Chilled (Bone Secrets, #2)(53)

Liam would never lay a hand on her. If he did he’d be the one in the emergency room and he knew it.

She’d ignored his ultimatum and he’d kept his mouth shut for a while.

The next one had come a few months later. He wanted kids and he wanted marriage.

Brynn had wanted to panic.

Not learning his lesson from the first provocation, Liam had begged her to agree to an engagement or he’d move out.

He rescinded his words the next day.

But it was too late. Tension had ratcheted between them, and Liam started sleeping on the couch. Then she’d asked him to move out. He’d moved in with his brother and waited a week before speaking to her again. Over the last two months they’d slowly talked about what each of them wanted from the other.

Their needs didn’t match. They were both utterly stubborn. She wouldn’t change, and he wouldn’t listen to her refusals to change. They were so over. And now she was attracted to another man.





Where is the team?

Liam Gentry’s eyes burned from staring into the blinding white stuff for hours. And that was with his protective eyewear. His brother, Tyrone, hadn’t said a word in over thirty minutes. Liam knew Tyrone wanted to head back. The winds were rattling the copter like crazy, and visual range was incredibly short. He glanced at Tyrone, who bounced his gaze from the window to his controls every three seconds. The muscle twitching at his jaw told Liam he’d pushed his brother’s limits. They were both stupid.

Liam’s commander would ground him for six months if he knew he’d convinced his brother to take him out in such

high-risk weather. Liam wouldn’t survive the grounding; he had to fly.

He had the job of his dreams, flying million-dollar equipment bought on someone else’s dime, and he had the perfect woman.

Now he just had to convince Brynn to marry him and have some kids. He wanted the rest of his dream. The 2.3 kids, the picket fence, the smiling wife at the door as he came home from work. But Brynn didn’t see it that way.

Would being married to him be so awful? Liam grabbed at the handle above his door as the copter jumped in the wind.

When she’d been in that rockfall, he’d been certain she’d see the danger of her SAR missions and cut back. But it was like she flung herself at them with more enthusiasm, determined to prove him wrong. He was terrified of the day he got the phone call that she’d been killed in a stupid accident. Yesterday morning had been bad enough when he’d read her note. Her very brief note.

Plane down in the Cascades. Gonna be a long one.

B

That was all she wrote.

He’d checked the location and checked the weather and nearly punched his computer screen in frustration. Could the plane have crashed anywhere worse? Brynn knew he’d be pissed about the danger of this particular job. That’s why she’d slipped out of the house without waking him. If he hadn’t crashed on her couch after their three-hour discussion the previous night, he wouldn’t have known for days that she’d gone on a mission.

And top it off with a serial killer on the damned plane.

No one could have survived the crash. The odds were against that. But, shit, why was there a killer on this particular plane? Did Brynn know? And go anyway?

She would go. It wouldn’t make any difference to her who was on the plane.

Liam cursed colorfully. Tyrone glanced at him but stayed silent, his mouth tight.

The little copter bounced, dipped, and jerked roughly in the wind. Liam ignored it. The sensations were so different between this baby bird and the mammoths he flew. Sort of like a Winnebago and a Miata.

“Fuck! Hang on!”

Liam’s gaze flew to his brother’s tense face, and then he read the controls. His heart skipped several beats; sweat instantly covered his forehead. Grabbing his seat, he looked out the window and estimated the distance before they smashed into the trees.

Daylight was fading as Brynn and Kiana entered the plane. Jim had hollered that he and Thomas would be in soon. They weren’t ready to quit searching for the packs yet. Brynn figured the missing packs weren’t going to go anywhere overnight, so she’d search again in the morning. In the light. The three of them hadn’t found a thing and she was ready to drop.

What a day.

Alex opened his eyes from where he’d stretched out on the cargo area floor, his arms tucked under his head. Ryan snored quietly on one of the thickly padded leather seats that looked like they belonged in a CEO’s office. She kept her gaze on Ryan, assessing. He looked comfortable but exhausted. The temperature inside the plane felt heavenly, and Brynn threw back her hood, running a hand over her low ponytail. To be inside an enclosure with hard walls and out of the wind and constant snow felt like she was at the Hilton. It just needed a hot bath. The men had closed in the ripped plane’s front end with packed snow. It looked like the inside of a kid’s snow fort. With luxury seating.

She felt Alex study her closely, his gaze heavy on her back. She finally turned his way and met his eyes. The lines of his face were taut and drawn, but she’d never seen him so relaxed and at peace. Amazing for a man who’d faced death hours ago. She felt her lips curve and her own worries lifted from her shoulders. They’d been very lucky today.

Kiana sniffed at Ryan’s boot and trotted over to Alex. He sat up and rubbed her head, a genuine smile crossing his face. Brynn swore the dog smiled in return. She also noticed Alex’s hand shaking slightly as he petted her dog.