It took a few beats before she could speak again. “Forget the shower, I need a heart monitor.”
A chuckle rumbled in his chest and beneath her ear. “I’m pretty sure mine stopped.”
Cassie wondered if that statement was the closest thing to a compliment she would get from Cal. She balanced her upper body on her elbows and stared down at him.
“You gonna be up for another round, flyboy?”
The ceiling began to spin. He twisted their bodies until he was on top. “You’re the boss.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“No, but I hope to after a few minutes of rest. I’m not twenty anymore, you know.”
She laughed until his mouth covered hers. Then she lost the power to form words.
Chapter Twenty-two
Cal had been with enough women to understand his night with Cassie qualified as something different. His lack of control around her bordered on ridiculous.
In terms of stamina, his body performed well beyond any expectations. Throughout the night he made love to Cassie four times, waking her with his hands and his mouth, and losing himself in her over and over again. If Cassie suddenly grew fangs, he’d probably still find her alluring.
This was all Dan’s fault.
The man could have warned him about his baby sister. Referring to her as typical didn’t do her justice. Didn’t let Cal get prepared either. He had no defenses against this woman.
“Hey.” Cassie stood in the doorway between the bedroom and living area snuggled in a shapeless white terry cloth robe. Rosy pink skin, glowing fresh and clean from her shower, peeked out.
To be completely correct, this was her second shower of the morning. The first one ended up with Cassie perched against the tiled shower wall with a leg in the air, covered in nothing but him.
Who would have thought a black-and-white-checked room could inspire such passion?
He leaned back with his arms stretched along the top of the leather couch. “You look clean.”
“Nice outfit.” She nodded in the direction of his groin.
Cal glanced down at his striped boxers and gray T-shirt. He had slipped out of the room while Cassie was in the shower and bought the unappealing outfit at a small boutique in the lobby. Damn clothes cost a fortune.
“I prefer yours.” Only because unwrapping that cloth wouldn’t take more than a second. “Feel better?”
“Definitely.” She nodded in the direction of the papers strewn across the coffee table. “What are you doing?”
“Separating the papers from the backpack.”
Folding her legs beneath her, she sat down next to him. “Anything interesting?”
How did he tell Cassie that the torn papers in his hand put Dan in business with Bobby Polk? The documents on the official letterhead talked about Dan running antiques. The handwritten notes and what was left of the ledgers suggested something else. Looked like Dan received a percentage from the sale of the goods. Where those goods came from was the real question.
This was the same nightmare Cal experienced in the Air Force. He got stuck figuring out the truth. He had to set the record straight when Dan screwed up.
Pitching his voice low, Cal tried to soothe her for the shock to come. “Cassie, we need to talk about something.”
Her face paled. “Don’t do this again.”
Not exactly the response he expected. Before he could question what was going on in that usually sharp mind of hers, she started yelling.
“What is wrong with you? Why do you keep doing this?” Her voice quivered.
He recognized her anger. The rest of her reaction had him stumped. Her anger could ignite in a nanosecond. Usually he did something to deserve it, but this time something lit her fuse before he had said anything.
“Want to explain what you’re talking about?”
She tapped her fingers on the armrest. “This is the cave thing all over again.”
What cave thing? “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Her mouth opened then snapped shut.
“Just give me a hint,” he said.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“Among other things, the fact you’ve lost your mind.”
She waved a hand in the air. “Before that.”
“That we need to have a conversation about Dan.”
“Oh.” She made a clicking sound with her tongue. “Well, then, go ahead.”
“That’s it? All that outrage and now it’s gone.”
“Uh-huh.”
He would never understand women. Especially Cassie.
She twisted the belt robe in her fingers. The tug opened the gap between the sides of the robe, exposing a bit more skin. “Did you find something in the papers?”
He glanced at the blank television screen in an effort to clear his mind and focus. “It’s not about the papers right now. I’m talking about Dan and his time in the service.”
She smiled. “Not you, too.”
She kept throwing him off stride. “What do you mean?”
“Dan would talk for hours about the thrill of flying. Apparently the ladies were quite impressed with the talk.”
“Except you.”
“I’m not really up for a conversation about your conquests.”
Cal decided to try another tact. “Did Dan ever tell you why he left the service?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “He said it was time to move on. Spending all those years going into dangerous situations took something out of him.”
Cal understood that reality. It just wasn’t the reality of why Dan left the service. “It’s tough work.”
“Really, though, I think he regretted leaving the second after he did. He wasn’t the therapy or meds type, but whatever plagued him manifested itself liked depression. He finally turned a corner when he opened the tourist business. Then…”
When her eyes filled, Cal reached out and squeezed her hand. “I know, baby.”
“Sorry.” She sniffed back the tears.
“You’re allowed to mourn.”
“I don’t want to. Not now, but it just sneaks up on me without warning.”
“You can’t turn emotions on and off like that.”
“You do.”
Well, he was trying. “I miss him, Cassie.”
She threaded her fingers through his. “I know.”
He nodded because he didn’t trust himself to say anything right then. She wasn’t the only one who got hit with memories of Dan if she stopped long enough to let herself think about him.
“Anyway.” She wiped her eyes. “I think he missed the service right until the end. He just learned to deal better with being retired.”
Now he had to fix Dan’s lies. “Are you sure?”
“About?”
“His removal wasn’t voluntary, Cassie.”
Her beautiful eyes narrowed. “Removal?”
“Dan had to leave. He broke the rules, got caught, and got escorted out of the service. There weren’t any charges and he kept his pension along with an honorable discharge, but the facts pointed to something else.”
She shot to her feet, leaving Cal’s hand behind on the couch. “That’s not true.”
Her robe hung open. The belt remained wrapped around her hand but she didn’t seem to notice that the rest of her was on display. All of her focus, all of her fury, centered on him.
“There’s no mistake.”
“Tell me.”
A pain moved into his chest. He tried to breathe in but his lungs actually ached from the effort. “Cassie, you don’t want all the details.”
“You think I’m just going to take your freaking word for this?”
Would that be so much to ask? “I haven’t earned that right yet?”
“No.”
No thought. Just no. Part of him wanted her to agree, to at least leave open the possibility.
“Well, tell me your story.” Her bare foot started tapping. “I can decide the re
st from there.”
There was no reason to back out now. He pushed and she made her position clear. She believed in Dan no matter what, even if that meant not believing in him. “Dan worked hard but liked to goof off.”
“Sounds like all pilots to me.”
“He stayed on the right side of the line, never endangered the team or a mission, until one day. He went up and made some bad decisions, and they ended his career.”
Her skin tone matched the off-white robe. “Describe these decisions.”
Cal hesitated about going on because there was no easy way to disillusion her. She held Dan up as some superhuman. Finding out he was human, and a flawed one at that, might destroy her.
“He was playing games while flying and had a near miss.”
“An accident.”
He delivered the final killing blow. “He was drunk, Cassie.”
Her face pinched. From her eyes to her mouth, everything closed in.
“You should sit back down,” he said.
Her fingers turned pure white where she choked off the blood supply with the belt. “Dan was not an alcoholic.”
“Agreed.”
“Well, then—”
“He drank too much. Way too much for a pilot and far too close to flying time. He broke those rules more often than I can tell you.”
“Did you?”
“Never.” Cal never claimed to be perfect, but that was not a sin that could be laid at his door. “He frequently got sloppy.”
She shook her head hard enough to hurt herself. “I refuse to believe that.”
“He was always looking for the next thrill. On this particular day, he thought he could handle the booze and perform a helicopter routine run. He was wrong. He hadn’t dried out before he went up.”
She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. Cal knew she was fighting between anger and tears. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and comfort her. But her mindless case of hero worship was not doing either of them any good.
“Cassie, you need to listen to me.” He reached for her hand.
She pulled out of range. “The person you’re describing is not my brother. He never touched alcohol the whole time he was flying in Hawaii.”
That was a relief. Cal hoped that meant Dan turned his life around before the end. The idea of Dan being involved in something illegal, something that led to his death, made Cal sick.
“He was a good man.” Her voice shook with fury.
“Yes. That and a great pilot and a loyal friend. He made mistakes and paid for them.” Cal never understood what went so terribly wrong with Dan that day years ago. His best friend had strayed past class clown and walked right into danger territory.
It was bad enough Dan had to punch out and let a multimillion-dollar aircraft crash into the sea, but Dan’s negligence nearly cost the lives of two other men, Cal included. Two weeks tied to a hospital bed did not cool his fury. He almost ripped Dan apart with his bare hands as soon as he was able to walk again.
Cal relieved Dan of command instead.
She wrapped her arms over her stomach and ran her hands up and down her arms. “You’re talking about my brother and don’t even care what you’re saying.”
“He was my friend.”
“Was. And now I know why.”
Her words sliced through him. He knew this moment would come. He tried to keep separate from her to prevent this scene. That failed. Problem was, there were worse moments ahead of them because only part of the story was out there.
Still, hearing her stark loss of faith damaged him. “I’m not shitting you, Cassie. This is real.”
“I know Dan better than anyone. Even you. Especially you.”
“Did you?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He refused to let her hide behind that lie. “I spent every day with him for years. You were his sister, not his best friend. Not the person he confided in.”
“I suppose you think that was you.”
“It was me.”
Her whole body shook. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He knew she was desperate to convince him. He stood up thinking to go to her, but she stepped back so fast she almost lost her balance.
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay. Just listen to me.”
When she nodded, he forged ahead. “I was there. His stunt had consequences. I was one of them.”
“You were in the plane?”
“Two surgeons put my leg together again and that was the easy part of my recuperation.”
“We’ve been all over each other and I didn’t see—”
He turned to the side revealing an angry scar that ran from just below the back of his knee to his ankle. “I don’t exactly show it off.”
She sat down hard on the chair opposite the leather couch.
“At first Dan denied the alcohol use. He had escaped without injury and showed up at the hospital, sober, and demonstrated the appropriate amount of concern.”
“Now you’re saying he didn’t care that his plane crashed?” Her voice climbed an octave as she spoke.
Cal inhaled, letting the fresh intake of oxygen calm his rising anger. “I didn’t mean it that way. Of course he cared. He also was concerned about saving his butt. Other people got hurt.”
“You.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yeah.”
“Is there more?” She tapped her fingers against the chair in what he assumed was supposed to be a show of disinterest. “Maybe you have some stories about my parents. Or maybe my grandmother. Why stop with Dan?”
Tears brimmed her eyes but did not fall.
Seeing her this upset punched him in the gut. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“Well, you failed.”
He slowly dropped to his knees in front of her, giving her plenty of time to get away from him. “You needed to know the truth.”
“Why now? Why not before we had sex?”
He refused to touch that insinuation. They had enough to fight about and overcome without her manufacturing arguments. “As much as I don’t like it, it is possible Dan was involved in this mess with Polk.”
This time she shoved at his shoulders with eyes that mirrored her disgust. “What kind of friend are you?”
Good question. One Cal had asked over and over again since the incident that had nearly cost his life. At the time, he had debated turning Dan in. For Dan’s safety and for the protection of those who worked with him, Cal had a duty to shut down Dan’s ability to fly. At the very least, Dan needed help before he could go out again.
Out of fear of the deadly accident that could happen if Dan went unchecked, Cal issued an ultimatum. Dan had to come clean and get help. If not, he would face full charges for his actions.
After an internal battle that waged for days, Cal vowed to tell his superiors about the alcohol. About the fact Dan hid his use until it was too late to save the aircraft and spare the crew. If that was the only way to save Dan from himself, Cal would do it and face the consequences for his disloyalty.
Dan picked a third alternative. He went over Cal’s head, worked out a deal, and walked out on the Air Force and their friendship forever. Until the recent contact, Cal hadn’t heard from Dan. Cal had tried. Dan refused to reciprocate.
“Why are you saying all of this?” she asked in a voice full of hurt.
“Because it’s the truth.” He swallowed what remained of his good sense. “And because you deserve to know the truth about the man you are rushing to defend.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Cassie wanted to scream and thump her fists against Cal’s chest until he hurt as much as she did. “You know what I’m hearing?”
“Not really.”
“Dan hit a hard time and you ran away from him.”
Cal slouched back on his ankles. “That’s not true.”
“Did you decide Dan was no good? I mean, why else would you turn your bac
k on him?”
“Dan didn’t keep in touch with any of us after it happened. I tried. He wouldn’t listen.”
She didn’t want to be near Cal right now, so she stood up and walked to the window. The stunning view appeared bland to her now. “This is unbelievable.”
An absolute nightmare. The news refused to compute in her brain. The fun-loving Dan she knew could control his impulses. He did not fool around with safety. He would not have endangered Cal, a friend he held so dear.
But how much did she really know him? She fostered certain memories of him. There were whole parts she could not fill in. He left before she reached her teens and stayed away and in the air after. Still, she adored him. He was her big brother. Her hero.
She tried to calm the storm battering her insides. First was Dan. Then the way Cal delivered the devastating information, so straightforward and clear, in a voice shaking with emotion. The way Cal called out in his sleep the night before. All that control loosened when he relaxed.
From the whispered words and frantic thrashing in bed, she knew he had survived some sort of ordeal. Now Cal wanted her to believe the source of that anguish came at Dan’s hands. All of the details swirled in her mind. She tried to separate them out and make sense of them. The desperate need to hold on to the Dan she knew would not abate.
Through all of her confusion and the haze of pain that enveloped her, she looked down at Cal. Part of her wanted him to feel as lost as she did. To have him wallow in this awful middle ground where he didn’t know what or who to believe. Then she noticed that he had not moved from his position on the floor.
With his head downcast he massaged the back of his neck. He had given her limited eye contact during the horrible conversation. Now he didn’t look at her at all.
In a universe of confusion and uncertainty, it was clear that something else wasn’t right. “What aren’t you telling me?”
His head shot up. “Huh?”
“You’re holding back something. What’s missing?”
“Nothing.”
For the first time since their brief relationship, Cassie sensed an outright lie. His gaze met hers, then slid away. There was more to this incident than Cal wanted to admit. She refused to believe any part of the story, but Cal believed it. For whatever reason, he was invested in the idea of Dan being the bad guy.
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