Chapter 39
Ali let Hayley do the selling, since her opinion would carry more weight with Quinn. And hopefully Colby, who had seemed a bit stunned that she was there at all, let alone ready to roll.
“I’ll hate not being there, but Ali has some very good points,” Hayley was saying. “Seeing Gavin will worry her, especially now that she knows he’s working with Colby. And if she sees Liam she’ll connect him to Colby.”
“If she even remembers me at all,” Liam drawled. “Me being one of those peons, and worse, a country boy.”
“If she saw me,” Hayley went on, “she might wonder, but I doubt she even remembers me from our brief interaction. But seeing Ali appear out of the blue will shock and startle her, because she’ll have no idea what she’s doing there.
” Hayley paused, then added quietly, “Maybe you won’t need that moment when she’s too stunned to react… but maybe you will.”
Quinn looked from his wife to Ali consideringly before saying slowly, “And Grace trusts you.”
“Yes, she does,” Ali said, thinking she was prouder of that truth in this moment than she’d been of almost anything in her life.
“You’re sure?” Quinn asked. “It could get messy.”
“I’m sure I don’t want Grace in her hands a moment longer than she has to be.”
“All right, then.”
The head of Foxworth turned to the business of loading up. While Ali turned to look at Colby. He was still staring at her, but his expression was different now, looking not stunned but more…awestruck. Like a man who couldn’t believe his luck.
His lips moved. “I love you,” he mouthed.
She smiled at him. “And I love you.”
She said it aloud, not caring who heard.
And judging by his quick glance around, that she was willing to say it aloud in front of witnesses made a difference.
Because she thought she saw him blink rapidly a few times as he turned to help Teague load some gear into the small cargo area of the plane.
What on earth she didn’t know, but knowing Foxworth, it could be anything.
And she laughed when she heard Teague say there was almost twice as much baggage space inside, but when they had a full complement of passengers a chunk of that was reserved for the comfort and convenience of their most important operative, the furry one.
After all these days spent with Cutter, she believed it.
And then Colby straightened abruptly and turned back to look at her with a worried expression. “What about Ziggy?”
That he’d even thought of her pup under these circumstances told her just how right she was about this man.
“Hayley’s seeing to him until we get back. Until all three of us get back,” she added with emphasis, which got her a flashing smile that somehow filled her with faith that this would somehow work out right in the end.
Teague, who apparently was in the process of getting his pilot’s license as well, sat up front with Quinn.
Liam and Gavin were in the two seats behind them, facing the tail of the plane, leaving the other two forward-facing ones farther back for her and Colby.
She would have thought the arrangement coincidence had she not noticed the way Cutter had nudged people around as they boarded…
and the way he settled down into his spot behind their seats with an expression she could only describe as smug.
As they prepped for takeoff, she also noticed Liam talking animatedly with the famous lawyer, who was grinning a lot.
Funny, in all the video and photos she’d seen of him from back when him merely being involved in a case put the case in the headlines, she’d never seen him even smile much, let alone grin like that.
From what she heard, apparently his wife, the librarian, and Liam’s wife, the dog groomer, had become great friends.
She sighed inwardly, happily, envisioning a future like that for them, where happiness was the order of the day, even under stress. Or maybe they weren’t stressed, maybe they just had so much faith in Foxworth they didn’t worry. And why not? So did she.
Ali had always loved mountains. She admitted the waters of Puget Sound were gorgeous, and she loved the evergreens, but when it came down to it, no matter where she was, as long as she could at least see mountains she was happy.
She put it down to being born in the flat heartland.
Now she was headed for some of the most magnificent mountains in the country, although Mount Rainier could give even the tallest Rocky a run for its money.
She should be nervous, she supposed. They were, after all, headed for a confrontation with one of the few people she’d ever met whom she would actually call evil. But she had faith in Foxworth, and the need to stand up for both Colby and Grace was more than enough to keep everything else at bay.
Once they passed the rolling hills of the Palouse in eastern Washington there wasn’t much that couldn’t be called mountainous.
But they reached the Rockies—the true mountains among mountains—much sooner than she expected.
She’d known they ran from Canada all the way to New Mexico, but she hadn’t quite realized how wide they were west to east in spots.
She heard Teague saying something about Class A airspace, which apparently meant over 18,000 feet.
Somehow that made it more real to her. It got a little bouncy in a couple of places, and she couldn’t deny it made her a bit nervous, never having flown in a small plane before.
But as if he somehow knew, Colby reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently.
Then he leaned over, his mouth teasingly close to her ear.
“Quinn’s still letting Teague take the controls, so it can’t be that bad or he’d take over,” he whispered.
What he said made perfect sense, but she was a little slow in processing it because of the shiver of sensation that having his breath tickle her ear caused. And then Cutter lifted his head and poked it between the seats, resting his chin atop their clasped hands.
“Yep,” Liam said from his seat about four feet across from them, “just like I expected. You’ve got the Cutter seal of approval.”
They both looked, and the young Texan was grinning widely.
“To be greatly valued,” added Gavin, very solemnly. And Ali looked up at Colby, whose gaze was lowered to the dog, but who also wore the sweetest smile she’d ever seen.
She wasn’t sure how the four and a half hours of flight time slipped by so quickly, but it seemed the next thing she knew they were prepping for landing.
She had the feeling she should be thankful she knew little of flying in smaller aircraft, because this place, in this narrow valley with lot of snow still on the ground, seemed a bit hair-raising.
Quinn was back at the controls, his headset now over both ears as he talked back and forth with what she assumed was the controller in the tower she could see in the distance, and maybe other planes in the area.
Teague looked back at them. “They’re hanging onto ski season, so there’s a bit of traffic, but we’re cleared for landing next.”
They dropped rather quickly, or so it seemed to her.
Then they were passing over a fence and went from buildings and small roads to empty space, with the runway ahead.
It went smooth and quick, and only moments after they touched down they were taxiing off the runway and over toward the hangars on the side opposite the tower.
Liam had told them all angles were covered.
There would be a car waiting, a crew to see to the plane and prep it for the return flight, the local authorities—particularly someone Gavin had made contact with, because he’d helped him out of a mess once—were apprised, and Liam had the video equipment ready to go.
And once Cutter had the “protect” command, nothing would stop him from keeping Grace safe.
But now Liam was grinning at them as he said, “Is now a good time to mention this place is on the list of the ten most extreme airports?”
“Considering we have to turn around and take off again, perhaps not,” Gavin said dryly.
“Why?” Ali asked. “There’s no snow or ice on the runway. And that landing seemed really smooth.”
“That’s because you’ve got a pro at the controls,” Liam said, nodding toward Quinn.
“Unless it’s actively snowing, the main weather you have to worry about is wind.
And the simple fact that we’re at six thousand feet and the thinner air makes approach and landing speeds ‘a bit interesting,’ as Quinn would say. ”
“Less drag,” Colby said. “Never would have thought of that, but it makes sense. I helped build a place over in Steamboat Springs once, and I remember having to catch my breath a lot.”
The were offloading before Ali got the chance to say, “I didn’t know you’d worked nonlocal.”
He shrugged. “It was one of the things that made Liz think I’d go along with her plan. Because I was known enough to get called in on jobs in various places, so obviously I must be ready to go higher.”
“And here I’m thinking it’s way more than enough that your reputation precedes you that much.”
At that he leaned over and kissed her.