didn’t kidnap you. I offered you a lift to Anchorage. You accepted, and that’s exactly where we’re headed. We’ll be landing before nightfall. Call me Dragan, by the way.”
She was silent, her rose-petal lips pressed together in a thin line. Dragan could sense the tension building in her, the outrage, the fury. When the explosion came he was braced for it, but her words still stung.
“Of all the arrogant, low-down, presumptuous, high-handed tricks—” The words ended in a sputter. She stared down at her clenched hands. “How could you do this with a clear conscience? How could you just manipulate me into coming with you?”
“The question you should be asking isn’t how. It’s why.”
“All right. Why?” She gazed straight ahead into the sky-scape of drifting clouds. “Suppose you tell me.”
Dragan made a show of checking the altimeter while he thought out his answer. “There are two sides to every story,” he said. “Before we face off in front of a judge, I wanted to hear yours.”
“You could have just offered to take me out to dinner.” Her voice was flat, stubborn.
“Would you have accepted? You said you weren’t supposed to talk to me—a restriction that I find absolutely absurd. How are we supposed to settle matters if I can’t even find out what’s truly bothering you until it’s all dragged out in court? As it is, you have a captive audience here. You can say anything you like—swear at me, call me every vile name in the book if you want.”
“Don’t tempt me. I don’t work for you anymore.”
“That’s a shame, considering your great performance reviews. Somebody must’ve thought you were doing an excellent job.”
“You read my file?”
“Of course I did.”
“Then you know that before I was fired for supposedly not being able to handle the work attached to my position, I applied for a desk job in the Seattle office. It would’ve been a step down, but with the babies coming, I couldn’t travel and I wanted to be closer to my parents in Bellingham. I filled out the papers but I didn’t even get an interview. The next thing I knew I’d been fired.”
“Actually, I didn’t know that. None of that was in your file.” Dragan remembered noticing what had appeared to be missing information.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “Maybe you should pay more attention to what’s going on in your company, Mr. Markovic. It’s not just about the bottom line. It’s about the people.”
Her words burned like the jab of a hot poker. Stunned for an instant, he recovered his voice. “It’s Dragan. And I hope you’re prepared to explain what you just said.”
She shrugged. “You’ll hear it all tomorrow—in court.”
Dragan held his tongue, hoping she’d say more. But she’d lapsed into stubborn silence. The lady was tougher than he’d expected—and smart. Too smart to discuss the case with a man she saw as the enemy. He had to give her points for that.
Not that he was about to give up. Whatever it took, he was going to crack Tessa Randall’s protective shell and discover the real story behind her lawsuit.
But wanting to settle the lawsuit wasn’t all that was motivating him. Tessa had gotten to him in a way few women did. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he knew what made the sexy redhead tick.
* * *
Tessa gazed downward through the cockpit’s wrap-around window. She’d taken a fair number of flights between Seattle and Anchorage, but always by commercial jet and usually with her nose in her laptop. Only now, at a slower speed and much lower altitude, did she realize what heart-stopping views she’d missed.
Glacier-carved peaks, dotted with jewel-like hanging lakes, rose out of pine-carpeted slopes. On the right, the ocean stretched to the horizon. The coast between was a maze of wooded islands and sun-sparkled inlets. “Magnificent,” Tessa murmured, forgetting she was wearing a mike.
“Isn’t it?” Dragan’s deep, gravelly voice came through the headphones, startling her. “Amazing what nature can do, given a few million years.”
“Seeing country like this makes me want to forget all the ugliness and pettiness in the world.” Tessa forced a chuckle. “Of course, that’s not possible these days, is it?”
He banked the plane to give her a dizzying view of a waterfall. The wing tilted then leveled again. “How did you come to speak Japanese?” he asked.
It seemed a safe enough question for her to answer. “I was an air force brat. Our family was stationed in Japan for a few years. We had Japanese babysitters and watched Japanese TV. Later on I went part-time to a Japanese school.”
“We?”
“My big brother and I. He’s married now, works for a bank in London. My dad and mother live in Bellingham.” Tessa knew he was trying to draw her out, probably hoping she’d slip and give him some detail he could use against her. She would have to weigh everything she told him. But talking about her family seemed a harmless enough way to pass the time.
“I take it your parents are enjoying their granddaughters,” he said.
“Oh, yes. My mother was going to watch the twins while I went to Anchorage, but she broke her foot. Now that the girls can walk, it takes a lot of chasing to keep up with them.” She glanced back over the seat to make sure her daughters were still sleeping.
“What are their names?”
“Madelyn and Melissa, but we call them Maddie and Missy.” Tessa loved talking about her twins. She was so proud of them.
“They look exactly alike to me. How the devil do you tell them apart?”
“It’s easy. Missy has a little mole on her ear. But even without that, once you get to know them, you can tell by their personalities. Missy’s the snuggly one. Maddie’s the little explorer. Turn your back and she’s gone. Now that they know their own names, it’s even easier to tell which one is which.”
He paused a moment, as if weighing the next question. “Would it be too personal if I asked about their father?”
Yes, Tessa wanted to say. But if she gave a dismissive answer, he might imagine that the full story was something he could use against her, like a married lover or a pick-up in a bar. The truth would serve her best.
“He was my fiancé, a journalist. We’d planned to get married when he came back from his assignment in the Middle East.” Tessa swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. Even after two years it hurt to talk about Kevin. “He was killed in Yemen, in a car bombing. At the time it happened, I didn’t even know I was pregnant.”
“I’m sorry.”
“After he died, I didn’t want to go on. But my babies pulled me through. They gave me something to live for.”
“You’ve been through a rough time.”
“Rough in more ways than you can imagine. That’s the reason I’m suing your company.”
* * *
Her words silenced Dragan like the click of a closing door. For now, it was time to back off. She’d be more likely to open up about her side of the lawsuit if he kept things friendly and didn’t push her.
He’d already learned a few things about Tessa Randall. She struck him as an honest woman, interested in more than just grabbing easy money. But what part did her pretty face and seductive figure play in his assessment? Was he thinking like a CEO, protecting his company’s reputation, or did he just want to lure the lady into his bed?
Clouds were moving in along the coastline, but the sky ahead looked clear. Like any competent pilot, Dragan had checked the weather forecast before taking off. There was