Lightning Lingers

by Barbara Freethy

  "Those are inspiring words," he said, his voice dry.

  "But true, right?"

  He didn't answer, but his gaze lingered on her face for a long moment. Then he looked away and started the engine.

  Within ten minutes, they were airborne.

  As the land fell away behind her, she had the feeling that nothing would ever be the same again.

  * * *

  "You can breathe now," Jake said, feeling Katherine's tension as if it were his own. He'd always wanted her to love flying as much as he did, but in order to do that, she had to come to terms with the fact that her life was in someone else's hands, his hands specifically, and she'd never been able to trust him enough to relax and let him protect her.

  A small voice inside his head reminded him that he might not have always been completely worthy of her trust, but he didn't want to listen to that voice now. Katherine had a lot more to apologize for than he did. Not that either one of them was going to waste time saying sorry for a breakup that was ten years old.

  He just couldn't quite believe they were actually together again or that they were on their way to Mexico, of all places.

  He'd wanted to take her to Nic Té Há many times. He'd wanted her to meet his great-grandmother, but those plans had never gotten beyond the dreaming stage. It was surreal to be going there now.

  As the plane stabilized, Katherine let out a breath and released her hands from the death grip she had on the armrests. "We're okay now, right?"

  "We've been okay the whole time."

  "Taking off never feels natural to me. And it's strange to be sitting up here and not in the back of the plane."

  "My dad always told me it's the best view in the world, and he was right."

  "I suppose." She gave him a considering look. "Do you really think that your dad's death wasn't an accident?"

  "I don't know. I never had doubts the way Alicia did. All these years, I thought she was just trying to find some story that would help her get through her grief. She needed to have a reason, but I didn't. I just accepted that accidents happen."

  "But, now you're not as sure?"

  "I can't discount the fact that someone who was once very close to my father said there are things we don't know about my dad's death. How we're going to figure out what those things are might be a challenge, though. Jerry is dead and so is my father. I don't know who an investigator talks to or where he goes to look for information. There were several searches for my dad's plane. I guess he'll start there."

  "Is there any possible way your father isn't dead?" she ventured. "No one ever found his plane or his body."

  His lips tightened as he shook his head in denial. "Alicia probably has some crazy hope that a miracle will happen, and we're going to find my dad alive, but I don't think so. If he were alive, he would have come back to the family. It's been ten years. There's no way he would have hidden away for that long. And there was no reason for him to fake his death."

  "At least not that you know of."

  He gave her an irritated look. "What does that mean?"

  "I just wonder how much any of us really knows about the people in our lives."

  "Just because you don't spend enough time with your family to know them doesn't mean that I don't. I knew my dad well. We spent a tremendous amount of time flying together. We talked about everything under the sun. We were as close as a father and son could be. He was a good man, and he wouldn't desert his family for anything."

  Katherine didn't say anything, and her silence bothered him.

  "You know better than anyone how close I was to him," he reminded her.

  "I know the two of you were tight, but that was when you were a kid, Jake. Your dad had another life before you were born. Maybe there's something you don't know about that life, about his past—the past he shared with his friend Jerry."

  He wished he could say there was nothing he didn't know, but of course she was right. And his confidence in what he thought he was certain about had taken a hit when Jerry, a man he'd regarded as an uncle, had turned out to be a traitorous murderer.

  "Well, if there's something I don't know, maybe Alicia's investigator will figure it out," he said.

  "Alicia is beautiful and so grown up. I remember her as a skinny stick of a girl who was always hiding behind a camera."

  "You can still usually find her behind a camera, but she's definitely come into her own. She's smart, stubbornly independent and very strong-willed. I just wish she didn't let her imagination overtake her good sense. She's still obsessed with lightning. You heard her back at the house. She believes, as my great-grandmother does, that lightning shows us what we need to see."

  "What does that mean exactly?"

  "I have no idea. I think Alicia hangs on to the lightning legends, because a love of lightning is something she had in common with my dad. He would tell us crazy stories about lightning sprites dancing through the sky. I bought into the stories when I was a kid, but I can't say I've ever seen what he claimed to see as a pilot. I can't convince Alicia that weather is just weather. She's been chasing storms the last ten years. And the last one she chased got her involved in this MDT mess."

  "Well, if lightning can show us what we need to see, I hope it will show us TJ."

  "Looks like clear skies ahead. I don't think you're going to get that lucky."

  "I know. I'm going to have to do this the hard way, and apparently all by myself, unless you reconsider taking me from the airport to your great-grandmother's village."

  He saw the hopeful look in her eyes, and his stomach twisted into a knot. There had been a time in his life when he would have done anything to make her happy, but that wasn't his job anymore. He wasn't her boyfriend. He wasn't even her friend. So why did he feel himself weakening?

  "I'm sure you can hire a guide, but getting to her village won't be easy. It's quite remote. The roads get washed out with the rains. You might have to hike in. That's what I had to do the last time I was there."

  "When was that?"

  "I went right after we broke up. So, I guess it's been about ten years. I needed to get away, and I'd been meaning to take Mamich something of my dad's since she couldn't come to the funeral."

  "What did you take her?" she asked curiously.

  "A very old pocket watch that belonged to my great-grandfather. When she saw that watch, she started to cry. It had been fifty years since she'd held it in her hands."

  "Tell me their story again. How did they meet?"

  "Mamich was seventeen years old when she met my great-grandfather, Howard Monroe. He was a twenty-three-year-old engineer, and he'd gone to the Yucatan to build a bridge. They met at a carnival in Cancun. Mamich had gone there for the weekend with her friends. I guess she wasn't always so happy to stay in her remote village. They both said they fell in love immediately. They got married and pregnant really fast, and they had one daughter, my grandmother Elisa."

  "But the marriage didn't last, right?"

  "No. Within a few years, it became quite clear that the cultural differences between them were too great. Mamich's parents were old. They needed her to come back to the village to take care of them. So they split up. Mamich took Elisa back to the village with her. When Elisa grew up, she also married an American man. They had my father Wyatt. My grandparents' marriage had problems, too. I think they were close to splitting up when my grandmother died unexpectedly. My grandfather and my dad ended up moving back to the states when my dad was about ten years old. Falling for the wrong woman seems to be a Monroe family trait."

  "Your parents stayed together."

  "Until my dad died. I wonder if they would be together now if he hadn't passed away. They didn't always get along very well."

  "I remember," she murmured.

  He looked over at her, and as their gazes met, the years in between seemed to drift away. She wasn't a hard-edged, ambitious, driven doctor—she was just Kat, beautiful, smart, and in love with him. She was the girl he told his problems
to, the one he let all the way into his heart. His breath caught in his chest, and he forced himself to look away. Because she wasn't Kat anymore, and she certainly wasn't in love with him.

  He wasn't in love with her, either, he reminded himself.

  "You need to take me to your great-grandmother's village, Jake," Katherine said. "You know the way, and you know your great-grandmother. She might be able to help me, but she's not going to want to talk to me. I'm a stranger. You're not."

  "I have a job, Katherine."

  "I'll pay you for your time."

  "I don't want your money."

  "What do you want?"

  That was a loaded question. A few really inappropriate ideas came to mind, but thankfully he had the good sense not to say them aloud.

  "Just think about it," Katherine said when he remained silent. "Think about TJ. You always liked him, and he idolized you."

  "Fine, I'll think about it." He couldn't take any more of her pleas right now. He was too close to saying yes and turning his entire life upside down to help the woman who'd broken his heart.

  "Good. Can I turn on my computer now?"

  "Go for it." He turned on the Wi-Fi in the plane, happy not to be talking anymore.

  Katherine pulled out her laptop and got on the Internet. She was quiet for a few moments, her fingers flying over the keys. Then she said, "I found Brenda Hooper on social media. She lists her job title as Human Resources Manager at MDT, so that checks out. I also looked up Jasmine Portillo."

  "Who's that?"

  "She told me she's TJ's girlfriend. She came by my mother's house this morning. She told me she was worried about him because she couldn't get him on the phone, and he'd missed his flight."

  "Did you believe she was his girlfriend?"

  "She was his age, pretty, and she seemed genuine. She asked me questions about my life and my mother that suggested TJ had told her about us." Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she spoke. "Here she is on social media." She turned the computer so he could look at the photo.

  "She is pretty," he agreed.

  "It says she works in corporate communications for MDT, which is what she told me. Her profile is private, so I can't see her photos or anything. I'm not getting very far, am I?" She yawned and closed her computer. "I'll look for more information later. Do you mind if I close my eyes for a few minutes? I drove all night. I can't remember the last time I slept."

  "Why did you drive all night?"

  "My last shift ended at eleven, and TJ called me shortly after that. I hopped in the car and drove home."

  "Your last shift—that sounds final."

  "It is. I'm done with my residency. It's still a little difficult to believe, not that I've had any time to celebrate." She settled back in her seat. "It's been a long, rough road, so much harder than I ever imagined. There were days I wasn't sure I could make it."

  "I can't believe you ever had doubts."

  He glanced over at her when she didn't reply and realized she was already asleep. She really had been exhausted.

  A knot clenched his stomach as his gaze ran over her face. For the first time since she'd suddenly reappeared in his life, he had the chance to really look at her.

  She had a heart-shaped face, creamy skin that turned honey gold in the sun, soft, full lips that she tortured with her teeth when she was nervous or stressed or filled with reckless desire. He could remember in vivid detail watching her bite down on that soft bottom lip the first time he asked her if she wanted to have sex.

  They'd been seventeen years old, and she'd wanted him as much as he wanted her, but Katherine always had to answer a million questions in her own head before she could ever say yes. That's when she'd worried her lip, and he'd finally swooped in and stolen a kiss and made love to her the way he wanted to—the way she'd wanted him to—but hadn't had the guts to say.

  They'd been good together back then. She'd been the one for him. He couldn't go five minutes without thinking about her, wanting to kiss her, touch her, discover a world of passion with her. Because once Katherine had let go, she'd surprised both of them.

  Damn. The memories stabbed him like a knife.

  He let out a heavy sigh, wishing he could stop the assault of images running through his head like an endless slide show: watching scary movies with Katherine at her parents' house, laughing when she covered her eyes every other second because it was just too terrifying; sharing the triple decker banana split at Conroy's Ice Cream Parlor; walking barefoot on the beach; studying in the university library and then making out in between the dusty shelves; staying up all night just talking…

  His chest tightened even more.

  He needed to stop thinking about the good times. He needed to remember the end: the pain of her leaving, the harsh horrible words she'd uttered, the way he'd felt when she was gone. He needed the anger to keep the barriers up, and he also needed to get her to Mexico fast, so he could go back to his life and forget about her again.

  But was he going to be able to leave her at the airport?

  He wanted to think so, but could he really let her make that trip alone? Would she be able to make it on her own?

  On the other hand, if he and Katherine spent that much time together, they might kill each other.

  The plane jerked, and he suddenly realized that the weather had changed drastically. The blue sky had disappeared behind angry, mile-high clouds. How long had he been daydreaming about Katherine?

  He changed altitudes and checked the weather. A huge storm cell was suddenly in front of him and all around him.

  The plane hit a bump, and Katherine woke up with a jerk.

  She rubbed her eyes as the plane dropped again. "What's going on?"

  "A little storm," he said, downplaying the danger. He didn't know how the storm cell had grown so large or moved so quickly into his path. Radar hadn't shown anything this big.

  The plane took another hard bounce, and Katherine put her hand on his arm. "Jake, are we going to be okay?"

  "Sure, it's just a little weather."

  "Can you go around it?"

  "I'm trying to do that. It's a huge cell. It came out of nowhere."

  She took her hand off his arm, only to put it back on when the plane took another dive. "Jake," she said, panic in her voice.

  "It's going to be okay," he reassured her, but he was beginning to have a few doubts of his own.

  A jagged streak of lightning lit up the black clouds they were flying through. It was an eerie reminder of their very recent conversation about lightning, and a chill ran down his spine.

  He changed course again, but the plane was bouncing around like a small ball being kicked by the clouds.

  Another streak of lightning flashed bright right in front of them. The instrument panel crackled. Alarm bells went off. He reached for the radio to check in, but he couldn't get a signal or a response. Every screen in front of him went black.

  A roar of thunder, then three jagged lines of lightning came straight at the plane.

  He was blinded by the light. Instinctively, he wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't, because in the now lit sky he could see another man—a man who looked like his father.

  His dad waved to him, as if saying: follow me.

  And then the plane spiraled out of control.

  Jake battled to stay in the air, but the plane fought his every move.

  "Jake?" Katherine asked, terror in her eyes.

  "Hold on, babe."

  "You have to get us down. You have to."

  He sure as hell wanted to set them down, but he was caught up in a monster storm in a plane that wasn't responding to anything he was trying. They were losing altitude fast, and he had no idea what was below—water, mountains, rain forest…

  He couldn't give up—not until the bitter end. And that wasn't now.

  "I'm going to set us down," he said as the clouds parted, and he caught his first glimpse of land.

  "Where?" she asked, her blue eyes wide with fe
ar.

  "Wherever I can," he said grimly.

  Her hand tightened on his arm. "You can do it, Jake. I know you can. I believe in you."

  Words he'd wanted to hear for a very long time. But not like this.

  The ground got closer way too fast. He clipped the tops of some trees, aiming for what looked like a clearing in a thickly forested area. He was almost there, but a tree branch took off the right wing tip.

  He had the terrible and shocking feeling that this might actually be the end after all...

  Five

  Katherine woke up with a jolt, disoriented and shaken. Where the hell was she? She wasn't in her apartment in Houston. She wasn't in the lounge at the hospital where she sometimes caught a nap in between shifts.

  It was the seat belt cutting into her chest that made her realize she was in a plane—Jake's plane. She hadn't been dreaming. The nightmare was real. The cockpit window was smashed, the branches of a tree coming through the jagged glass. She saw cuts on her arms and hands, and her face stung, but she was breathing, and her heart was still beating in what seemed like a miraculous way.

  She turned her head and her joy at being alive vanished as she saw Jake slumped in his seat. He was knocked unconscious, blood dripping down his face.

  Her brain immediately jumped into doctor mode. She fought her way out of her seat belt and unhooked Jake's belt. "Jake," she said, putting her hand on his neck. He had a pulse, thank God.

  She gently pushed back the hair on his forehead to see a gash. It wasn't too bad. He could probably use a stitch. What she needed to do now was stop the bleeding. She pulled the scarf off her neck and wiped the blood from his face, applying pressure to the wound.

  Jake stirred, groaning as he came back to consciousness. He swatted away the scarf, and she paused in her efforts as he opened his eyes. Seeing his amazing green eyes focus on her filled her with relief. "Jake."

  "Kat," he murmured.

  The shortened version of her name on his lips had always been sexy, seductive and tender—at least before they'd broken up—which was probably why it brought a pang of yearning to her heart now.