“So here I am, wanting more details and to see how I can help.”
“That’s the thing, Will. I’m a big girl now. I don’t need your help.” She sighed and softened her tone. “It’s nice of you to care.”
“Of course I care. You and Luke have always been like family to me.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw her flinch.
“At least tell me about it. Luke didn’t give details.”
She kept pouring pancakes onto the griddle, not acknowledging him for a minute, then finally nodded, then exhaled. “Okay. I got here less than a week ago. Yesterday was my first day working and I received an anonymous tip about illegal hunting going on south of here. I had Chris—he’s the pilot who’s supposed to fly me around when I need it—take me to where the caller had described. We hiked quite a bit, searching for signs that people had been there. We eventually found some, followed the trail, and...”
Will watched her swallow hard, saw the way her face paled to an unnatural shade of green. She was tough, but crimes like these weren’t supposed to be part of her job description.
“And then last night someone broke into your house? Do you think the two incidents are connected?”
She set a plate full of pancakes down on the table in front of him and laughed, a laugh that was entirely without humor. “I’m sure they’re connected.”
“How?”
She slid a piece of paper across the table to him, and as he read the overtly threatening words, his stomach clenched.
No question, McKenna needed his help. And she was going to get it. Like it or not.
* * *
“You’re thinking something.” McKenna pointed out the painfully obvious after several minutes of watching Will’s thoughts work out in the expressions on his face.
“I am,” he admitted between bites of pancake.
“So... Out with it.”
“You’re going to hate it.”
“You don’t know what I’ll hate and won’t.” McKenna folded her arms across her chest.
“No, I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate this.”
“Are you going to let me figure that out for myself or not?”
He paused. “Let me fly you around.”
“Fly...me...around... Wait, wait, on a plane?”
Will laughed and it lit up his face. She tried to ignore that and focus on the fact that he was plotting to take the little independence she’d gained by stepping into her life and taking over. He could call it “caring” or whatever else he wanted to, but she knew what he was doing. Exactly the same thing Luke would be doing if he was there. Would the two of them never let her be in charge of her own life?
“Yeah, on a plane. I’m a pilot. Luke didn’t tell you?”
“We don’t really talk about you.” McKenna shrugged, unwilling to admit the various reasons she didn’t ask her brother for updates on him. As a brother, Luke was as good as they came, but she’d rather crawl under a rock and never come out than have him find out about the crush she’d had on his best friend.
“I’ll try not to be too hurt.” There he went with the teasing again. “Piloting is what I do up here. I work for a guide service, shuttling people around on big-game hunts.”
She raised her eyebrows. “So I’m here to save the wildlife and you’re up here to shoot it?”
He bristled. “You know me better than that. I care about protecting the wildlife, too. But as long as the laws are followed, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hunting, especially for someone who’s planning to eat what he gets.”
And Will did that, too. McKenna respected that about him.
“Fine,” she conceded. “And about your offer, thanks, but no. I have a pilot assigned to shuttle me around. I don’t need the help.” Although she did feel a sinking in the pit of her stomach, something like a large block of glacier ice, when she thought about being alone with Chris again. Something about the way he studied her every move...She shivered.
“I’m not talking about just being your pilot. Officially, sure. But I can be an extra set of eyes for you. You can fill me in about the other details of the case as you learn about them and I can help you solve this thing so you can move on with your life and get out of this town.”
She jerked her gaze up to meet his. “Get out of this town?” Had Luke told him how much she’d dreaded this “promotion” and all it meant? She was going to have to rethink her choice of confidant pretty soon.
“You always planned to get out of Seward and to the city as quick as you could. I’m guessing that hasn’t changed?”
Was it her imagination, or was that hope in his voice? McKenna shrugged. “I do prefer Anchorage to small towns.” Prefer was an understatement. Kind of like saying a polar bear was large.
“What do you think?”
“About you flying me around? I already told you no.”
He raked a hand through his curls and shook his head. “You’re too stubborn for your own good, do you know that? You have to learn when something is too much for you and let people help.”
“What if I don’t think it’s too much for me?”
“People are dead, McKenna. And there’s a good chance the guy who killed them, shot them in cold blood, was in your house last night. You’re on your own out here. You have no backup. Let me help.”
Several beats of silence passed as the truth of his words sunk in. She felt her shoulders sag slightly. “You can’t just go around demanding things of people. I have a right to make my choices.”
“So you want me to offer you something and then say please?”
She sighed. “No, but you know what I mean.”
And then Will’s hand was covering hers, setting her pulse racing twice as fast as it had during the scare the night before and making her hand tingle as though a thousand tiny fireworks had exploded inside. She gulped and tried to remind herself that they were just friends. And that they’d never be anything more.
“So. How about it. Let me help?”
He had the decency to phrase the last bit as a question, though she suspected he was just humoring her. Still, a look at his eyes showed that as he’d said, he did care.
“And how much are you charging?”
He looked insulted that she would ask. “I won’t charge you anything to fly you around. I’d like to be reimbursed for gas, if the troopers have the budget for that, which I’m assuming they do. But for the flying time? There’s no need.”
“Don’t you need your boss’s permission to use the plane?”
Will smiled. “It’s mine.”
“Okay, but this can’t be full-time for you—you need to work.”
“Yes,” he agreed quickly, and she thought she might have found her way out of this situation until he spoke up again. “But the next few weeks are pretty easy for me. I can fly for you around the schedule I already have set up at work. There’s plenty of time.”
McKenna was running out of logical arguments.
His offer made sense. But she wanted to refuse him. Had to.
Then she thought about the man who’d broken into her house, the quick glimpse she’d caught of the back of him. He was tall;