LS02 - Lightning Lingers (7 page)

He obviously didn't know who to trust, but hiding away in Mexico wasn't going to be easy. He could run into a lot of other problems that were even worse than those he was running away from, like drug cartels and corrupt police officials.

She shuddered at the thought. She needed to find TJ…and fast.

Jake came through the door, and she jumped to her feet. "Are we ready?"

"We are."

"Good." Now that the actual moment had arrived, she felt a sudden and deep sense of foreboding, as if her next move was going to be a defining one in her life. Unfortunately, it was too late to turn back, so she put the map and computer into her bag and followed Jake outside and across the tarmac.

As he put her rolling suitcase on board, she eyed the small plane with some misgiving. It looked a lot older and smaller than the sleek jets she'd seen on the other side of the airfield. "This is what we're taking?"

"Only plane available on short notice."

"Will it get us there?"

"I'd be more worried about what you're going to do after we land."

He had a point. "How long is the trip?"

"About five hours."

"That long? I didn't realize."

"Yeah, we'll have lots of time together," he said dryly.

As she got into the plane, she headed toward one of the six seats in the cabin, but Jake waved her toward the cockpit.

"You might as well sit up front with me," he said. "I assume you did some research on MDT while you were waiting. You can fill me in."

She wished she could tell him he was wrong, but of course he wasn't. While she would have rather taken one of the seats in the cabin and not talk to Jake at all, he was calling the shots now.

Jake slid into the captain's seat, his attention focused on his preflight checklist.

She got into the copilot seat and fastened her seat belt. She tried not to look at Jake, but the cockpit was not that big, and this man had always been a huge physical and emotional presence in her life.

Her phone rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She reached for her bag.

"You're going to need to turn that off, Katherine," Jake said.

"I will. One second. It's a local number. It could be related to my mom." She answered the call. "Hello?"

"Katherine Barrett, please," a woman said.

"This is she."

"This is Brenda Hooper, Miss Barrett. I work in human resources for MDT. Your brother missed a company flight from Mexico to Corpus Christi on Thursday and didn't report to work yesterday. His manager is concerned about his well-being. We've tried to reach Mr. Barrett on his phone, but the line appears to be dead. I'm hoping you can tell us how we can reach him."

"No, I'm sorry. I haven't heard from him," she said, trying not to let any emotion show in her voice. "What was he doing in Mexico?" After asking the question, she saw Jake motioning for her to put the call on speaker. Since he was the only one helping her at the moment, she did as he asked.

"Mr. Barrett was attending a business conference in Cancun. One of his coworkers tried to reach him when he didn't meet them at the plane, but she wasn't able to connect."

Brenda was probably talking about Jasmine. She wished she could tell this woman that her brother thought he was in danger from someone in the company, but this could be a test to see how much she knew. She had to be smart.

"Are you telling me that my brother is missing in Mexico?" she asked, thinking that would be a normal response. "Should I be concerned? Should I be calling the police?" She tried to act the way she would have if she'd gotten this call without hearing from TJ first.

"I wouldn't say he's missing. It's quite possible he had a side trip planned, and he just didn't let us know. I did speak to the manager of the hotel where Mr. Barrett was staying, and the man said that your brother checked out on Thursday morning as he was expected to do. The valet saw him get in a cab."

"But you're saying he didn’t go to the airport?"

"I'm saying he didn't get on the plane. I have no idea where he went after he left the hotel. I contacted the police and local hospitals in the area, but there was no report of an accident or anyone in trouble."

"That's a relief. You must have been really worried to do that." It seemed like the company had gone to extraordinary lengths to find someone who'd only been missing for forty-eight hours.

"It was a company trip. MDT takes the safety and security of its employees quite seriously. TJ's supervisor, Thomas Mueller, asked me to make the calls out of concern for your brother. It's certainly possible that there is nothing to worry about, but I did want to check in with you just in case your brother told you he would be traveling somewhere else before returning to Corpus Christi."

"He didn't tell me anything about his trip to Mexico," she said, which was in fact the truth. "How did you get my number?"

"Your brother put you down as his emergency contact."

"Oh, of course."

"Would you mind calling me if you hear from him? And, of course, if you do speak to him, tell him to get in touch with Mr. Mueller as soon as he can. We just want to make sure he's all right."

"Was Mr. Mueller on the trip?"

"No. There were six employees who attended the conference, but he was not one of them."

"Would it be possible for you to give me the names of the other attendees so that I can speak to them about my brother?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's against corporate policy, but I have personally spoken to everyone, and no one saw or heard from Mr. Barrett since early Thursday morning."

She wanted to argue, but the cool steel in Brenda's voice told her that would be pointless. "Well, please call me if you hear anything more. You've got me worried."

"I will definitely be in touch," Brenda said.

Katherine ended the call and looked at Jake. "What do you think?"

"That some people at MDT are concerned enough about your brother's missed flight to get human resources on the phone on a Saturday."

"That's true. Why wouldn't she tell me who was on the trip with him?"

"From what Alicia has told me, MDT rarely answers questions about anything and always claims national security as the reason."

"I don't want to believe TJ's problem is tied to national security."

"Well, I'm sure he'll tell you when you find him."

He made it sound so easy. "I should do some more research into MDT while we're flying down there."

"Good idea, but you'll need to do that after we take off. Are you ready?"

She put her phone into her bag. "Sure."

Jake gave her a speculative look as she clasped her hands tightly together in her lap. "You're not nervous, are you?"

His question took her back to a hot summer day when they were eighteen years old. Jake had just gotten his pilot's license. He'd been flying for years but never alone, never with a passenger, and he'd asked her to be the first.

She'd been terrified of getting into the small plane with him, but she'd been too crazy in love to think of saying no. She'd sweated buckets during takeoff and hung on for dear life as they flew through the clouds. Jake had laughed and told her to trust him, and she'd eventually managed to breathe again, to have faith in Jake and his ability to keep them in the air.

She had to have the same faith in him now. And why shouldn't she? When it came to flying, she doubted there was anyone better than Jake Monroe. He was born to sit in the pilot's seat. Nothing had ever fit him better. And he'd always known that. He'd never had a doubt about what he wanted to do with his life.

It was actually something they'd had in common. They'd both set their career paths at an early age. Unfortunately, those paths had taken them very far apart.

"Katherine?"

"I'm fine," she said, realizing Jake was still waiting for an answer.

"You don't look fine. You always hated giving up control."

"A lot of people do."

"But you more than most."

She couldn't deny she had issues with control, but today she was unwilling to admit that she was feeling anything but determined. "Just go, Jake. The sooner we get to Mexico, the sooner you can be rid of me."

"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."