Reilly's Woman Page 2

  "I was delayed," he said, which was neither an explanation nor an apology. "My cases are sitting outside. Are you ready to leave, Miss Talbot?"

  After waiting for going on three hours, Leah marvelled that he had the nerve to ask if she was ready! Sharply snubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray, she suppressed the impulse to remind him that he was the one who was late.

  She kept her reply to a calm, "My luggage is already in the plane, Mr. Smith." But the clasp of her handbag snapped shut rather loudly as she closed it and rose to her feet.

  Stepping outside the building, a desert wind tugged at the hem of her camel-colored skirt, briefly lifting it to reveal a shapely leg. Leah held the open front of her matching tunic-styled waistcoat together with one hand while her other hand carrying the bag tried to keep the teasing wind from billowing her skirt.

  As an afterthought, she realized that she probably should have worn slacks. Habits die hard, and she had lived in too many foreign countries where slacks on women were viewed with disfavor.

  Her shoes clicked loudly on the concrete while the man walking beside her made barely any sound at all. A sideways glance noticed that her heels didn't gain her much height. The top of her head came somewhere around his chin.

  Automatically her gaze slid to the left hand carrying his bags. There was no wedding band on his finger. Somehow Leah had known there wouldn't be—perhaps because of Grady's statement that Reilly Smith was a lone wolf.

  Shifting her gaze straight ahead, Leah mused silently that there were probably a lot of girls who would like to change his status. He was a compellingly handsome man. Not that it mattered to her. She was making this trip to see her brother.

  A few yards ahead, Grady was standing beside the orange and white wing of a Cessna 310. The twin engine plane looked sleek and racy. A smile flashed across the pilot's face as he saw their approach.

  "Didn't I tell you he'd make it, Leah?" he declared in a hearty voice, then to the man at her side, "Hello, Reilly."

  "Hello, Grady." It was a warm and friendly voice, unlike the impersonal tone Leah had heard earlier. A brisk handshake followed the exchange of greetings.

  "Let me stow your gear." Grady reached for the two bags gripped in the man's left hand.

  "I'll take the briefcase on board." Reilly Smith relinquished only the larger of the two bags, retaining the attaché case. His green eyes made an arc in the deepening lavender sky. A single star winked feebly in the purple twilight. "What's it look like up ahead, Grady?"

  The pilot briefly scanned the sky, then shrugged and returned his attention to his passengers. "There's a front moving in. We still have a chance of reaching Austin before it does. If not, it might get a little rough, but we'll make it." With his free hand, Grady motioned toward the open door of the plane. "Climb aboard."

  The two small steps made it easy for Leah to climb on the wing even in her skirt. Maneuvering past the front seat to the second seats was more awkward. Reilly Smith followed with an ease that she envied.

  He sat down in the seat beside her. Considering the apparent friendliness between himself and the pilot, Leah had partially expected him to sit in front with Grady. As she fastened her seat belt, she noticed the brief case he had brought on board and realized he probably intended to work.

  Grady climbed agilely aboard and swung himself into the pilot's seat directly ahead of Leah. His quick glance encompassed both of them before he buckled his seat belt.

  "Did you two introduce yourselves?" The question didn't break the rhythm of his pre-flight checklist.

  "More or less," Leah answered.

  "She's flying to Austin to visit her brother." The information was given as the first of the plane's engines growled to life, the propeller hesitating, then spinning into a blur.

  Leah cast a sideways glance at her companion. "My brother works for a mining company. He's part of a team that's been temporarily assigned to survey the Austin area." This seemed like an excellent opportunity to see if Reilly Smith was a member of the same company or with a rival firm. "Grady mentioned that you had connections with some mining interests. Perhaps you know my brother. His name is Lonnie Talbot."

  There was a disconcerting levelness to his jade eyes as they briefly met her look. The grooves at each side of his hard mouth deepened into a faint smile.

  "No, I don't know him."

  The roar of both engines made conversation impossible. Leah was forced to set aside her curiosity for the time being. At least she felt secure in the assumption that Reilly Smith did not work for the same company as her brother.

  In the pilot's seat, Grady was on the radio. "McCarren Ground Control, this is 92 George requesting taxi instructions."

  Excitement danced in her veins. After all the waiting, she was finally on her way. Looking out the window, Leah smiled with secret amusement at what Lonnie's reaction would be when he learned she had flown to be with him on his birthday.

  Blue lights flashed outside her window as the plane rolled along the taxi strip to the airport runway. At the edge of the runway, the engines roared with thundering force as Grady made his run-up. Then the tower radioed permission for them to take off.

  Grady half-looked over his shoulder, a grin on his otherwise serious face. "Now we'll get this bird off the ground."

  Smoothly the plane pivoted on to the runway, the engines building power. Leah felt the surge of acceleration as the brakes were released and the throttle opened to full power. The nose was lifted off the ground. Seconds later the plane was airborne and climbing, the landing gear thumping into the belly.

  Outside her window, Leah could see the blaze of city lights in the pre-night darkness. The brilliant neon lights of the hotels and casinos on Las Vegas's famous strip were like an iridescently colored ribbon.

  Cool night air from the vent above her head ruffled the light brown wings of her hair. The infra-red lights on the instrument panel kept the darkness at bay, those lights and the reading light shining down on the seat next to hers.

  Her fellow passenger was not gazing at the diminishing world below them, Leah noticed. His briefcase was opened on his lap. Common courtesy ruled that she shouldn't try to resume their conversation when he was obviously working. The urge was strong to look over his shoulder and see the contents of the papers he was studying. She resisted, averting her attention again to the window. Eventually the only thing she could see was her own reflection.

  She considered taking out the paperback book she had brought in her bag, then decided against it. She was too intent on reaching her destination to concentrate on reading.

  The airplane levelled off. Grady partially turned in his seat. "Want to sit up front with me for a while, Leah?"

  "Thank you, yes," she agreed readily. Conversation would make the time pass faster.

  As Leah unbuckled her seat belt, Grady smiled crookedly at the man sitting next to her. "You don't have any objections to the switch, do you, Reilly?"

  "None at all." There was a faint mockery in the reply as silently laughing green eyes flicked a glance at Leah.

  Briefly she wondered if Reilly Smith thought she was making a play for the pilot. Surely he could see that Grady was old enough to be her father.

  "Don't bump into any of the controls," Grady cautioned as Leah crouched in a half-erect position to negotiate the tiny aisle way to the empty front seat.

  A helping hand gripped her elbow. With faint surprise, she realized it belonged to Reilly Smith. His touch was pleasantly strong and reassuring, but brief.

  Dodging the control panel near the floor, Leah slid on to the right front seat, straightening her skirt over her knees. The change of seats had been accomplished without mishap despite the close quarters.

  "Thank you," she offered over her shoulder for the steadying hand. "I hope Grady and I talking won't disturb your work, Mr. Smith."

  "As a matter of fact, I think I'll quit for a while and get some sleep." The snap of the briefcase lid followed his statement.

&nb
sp; When the reading light went off, Leah fleetingly wished she had not moved from her seat. She would have liked to satisfy some of her curiosity about this Reilly Smith.

  "It's amazing." Grady shook his head, a wry smile on his face.

  "What is?" Leah returned blankly.

  "Him." With a backward nod of his head, the pilot indicated the man in the seat behind Leah.

  Self-consciously she was aware that Grady's voice carried easily to the man. She glanced over her shoulder to see Reilly Smith's reaction to the comment. He was leaning back in his seat, eyes closed. His chest moved in an even rhythm.

  "He's already asleep," Grady sighed. "He just closes his eyes. No tossing, no turning, just sleep."

  "Must be nice," Leah agreed, settling back into her seat. She glanced around at the instrument dials illuminated by the infra-red light. "Is the plane on auto-pilot now?"

  "Yup." But Leah noticed the automatic way Grady kept checking the panel. "Have you ever been in the front seat of a private plane before?"

  "My dad has taken me up several times, but never in anything as sophisticated as this," she admitted.

  "Modern avionics courtesy of the computer age." Grady smiled. "It does everything but land the plane, and nearly does that. It's great, but all equipment breaks down eventually. Let's not talk about flying, though—I hear that all day long. Considering your young years and the length of this flight, I think there's time for you to tell me about your childhood."

  "It won't take long," Leah laughed softly. "My brother and I were Air Force brats." She added a sketchy outline of her childhood life, moving from air base to air base.

  "How in heaven's name did you wind up in Las Vegas?"

  "The usual way. Dad was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base when I was in high school. I had graduated and just started a secretarial course when his orders came through for Alaska. I wanted to finish my training, so for that reason, and because it was time to leave the nest, I stayed."

  "The lure of the bright lights?" Grady mocked.

  "Not a bit. I'm very happy being a secretary," she stated positively. "I have no desire to be an entertainer of any sort. The work is too hard and the hours are too demanding."

  "That's true enough," he agreed. "Are you like the rest of the Las Vegas residents, rarely stepping inside a gambling casino unless you work there?"

  "Exactly!" Then she qualified her answer. "When new shows open or a favorite celebrity of mine is appearing, I do go then. But on the whole, I leave the casinos for the tourists and the gamblers."

  "Say," Grady paused, turning a curious look to her, "did you tell me that you were in the South Pacific for a time?"

  "Guam and Hawaii."

  "I was there when I was in the service—and I'm not going to tell you how long ago that was!"

  A steady flow of questions began as Grady probed her memory to see if she had been to places he had visited, then compared her descriptions to what he remembered.

  Gradually they talked themselves out and drifted into silence. Leah gazed beyond her window reflection at the star-sprinkled sky in the east. She felt sublimely relaxed.

  "If you feel like nodding off," Grady spoke quietly, "you can crawl back to your old seat. At least there, you can stretch your legs out without fear of bumping any controls."

  With a contented sigh, she agreed. "I think I'll do that."

  It was a bit easier negotiating the tiny aisle, although Leah took care not to waken the sleeping Reilly. As she turned to slide into her seat, she noticed the inky blankness of the sky directly ahead.

  "It's very dark ahead, isn't it?" she questioned Grady softly.

  "It must be frontal system. I think I'll check with the weather bureau and see if I can get an update on it."

  He made the call while she buckled her seat belt. The answering transmission didn't carry clearly to her, but Grady passed the message back.

  "The front beat us to Austin. You'd better buckle in tight—it might get a little rough." Then he glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping figure. "Reilly!"

  "I heard you," came the quiet reply. With calm deliberation, Reilly straightened and tightened his seat belt.

  "I thought you were asleep." Leah spoke without thinking.

  "I was."

  There was not a trace of sleepiness in his voice. She decided that he wakened as quickly as he went to sleep.

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  Chapter II

  A black void yawned ominously around the twin engine plane. Jagged splinters of lightning rained fire in the sky. Turbulent cross-currents of air alternately tugged and pushed at the plane.

  At each bone-shaking bounce of the plane, Grady throttled back to avoid putting any more stress on the structure than necessary. The buffeting only increased in intensity.

  "Reilly!" Grady called for him to lean forward, not taking his eyes off the gauges and dials bouncing with the plane in front of him. The dark-haired passenger loosened his seat belt slightly and bent toward the pilot. "It's only going to get worse. I'm going to try to fly around it. Okay?" he shouted.

  "Okay." The voice that agreed didn't sound at all troubled by the weather.

  Leah, despite all her trust in the competency of their pilot and the airworthiness of the craft, found tremors of fear shuddering through her. She tried to forestall the guilt feeling of cowardice with knowledge that only a fool wouldn't be afraid.

  Still, she held her breath as Grady slowly banked the plane toward the east, trying to outrace the storm and sneak in around it. Sliding a rounded look to the man next to her, she decided that behind that expressionless face, he must have nerves of steel.

  A severe downdraught sucked at the plane, nearly taking Leah's stomach when the plane groaned free. The pitch blackness that surrounded them was only broken by fiery tongues of lightning licking the air around them. The plane continued bucking through the turbulence.

  "I can't get above this stuff!" Grady shouted. "I'm going to take her down a couple of thousand feet and see if it's any calmer."

  No reply was necessary. Leah doubted if her dry mouth and throat could have made any. It felt as if they were diving, but she knew it was a controlled sideslip downward.

  Through the mirrorlike reflection of the window, Leah watched the pilot gently levelling the wings out. Lightning flashed ahead of them, its brilliant yellow-white light lasting for several seconds.

  "Sweet Jesus!" Grady's mutter of angry prayer reached Leah's ears at the same instant that she saw the mound of solid black rising in front of the nose.

  It was a mountain. She registered the terrifying fact a second before she was thrown violently to one side as Grady executed a sharp right turn.

  Another flash of lightening clearly outlined more mountains in their path.

  "There aren't supposed to be any damned mountains at this altitude," came Grady's savage mutter as again he banked sharply. "This damned altimeter must—"

  He didn't finish the rest. A jagged fork of lightning had briefly shown an escape route—a low saddleback ridge connecting two peaks. Grady aimed the nose of the plane at where he thought it had been. Leah waited in frozen stillness for the next streak of lightning that would reveal if his aim was true.

  It was late. They were nearly there when flashing light revealed that he had misjudged the spot. The plane was going to crash into the side of the mountain.

  Quickly Grady tried to correct for his error. Leah gasped silently in horror—oh, Lonnie! Fingers closed vicelike on the back of her neck, pushing her head to her knees and holding it there.

  "Stay down." Reilly's softly spoken order pierced her terror.

  There was a sickening jolt on the right side of the plane. The right wing tip had clipped the mountainside wrenching and tearing as half of it split away.

  The plane pitched downward. "Come on, baby!" Grady urged below his breath.

  The belly of the plane bounced and thudded on solid ground. It sliced along for a few rattling feet, then the r
ight wing again met an immovable object. Their speed sent the plane spinning like a top across the ground.

  The screaming rip of metal seemed to surround Leah on all sides without end. Why was it all happening so slowly, her mind cried! Glass shattered above her head. There were more tearing, crunching sounds of metal from her side—the left side.

  There was a faint sensation of pain as blackness swirled in front of her eyes. Yet Leah remained semiconscious, dissociated from what was happening. The roaring in her ears deafened her to all outside sounds.

  Then the black mist began to recede. An iron hook of some kind was pulling her upward. A second later she realized it wasn't an iron hook, but a muscled arm.

  "Come on. We've got to get out of here." The firm voice seemed to come from some great distance.

  But Leah knew she had to obey the command. She shook her head to chase away the lingering daze. The trembling awkwardness of her legs made the arm around her ribs provide most of her support.

  Taking a shaky breath, she suddenly realized she was alive. It was Reilly Smith's arm that was helping her through the open door of the downed plane. As she squeezed through the narrow opening, stumbling over the seats, she wondered why he hadn't opened the door wider.

  When her foot touched the loose gravel outside the door, she knew. The plane had stopped lengthwise against the side of the mountain. It was the mountain wall that wouldn't allow the door to open more than it was.

  Wind whipped at her hair as she emerged. There was the sting of rain against her cheeks while thunder rumbled ominously overhead. She wanted to lean against the body of the plane and quietly sob her relief and gratitude at being alive, but the arm around her waist wouldn't let her.

  "We can't stop here," Reilly denied.

  Accepting that there was wisdom in what he said, Leah didn't protest his guidance. The numbness was leaving her legs. Walking was still difficult over the uneven ground because of the high heels of her shoes.

  Some distance from the plane, he halted in an open patch of mountain desert. The supporting arm was removed to press a hand on her shoulder, pushing her to the ground.