“Amy wasn’t sick. I wanted this flight to be as low-key as possible.”
It took a moment for that to penetrate. “That’s why you specified no flight attendant, too?”
Lincoln nodded. The no-flight attendant order had been a first, in Rory’s experience. He’d filled a cooler with snacks and drinks instead. What was going on here?
“Care to tell me why we’re headed for that enormous thundercloud with no support staff?”
Lincoln gave him nothing but a raised eyebrow in response.
“I signed an NDA, you know. I can’t ever talk about anything you tell me until a hundred years after my death. Strangest NDA I ever saw. Were you worried my ghost might spill your secrets?”
Lincoln snorted. He pressed his hands on his thighs, an uncharacteristically nervous gesture. Lincoln Kerr was known for his cool. And his expensive clothes. Those linen trousers were from Brunello Cucinelli, and didn’t deserve to have sweat rubbed into them. “Lawyers. They earn their money.”
“Welp, looks like your pilot’s about to as well.” The deep purple darkness of the storm intensified as they flew closer. Clouds roiled and boiled inside that mass of unstable air. And finally…a bolt of lightning blitzed across the sky.
Rory checked on his air data computers, then on his boss.
A line of sweat had appeared on Lincoln’s upper lip. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered. Part prayer, part swear.
“Are you sure you want a front row seat to this? You might be better off?—”
“No.” Lincoln cut him off. “I’m staying here.”
Great. Now he had to manage the storm and the billionaire. “Your call, sir.”
With a roar, the plane hit the first rain at the edge of the storm. A wall of water slammed against the cockpit. The frame of the SyberJet shuddered as if it might break apart at its welds. Rory adjusted the thrust to compensate.
“What’s your plan here?” Lincoln asked. His hands white-knuckled on the console.
“My plan is to stay in the air no matter what it takes. If that doesn’t work, my next plan is to find the safest possible place to land.”
“In the middle of the Pacific?”
“We’re getting close to Hawaii now.” Their destination was Maui, but the first island they’d see would be the Big Island. Rory wasn’t sure what was taking them to Maui. None of Lincoln’s properties were located there, or any of the homes of the woman he was currently seeing. Lincoln didn’t ever share details of his business with a lowly pilot.
“And we’re going to make it there?”
“Am I the best or am I not the best?”
Which, of course, didn’t answer the question. That storm…those winds had to be over eighty miles an hour. Lightning could take out their avionics. Wind shear could send them plunging downwards. Their only chance would be if they made it to land. Crashing into the ocean would be certain death.
“Answer the question.” Lincoln was used to being obeyed; maybe that was why his voice sounded like a whip, even through the rising din of the rain against the cockpit.
“I don’t know,” Rory shot back. Every muscle in his body vibrated with tension, too much to watch his words. “I’m not God. I can’t see the future. I’m going to do my best because I want to fucking live as much as you do.”
Lincoln startled and turned his face toward Rory, almost as if he’d never looked at his pilot before. “You do? Why?”
“Why? Why? What are you saying, that just because I don’t have a billion dollars I have no reason to live?” He was really off-script now. The billionaire employee handbook didn’t include yelling at your boss. “Well, I do. My family needs me.”
“You aren’t married.”
Darkness engulfed the plane as they flew into the first towering cloud. The SyberJet had never seemed so tiny before. “I have parents,” Rory yelled. “A grandmother. A brother who depends on me. Not that it’s your business.”
“I already know about them.” Lincoln waved a hand almost dismissively. “From my investigator.”
“So they’re not a reason to live? Fuck you, man.”
Lincoln’s jaw dropped and his sculpted face lost several shades of color. “You’d never talk like that if you thought we were going to live. Damn, we’re really going to crash, aren’t we?”
