North of Heartbreak (3 page)

He grunted.

“Summer time has its own beauty. Because the growing season is so short, it isn’t unusual to see snow melting on the tundra one week, and that same patch of ground covered in blooming flowers the next.”

She caught the disbelieving look on his face. “You don’t believe me?”

“It’s hard to imagine.”

“I don’t think I could live anywhere else. The people here are…honest and genuine. And there’s a sense of community that goes beyond the norm. People really care about each other.” She studied him. “Why did you come here?”

“Lots of reasons.” He lifted one broad shoulder. “I had some family issues. I piloted for Eagle International Airlines for years. The schedule, the stress…” His voice trailed off.

“You don’t think what we did today was stressful?”

“No, but it was a different kind of stress. For once my passengers really needed my skills, needed
me.
”

“That I can understand,” Willa said with a nod. “It gives you a whole new perspective on life when what you’re doing makes a genuine difference.”

“Yeah, that’s it exactly.”

They exchanged grins.

“You should smile more often,” he said, his expression turning appreciative. “You’re beautiful.”

You’re beautiful.
The phrase reverberated through her mind like a tank rolling through enemy territory, setting off land mines. It put her back there, in the house that should have been a haven, but ended up a hell. The closed space of the cockpit felt like the hall at the entry to her basement. Her husband yelling at her, raving because another man had complimented him on his beautiful wife.

You’re beautiful.
The last man who said those words to her had punched her repeatedly to make her
unbeautiful.
Then tried to kill her.

Terror, raw and razor-sharp, sliced into her throat, cutting off her air supply. She could see him in front of her. Feel his fist wrapped around her neck.

“Willa?” Liam stared at her, the expression on his face dissolving into alarm. He reached out and touched her shoulder.

She sucked in a desperate breath and jerked out from under his hand. The word “No” made it past her lips as a dry croak.

“Willa, are you okay?”

She didn’t answer; she couldn’t. She was trapped in the old nightmare.

Chapter Three

“Willa?” Liam’s voice rose with concern.

The monster she’d been married to had sometimes used that tone to fool her into relaxing, usually right before he did something to punish her.

She edged herself into the corner between the seat and the door.

“Med-One, this is Tundra Air, come in.” Jason’s battered voice on the radio penetrated the vicious memory, dragging her back to the present.

The snap and crackle of the radio echoed through the cockpit. “Med-One, come in.”

“You’d better answer that,” she said to Liam, her voice dry and barely loud enough to be heard.

“Who’s Med-One?”

“Me.”

He stared at her, his gaze unmoving as he flipped the switch on the radio. “Roger, Tundra Air, this is Med-One. Go ahead.”

“Divert to Fort Mackenzie to pick up an urgent shipment for the weather station.”

A full two seconds passed before he responded. “Understood. Med-One out.”

Liam continued to stare. “What just happened?”

Stomach clenching, she turned away. How could she explain? What excuse could she give that he would understand?

She reached down to pick up her tea, to give herself some time to collect her shattered nerves. Her hand shook so hard the hot liquid sloshed over the side of the paper cup, dripping onto her pants.

He leaned over and wrapped his hand around her wrist, supporting it, holding it steady. “Are you okay? Should we turn around and go back to the hospital?”

She stared at his hand, his fingers curled around her wrist. The monster from her nightmare had blood on his knuckles. Liam had none.

“Willa?” he asked again, his thumb stroking her skin in a way that soothed rather than threatened.

Before she could respond the plane rocked violently back and forth, spilling the rest of the tea onto her from neck to knees.

“Hang on,” he ordered, letting her go to handle the plane. “We’ve hit some turbulence.”

Willa dropped the empty cup and hung on to the side of her seat as the plane flew through the choppy air like a sled careening down a washboard. One last drop and the roller-coaster ride ended as fast as it started.

“Are you hurt?” Liam asked, throwing fast glances at her in between checking the gauges.

“I’m fine. No need to turn around.”

He winced. “Sorry about your tea.”

She managed to meet his gaze, but only for a moment. “I’m fine.”

“You’re fine,” he repeated in a tone that screamed his disbelief. “Bullshit.”

Willa closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Why would my calling you beautiful upset you so much?”

“Please, don’t—” She shook her head, her chest stuttering as she tried to keep tears inside.

“Hey, hey,” he said. “It was just a compliment.”

“Compliments are nothing but empty words designed to fool a woman into letting her guard down.”

“Guard down?” He pinned her in place with a frown. “You make it sound like it’s inevitable someone gets hurt.”

“I…someone always does.” As soon as the words were out, Willa wished she could pull them back, wished she could forget. She had enough regrets as it was.

“Figuratively or literally?”

She’d said far too much already.

The memory of pain stabbed fresh in her mind and she rubbed her belly, searching for a spark of life that wasn’t there. How could she ever forget the ache, the loss and the betrayal of trust?

“Willa?”

She clenched her fists together in her lap. “It was a long time ago.” She turned a frosty glare on him. “I learned my lesson.”

Liam’s face hardened, his jaw clenching. “What did he do to you?”

She stared out the windshield, her mouth closed against the anguish she refused to acknowledge.

“Did he run out on you?”

She wouldn’t look at Liam, wouldn’t answer, wouldn’t cry.

“Did he hit you?”

A single sob escaped at his guess and Willa slapped a hand over her mouth. Was it so obvious? Did she wear a neon sign strapped to her forehead blinking Victim, Victim every five seconds?

Liam swore. He stopped, sucked in a breath and swore some more.

He fell silent for a few moments then growled, “Not all men…do that.”

“Do what?” she said in a voice that sounded water-logged even to her own ears. Did she really want to tell this stranger, this
man,
what had happened to her?

A quick glance at his face confirmed the worst. He was looking at her with the kind of compassion one reserves for lost dogs and charity cases. She might be stuck in a plane with him, but she didn’t have to put up with pity.

Willa shook her head in an effort to shake loose the old emotions, fear, anger and guilt, swamping her. Liam wasn’t her ex-husband, and she shouldn’t take it out on him. She breathed in a cleansing breath and began again. “I’m sorry. Please, just forget I said anything.”

He cleared his throat. “Don’t apologize. I should’ve taken the hint and shut up.”

“But you have nothing to do with my past. Even though I don’t know you, I do trust Jason. He’d never send me someone…unsafe.”

Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to trust any man anymore. Jason was an exception because of his age and role in her life—the father figure she’d needed since her own passed away twelve years ago.

Maybe if she’d had her father she wouldn’t have married a monster. Now she had to figure out how to create a working relationship with a man who’d just witnessed how deep her pain ran. Still, he wasn’t sneering at her or offering empty platitudes.

“Safe,” Liam grunted. “There’s a word I wouldn’t have used to define myself. I mean, I am. Totally safe. For you, but…”

Was he flustered? “How about skilled or useful?”

“What, like a trained dog?” He laughed, but it had an edge. “Sorry. Forget I said that. It’s just a relief for me to see I’m not the only who’s going through some shi—uh…stuff.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’ve got bad family
stuff
that I don’t quite know how to handle.” He glanced at her with that twisted grin again. “I guess I’ve got to figure myself out first.”

“Do any of us ever stop trying to figure ourselves out?”

He shrugged. “I was sort of hoping to coast one of these days soon.”

She cleared her throat. “Speaking of coasting,” she said, “why don’t we talk about something else, like work? I know this was your first MedEvac. Will you be doing more?”

He squirmed in his seat. “Yeah, I’ll be flying more of them. What’s the schedule like? You fly three times a week, right?”

It took her a moment to respond, to realize he was doing as she asked. She nodded slowly. “Yes, but Jason usually handles that.”

“I’ve been assigned as your regular pilot now.” Liam’s smile seemed carefully crafted to appear nonthreatening. That nearly made her laugh. It wasn’t his smile she was scared of but her reaction to it. “Jason nearly kissed me when I signed on to fly for him. He’s been shorthanded for a while now.”

“I didn’t realize… I’m in Stony Creek Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Summerset Inlet Tuesdays and Thursdays,” she said, all business. “On Wednesday I’m also in Fort Resolve for the afternoon.”

“That’s a hectic schedule.”

“Not really. The clinics are well organized.”

“What happens when there’s an emergency, like today?”

“Either the appointments are rescheduled for my next visit or the weekend.”

“It’s not normal to fly a MedEvac with just one medical person on board is it?”

“A minimum of two is recommended, but I haven’t got enough people. I need two more nurses.” She shook her head. “We’ve had no luck finding anyone.”

“We?”

“The town has had ads in several large newspapers.”

He shook his head. “Damn inconvenient. You can’t work shorthanded forever.” He glanced out his left side window. “I’m starting my approach into Fort Mackenzie.”

Willa looked at her watch, her lips tight. She had a ton of work to do before bed.

“I’ll have you home as soon as I can.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything. Instead she grabbed a binder that she’d jammed in between the seats and opened it. At least she’d have some of her paperwork done.

Liam landed, loaded the supplies and got back into the air in less than thirty minutes. Once in the air again he checked in with Jason, and left her alone.

Willa kept her nose in her notes until they were almost at Stony Creek. “How long until we land?” she asked, not caring that she sounded tired.

“About five minutes.”

Liam put the plane on the ground, taxied to the clinic door, hopped out, put wheel stops on either side of the plane’s tires then secured the propellers.

She grabbed two of her medical kits and headed into the clinic. He followed her inside with the rest.

“Is this everything?” He dropped the boxes next to the ones she’d brought in.

“That’s it.” Thank God.

He nodded. “What time do you want to take off tomorrow?”

“Seven-thirty. I’d like to see patients by nine.”

“Anything special I should know or have on hand?”

She wilted a little, flopping against the wall. Relief at his businesslike attitude pulled all the starch out of her bones. “No, nothing that I can think of.”

“Anything you need right now?”

She straightened at that and took a step back.

“You look washed out,” he added.

“I’m just feeling the after-effects from the adrenaline rush this afternoon.”

He crossed his arms across his chest and braced one shoulder against the wall in front of her, as if they were two people having a regular conversation. “Crashing hard, huh?”

His tone was conciliatory, too sweet, in fact. She took another step back. “Yeah. Unfortunately I still have a bunch of charts to finish and some cleaning to do.” She lifted her chin. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” He stood tall. “I have to do the same. I’ll see you later.” It sounded like a promise.

“Yes, thank you.” She blinked to keep tears from escaping and prayed he wouldn’t notice her reaction to his simple comment or her lips quivering with fatigue. “It was good to meet you.”

She had wounds, deep ones. Wounds she thought had closed and healed. She’d been wrong. How was she ever going to stitch them closed?

Liam stopped, his hand on the doorknob, and smiled. “My pleasure entirely.” He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

Willa stared after him for a long time. She had too much work to do before going home to her small apartment to try to figure out what she should do about Liam. Or even if she should do anything about him.

It took thirty minutes to restock her travel kits and fill out the paperwork to reorder supplies. That done, she settled in to complete her charting. It was good to be able to add that the pilot had EMT training to her report. She’d have to get Liam to sign off on it tomorrow morning before they left on their flight.

Flying three days a week with him was going to be an odd sort of torture. Like being a diabetic and having someone wave your favorite chocolate bar in your face every day. Taking a bite might taste delicious, but it also might kill you.

The worst part was, Jason knew her history, knew how she felt about men in general and pretty ones in particular. Yet he still stuck her with Liam, who was absolutely gorgeous, making him the last man she’d trust with any ease.

“I’m going to have to have a little chat with Jason about this,” she muttered as she wrote in Joe’s chart.

“A chat with Jason about what?”

Willa’s head snapped up, surprise widening her eyes. Her mouth opened, but it was a second or two before anything came out. Liam stood about five feet behind her, a large paper bag in his hand. “A…about the flight schedule. I’m thinking of changing it.” She swallowed. “I thought you’d gone.”

“I refueled and checked over the plane.” He held up the bag. “I picked up some dinner figuring you could use something to eat.”

“Oh, that’s very kind of you, but I couldn’t—”

“You don’t want all this food to go to waste do you? Besides, I’m the new guy on the block. It’s the least I can do.”

“Well, actually, I’m really tired.” She tossed him a weak smile, which didn’t seem to faze him at all.

“Uncle Jason told me to take good care of you, make sure you ate something and got out of here at a reasonable time.” Liam turned away, craning his head around the room. “I’ll get this ready in the waiting room.”

He had most of it out of the bag before she finally got over her fright and said, “I’ll just wash my hands.”

She went slow. It took her five minutes.

She approached the low coffee table in the waiting room as if it were covered with live bugs.

She stretched her neck to see what he’d bought. There weren’t a lot of good options in a town this small.

“Chinese?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, opening a cardboard box. “From the place across the street.”

“Their food’s good.”

“Cool.” He handed her a paper plate. “Dig in.”

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do this you know.”

Liam finally made eye contact with her and shrugged. “I didn’t feel like eating alone.”

“Why didn’t you eat with Jason? Isn’t that where you’re staying?”

“Yeah, but I’ve eaten with him three times a day for two weeks straight. It’s nice to have new scenery.”

Something wound painfully tight inside her relaxed. “Ah, so I’m like a birch tree in a forest of evergreens then?”

“Yep.” He paused with his mouth open, fork poised to enter. “Hope you’re not insulted.”

“Oh no. Relieved actually.”

“What was that?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She smiled, but it felt faker than Jason’s false teeth. She dug into her food with a haste that had Liam chortling with laughter.

She paused, swallowing as if she had a mouthful of nails. “Are there cashews in this?”

Liam looked at his food. “Uh…yes.”

“I’m allergic to cashews.”

He dropped his plate. “How allergic?”

“Hives and puffy eyes allergic.”

He winced and stood. “Where do you keep your antihistamine?”

“I’ll get it.”

He motioned her to stay seated. “No, no. I’ll get it, you just sit tight.” He took a step then stopped. “Where do you keep it?”