As she packed, she glanced once or twice at her phone on the table. It seemed to mock her with its presence.
Should she call Wyatt?
He’d want to know. He’d made the search better and she’d needed him, if she was honest, but... At the end of the day, this wasn’t his fight, no matter how much he was willing to make it that. And with his concussion, he wouldn’t be her pilot. Could she bring a regular civilian untrained in SAR work on a search when there wasn’t a solid reason for him to be there?
This was where a little more sleep might have come in handy, easing her tangled mind and helping her to make better decisions, but right now Elsie didn’t think calling him was the right thing to do.
She loaded herself and Willow into her boat, prepared for yet another trip over to town. This week of back-and-forth boat trips was almost enough to make her wonder what it would be like to live in town. Instead she fought with the wind as it tossed her hair in her face while she pulled up anchor and readied the boat, then fought with the waves as she drove the boat toward the town docks.
After disembarking, she found her eye drawn to the slip where Wyatt kept his boat. It was there, which was what she’d expected. Of course he would be home, probably with a malamute glued to his side. He’d texted once this morning about the dog apparently missing his company, and sent a picture of his face smooshed against Sven’s fluffy brown face. He’d told her Lindsay had been feeding him while he’d been gone working with her so much, but apparently it wasn’t the same to Sven as having his owner home.
The text seemed to indicate that he wanted to keep being friends, and Elsie thought that was probably better than nothing... But she needed time. She still felt raw from all they’d been through together, then just abruptly separating as they had.
The small local airport looked the same as it had when she’d last boarded Wyatt’s plane. Had that only been yesterday morning? She still hated that his plane had been another casualty of this case. She didn’t feel right about him losing something on her behalf.
He’d have said she didn’t force him to help, that he’d wanted to and it was all worth it to him. How could a man say things like that and still define himself by the utter jerk he had been in his past? Clearly Wyatt had changed.
And clearly he wasn’t ever going to leave her mind alone, since she was standing here looking around to find her pilot, thinking of what he would say.
Wait.
Was that Wyatt over by that airplane talking to someone?
They were the only ones at the airport, at least that she could see, so heart beating faster, Elsie walked in their direction.
The expression on Wyatt’s face was enough to stop her cold, or would have been if she’d been a weaker woman. He was angry, that much was obvious. And maybe...hurt?
“You didn’t tell me you were heading out again.” He didn’t sound like he’d slept at all.
“I almost called.” It was all she could offer.
From the shake of his head, Elsie knew it wasn’t good enough.
“Elsie Montgomery?” The other pilot stuck his hand out for her to shake. “Mike Wallace, SeaAir. I’ll be taking you out to the island today.”
“Despite the fact that the wind changed and conditions aren’t favorable for flying in that area?” Wyatt asked.
“I think we’ll hit a window.”
His bravado was forced—even Elsie could tell that. Mike Wallace looked to be about twenty, and while she didn’t doubt that a younger man could be a good pilot, how many hours of experience did he have? Was Wyatt just being overprotective or was there really good reason not to fly today?
“Could you give us just a minute?” Elsie said to the pilot in a voice that was sweet and gave no evidence of what she’d experienced in the last several days.
The kid nodded once and climbed back into his plane.
“What are you thinking?” she snapped, turning to Wyatt. The sweetness was gone, her voice more biting. As short as she was, she was a force to be reckoned with when she was angry.
“I was thinking you’re not a lot of help to anyone if you’re in a plane at the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska. I was thinking you’d have enough sense to call me so you wouldn’t be out there alone.”
“Oh, so now I don’t have any sense?”
Wyatt blew out a breath, raked a hand through his hair. “Don’t be like that.”
“What are you trying to say, then?”
“Please don’t go,” he finally said, after a long moment of silence. “I don’t think it’s safe.”
“Noelle is still out there, Wyatt. The woman we have been looking for wasn’t the one who was killed. She’s in danger from the elements, lack of food, lack of water, even with the creek on the island...”
“And from someone trying to kill her.”
“Yes, exactly!” Elsie sounded triumphant.
Wyatt shook his head. “Exactly. They’re still out there and for some reason they are after you, too.”
“Maybe just because I’m searching for the missing woman?”
“You don’t believe that for a second. Neither do I.”
They stared at each other, Wyatt trying to keep his breathing calm. She was her own woman, an adult who had been making her own decisions and choices for longer than he could imagine. But right now, Wyatt was sure he was right about the weather. This wasn’t a safe flight.
“I’m not asking you to stop searching.”
Her mouth opened and her face looked shocked he would even have said something like that, so he quickly started to shake his head, holding up his hand to stop her.
“I know I don’t have any right to ask you to stop. But please, for today, listen to me.”
She stared at him for a moment, then pulled out her phone. He stayed quiet. Waited.
