Coming In Hot (Jupiter Point Book 6)

by Jennifer Bernard

  Ben had always been the one with the passion for flying. Taking over the old Marcus airstrip and reviving the flightseeing business was Ben's idea. Ben had thought of the name, he'd come up with the logo design, with the chess-piece silhouette over a sun. Ben was the one who worked night and day—pun intended—on the business, crunching numbers and taking online marketing courses when he wasn't actually piloting a plane.

  Tobias was the supporting player here. He did his job, of course. He memorized the spiel Ben wrote, so he had something to say to the tourists as they flew past the observatory. He quizzed wildlife biologists so he'd know the best places to spot bears in the mountains, or dolphins riding the currents. His goal was to deliver an unforgettable experience during every tour he flew, with at least one wildlife sighting.

  When it came to the management side of things, he tried to hold up his end. He sat in on interviews. They needed to hire some support staffers—a receptionist to take bookings, a bookkeeper to manage the finances, a part-time mechanic to keep the planes in top condition. There was so much involved in getting the business off the ground, sometimes he missed the simple days of the military chain of command. At Knight and Day, the chain of command was more like a scramble to keep up with everything that had to be done.

  Ben loved every minute. He strode around the airstrip with a piratical grin, greeting customers with a handshake and a free Guide to the Skies of Jupiter Point. He kept lecturing Tobias about his manner with the tourists.

  "You have to smile more, dude. These are not enemy combatants. They're customers."

  "I know that. That's why I make sure to get them back alive," Tobias grumbled.

  "They might be alive, but they're afraid you're going to scowl at them again. Would it kill you to lighten up?"

  "Fuck off."

  "I'll take that as a yes," Ben said dryly. He adjusted the bandanna he wore to hold back his hair. He'd vowed not to cut it for at least five years to make up for all the buzz cuts he'd had in the Air Force.

  "Look, I'm doing my best here. I'm not a ray of sunshine like you. I'm more of a—"

  "A death ray?"

  Tobias grimaced. Was he really that lacking in cheer? "I'll work on the smiling part."

  "Eh, don't worry about it. I wouldn't want you to strain anything. Besides, you freed Aiden from the evil spell of the golden goddess, so you're good for the rest of the year. How'd you do it, anyway? You really know how to complete a mission, bro."

  Tobias checked the last bolt on the Cessna, to which he was giving a preflight safety check. "Classified info, eyes only, man. Can't reveal my tradecraft."

  "Oh, so you're playing it that way. Did you meet the lady in question?"

  "No comment."

  "Dude, now you sound like Will."

  "Sound like Will, how?" The man in question strode into the hangar. Will looked like a different man these days. Loose, happy, free. Tobias figured it was thanks to his new and blissful relationship with Merry Warren. Tobias had never seen two people who enjoyed each other as much as Will and Merry. Their sparks could light up a room.

  "He pulled out the 'no comment'," explained Ben. "Refuses to talk about what went down at Evergreen."

  Will put his hands in his pockets and surveyed Tobias with sharp gray eyes. "Can't complain about the results. Aiden seems in good shape. I just asked him if he still wants to liquidate his trust and he said 'no.'"

  "Great." Tobias twirled his wrench, then put it back in the toolbox. "He's a good kid. Let's give him a little breathing room. Everyone has a right to lose their mind once in a while, right?"

  "Sure." Will jerked his chin at Tobias. "Do you have a few minutes?"

  "If you want me to dish the dirt about the golden goddess, it's not happening."

  Did Will know that it was Carolyn? Had Merry told him? Carolyn had made Merry promise not to, but that might be a hard promise to keep. No matter what, Tobias had no intention of telling either of his brothers. His experience and connection with Carolyn felt too personal, too precious, to share.

  Will held up a hand in a defensive gesture. "Not about that. As far as I'm concerned, that chapter is closed. I was hoping I could ask you some questions about…" he hesitated. "That morning."

  That morning.

  The morning Tobias had found Dad dead and all their lives had changed. A thick ball of dread formed in his gut. The memory never really left him, but talking about it…that was another matter. He hadn't done that at all, except with the interrogating officers at the scene, and then with Merry for her article. That interview had been excruciating.

  "Sure," he managed. "Where do you want to do it?"

  "Actually, I was thinking we could go back to the old house. You can walk me through exactly what you saw and where. I already spoke to the new owners. We just have to give them a head's up when we're on the way."

  The old house. Jesus. Tobias hadn't been back there since he left for boot camp. Will had sold it and moved to an old farmhouse closer to town. Could he handle a trip back there? Back to the most horrifying moment of his life?

  For some reason, the thought of Aiden stiffened his spine. Aiden wouldn't be afraid to go back. He was good at facing emotionally painful things.

  "Yeah, let's do that. I have one more flight today, then let's go."

  "That works."

  Ben interrupted and dragged Will away to show him the new weather radar system they'd installed. Tobias moved to the tool bench, where he grabbed a rag and some heavy duty hand cleaner. As he was wiping motor oil off his hands, his phone beeped. Earlier today he'd sent Carolyn a photo he'd taken from his last flightseeing trip along the coastline. It was an especially beautiful shot of the sun reflecting off the observatory and the Seaview Inn, which sat on the next hill over. Behind those two hills spread an ocean of green, the Sierras unfolding in endless pine-studded waves.

  Not quite Renaissance art, but not too shabby, he'd written. For some reason, every beautiful sight he saw, he wanted to share with her. But he didn't tell her that. Too freaking sappy. And they didn't have that kind of relationship, after all. They'd been texting casually, exchanging fun notes about things happening in their lives—Dragon's new chew toy, Jupiter Point's new Thanksgiving parade, that sort of thing.

  Also, she gave him reports about Aiden, for which he was eternally grateful. Things like, Spotted Aiden with a cute soccer player at the Caf. He seems happy. And, Aiden actually raised his hand in class today. That's a first.

  Now she'd texted again, probably about the photo he'd sent. He was so anxious to see her response that he tried to open the text with the heel of his hand, since his fingers were still slick from the cleaning compound. The phone went flying off the tool bench and skittered across the concrete floor, coming to a stop at Ben's feet.

  Ben bent to pick it up, and Tobias panicked. What if he saw Carolyn's text? What if he put it together that she was the mystery woman from Evergreen? "I got it," he barked, hurrying after his phone.

  Too late. Ben had already snagged it off the floor. He laughed at Tobias’s frustrated growl and held his phone behind his back. "You look the way you used to when Dad caught you reading comics instead of studying. Whazzup, dude?"

  "Hand it over."

  "Are you blushing?" Ben peered at him, a wild light in his blue eyes.

  "I'll kick your ass."

  "Bring it, big guy. It's worth it, just to see what you've got going on."

  "Nothing's going on, jackass." Time to get down and dirty. "Hand the phone back or I won't tell you who I saw at the Quickie Mart this morning."

  Ben narrowed his eyes at him. "Is this something I want to know?"

  "Oh yes." His brother gave in and handed back his phone. "I'm not giving in to your blatant extortion, by the way. I just realized that I'm not twelve anymore."

  "Are you sure?" Tobias muttered as he stuffed the phone back in his pocket.

  "Pay up, big guy. Who'd you see at the Quickie Mart?"

  "Julie."

&nb
sp; Ben froze for a fraction of a second, then continued on as if that fact meant nothing to him. But anyone who knew Ben knew that couldn't possibly be true. Ben had been so deeply in love with Julie that when she'd dumped him, right before the murder, he'd joined the Air Force almost immediately. His brothers had wondered if he had some kind of death wish.

  Since the military didn't want people with death wishes, they'd quickly gotten his head straight for him. The next time Ben had come back to Jupiter Point, he'd been a different man. He'd developed an outer shell that let everything bounce right off him. Nothing upset him anymore, almost as if he'd been so deeply wounded that other painful events didn't register.

  But Tobias knew him well enough to know that wasn't true. Ben had a huge heart, and he'd given it to Julie one hundred percent. How would he handle her reappearance?

  "Interesting," Ben said, in a brittle voice. "I thought she was down south somewhere."

  "She just moved back. She asked about you. I told her about Knight and Day, so she might drop by."

  Ben's mouth twisted for a moment, then he shrugged lightly. "Great. I'll show her around. Maybe take her up in the chopper."

  "And push her out?" Tobias asked wryly.

  "Probably not," Ben said. "But you never know."

  Tobias made a note to tell Julie to avoid Ben at all costs. Until now, he hadn't realized there might still be bad blood between them. What the hell. He couldn't fix all his brothers' love lives. Not when his own was in such a frustrating state.

  13

  He was finally able to check the text from Carolyn in the truck as they headed to their old house. While Will drove, Tobias scanned through his messages.

  You have a real eye, she wrote. I could teach this in a class. Master Tobias of the Jupiter Point school. By the way, I thought of you today when I discussed the Mannerist movement. Look at this portrait. Remind you of anyone?

  She'd attached a photo of a moody-looking prince staring into the distance. He wore a floppy gold hat and a velvet doublet and yet somehow managed to look like a badass. A badass in a very bad mood.

  He looks like he ate a bad burrito, Tobias answered. Did they eat those in the Renaissance?

  Interesting perspective. She added an eye roll emoji. Remind me not to invite you to be a guest lecturer.

  Done. Tho now I have my next Halloween costume. Halloween had already passed. He and Ben had dressed up as scary carrots. No one got it, until they’d explained to the trick or treaters that nothing was more terrifying than having to eat your vegetables.

  That had gotten some laughs from the kids.

  I'd give you ALL the candy if you dressed as my favorite portrait.

  Okay then. That sounded flirtatious to him. Tell me more. What kind of candy are you handing out?

  "Tobias!" He jerked his head up. Will was frowning at him from the driver's seat. "Jesus, I've been saying your name for the last two minutes."

  "Sorry, man." With a last regretful peek, he tucked his phone away. His text flirtation would have to wait.

  Will was still giving him odd sideways looks in between navigating the curves on the road that led to the unincorporated area past Jupiter Point. "Who were you talking to?"

  "No one. It's nothing important. Just a…someone. Someone I met recently."

  "Yeah? Well, you look pretty into her, based on that smile you can't keep off your face. Are you going to see her again?"

  "Doubtful." The chances that he and Carolyn could find a way past Aiden's former crush seemed remote. Even if Aiden wasn't obsessed with her anymore, he might feel foolish if Tobias got involved with her. In fact, out of all the single women in the world, Carolyn was probably the one Tobias most needed to avoid.

  "Huh. Well, if you want to talk about it, you know where to go."

  "You giving out romantic advice now?"

  "I didn't say me. Merry's great at giving advice. Ask any of her friends. Brianna, Suzanne, Lisa."

  Carolyn, he wanted to say. Carolyn's one of her best friends, and she's a knockout and what am I going to do when she comes back to Jupiter Point and I run into her at a barbecue or something?

  One worry at a time.

  "Uh, that's okay. I got this."

  "You'd better. We can't have all the Knight brothers falling in love at once."

  "In love?" Tobias snorted. "You can cross that off your list. Ain't happening, bro. You got that end of things covered. I'll stick with meaningless hookups."

  Truth to tell, he hadn't had one of those in quite some time. Definitely not since he'd met Carolyn.

  "Any luck locating the girl from the sheriff's office?" he asked Will. "The one letting suspects go?"

  "Cindy Tran? I have some leads, but not yet. I'm worried about her. I hope she's safe. She's smart, but she's up against a ring of drug smugglers."

  Will pulled into the driveway of their old house, and Tobias forgot all about their conversation. His gut knotted into a tight ball. This was almost exactly where he'd argued with his father that last night. The basketball hoop was still there, but the garage door had been repainted. The big eucalyptus tree was even taller, and someone had planted brilliant dahlias by the front walkway.

  He let Will do the greeting and the talking until they reached the spacious old kitchen, with the farmhouse sink and windows that looked out on the vegetable garden and barn. The new owners let them be, requesting only that they put everything back as they found it. With the door closed, they stood in silence, gazing at the spot where Robert Knight had been discovered with his throat cut, a pool of blood congealing around him.

  Where Tobias had discovered him.

  Will cleared his throat. "Looks like they've done some renovating in here."

  Tobias recognized an attempt to make this seem normal. "Yeah, I like what they've done with it. The fewer murder victims, the better."

  Will snorted and strolled over to the drainboard next to the sink. Tobias flashed on the last time he'd been hanging out in a kitchen, with Carolyn tending to his scratched arms. Even though he'd been in more physical pain at that point, he'd choose that moment over this one.

  "Want to take me through it?" Will asked.

  "Sure. I…" He ran a hand over the back of his neck. This was hard. Even harder than he'd expected. "I hadn't slept much the night before. Don't know if you knew, but Dad bailed me out of jail that night."

  "Jail, huh? They actually arrested you?"

  Tobias gave a one-sided smile. "They usually didn't out of respect for Dad. But I got into a fight and I guess they'd had enough of my shit. So they tossed me in. Dad was furious, obviously. We got into a huge blowout that night. Even worse than usual. Anyway, I was tossing all night. Remember how I was staying in the barn then?"

  Will nodded.

  "They sometimes kept the kitchen door unlocked for me because all I had was a like, a rice cooker I'd picked up at a garage sale…" He realized he was rambling, and dragged himself back to the point. "Anyway, I think Dad probably left the latch off because he knew I'd get hungry. But I refused to go in, I was so pissed. I lay there making all kinds of plans to leave Jupiter Point. If only I hadn't been so fucking childish…" He broke off.

  Will squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, don't do that to yourself. The only person responsible for Dad's death is the one who murdered him. Anything else is just noise."

  Tobias nodded, though the words felt so empty compared to the crushing weight of his guilt. "I could have scared the guy off, or interrupted him, or got Dad help in time."

  "A million things could have happened. We don't know. All we know is someone came in and killed him. Probably someone he knew. Dad was a soldier. He would have fought back against a stranger. Did it look as though he'd fought?"

  "Not really. He looked like…" Tobias swallowed hard. "It looked like he was smiling, a big dark-red grin right across his neck. Like he was laughing with his throat. I couldn't even understand it at first. As if he'd slipped in a puddle of something on the kitchen floor and was laughing
about it. And I—"

  "What?" Will prompted gently.

  "I laughed back. I kind of snorted, the way I always did when he tried to make one of his ‘dad’ jokes that never came out right. I laughed, Will. He was lying there in his own blood and I laughed." The horror rushed through him, same as it had the moment he realized what he was actually seeing. He turned away and passed a hand over his face, blocking it from view.

  Will put a steadying hand on his shoulder, waiting while Tobias struggled to get a grip on himself.

  "I'm okay. I just need a second." He waved his brother off. If he let himself go down the emotional rabbit hole, he'd never get through this. He whooshed out a breath, then another one. When he was finally back on solid ground, he continued.

  "After I figured out that he was…that his throat had been cut, I went down next to him and listened for breathing. I tried his pulse, but it was pretty clear he was gone. I called nine-one-one. And then I went up to wake Mom. I didn't want the police to show up and freak her out. But of course there was no avoiding a meltdown."

  Will shot him a look of purest sympathy. "I'm really sorry I wasn't there to take some of the burden off you. It all fell on you. Not fair."

  "Ben took care of Aiden. If he hadn't been here, it would have been a thousand times worse. And you came as soon as you could. Like you say, there's no sense in any of us beating ourselves up."

  "I won't if you won't." Will walked to the spot on the floor where Tobias had found Dad. He traced the perimeter of an imaginary chalk line. "So he was sprawled like this, legs toward the door. Which way was his head facing?"

  Tobias called up the gruesome memory. "Toward the hutch. Remember that old pistachio-green thing that sat in the corner? He was looking that way."

  "Huh." Frowning, Will flipped through his pocket notebook. "But his body was oriented more the other direction, toward the sink. Kind of an awkward position."