Chapter 4
Chapter Four
May checked the window in her kitchen again. It was securely locked with a bar in the sill. Plus, it was light outside twenty-four hours a day right now, so nobody could hide under the cover of darkness.
Not that she was paranoid or anything. She rolled her eyes at herself and returned to her sofa, snuggling beneath a plush blanket Amka had given her as a Christmas present.
It was a light pink with a softness that felt comforting.
Her gun, fully loaded, lay on the sofa table.
She could reach it in a second, although was she really in danger?
Her imagination had always been impressive, notwithstanding her fascination with science.
Truth be told, most physicists she knew were romantics.
They believed in solving the mysteries of the universe, so how could they not be?
She stared at the photograph hanging on the far wall that she’d taken of the town in the midst of a snowstorm. While she loved being a doctor, sometimes she needed a more creative outlet without any stress, and she’d been an amateur photographer for years.
If she ever got up the nerve, she wanted to ask the four Osprey brothers if she could photograph them. Probably in black and white, showing their handsome features.
She fell into an uneasy sleep plagued by snowstorms, Arctic monsters, and freezing rain. The dreams pressed heavy and cold, the kind that left her breath shallow even in rest. A knock on her door sliced through it.
She yelped, bolting upright, heart hammering. The room swam in that strange Alaskan half-light, neither day nor night. She shook her head, drowsy, sounding rough with sleep. “Wh-who’s there?”
“Sorry. It’s Ace.”
What the heck? She checked the clock on the mantle.
Oh. Only ten. It was so weird to have night still look like a rainy day outside.
Her pulse refused to slow. She reached automatically for the gun, then hesitated, her jaw tightening.
With a quiet exhale, she slid the weapon into the drawer of the antique table beside the sofa. No need to greet him like that.
“You okay, May?” His voice came through, deep and low.
She brushed her hair back with restless fingers and padded to the door, still foggy, still tangled in dreams. When she yanked it open, her words came out more clipped than she intended. “Do not tell me you’re bleeding again.”
Ace looked down at her. A fresh bruise darkened his cheekbone, and a thin cut split his lower lip. He filled the doorway with his broad shoulders blocking the pale glow behind him. “Not really.”
Her irritation flared instantly. He’d gotten in another fight? “What is wrong with you?” She threw both hands up, then froze.
Because he was staring. His gaze slid slowly from her sleep-mussed hair to her bare feet, lingering in a way that sent heat creeping under her skin. It wasn’t leering. It was worse. Appreciative. Curious. Entirely aware. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “I woke you up.”
“Yeah. You did.”
“It’s ten at night on a Friday. You really need to get a life, Doc.”
“A life? Like hanging out at the tavern and waiting for someone to piss me off so I can hit them?” She pushed her wild hair out of her face.
He winced. “Touché.”
Whatever. She glared at the fully lit night outside. “When does it start getting dark again?”
Ace blinked, glancing briefly at the greyish sky before looking back at her. “You kind of forget about it once you’ve lived here a while.”
She tried not to notice how good he looked standing there. He’d changed into a light green T-shirt, faded and soft, that stretched across his torso. The color dragged her eyes straight to his. Those ridiculous, unfair eyes.
“Right around August we’ll have twilight again. Then September we get real darkness again. Northern lights, too.” He looked past her into her living room. “Do you have a minute?”
Yeah. Now she had all night, because she probably wouldn’t go back to sleep. “Sure. What the heck.” She slid aside, suddenly very aware of how close he was as he brushed by. The scent of him followed. Clean, warm, and unmistakably male. Her stomach flipped traitorously.
Ace’s gaze drifted to the pillow and rumpled blanket on the sofa. “Why are you sleeping out here?”
“I was watching a movie and fell asleep.” A total lie. She could hear the door and windows better from the couch, but he didn’t need to know that. So she shut the door and turned back to him, arms crossing loosely. “Who hit you tonight?”
Ace dropped into the matching chair opposite the sofa. The chintz blue upholstery creaked under his weight. Everything about him looked oversized against her delicate furniture. “Same moronic tourist who hit me earlier today,” he muttered. “Guy was giving a woman a hard time.”
May moved back to the sofa, pulling the blanket over her legs, grateful she’d gone to sleep in navy-blue yoga pants and a pink T-shirt. Not even remotely sexy. Unlike him. He always seemed sexy.
She looked around her small living room with its quiet wood fireplace with plasma tv above it.
Besides the sofa and chair, a coffee table with two end tables comprised all of the furniture in the room.
Finally, she looked at him, happy her legs were covered.
Having Ace in her living room made her feel strangely exposed.
Vulnerable in a way that had nothing to do with clothing.
“I suppose you’re the only person who could save the woman? ”
“She looked like you.”
May stilled. “Like me?”
“Yeah.” He smiled faintly. “Blonde. Same build.” His fingers brushed gingerly against his cut lip.
Was that supposed to be sweet? It kind of felt like it. Even so, enough was enough. “You don’t have to solve every problem with your fists.”
“I used an elbow.”
She fought a smile she absolutely refused to let him see. “You don’t need medical attention. Why are you here?”
“I always need medical attention.” He winked.
Unwelcome butterflies exploded low in her abdomen.
God, he had no right being that handsome and that charming when he was such a complete jackass.
“You shouldn’t, you know. Maybe it’s time to stop looking for physical pain.
But I’m not your psychologist, thank goodness.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’d really like to get back to the great dreams I was having. ”
Ace’s brow lifted. “That was a lie.”
She blinked. “Why would you say that?”
He stretched out his long legs, crossing one ankle over the other. “I’ve always had a knack for spotting when someone’s lying. I think it’s a family gift. We all have it.”
Heat crept up her neck.
Even though his proximity was causing her pulse to spike and her skin to sensitize, having him there made her feel safe. She couldn’t afford that. “Gifts are great, Ace.”
“Tell me about your scary dreams, because I know that’s what was happening. Don’t lie to me, Doc.”
She threw up a hand. The guy was like a dog with a bone. “I was dreaming about winter in Alaska.”
Sympathy shone in his eyes. “We do have someone ripping people’s eyes out, so that tracks.”
She gulped, the unease sliding back in. “I’m well aware of that sad fact.” As a topic change, she’d take it. “Is Christian still trying to hunt down the killer?” He’d been contracted by the local AWT guru but only temporarily until he left for training.
“For another week. Then he has to leave for Sitka for the training. He’ll make an excellent AWT.”
“Yeah.” May could see the quiet Osprey brother doing just that.
Silence stretched for a beat. The air felt warmer than it should’ve. Or maybe that was just Ace sitting there, big and solid in her small living room, his powerful presence pressing at her senses.
“What about you? Are you ever going to get a job?” she asked.
Ace huffed a laugh. “I’m investing with Amka. Projections are impressive.”
It had taken discipline to save that kind of money while he’d served in the military. Still. He had shown up uninvited at her door, so perhaps she didn’t need to be as polite as usual. “Why don’t you tell me about your plane wreck?”
Ace stilled.
Not dramatically. Not obviously. But everything about him went tight and quiet. Like the air itself paused. He exhaled slowly. “How do you know it was a plane crash?”
She blinked. “Everybody knows that. Small towns don’t exactly run on secrecy.”
“True.” His eyes flicked toward her. “Like the doctor who ran from a senator.”
Her mouth went dry. “I’m not on the run.”
Ace’s gaze didn’t waver.
“If I were,” she added carefully, “I wouldn’t be working as a doctor, since it’s easy to find us.” Partially true. She honestly hadn’t believed Kyle would ever track her to Knife’s Edge. This place barely felt real on a map, let alone somewhere he’d bother looking.
Ace tilted his head. “Why don’t you tell me the story?”
“I asked first.” She held her breath.
He held her eyes for a moment longer. “Fair enough.” Man, that shirt stretched tight across definite muscles. “I can’t tell you much, but I was flying a deep strike mission in a Lightning—stealth configuration.”
She stared. “A what?”
Ace’s mouth twitched. “An F-35C.”
“Oh.” She nodded like that explained anything. It absolutely did not.
“I was ambushed by J-20s.”
She squinted. “Okay… so you’re flying, and you’re up against two other guys?”
Ace grinned faintly. “Yeah.”
“Where were you?”
“Can’t tell you that.”
Couldn’t she just look up who flew J-20s? “Of course you can’t.”
“We had stealth and a superior electronic warfare suite,” he continued. “I broke their radar lock and closed to visual range.”
She lifted both hands. “I don’t understand half of what you’re saying.”
“I know.”
Okay, it was still interesting. “So what happened?”
“I took out two, but I sustained a strike to my hydraulic lines.”
“That’s bad?”
He didn’t smile. “Critical failure point.”
She swallowed. “Then you crashed.”