What had he asked? If he could be her home? Of course he could. Hewas. He had been since their first night in the tent. Since they’d parted ways, she hadn’t slept more than an hour or two at a time.
He was her missing half.
Her love.
“Come here,” she whispered.
The look on his face when he bent toward her and put his forehead to hers filled something that had been empty for a very long time. The way his fingers caught in her hair, the solid feel of his body against hers.
He was right—this was coming home.
“Love you,” he whispered, as if he hadn’t already flayed himself alive for her. “More than anything.”
She nodded, ate him up with her eyes, and whispered, “Me, too,” then lifted her lips for a kiss.
Someone applauded and she almost died. A glance to the side showed Betty and Father James and one of the women who helped out at the shelter. A live audience, for goodness’ sake. Ford shocked her by kissing her deeper, holding her tighter, and hamming it up just the slightest bit.Who was this man?
Good Lord, he’s mine. My man.
“Now what?” she asked when he finally pulled away, leaving her hot and breathless.
“You tell me.” He stepped back. Took a look around and threw his arms out, as if to say the world was her oyster. “Or better yet, let’s figure it out. Together.”
Chapter 55
Chronos Corporation Headquarters—Later That Day
“Alaska?” Katherine hauled herself up from her father’s armchair. “That’s all you know?”
“Yes, ma’am. He booked himself a flight to Anchorage, then headed out into the bush with a local pilot. I talked to someone from the airline and apparently the flight went off the radar. Disappeared. They didn’t have an emergency number for him, and without a flight plan or any record of it…well, took us a while to track him down.”
“I appreciate the information. Please let me know if anything changes.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She ended the call and turned to Brenda. “We need to put together another team.”
“A new drilling site?” Brenda’s brow lifted, but only slightly.
Katherine appreciated the woman’s restraint. It served no purpose to show excessive surprise or emotion. Pointless, when they had so much work to do. “No. No, we’ll concentrate on getting the new South Pole station up and running again.”
“There’s been promising data coming out of Colorado.”
Interesting. Her father had always pushed for more drilling in the Rockies. The old mines had shown themselves to be promising. “Don’t we have a team in Alaska? Permafrost drilling, right?”
“Yes, Director.”
“Well, we need to send more resources to the region.” Alaska! She couldn’t wait to tell Fiona the news.
“Yes, Director.” Brenda wrote a note on her electronic doodad. “Is this a small team or—”
Katherine laughed—a grizzly, desiccated sound. “You’ll need an army for this one. A dozen men, at least. And find me someone more capable than the senator’s people. Sampson was big, but his brain wasn’t worth a damn.”
“Right. I’ll inform HR and security that we’ll be hiring.”
“Actually, let’s go through a subcontractor for this one.”
More tapped notes and Katherine could feel the wireless waves in her brain. If she were in charge, there would be no more tablets, no more of those absurd smartphones that led, quite frankly, to the opposite of intelligence. Dumbphones. They’d be back to basics: women and men living simply in a clean world. Evil eradicated.
