WRECKER (10 page)

Author’s Note: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to other real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The right of Sasha Gold to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Copyright © 2016 by Sasha Gold

All rights reserved.

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Chapter 1

The landing gear lowered, sending a jolt through the jump seat. Savannah Michaels closed her eyes. She could feel the plane descending. Her fingernails dug into her palm. Sweat trickled down her spine and made her uniform cling to her back. The plane touched down with hardly a bump but still drew a small murmur of alarm from her. She gripped the armrests and tried the counting trick the counselor taught her.

Captain Marshall’s voice came over the loudspeaker. His deep baritone always soothed her frazzled nerves at the end of a flight. There was something about the timbre of his voice. It both comforted and aroused her. She shouldn’t think about the captain like that, but couldn’t help it.

Her response to him was almost as bad as her anxiety about landing. When she’d asked the personnel department to switch her itinerary so she wouldn’t have to fly with him, the woman had acted like she was crazy. “
Honey, usually we have girls trying to get
on
his schedule.”

“Welcome to Jackson Hole, ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Marshall said. “We’ll be at the terminal in two minutes.”

He always sounded so reasonable and kind-hearted when he spoke to the passengers. With her, though, he was gruff and unfriendly. When she said hello to him, he always growled. His gaze would drift over her body and have her thinking of filthy things in no time. She wondered how his big hands would feel cupping her breasts, how his lips would feel pressed against hers, how his powerful shoulders would feel under the palms of her hands.

She’d only been working for the Mountain Resort Airlines for a few months and she couldn’t afford to upset any of the big shots. Jack Marshall owned something like ninety-five percent of the stock, so she tried to avoid him at all costs. He could make trouble for her. Big trouble. In so many ways. Jack Marshall had pulled strings to get her a job on the airline and both of them knew she needed to show gratitude.

Jack didn’t need to work. He had plenty of money. Stock, real estate, oil. He’d been out of the service for six years and in that time he’d taken a small inheritance from his grandfather and turned it into fortune. But he still flew for the airline he started because he loved being a pilot.

“It’s going to be brutal out there,” said Heidi, one of the other flight attendants. “Usually we don’t have to deal with blizzards this early in November. Makes me appreciate our Texas winters.”

As if on cue, a gust of wind buffeted the plane and a low murmur of worry moved through the passengers. Savannah waited for the plane door to be opened by the forward team. She went to the two small children sitting at the back of the plane, a brother and a sister coming to Jackson to visit their grandparents.

She didn’t always have kid-duty, taking care of the younger passengers who flew alone, but she enjoyed the kids when she did. Last time she’d flown, she’d had trouble with a couple of drunk male passengers. One of them tried to run his hand up her leg. She was grateful Heidi had been there to handle him. The seasoned flight attendant moved right in, cut off his liquor consumption and his attempts to grope Savannah.

Children were so much easier. Pretzels, sprite and a blanket and they were happy.

“Come on kiddos, we get to get off first,” Savannah said. “You two get special treatment since you were so well-behaved.”

When she got to the front of the plane, Captain Marshall waited by the door to see off the two children. At six foot four, his head almost touched the ceiling of the plane. He was broad chested and athletic. She’d seen him shirtless countless times and knew first hand there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He’d kept up his Marine Corps exercise regimen even though he’d been out of the service for five years. If any man was made to wear a pilot’s uniform, it was her step-brother, Jack.

His mother and her father had been married for almost two years. From the beginning it had been tough. She and Jack had verbally sparred many, many times. He thought she was sassy and opinionated. She thought he was arrogant and opinionated. But when they were working together a tentative peace existed between them. The tacit understanding when they flew together was they didn’t know each other. No one would ever guess they had any sort of connection. He called her Miss Michaels. She called him Captain Marshall.

Jack’s airline company served wealthy clients who jetted between their homes in LA or Manhattan and the upscale ski resorts nestled in the Rockies. Aspen. Vale. Jackson Hole. Passengers liked the small personal touches that made the airline different from the bigger carriers. Jack liked his pilots to make a point of saying hello and good-bye to every passenger and children always got a little souvenir.

As Savannah and the children neared Jack, he took two airplane models from his coat pocket and gave one to each child. “You two kids are getting escorted by the prettiest flight attendant we’ve ever had.”

Savannah fought the urge to roll her eyes. This was part of the game they always played, where he acted like the charming pilot and she was supposed to keep her mouth shut and smile at anything he said.

“She mixed up a special drink for us,” the little girl said.

The captain blinked in surprise, his lips tugging into a smile. He lifted his gaze and held hers for a moment. “Is that so, Miss Michaels?”

“It was a Shirley Temple.” Savannah felt herself blush. “
Sir
.”

He held her gaze and then bid the two children good-bye. She ushered them out the door and down the stairwell. Icy winds cut her skin and the children ducked their heads against the brutal cold.

Inside the small airport, she found the children’s grandparents waiting. She handed them off, telling the elderly couple how well behaved the children had been. They thanked her and walked away hand in hand with the children to the baggage claim.

The rest of the passengers were disembarking and she waited till the last stragglers got off. Just as she was about to go back to the plane, Jack came down the stairs and across the tarmac, leading the rest of the flight crew. He carried her coat and pulled her suitcase.

“I have your things, Miss Michaels.”

When he played this game he made it doubly hard on her to keep up the façade. But she had to. Her job depended on it. At twenty one, with no degree and no resume’, she needed to do everything she could to keep the boss happy. He handed over her coat and held on to the handle of her rolling suitcase. Heidi and the rest of the crew waved as they walked away.

Savannah nodded the direction of the other crew members. “Where are they going?”

“To their hotel. You and I are staying at The Montgomery.”

“The Montgomery…?”

He stared down at her with his usual irritation. It made her shiver and she wondered what she’d done to annoy him now.

“That’s right,” he said. “For once don’t argue with me.”

The normal protocol she adhered to was to speak to him as little as possible. He’d set that precedent, explained that even though he employed her, their relationship was professional. That code extended her living arrangements too. She rented a small guest house on his property in Salinas Pass. It had a separate entrance from the main house where he lived. She came and went without seeing him. They lived separate lives, for the most part, and when they had to interact it was almost always formal and impersonal.

Now, without warning he was taking her to a hotel? Alone? When had he changed the rules?

“Come on. I’m hungry,” he said.

She followed him wordlessly. Her job was a three month trial. He’d offered it when she was at one of her lowest points in her life, cut off without a penny from her father. It was no secret that she was a terrible flight attendant. Heidi and the others covered for her when she forgot drink orders, or airline procedures. They surrounded her like a protective flock of aunts.

Everyone always acted like flight attendant work was easy. Go over the floatation device procedures. Tell people to buckle up. Serve some drinks and food. And that was pretty much it. Or so they said. But it was hard. Tiring. People whined and complained. Sometimes they were rude. Other times they were overly friendly. Often there was turbulence and she would work hard to calm passengers, while she herself was terrified.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Heidi liked to say. “At least you didn’t throw up this time.”

Then it dawned on her. Word had finally gotten back to Jack. She bit her lip nervously and wrapped her arms around herself. He was firing her. Her career as a flight attendant was coming to an end. She could almost hear her father’s cackle. She would never live it down. Her father and sisters would sit around the dining table and talk about how Savannah couldn’t even hold a flight attendant job, at an airline her step-brother owned.

Outside a town car waited. The driver took the luggage. Wind blew, icy and swirling with snow. It felt like small shards of ice hitting her skin and she was grateful when she climbed into the car.

“The Marriott, Captain?” the driver said.

“No, not this time. The Montgomery.”

“Yes sir.” The driver pulled away from the curb and merged with airport traffic. “I hear it’s for sale.”

“You heard right. I’m buying it. I closed on it last week. I want to spend a few nights there. Make sure there are no ghosts.”

Jackson Hole was lovely, her favorite of the resort towns the airline serviced. This would probably be her last time here, for a while at least. The pretty mountain town was the playground of the rich and famous. Everything was expensive in Jackson. How much would a hotel go for she wondered?

Jack was always thinking of new investments, so it didn’t come as a huge surprise he’d want something like a hotel. Her father loved real estate too, and she might even tell him about Jack’s newest acquisition if he ever decided to speak to her again.

Two months ago, her father had all but disowned her when she announced she wasn’t going to law school. Enraged, he’d cut her off without a penny, forcing her to quit college half-way through her last semester.

Jack had arrived at her apartment in Austin, offered her work and the artist’s cottage at the back of his property. She was about to be evicted so she agreed to both the work and the sweet little cottage. Some of her family knew she worked for him, but no one knew she lived on his property. She came and went as she pleased. The cottage was tucked away, so she hardly ever saw him. But if her father ever found out, it would be a scandal. His only advice about Jack had been for her to stay as far from him as possible.

That man’s trouble…

“Savannah.” Jack drew her from her thoughts. “Are you hungry?”

“A little.” His gaze was cool and domineering and the perfect control he always maintained worked on her in an unpleasant way. He was going to buy her dinner and give her walking papers. A wave of irritation swept over her. She wished he would just get it over with.

“Are
you
hungry?
Captain
Marshall.”

He took off his hat and tossed it on the seat next to him. His look darkened. “You better quit that.”

Her thoughts went to the heated place she always went to when she was around him. She smoothed her hands over her skirt. The man had every flight attendant’s attention, but as far as she knew he never pursued any of them. He was quiet, reserved, and held himself apart.

He toyed with her. Always. When he offered her the guest cottage, he’d given her a sultry gaze and told her his guest room in the big house was available too. The first time she’d flown with him, he’d brought her coffee in her hotel room and told her once they were married they’d have to take turns making coffee and serving it to each other.