TheBillionairesPilot (17 page)

The limo pulled up in front of her
apartment, but neither of them made a move for the door. Tony remained in his
seat behind the privacy shield, waiting for instructions.

“I can’t do it anymore, Evan. I can’t
face a roomful of women like that again and feel so much shame.”

“What women?” He reached for her hand,
and she let him hold it for the last time. “Did someone say something to you?”
The muscles in his jaw tightened as he seemed to ready himself to go into
battle for her.

“It doesn’t matter who said what. It only
matters that I’ve lost my self-respect. This relationship isn’t good for me. I
have to get out.”

“I won’t let you go,” Evan insisted,
giving her hand a squeeze.

Cassie refused to respond to his
assertion, turning off her emotions until she could be alone in her apartment.
“I hope this doesn’t affect your deal with Xavier.”

“I don’t give a damn about Xavier,” he
practically growled. He took a breath and said in a quieter voice, “All I care
about is you. I’m not letting you go.”

“You don’t have a choice. I have to get
out,” she repeated and pulled her hand free from his. She reached around him
for the door handle, barely holding herself together.

He grabbed her forearm to stop her.
“Cassie, wait. Why won’t you work this out with me?”

She met his eyes and put some steel in
her tone. “There’s nothing to work out, Evan. It’s over.”

He hesitated as they stared at each
other. She must have finally convinced him because he dropped his hold on her
and opened the car door for her. “Fine. I assume you will be turning in a
letter of resignation. Thank you for your service to Mitchell Industries.”

And it was those words that officially
broke her heart as she stumbled out of the limo to the sidewalk and rushed to
get inside her apartment building before she made a spectacle of herself. Or
worse, before she changed her mind, turned around and ran back into his arms.

* * * *

With no job
to report to and some extra money available in her bank account, Cassie used
her time off to schedule a visit to see her father in the days following her
breakup with Evan. Part of regaining her self-value required her to face her
father and come clean about lying about her engagement, and the sooner she did
it, the better for her peace of mind.

She couldn’t remember ever feeling such
tension knots in her shoulders as she did on the commercial flight from New
York to Texas. As she rolled her head back and forth, she was hit with a vivid
memory of sitting next to Evan on that first flight to San Miguel when she’d
offered to give him a massage.

A sharp pain in her heart took her breath
away. She stared out the small window at the passing clouds and tried not to
remember all the moments she’d shared with him, but as the Borg said,
“Resistance was futile.” It was impossible to not think about something when
she was trying not to think about it.

After spending most of the flight
fighting back tears, Cassie was grateful to land and get moving. There was
nothing worse than being forced to sit still and stew in one’s misery.

She snagged a rental car and with the
window’s rolled down to enjoy the early summer Texas air, she drove the
familiar route to her father’s house.

This conversation was only going to be
second in difficulty to the one she’d had last Friday with Evan, but like
ripping off a Band-Aid, faster was better.

She pulled up in front of her father’s
house and parked at the curb. She grabbed her handbag and headed for the front
door. It opened before she reached the porch steps.

“Cassie!” her father greeted her with
open arms, taking her by surprise. He looked years better than her last visit,
and he was sporting a broad smile for her.

She knew her answering smile wasn’t
nearly as bright. “Hi, Dad. You look really good.”

“I feel really good.” He wrapped her in a
massive hug when she reached him on the porch.

She buried her nose in his cotton
T-shirt, inhaling his woodsy scent and surrendering to the comforting feel of
being held by her dad. Closing her eyes, she could almost pretend she was still
five years old, and her biggest concern was learning how to ride her bike. But
unfortunately, she couldn’t stay enveloped in her dad’s warm embrace forever,
and she finally took a step back, releasing her hold on him.

He looked over her shoulder at the car at
the curb. “Where’s Evan? From what I’ve seen in the tabloids, you two are
inseparable.”

She did a double take as she tried to
picture her dad reading the supermarket rags. Oh, God, had he seen the article
about her taking money from Evan to accompany him to San Miguel? “You’re
reading the tabloids?” she choked out.

“When I see a picture of my girl on the
cover, I sure do. But I only look at the pictures. Those stories are always
full of lies.”

Cassie swallowed her sigh of relief.

Her dad cast another glance at her rental
car. “No limo. I guess Evan’s not with you,” he said, almost sounding
disappointed. When had he become a fan of Evan Mitchell?

She met his gaze. “That’s what I came to
talk to you about. Can we go inside?”

“Of course.” He led the way into the
living room and took a seat in his favorite recliner as she took a spot on the
old plaid couch.

“Now, tell me what’s put that frown on
your puss,” he said.

Using the Band-Aid approach, she started
with, “We broke it off. Evan and I are over, and I’m unemployed again.”

But the good news was her credit cards
were back to zero balances, and her checking account had enough to keep her
afloat for a while, but she kept that to herself. Pride had prevented her from
telling her dad how badly she’d messed up last time when she was unemployed.

Thanks to learning her lesson, this time
she’d saved a chunk of her paycheck and the severance package Evan had insisted
on giving her, which was more than generous even after she’d insisted he deduct
her outstanding debt from it. He’d also told her to keep the engagement ring
and sell it.

Yeah, financially, she was doing much
better this time around; too bad she couldn’t say the same for the rest of her.

“You broke up?” Her dad leaned forward in
his recliner, his eyes narrowing. “What’d he do? Do I need to go up to New York
and deliver some justice, Navy style?”

Cassie waved him back into his seat.
“Relax, Dad. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was me.”

“You better start at the beginning,
missy,” his gravelly voice warned. “I didn’t raise you to break a promise, and
an engagement is one of the biggest promises you can make to someone.”

Cassie’s gut clenched as she considered
the truth she owed her dad. He was going to be so disappointed in her, and she
hated that more than she dreaded his anger. They were just beginning to get
back to the closeness they’d shared when she was a little girl, and now, she
was putting it in jeopardy.

She took a steadying breath and jumped in
with both feet. “Dad, Evan and I weren’t honest with you when we visited. I’m
sorry.” She tried to keep her eyes locked on his, but coming clean was so hard.
She couldn’t bear to see the displeasure in his eyes.

Her gaze fell to the carpet between them.
“We didn’t really meet the way we said.”

“Why’d you lie?” He went directly to the
root of the problem.

She took another deep breath and steeled
herself for letting it all out at once. “Evan needed a female companion to
accompany him to the Caribbean for a business deal. His girlfriend had just
broken up with him, and he was stuck, so he offered me the position.” She
glanced up to catch her dad’s face growing dark with anger.

“No! It was an entirely platonic deal.
Evan was a complete gentleman.” Until she gave in to her attraction to him and
he became the Dom she’d always wanted, but she wasn’t going there with her
father.

“So, how did you end up as his fiancée?”

“He told a little lie to ensure the
business deal went through.”

“He lied, and you went along with it?”
Her dad shook his head with the disapproval she dreaded.

“It wasn’t that big of a lie. We did like
each other.”

“But you mislead someone, Cassie, for
money.”

“I know, and I mislead you too. I really
am sorry.”

“Then, you’ve finally come to your senses
and that’s why you broke up with him?”

Cassie shook her head and picked at the
frayed edge of the sofa cushion. “Not quite.”

“Spill it, missy,” her father demanded.

She lifted her chin and met his eyes. “We
grew attached to each other, Dad. There was something good between us, and we
made the decision to have a real relationship.”

“But now you’re here telling me it’s
over. Why?”

“We don’t belong together. He’s from a
different world,” she said sadly.

“Huh,” her dad grunted. “Sounds to me you
don’t think you’re good enough to be in his world. Did he tell you that?”

“No! He’d never say something like that.”

“So, this is your own insecurity about
fitting in.”

“It was exciting to be a part of that
sphere, but I didn’t belong there. I was acting out a fairy tale.” And it was
some of the best weeks of her life.

“You were never a believer in them,” he
said.

“We live in the real world, Dad.”

“You think in the real world we don’t get
happy endings? I had one with your mother.”

“It was short lived.”

“And it’s given me a lifetime of good
memories with no regrets. When something as wonderful as love comes into your
life, you have to grab on to it with both hands and never let go.”

“Not this time.”

Her dad shook his head. “Then I’m sorry I
didn’t teach you well enough.”

“No, Dad. It’s me,” she insisted. “I’m
not good enough for him.”

“Hell, girl!” He nearly exploded out of
his chair. Leaning toward her, he said in a quiet, but firm voice, “I don’t
ever want to hear those words come from your lips. If that man ever made you
think that, then he doesn’t deserve you.”

Cassie swiped at a tear that had escaped
down her cheek. “It wasn’t him,” she repeated.

“Then who made you doubt yourself so
badly? Because I’m itching to give them a piece of my mind.”

A laugh slipped out as she shook her
head. “You can’t fight this battle for me, Dad.” Picturing her father in full
Navy mode confronting the three loud-spoken women in the bathroom made her
laugh again. “But you’re right. I shouldn’t have let someone else’s comments
determine my self-worth.”

“That’s my girl. Now what are you going
to do to fix things with Evan?”

“I’m not. That ship has sailed, and I’m
not going to fly after him.”

“You’re giving up that easy?”

She shrugged. “He and I built a
relationship on a foundation of lies. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Of everything you’ve said today, that
last bit has to be what peeves me off the most. You obviously have strong
feelings for him, and you’re letting him go.”

She glanced up at him. “I have to move on
with my life.”

“Without Evan, huh?” He studied her. “I
think you’re making a big mistake, but I stopped being able to make your
decisions for you when you turned eighteen and joined the Army.”

“And that turned out okay for me.”

“More than okay, Cassie. It turned you
into a damn fine helicopter pilot and a remarkable woman.” He stood and held
open his arms. “Come here, girl, and give your old man some love.”

Cassie choked back a sob and launched
herself into his embrace. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, sweetheart,” he
whispered against the top of her head. “No matter what boneheaded choices you
make in your life, I love you. I’m sorry if you didn’t get that message when
you decided to join the Army.”

They were the words she’d waited nine
long years for him to say, except… “Boneheaded, huh?”

“Well, that one turned out good for you,
but I still think your decision to let go of Evan is a big whopping mistake.”

“I don’t know how it could ever have
worked out for us.” She sniffed into his shirt.

“Fate has a way of doing things for us
that we never thought possible.” Her dad patted her back. “We’ll just have to
wait and see what she has in store for you.”

But Cassie wasn’t going to hold her
breath. She didn’t expect to ever cross paths with Evan again; therefore, fate
would have little chance at working out the impossible and getting her and Evan
back together in a relationship.

Chapter Sixteen

Cassie
sat in the pilot’s seat and checked her watch again as she waited on the tarmac
for her last passenger. In another sixty minutes, she would be done with her
workday.

First week of a new job…complete. Just a
lifetime of weeks left without a real sense of purpose.

She’d only been unemployed a few days
when she’d received a call from Stanford Supplies with a job offer to fly their
executives between the corporate office in the city and the manufacturing plant
in upstate New York. Since Stanford was a subsidiary of Mitchell Industries, it
was obvious the recommendation had come from Evan, but she’d didn’t let that
interfere with her decision to get on with her life.

She’d landed on her skids this time, but
her heart had crashed and burned. She’d been a fool, yet again, to let her
emotions lead her into an entanglement with a man who’d never professed to love
her. So, why did she torture herself by keeping the infinity necklace in the
chest pocket of her shirt? It was a painful reminder of the lost pleasure of
his dominance and her submission, but she couldn’t make herself stop carrying
it.

Blocking out the constant ache in her
chest, Cassie listened to the weather report as she studied the thick clouds
rolling in from the west. A light rain had started, and some nastier weather
was moving in. She needed to get her bird off the ground soon, or they weren’t
going to beat the worst of it.

This last flight of the day would take
her home to her apartment in the city. Her copilot lived out here near the
plant, so she was flying into the city alone…well, in addition to her
passenger.

They had to get airborne soon. She’d hate
to be stuck spending the night on the cot in her little office space here at
the manufacturing plant. Her nightmares had gotten worse since breaking up with
Evan, and she could just picture herself tossing out of bed, shrieking, as the
night watchman watched on the security cam. Yeah, that would make a good
impression in her first week at a new job.

She checked her watch again. Damn, what
was keeping the guy? She’d been scheduled to take off thirty minutes ago.

Finally, the rear door of the plant
opened and a tall, broad-shouldered man hurried across the parking lot to where
she sat on the helicopter pad. With his trench coat up around his ears and his
head dropped low against the rain, it was hard to see his features, but her gut
told her she knew this man…intimately.

Her heart stuttered, and she had to
remind herself to keep breathing. It had only been two weeks since their
breakup, much too little time for her to prepare herself to see him again. Not
only did she have her emotions to battle, but also her dad’s words kept echoing
in her skull.

When something as wonderful as love comes
into your life, you have to grab on to it with both hands and never let go.

Had she let go too easily? Should she
have fought harder to make a place for herself in his world? Had Evan even felt
the same strong emotions for her? She’d never had the nerve to bring up the
subject after she’d thought she’d heard him whisper the words to her, and she’d
certainly never said the words to him.

As he got nearer, she jumped out into the
rain and ran around the front of the bird to open the back door for him.

He glanced at her and stopped in his
tracks, doing a double take. “Cassie?”

“It’s me.” She gestured to the open door.
“If you’ll board, Sir, we can beat this storm into the city.”

He seemed to startle at her use of the
word Sir, but he didn’t comment as he settled into the seat behind the empty
co-pilot’s chair.

She checked over her shoulder toward the
building. “Where’s your assistant?”

“Dan’s not with me. His daughter’s
getting married tomorrow. I made sure he took today off.”

She nodded, wondering if Evan had ever got
a satisfactory answer to who leaked the information to the tabloids about their
trip to San Miguel. If Evan had found out it was Mr. Jacobs, she knew there was
no way the man would still be working for Evan.

She secured his door and hustled back
around to her side. Once in her seat, she turned and handed him the
communications headset.

“Cassie—” he started as he took the
headset.

“Sorry, Mr. Mitchell. If you want to get
back to the city this evening, we don’t have time for a chat until I get us
airborne.” And hopefully, he would avoid any personal talk for the duration of
the flight.

Her insides were fluttering enough just
being this close to him. She didn’t want to have to handle the rough weather,
her desire for him, and a serious conversation all at one time. She’d be likely
to divulge something he could use to convince her to come back to him…if he
actually wanted her back. Maybe he’d already moved on with his personal life.
The thought made it difficult to catch her breath as jealousy squeezed the air
out of her lungs.

She finished the pre-flight checklist on
autopilot, barely attending to the process she knew so well. Then, a lift on
the collective lever with her left hand and an adjustment to the yaw with the
left pedal had them lifting off the helipad into the splattering rain.

Sixty minutes. Sixty minutes.
She repeated in her mind as she headed
for the city. She could do sixty minutes with him in her back seat. She was a
professional.

“Is it okay to talk now?” His deep voice
sounded too intimate in her headphones.

She wanted to say no and keep whatever
distance she could between them, but she found herself saying, “Yes, it’s fine
to talk.”

“I’ve missed you,” he said with
tenderness.

Oh damn, she didn’t know how she was
going to do this. It was hard enough breaking up with him the first time. How
could she sit here and listen to him practically whispering sweet words in her
ear?

She lacked any proper response to his
statement and remained silent.

“I’m glad to see you working,” he
continued.

“I assumed you gave them my name. Thank
you,” she said, grateful for the safe topic as she navigated to a higher
altitude, trying to fly free of the low lying fog that had rolled in. The air
had to clear before she reached the city. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to
take them in, since she hadn’t filed an instrument rated flight plan and was
flying under visual flight rules.

“You’re welcome, but you earned it.
You’re a fine pilot.”

“Thank you,” she repeated, as she found
clear sky between the layer of fog below her and the cloud ceiling above her.

“I had to hire a new pilot
and
a
co-pilot after you left.”

“What happened to Ron?” she asked, as she
checked her heading and kept a close eye on both the clouds and the fog. It was
risky flying between them like this because the layers could sandwich her. Then
she’d be flying blind.

“My investigator discovered Ron was the
one who sold the financial details of our arrangement to the tabloids. I guess
he was looking to feather his retirement nest.”

“Damn,” she cursed quietly. “I’m sorry,
Evan. That must have been a blow. He’d been with your family’s company for a
long time.”

“I’m just glad that Dan was completely
exonerated.” Which would have been far more painful for him, she knew, because
of Dan’s history with Evan’s father.

It made sense that Ron might take
advantage of the knowledge he’d acquired by observing Mr. Jacobs’ invitation to
have Cassie join Evan for dinner back in Boston. Then the next day, she’d flown
down to San Miguel with Evan, but one piece of the mystery was missing. “How
did Ron know the dollar amount of our agreement?”

“Want to guess which bank his
sister-in-law works for?” Evan asked.

“First Federal? I didn’t realize New York
was such a small town.” She kept an eye on the fog below them, monitoring it
for thin spots, in case she lost her clear air space.

“Speaking of New York, now that you’re
flying for Stanford, are you planning to keep your city apartment?”

“Yes,” she replied, without considering
the motive behind his question.

The majority of her attention was on the
situation up ahead. The cloud ceiling was definitely falling to meet the fog
below. She would have to bring them down. “I hope you didn’t have dinner
reservations tonight.”

“Why? Are you abducting me?” he teased.

She ignored the playfulness in his voice.
She was determined to keep this strictly professional this time when she’d
failed so miserably to do that over and over again in the past.

“I’m sorry, Sir.” She slipped back into
formally addressing him. “I can’t fly us through this cloud coverage. I’m going
to have to set us down and wait for the weather to clear.”

“Should I brace myself? Is this going to
be a rough landing?” His voice telegraphed his anxiety through her earphones.

“No, not any rougher than my usual
landings,” she reassured him.

“You’re so calm.”

“Really, Evan. Trust me. This is nothing
compared to landing a bird in a hot zone with bullets and RPGs flying at you.”

“RPGs?”

“Rocket-propelled grenades,” she
explained as she searched the fog for patchy areas.

Evan cursed under his breath, as if he
didn’t want to think about her in that kind of situation. “What are you looking
for?”

“I’ve got to find us a hole in the fog to
fly through so I can see the ground.” Her eyes scanned the area ahead of her as
they quickly approached the end of the clear skies, but the fog was
unrelenting.

Damn, just one hole. That was all she
needed. Moisture gathered in her armpits and sweat ran down her back as their
time ran out. She was going to have to turn the bird around and look in the
other direction.

“How about there? To the left? About nine
o’clock.” Evan broke the silence to suggest.

She glanced over and decided it was their
best shot. She darted through the opening and spotted a possible landing zone.

With only a slight bump, Cassie set them
down in a farmer’s field as rain lashed the windscreen.

Evan released a heavy sigh into the mike
on his headset.

“There you go, Sir. Safe and sound. I’m
just sorry I can’t get you back to the city yet.” And now, she was going to
have to sit in close confines with him until the storm passed. Why did her
first week of a new job have to end with being alone with Evan, again?

“So, what do we do now?”

“We wait. Radar shows that it’s a small
cell of intense weather moving quickly.” The sky to the west was already starting
to look lighter compared to the ugly black clouds immediately overhead. “We
should be able to take off again after the storm blows through in about an
hour.” She hoped it was a lot sooner than that as she powered down the engines.
But considering her bad luck lately, they’d probably get stuck here until
nightfall and have to call to have someone come pick them up.

He tapped her shoulder. “Hey.”

Reluctantly, she turned to face him and
removed her headset when she saw he’d already taken off his. “Yeah?”

“We need to talk.”

“How about the weather?” she offered
weakly.

Shaking his head, he said, “I’ve given
you some space the past two weeks, but it’s time for me to tell you what I
think about our breakup.”

This was exactly the conversation she’d
wanted to avoid having with him, but the weather gods had conspired against
her. “It’s over, Evan. I don’t want to revisit it.” She tried to put a stop to
it before he started.

“I’m glad you resigned from Mitchell
Industries,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “and took this position with
Stanford. It takes care of one of your reasons for breaking up with me.”

“What do you mean?” she asked in spite of
herself.

“We no longer have a relationship that
includes the exchanging of money for services…of any kind.” His dark gaze held
her captive. “Wasn’t that one of your reasons for ending our relationship?”

“Y-yes,” she answered hesitantly, afraid
of where he was going next with his argument. It would be too easy for her to
forget her resolve to steer clear of Evan and his fancy life and fall back into
his arms. But she had to remember the pain of losing her self-respect, and how
she didn’t ever want to put herself in that position again.

“Now, you have a legit helicopter pilot
position, your debts are cleared, and you have money in the bank. There are no
financial circumstances forcing you to be involved with me. And no ethical or
moral reasons why you couldn’t be involved with me if you desired.” He ticked
the list of justifications off on his fingers.

She waited for him to continue, not
willing to take a step in the field of land mines he was laying, yet still
wanting to hear what his proposal would be this time.