I put my foot on the first rung, and my memory flashed with Sam standing on the captain’s chair. The second rung, and I felt her mouth on mine, opening, trusting. The third and she was beneath me, writhing as I ran my tongue over her nipple. By the fourth rung I was inside her, losing every shred of control with her gasps, the way she said my name. My phone was in my hand by the time I hit the deck, my finger grazing over her contact. I hesitated for a second before I typed out a message.
Grayson: Standing on The Alibi and thinking about you.
Grayson: Not that I’m not always thinking about you.
Grayson: Because I am.
Grayson: And now I’m texting like a stalker.
Parker’s laugh caught my attention as I stood on the deck. She laughed so little lately, and I missed that easy attitude she used to have before she morphed into my personal grief-giver.
She was sitting up on one of the workbenches, flirting with the new hand. Dad was going to kill her if another one quit on him.
But something about the way he tilted his head, tilted his baseball hat up to see her better…
“Son of a bitch!” I jumped off the boat, not bothering with the ladder, my knees screaming about landing on the concrete floor below.
“Gray!” Parker yelped.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” I shouted at Owen as he turned around with his hands up.
“Your dad hired me. No one else would, not with the criminal record.”
I had him pinned against the wall by his shoulders before my sister could so much as squeak. “You’re lying, as usual. No one in this family would hire you after what you’ve done.”
“Gray!” Dad shouted, flying out of the back room. “Let him go, son.”
“Name one good reason.”
“He’s not lying. I hired him.” Dad’s hand landed on my shoulder.
I shrugged him off and backed away, my chest heaving. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because he was a kid who made a mistake. Grace is awake, pulling her life together, and he served his time for what he did. There comes a point where the punishment isn’t necessary.”
I didn’t stop until I was ten feet away, far enough that I couldn’t kill him easily. “So it’s okay to call me out to my commanding officer, but you’ll hand over a job to Owen. He nearly killed us!”
“The risks you take every time you climb into that cockpit aren’t the same. You knowingly risk lives on a daily basis. Owen’s been one of your best friends since you were little, a part of this family. His mistake was in the past. You continue to make yours every day.”
“You are unbelievable. What do I have to do to prove it to you? I’ve been in one car accident. One, because he nearly drove me off the road”—I pointed my finger toward Owen—“and don’t you dare lie. I was there, and so you can spin your story, but between the two of us, we know what happened. Unless you were too drunk to remember it.”
“That’s not fair,” Dad fired back. “You have to learn to accept your mistakes, Gray.”
“And you have to learn to trust me! I’m the number one pilot in my class, Dad. I work my ass off to the point that even if I do have dyslexia, they would waiver me because it doesn’t affect how I fly. What do you say to that?”
“Maybe I should have let the doctors test you! Maybe I shouldn’t have let you deal with it on your own, so that no one laughed at you. Maybe I should have put you with all the specialists and the labels so this never happened in the first place.”
“Well, you didn’t. You couldn’t have your perfect boy not-so-perfect, could you? If I was marred, unable to accurately read calculations, your dreams of Masters & Son were doomed. Well guess what, Dad, all you did was push me so far that I’ll never come back here. I hope Joey grows a penis, or you learn to accept that she’s better for this business than I ever will be.”
“Gray—” Joey protested, standing in the office doorway.
“Don’t, Joey. I only came to say good-bye. I’m going back to Fort Rucker to endanger some more lives in that helicopter I love so much.” I headed toward Joey.
“You’re leaving?” Parker asked.
“Yes, and it seems like it’s about damn time.”
“You can’t walk out on this family, Grayson,” Dad yelled.
“Walk out? Fuck, Dad!”
“Language!” Parker shouted, which we all ignored.
“You’re shoving me out by inviting him in!”
“He’s not continuously making asinine decisions!” Dad responded. “That one car accident you were in could have been avoided if not for your…confusion!”
“Fuck. You. I have had it with you blaming me for something I had no control over on that bridge. You weren’t there! You want to blame me for something? Fine, blame me for not fighting him harder for his keys, but you taking this asshole’s word over mine is the last straw.”
“Grayson!” Dad shouted at the top of his lungs as I made it to Joey.
“Stop! He’s right!” Parker shrieked. “All of you, stop! Dad, Grayson couldn’t have prevented what happened.”
“How would you even know, Parker?” I fired back, turning around. She chose now to stand up for me?
“Because…” She took gulping breaths. “Because I was there. We lost control and cut them off so close I thought we’d take out his bumper. If Gray hadn’t swerved, Owen’s truck bed would have gone right through Grace’s windshield. They would have died instantly. I…I was in the truck.”