
But if someone knew Kaylie’s mother was alive…didn’t that mean someone had found them?
It made no sense.
The only thing that made sense was what Cort said. That it had been a prank call.
Kaylie pressed her lips together against the sudden feeling of falling, of losing a battle she’d hadn’t even known she was fighting.
“No.” She forced herself to stare at the mountain. To really see it. The rocks, the ridges, the cliffs. She would not give up. There was a reason she’d gotten that call, a reason she had to come here. To reconnect with her family or bring their bodies home and make peace with her demons. She was staying until she had the answer.
The minute she and Cort returned to hi
s house, she was calling Dusty Baker and hiring him to take her up to the mountain, no matter what Cort had to say about it.
Then she realized she didn’t even know where her family had been dropped off. The mountain was too big. She had to find out where to start. But how?
“Kaylie? You coming?”
At the sound of Cort’s voice, she jerked her attention off the mountain and hurried after the men.
Bill was just stomping up the steps when she reached them. “No prints in the snow,” Trooper Mann noted, gesturing at the pristine snow around them. “Bad timing, with the storm. The time to find him would have been last night, before the snow came in and wiped out his trail.”
Cort shot a cranky look at Kaylie, and she remembered how he’d wanted to go out after the killer and she’d kept him from doing so. A mistake, or a decision that had saved their lives? She shivered, taking a careful look at the woods surrounding them. He could be hidden there even now, watching them.
The men mounted the stairs, and Cort caught Kaylie’s arm as Trooper Mann opened the door. “Wait out here.”
“But—”
Cort’s grip tightened, something in his eyes making goose bumps pop up on her skin. It was a haunted look, an expression she’d seen too many times on the people she’d grown up around. People who’d seen things they wished they hadn’t.
“You walk into that scene in the daylight, and you’ll never forget it. Trust me, you don’t want to do that to yourself.”
The two Staties disappeared into the house, and Kaylie lifted her chin. “Why do you care?”
“Because Jackson was my friend,” Cort said quietly. “He wouldn’t let you walk in there.”
Her throat tightened at the pain in Cort’s eyes, and also at his concern for her well-being, despite the tension between them. Despite the fact his friend had been killed last night, he was trying to protect her from the horrors of what was inside that cabin. “Thank you,” she said, meaning it. “I appreciate your concern, but I owe it to Sara—”
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